F. David Concertino play along

[Mikebmiller]

I know I made some remarks in another thread about the David Concertino being the most over-played piece in history, and while that is still true, right after that I got a facebook ad for a play along version. It was less than 2 bucks for a pdf of the solo along with mp3s of a play-along orchestra at 3 different tempos. So for that price, and also having lots of practice time on my hands these days, I decided to give it a shot.

https://www.orchestralplayalong.com/pro ... 20-123-126

I grabbed the 120 bpm accompaniment track and plugged it into Cakewalk and am attempting to make a recording of the entire concerto, which I can then sell for thousands of dollars (either that or beg a few friends and family members to listen). After practicing this thing for years by myself, it is nice to hear how the solo part meshes in with the orchestra. It is a bit hard to follow in spots. A click track would be a nice option. And it doesn't ritard in the spots where you normally would do that. But for 2 bucks, it is good fun.

[robcat2075]

There was a commercial offering, whose name I forget, that had a computer play-along scheme that they claimed would actually follow you tempo-wise.

Anyone recall that? Anyone try it?
The cost wasn't trivial and it was a subscription plan.

[harrisonreed]

Smart Music was the play along.

Mike, buying the accompaniment track doesn't give you the right to use it in performance, and especially does not give you the right to use it as a part of a recording you make, unless they gave you a license that says you can do those things.

Even if the sheet music is in the public domain, if someone records it and releases it, even to be used as a backing track, that recording is no longer public domain material. You would need a license that allowed you to reproduce the master in order to use it that way.

I'm sure you know this, but others who get into backing tracks might not. Obviously, recording it your home to try it out for fun and to learn about audio engineering won't get you into trouble. Releasing the recording would violate copyright though.

[Mikebmiller]

The chances of someone paying money for a recording of or me playing anything are somewhere between slim and none. But trying to make a good recording makes for a nice little project, even if it’s just for me.

[harrisonreed]

Yup, lol. Me too. Thousands of dollars! For reference, I think Lindberg's most popular album just barely broke 20k records sold, and his least popular one is decades old and sold about 1300 (it's awesome, btw). You can imagine he probably received only a few dollars per sale.

I think classical recordings exist, in the artist's mind at least, to promote live performance and to have swag for after the concert.

[Mikebmiller]

I tried smart music once for a short time. In theory, it would listen to you and adjust the accompaniment to match your time, but in practice, it didn't work too well. With this backing track, you definitely have to adjust your time to match the backup, which is tough with no conductor to mediate.

[Mikebmiller]

I think classical recordings exist, in the artist's mind at least, to promote live performance and to have swag for after the concert.

On one of the Brass Junkies podcasts, Andrew Hitz said that at one time, Boston Brass was making something like 20% of their revenue from CD sales at concerts. At $20 a pop, if you sell 100 of them, that's a nice little bump in revenue. And they do all their own arranging, so once they pay for the license for the original tune, that's all profit.

[jthomas105]

SmartMusic is not the same as is was a few years ago. The version that had a "follow me" ability no longer exists, that was the SmartMusic Classic. It is now some sort of app platform that does not have the same functionality of the original SmartMusic.

[robcat2075]

I suppose there will be an "AI" solution to this someday. And then accompanists will be yet another labor-segment out of work.

Not that I'll miss them much. I only had unpleasant experiences hiring accompanists to play me through a jury.