Piano World Home Page Forums Fun Stuff! - Parties, Tours, Projects & More... Member Recordings Debussy L'isle joyeuse

Hi everyone,

in September I have been touring with my Debussy program "With Debussy around the World" - so here's L'isle joyeuse:


Hope, you enjoy!
Lydia

Wow, Very enjoyable and inspiring.

Dan

Thank you very much!
Lydia

L'Isle Joyeuse has been one of my favorite works for the piano since I was a teen. That was well played.

You might want to borrow some good microphones to get a more professional sound quality in some recordings. This sounds like an internal microphone in the camera, and it's a long distance from the piano. The resulting sound is a bit more muffled and indistinct than you would probably like.

@Piano*Dad: It's recorded with a Zoom Q3 HD. I'm still struggling finding the best setting for each hall and sometimes it seems impossible, especially when you can set the Zoom only behind the audience.

A zoom from the back of the hall cannot capture the best sound of the piano. The distance will compress the sound and make it mushy. Your pp was substantially lost, and your fortissimo was pretty much mezzo forte. If you want to get the best performance out of the little Zoom, try hanging it from a microphone pole near the strings. Then have someone record the video on a separate camera. You can blend the two in any standard video editing program. Better yet, borrow two good condenser microphones for the audio and match it with HD video. The HD video is easy these days. Just about any good SLR camera comes with HD video mode.

Here is a sample of the video quality of such a camera (Canon SLR) Sample HD video

Even after youtube compression it is pretty high quality video.

The sound is coming from the SLR's internal microphone, and the camera was at the back of the hall, so the sound suffers from the same dynamic compression as your Zoom. Still, it's not bad at all for an all-in-one device.

If you have friends with SLR cameras that have HD video capacity, you could create a very professional set of videos that have multiple camera angles. If you don't enjoy producing edited videos, again, you could find a friend who does. A few videos of this sort would really show off your considerable talents!

@Piano*Dad: Well, this video was never supposed to be a professionally edited video but a concert impression. When I'm touring, I can't take a lot of equipment with me and also I don't have anybody with me to do the recording.
A professional video is in the planning and will come out in a few months.

Good. That'll be a great way to give your abilities some more visibility!

But you really don't need professional editors to get a good concert impression. As I noted, an SLR camera on a simple tripod will give you higher quality video and audio. If you want to use the Zoom, you can get a more "present" and cleaner sound by planting your friend who is making the recording closer to the piano. Zooms mount nicely on a monopod or tripod.