On Jun 1, 2007, at 7:44 AM, ceccles_ca wrote:
That sounds right. A standard Clarinet also starts at the low G like
violin. Some wind instruments can't produce 35 notes. It makes me
wonder how they recorded trumpet and french horn. (33 notes and they
don't start at G). A lot of butt-cheek clenching on those high notes.
You recorded french horn Rick. How did you get 35 notes?
Okay, a couple of things here:
Clay, the standard clarinet (Bb soprano) goes down to low D, so when I recorded the great Hoolio Smerdon, we cut off some of the lower notes. For the bass clarinet, though, we recorded a number of the low Cs (it goes a whole tone lower than the soprano), so that Martin could slow down the pitches and get it down another 4th which takes it into the contrabass clarinet range. Why not use a contrabass clarinet, you say? Because it doesn't sound quite like a bass clarinet. We tried it. Think of the lower fourth of the mellotron cello tracks where they used a string bass since the cellist refused to de-tune his cello and you'll get the idea -- although the contrabass clarinet wasn't quite as bad as that.
The French horn actually has the greatest range of any wind (he said proudly), so I wasn't stressed at all since I started the tracks on low D (well above the lowest note that can be played on the instrument and only had to play up to a high C (horn is pitched a perfect 5th below the note on the mellotron keyboard. However, if you want to have a true butt-clenching experience, redo the trumpet track because you have to hold a G above high C for 8 perfect seconds. That's Maynard Ferguson territory, my friend -- and also why the trumpet mellotron top note begins in such an "interesting" way.
All winds can produce at least 35 notes, but you might not want to hear all of them -- especially over and over on your mellotron keyboard.
By the way, we're in the middle of recording baritone sax and it promises to be the mother of all mellotron sounds. The bass clarinet fades into insignificance by comparison. Make children cry, make sensitive women faint, crank it up and blow the idiot next door with his huge-ass stereo into the next county, get the Streetly baritone sax voice for your mellotron. Brass? We don't need no stinking brass!
Rick