Chiff and Fipple Forums

Is it just me, or have a few of our recent discussion threads disappeared? Perhaps this is an ongoing part of the site reconfiguration. However, I didn't see the one on re-boring flutes, and when I followed the link that was in my e-mail from yesterday (telling me of new posts) it hit a "not found" message. A couple of topics posted today are alive, but others have hidden themselves somewhere...

It looks like they restored from just before the crash and lost the things between then and now...

Definitely not just you, Geoffrey, I can't see that one either. And I tried searching on some words I was pretty sure were in it, and got nothing.

Flotineer wrote: ↑Fri Apr 09, 2021 11:35 am It looks like they restored from just before the crash and lost the things between then and now...

That is exactly the case, Flotineer. It's all to do with the upgrade of the underlying software, which was forced on us, as the old software is simply not supported any more. We had a choice - have the Board fully functioning, but without the recent threads ... or have it not functioning, with the vast majority of threads inaccessible. In the circumstances, I think there was only one decision to be made.

It's irritating, I know, but at least we can now look forward to the Board behaving, I believe, and touch wood, into the foreseeable future.

"We had a choice - have the Board fully functioning, but without the recent threads ... or have it not functioning, with the vast majority of threads inaccessible. In the circumstances, I think there was only one decision to be made."

Heh heh, I'm reminded of that story that Seamus Ennis told, back in The Florence folk club in London, 1974. Yes, some of us are that old. I can't remember it in detail but it went along the lines that a piper came across a Leprechaun who of course was then obliged to grant him a wish. The piper wanted to play music well. The Leprechaun delved deeper. Did the piper want to play music to please the listener, or music to please himself. It took more than one iteration to reach the right conclusion.

But yes, in terms of the current dilemma, the weight of history is on your side!

Terry McGee wrote: ↑Sat Apr 10, 2021 5:44 am Did the piper want to play music to please the listener, or music to please himself.

I've heard that story before. I don't remember what led up to it, but in the version I heard, 'twas the fairies who gave the piper this choice. The piper chose the latter, but the listener was always unimpressed. Fortunately the piper was able to rescind that choice and opted to please the listener, but the piper was then doomed never to be pleased with the result.

A pretty typical story about the perils of making deals with the Good Folk. You could say the piper got off easy. I always took the story as an allegory about musicians and how we can be grouped in two: 1) The self-pleasers who risk not really hearing themselves or, at least, risk being complacent (we all know at least one of either); and 2) Those who put a priority on attempting to please the listener, and become their own worst critics. I think it's also a warning that you can't have your cake and eat it too: If you intend to be good, then critical self-listening goes with it, so don't be surprised when positive audience response seems baffling. You must not suck all that bad if people are giving you attaboys, but beware empty flattery. As a corollary, it tells me that the process of excellence never stops, and I may be stuck with thinking I suck forever. You just have to live with it until it changes or your skin gets thicker, and meanwhile it's onward and upward as best you can.

Part of the price of excellence is being hard to satisfy.

Terry McGee wrote: ↑Sat Apr 10, 2021 5:44 am that story that Seamus Ennis told, back in The Florence folk club in London, 1974.

Here it is

Ha ha, Mr Gumby, well done!

It is indeed the same story, although Seamus has tacked onto the end of it another story, the one about the Irish Gentleman's piper vs the English Gentleman's piper (leading into the tune "the lark's march". I've heard him tell the two stories quite independently.

And getting back to you, Nano, nice extrapolation and rationalisation of the message of Seamus' story.

Listening to the recording Mr Gumby directed us to brings up a puzzling point. Seamus' voice is, on the whole, well enough recorded. But the interpolated recordings of the pipes are ghastly. It's possible, but seems unlikely, that the fault lies in the person who uploaded the recordings to YouTube. But is it possible that Bill Leader got it so wrong in recording (in his flat)? Surely they wouldn't have gone to press with a recording that bad? I remember Bill used a Revox A77 which wasn't a bad recording machine (I had one too and did some good work with it.)

It is possible that the problem is an overload issue that relates to uploading to YouTube. Reed instruments have a very "peaky" waveform and it's possible that the peaks on the piping bits far exceed the level on the voice bits. But we'd need to get back to an original recording to find that out.

It is indeed the same story, although Seamus has tacked onto the end of it another story, the one about the Irish Gentleman's piper vs the English Gentleman's piper (leading into the tune "the lark's march". I've heard him tell the two stories quite independently.

Yes, it's a bit of a pile on, on that recording. The same story is in one of O'Neill's books, if I remember correctly.

Terry McGee wrote: ↑Sun Apr 11, 2021 7:44 am Listening to the recording Mr Gumby directed us to brings up a puzzling point. Seamus' voice is, on the whole, well enough recorded. But the interpolated recordings of the pipes are ghastly. It's possible, but seems unlikely, that the fault lies in the person who uploaded the recordings to YouTube. But is it possible that Bill Leader got it so wrong in recording (in his flat)? Surely they wouldn't have gone to press with a recording that bad? I remember Bill used a Revox A77 which wasn't a bad recording machine (I had one too and did some good work with it.)

Just for grins, I captured the audio and looked at the waveform. The whole thing is badly clipped, including the vocal narration. Lots of intersample peaks, and the waveform has that chopped off look. We don't tend to notice clipping on vocals as much as instruments we're familiar with, especially with lower pitched male voices.

Analog tape is fairly forgiving for high input levels unless you really slam it, so I'd assume that the A/D conversion process to digital was done badly, or it was mastered too hot after the conversion. YouTube itself won't add additional waveform clipping like this.

Anyway, it's nice to hear the piper story regardless!

I have the lp, and a spare copy, but haven't played it for a while. My recollection of it is that it is not by far as poor as the youtube version.