A Cute Off-topic Story

[dc2daylight]

A few years ago, I got a call from the brother of a director that I had worked with a couple of times. The brother (we’ll call him Joe) is a jingle producer who needed to record a jingle that included the opening of “Carmina Burana” by Carl Orff. Now this opening (“O Fortuna”) uses a large orchestra and chorus – something Joe is unfamiliar with, but through his director brother knew that I dealt with a great deal in film scores. I told Joe I’d be glad to record the project for him. That’s when he said he didn’t have much of a budget. Shoulda seen that comin’. I told him that since I knew and liked his brother so well I would work within his budget and charge about half my usual rate. He was delighted (amazing, huh?).

I suggested I come to his home the day before the recording and we could do some pre-production planning. OK. So I showed up at his place and after the water was served, I asked to hear the synth mockup of the project. No surprises: it was in fact “O Fortuna” just like I had performed 100 times as an orchestral trumpet player. I asked about the percussion players, if they were supplying the instruments or was he having them rented. “Like what?” Joe asked me.

I said, “Well let’s go through the score and check it out.”

“You can read that stuff?” Joe asked.

“Uh… yeah, just part of the package, Joe,” Says me. I then point out each of the percussion instruments called for like timpani (he got that), Gran Casa which prompted the first of many, “What’s that?” from Joe. When we finished the list, Joe said they would be rented and I said “Cool.”

I faxed in a mic list to Henson Recording in Hollywood (the old A&M records studio) and the following morning, showed up 2 hours before the downbeat as is my custom for the opening day of a scoring project. So far so good. The excellent crew and I had all the mics popped for polarity and the rest of the tech items out of the way when the musicians began to arrive about an hour later. One of the first players to arrive walked in wearing a baritone saxophone around his neck (I guess the carrying case had been stolen somewhere along the way). I told him that he was in the wrong studio, that we were doing an orchestral recording. He informed me that Joe couldn’t get the contra bassoon player called for in the score, so he was filling in on bari sax. Cool.

We were Orff to a good start!

When Joe arrived, I asked him how he was going to generate click. This is important since there are a couple of tempo changes within the first 8 measures. Joe told me he wanted it to be conducted freely by a friend of his. “But, Joe, we are going to have to overdub the chorus later and without some kind of reference the conductor won’t be able to duplicate his conducting performance in time to get the choir in on the second note of the piece.” Joe says, “Oh.” I then suggested that we do what I’ve done dozens of times in the past, dating back to “Beauty and the Beast”: video tape the conductor so that he will be able to see himself conducting and match it… or we could just let the chorus watch the video and follow that. Joe thought this was truly an amazing idea, and it had been about 10 years before. Still was, I guess.

Then the rented percussion began arriving and I saw part of a drum kit show up. It was a crash cymbal. So I blamed myself for “explaining” the day before that “piatti” were like, oh… you know: crash cymbals. [NOTE TO SELF]

The old clock on the wall (one of the few remaining analog devices in the room) finally made it to 10 am and we began recording. As is my usual style, I was very active on the talkback, negotiating with the percussionists about volume and beater choices; negotiating with the brass about volume and note length and other style questions – questions for them, but not for me after performing it so many times. There was a lot of negotiating with the bari sax – no matter how many socks I put on the only SM57 in the room, I couldn’t get it to sound like a contra bassoon. I was shocked.

By lunch time, we had several good takes of the orchestra and the video of the conductor. Lunch arrived and Joe gave me a check for the fee we had agreed upon.

After lunch the chorus showed up and we began the dance again with me on the talkback asking for various changes in style, vowel modification and timings. We of course tripled the chorus for extra size. Before the recording of the chorus was over, Joe came over and put another check on the console in front of me.

A couple of hours later the mix was in full swing and we were getting a good facsimile of “O Fortuna.” Joe put another check on the console in front of me. I finished the mix and everyone thought it sounded great, bari sax and all. I got my last cup of coffee for the day and picked up the checks which now among the 3 of them totaled my regular fee. I asked Joe why he had given me extra pay and he said that as the session progressed he realized that without me there, he would have never been able to pull off the recording no matter how much time he spent trying.

I said “Cool.”

[Lazz]

You say 'Carm-ee-na'

I say 'Carm-eye-na'

You say 'Bur-aah-na'

I say 'Bur-aye-na'

'Carm-ee-na' - 'Carm-eye-na'

'Bur-aah-na' - 'Bur-aye-na'

Let's Carl the whole thing Orff !

[Nightwolf]

Great story, I imagine once you start asking questions that they, not only don't know the answer to, but don't even understand the question it becomes obvious how important it is to have someone there who does know the answers!!

[dc2daylight]

You say 'Carm-ee-na'

I say 'Carm-eye-na'

You say 'Bur-aah-na'

I say 'Bur-aye-na'

'Carm-ee-na' - 'Carm-eye-na'

'Bur-aah-na' - 'Bur-aye-na'

Let's Carl the whole thing Orff !

Very Cute, Lazz. (Lahz)

[john]

Hey Michael

Good story

Lazz, like it!

[Nightwolf]

Very Cute, Lazz. (Lahz)

He's a funny guy no???

[Steve]

Looks like you impressed Joe! Good story. Glad you got paid your worth.

[john]

Joe? lol

Doh!

[Steve]

Joe? lol

Doh!

The guy who hired Michael.