Yo-Yo Ma-Nilli
Inauguration quartet was pre-recorded:
The somber, elegiac tones before President Obama’s oath of office at the inauguration on Tuesday came from the instruments of Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and two colleagues. But what the millions on the Mall and watching on television heard was in fact a recording, made two days earlier by the quartet and matched tone for tone by the musicians playing along.
I wondered about this on Tuesday. The audio was just a little too good for that environment and miking setup. And as the article points out, keeping the instruments in tune would have been difficult.
bobw wrote:
yeah there was quite a discussion over on the Mandolin Cafe about how good the audio was, and the sound geeks had all kinds of theories. now we know.
hard to blame them I guess, and since they did record it themselves, and technically they WERE playing on stage, it’s a few steps better than Milli-Vanilli (to say the least). I was hoping to see the carbon fiber cello. oh well. recorded or not, it was pretty much the highlight of the whole thing (besides the historicalness, etc etc)
Posted on 23-Jan-09 at 2:27 pm | Permalink
Bill wrote:
I THOUGHT it sounded suspiciously good…
Posted on 23-Jan-09 at 2:51 pm | Permalink
David Morton wrote:
I blame John Williams for not writing a weather-appropriate score (with horns instead of strings, piano, and woodwind).
I’d never heard of a carbon fiber cello until that article. Would have been interesting to see.
Posted on 23-Jan-09 at 3:49 pm | Permalink
David Morton wrote:
The fact that every one on the dais looks solemn during “the performance” is quite funny, though.
Posted on 23-Jan-09 at 3:53 pm | Permalink
Joe Lance wrote:
They were trying to block out the sounds. No matter how good those players are (and they are), the sounds coming from the live instruments would not have matched the recording. Cacophony.
Posted on 23-Jan-09 at 4:34 pm | Permalink
bobw wrote:
even better than a carbon fiber cello: http://www.new-mad.com/ carbon fiber mandos! a favorite of arctic and beach-bum pickers.
Posted on 24-Jan-09 at 1:46 pm | Permalink