Huntsville Traditional Music Association Newsletterhuntsvillefolk.com/newsletters/2010 August...
Transcript of Huntsville Traditional Music Association Newsletterhuntsvillefolk.com/newsletters/2010 August...
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Huntsville Traditional Music Association Newsletter Volume 44, Issue 8 August 2010
Inside this Issue: Page 1: President’s Notes Page 6: Pictures of the Month Page 2: Calendar of Events / Executive Board Page 3: The Berry Patch Page 4: President’s Notes (continued) Page 5: Oh the Blues
Huntsvillefolk.org
The Huntsville Traditional Music Association meets on the third Sunday of
each month Our next meeting is:
Sunday, February 21st 2:00 - 4:30 PM
Huntsville/Madison Public Library Auditorium
Next Meeting August 15th
2:00 P.M. Huntsville/Madison Public Library
HTMA President’s Notes I’ve been thinking some lately about microphones, and their design, technologies, and usage. It always seems like an interesting puzzle to me to figure out what the designer’s intent was for a sophisticated design, and to see people using a technology to best effect. I love software that works just the way I expect it to, like the software designer and I am on the same wavelength. That would not include the latest version of Microsoft Word, by the way.
Microphones are pretty much every‐day technology for us today, as used in telephones, cell phones, computers, and of course musical performance. Every microphone does the same basic job, converting air pressure variations that we sense as sound into variations in an electrical signal level. But there are so many ways to accomplish that end, and so many different applications. The very first microphones were probably operated by what was called “carbon piles”. In these early designs a mass of charcoal was sandwiched between two metal plates, one of which was pretty thin. A fixed voltage from a battery was applied across the plates, causing an electrical current to flow through the carbon.
(continued on page 4) Collier Rawls opening HTMA’s summer concert at the Burritt Museum Gazebo
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President Jerry LeCroy 256-880-6234 [email protected]
Vice President Jim England 256-852-5740 [email protected]
Sec/Treasurer Pat Long 256-539-7211 [email protected]
Publicity Chair Claire Mikkelsen [email protected]
Public Service Chair Jim England 256-852-5740 [email protected]
Performance Chair
Jim Holland [email protected]
Operations Co-Chair George Williams 256-728-2359 [email protected] Steve McGehee 256-858-2032 [email protected]
Webmaster
Position Available!
Newsletter Editor Brian Curtis 256-412-0980 [email protected]
Huntsville Friday Night Sacred Harp Singing Friday, August 6 (2010) Burritt on the Mountain - Old Country Church 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm Second Saturday Old-Time Jam Saturday, August 14th, 1:00 - 4:00 PM Constitution Hall Village HTMA Monthly Meeting August 15 3:15PM Huntsville Library
HTMA Coffeehouse August 26 3:15PM Burritt on the Mountain Old Church
More information on all HTMA meetings, concerts, coffeehouses, and other events, is available at
www.huntsvillefolk.org
For the positions of
WEBMASTER
Please contact Jerry LeCroy for details
Call 256-880-6324 or E-Mail [email protected]
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The Berry Patch
Do you ever think of the debt that you owe? The longer I live, the more mindful I become of my indebtedness. I am up to my chin in obligations and time is running out. I have a heavy load and there is no one, except me, that can do anything about it! Many, if not most, of the people that I owe are now dead. Death should protect against claims of creditors, but for some reason it does not work out that way for me. In a weird sort of way, my creditors have ghosts. They are not ghosts that hide behind a bush and jump out shouting “I got you!” These creditor‐ghosts are friendly ones and all of them reside within me. They make me smile when I recall the person they now represent. They are the ghosts of many who have helped me along life’s road. Ghosts of family, friends, teachers, merchants, family doctors, employers, co‐workers, fellow students and the many who have been my teachers and helpers along life’s walk. Ghosts of those, and there are many, who have paved the roads on which I have walked. Ghosts of many helping hands accompany me as friends as I walk the last miles of life. Though not intended, these Ghosts also remind me of my debt to all who have helped me to have and enjoy a good life. Nothing spectacular, nothing that will be recorded in any book, but a good life. I sometimes, maybe even often now, look for ways to repay those who have helped me. The only way for me to attempt repayment of these old debts is to find some way to give to others. I carry a load of debt and time is running out. How is it with you? President Emeritus Joe M. Berry HTMA Public Service Chair
Piedmont Strings at the Gazebo
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(PRESIDENT’S NOTES continued from page 1) When sound pressure waves strike the flexible disk, the carbon below is compressed slightly, so it conducts electricity better, causing a current variation. This is very simple technology, reliable, durable, and still in use today in inexpensive aircraft microphones. But carbon mikes have very limited frequency sensitivity, poor signal response, and limited dynamic range. So other types were rapidly developed, mostly in the first half of the last century.
What are the important features for a microphone user? Let’s see:
Sensitivity ‐ How much sound does it take to develop a usable signal Dynamic range – The ratio between the softest and loudest sounds a mike can respond to Bandwidth – The frequency range that the microphone can reproduce Distortion/linearity – How accurately the microphone captures the sound waves Directivity – The geometric sensitivity , or “pattern” of the microphone Gain‐before‐feedback – a crucial feature in mikes used for live sound Ruggedness – how susceptible the mike is to damage from handling, loud noises, moisture, etc
Every microphone designer is faced with compromises among those variables. Increase sensitivity, and both gain‐before‐feedback and dynamic range are likely to be reduced. Increase the dynamic range, and you are likely to reduce the linearity.
All of the microphones in HTMA’s PA system are “dynamic”. These typically have a fine wire coil attached to a diaphragm, with the coil surrounded by a strong magnet, When the coil moves in response to diaphragm vibrations from sound waves, the magnetic field causes a voltage to be generated. These mikes all have a sensitivity pattern we call “cardiod”, a term that means they are much more sensitive to sounds right in front of the mike, less so to sounds from the sides or rear.
What is the “gain‐before‐feedback” (GBF) term, and why does it matter? Well, gain‐before‐feedback is a term that describes how loud the background noise (typically from the PA system itself) can get before the feedback loop diverges, creating the loud squeals you hear from time to time in live music performances. It turns out that if you are a performer on stage, you can’t rely on the sound operator (like our wonderful George Williams) to just turn the gain up high enough on the mixer board to make sure the audience can hear you. Nope – if you are singing a couple feet from the mike, George would have to turn the gain up so much that the amplifier system will feed back before your voice gets amplified enough to be heard by the audience. Because the mikes are directional (which improves GBF), the same thing happens if you are only a foot from the mike, but at a 45 degree angle or more from the mike’s axis. You just can’t
be heard even if you are close to the microphone, if you aren’t pretty well in line with the microphone’s sensitive axis.
Are there more sensitive microphones we could use? Absolutely. In fact, what started my recent ruminations about microphones was that I’ve been using a mike that my brother John loaned me to make some recordings. It’s a design called a ribbon mike, and is insanely sensitive, in a figure‐8 pattern. This mike isn’t new technology at all – it’s based on a design developed by RCA engineers back in the 30’s, and boy the signal it records sounds terrific. BUT, ribbon mike designs have almost no GBF, so they aren’t usable in any practical live sound situation. In fact, we have managed to get feedback once or twice just from the sound coming out of the headphones we wear when recording. That’s sensitive! We typically sit back a couple feet from this microphone, and event at that distance it picks up the quiet breath sounds that normally drop into the background.
I’m writing about this today mainly because last weekend I saw George really struggling from time to time managing sound for our performers at the Burritt gazebo concert. Some of the bands obviously practice with mics, and know how to use them to best effect. Some don’t, and the audience enjoyment of the performers is reduced when the musicians are difficult or impossible to hear. So I’d recommend to members who want to be playing out to audiences too large to hear without amplification – please make it a point to practice with your band using microphones. Make recordings of your practice, or get a critical listener to listen and tell you what is working for your and what isn’t. That kind of critical practice is not as much fun as just jamming in the living room with friends, but it is a crucial element of being at your best on stage. You can bet that the audience, and George, will all appreciate your effort.
And let me close with a word about the HTMA sound system that your association has invested in, and the job George is doing. I think at three coffeehouses this year the feature artists were accustomed to playing all‐acoustic (with no amplification) for small audiences, and were fearful of the damage non‐professionally‐run sound systems might inflict on their presentations. These bands all told us before the show that they would be performing acoustically, and would not need the PA system for their acts. What happened, though, was that when they heard how George handled the sound during the opener performance, they changed their minds. Those choices, made by discerning professional musicians, were a very direct compliment to the quality of the sound that George is managing to deliver for our audience and performers. With your help, practicing a little with the gear before you perform, we can continue our tradition of high quality performances, and maybe make George’s job a little easier at the same time. Cheers,
]xÜÜç _xVÜÉç HTMA President
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Oh, the Blues--thank you Robert Johnson Jack Ellis
Lately, I've been listening to some of the great Blues recordings from the 1920s and 1930s, admiring how the performers could get such powerful sound and feeling out of their mail-order 12-string Stellas or ladder-braced Kalamazoos, marveling at the soulful voices and the lyrics and the mood. This is the music of hardship and heartbreak, authentic narratives of those who labored at share-cropping in the Black Belt of Alabama or the Mississippi Delta, trying to stay alive. Mississippi John Hurt, Rev. Gary Davis, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie McTell, Son House, and, of course, the Prince of them all, Robert Johnson--these have had a lasting influence in modern culture. Many of them played in open tunings, G and D especially, which is ironic since these tunings derived from the late 19th-century parlor guitar mania, often played (yes, in a parlor) by Victorian middle-class women who had taken a fancy to the guitar and learned such popular pieces as "Spanish Fandango" (the open G tuning is still often referred to as Spanish tuning). How did these tunings make their migration from the parlors of New England to the Mississippi Delta? Anyway, a good friend and fine poet here in Huntsville recently sent me a wonderful poem by Billy Collins, Poet Laureate of the United States in 2002-2003, which tries in humorous fashion to explain why these old songs are so appealing. It's called "The Blues," and I thought you all would like it, too, or at least find it a brief distraction from the unbearable heat of summer 2010.
The Blues
Much of what is said here
must be said twice,
a reminder that no one
takes an immediate interest in the pain of others.
Nobody will listen, it would seem,
if you simply admit
your baby left you early this morning
she didn't even stop to say good-bye.
But if you sing it again
with the help of the band
which will now lift you to a higher,
more ardent and beseeching key,
people will not only listen;
they will shift to the sympathetic
edges of their chairs,
moved to such acute anticipation
by that chord and the delay that follows,
they will not be able to sleep
unless you release with one finger
a scream from the throat of your guitar
and turn your head back to the microphone
to let them know
you're a hard-hearted man
but that woman's sure going to make you cry.
Three Forks of the Flint at the Gazebo concert Jim Holland, Jack Ellis, Sue Charles, and Dan Charles.
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Pictures of the Month