Distance Monitoring aka "The Blick Method"
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- Is it possible to hear your own playing the way the audience does - in real time? And if so, how might this affect the way you play, and the way you practice?
My San Diego Symphony colleague Aaron Blick wondered about this during his graduate studies at USC, as it always bothered him to constantly need to ask others for clarification on how things were coming across at a distance. With the encouragement of his teacher, David Allen Moore, he starting testing a monitoring setup so he could hear this himself.
After some trial and error, he came up with a very compact monitoring “rig” that allowed him to do what he wanted. With this extremely portable setup, he was able to hear his playing from a distance in a variety of rooms, and to learn how to make use of that information.
In this video, Aaron gives some background on how he developed the setup and how it changed his playing. We then try it out and allow you to hear both the player’s perspective and the audience perspective in a rehearsal hall at SDSU. This is a long form “bass hangout” video - Aaron and I try things out, chat, geek out-as many of us bassists love to do. You can skip to the highlights, or just hang out with us the whole ride.
0:16 Introduction to "The Blick Method"
8:32 Quick rundown of Aaron's setup
9:37 Jeremy tests the setup
14:39 Initial impressions & discussion
17:10 Aaron tests the setup (with Jeremy's bass)
18:47 Aaron's impressions & discussion
24:37 Mozart 35 (Aaron)
26:14 Mozart 35 (Jeremy)
31:05 Discussion on Mozart tests
32:37 Bottesini Concerto #2 test (Aaron, with his own bass)
39:29 Concluding discussion on Bottesini tests and distance monitoring
41:37 Quick summary
This is a real missing link. Thank you for doing this!
As the "deliberate practice" folks point out, having an accurate feedback loop is critical for improving. And this method is a big step up in terms of accuracy & efficiency from how most of us practice in larger spaces. And the fact that it's easy to use and take with you is critical for actually doing it!
So cool, can't wait to try it!
This is brilliant! So useful and thought-provoking.
This is so helpful! Thanks so much for sharing.
I had the equipment but never used it like this! Thank you for sharing, really inspiring. Congratulations!
I'm glad you found it helpful! I was in a similar boat, where I had equipment that would work, but never thought about using it exactly in this way before. I know some other people who have experimented with even fancier set ups, but what I think is key to Aaron's approach is that his rig is extremely portable. And if it's easy to carry with you, it's much more likely that you will use it!
Man, that bass sounds awesome!
I'm definitely fortunate to get to play it! And Aaron's modern bass also sounds great. What's so fascinating to me in this particular situation is how much difference the room itself makes, and how it really is a unique skill to learn to "activate" the room with one's instrument. Certain ways of playing that we might expect to sound great when we are in the practice room don't actually sound so good in a big room. And that's why the whole process is so intriguing, no matter what instrument you are playing.
Great work fellas! This is a great hack to the system.
Great use of technology!
Love it, great stuff, Aaron!
The "problem" with using sound recording equipment is that you only sound like how your equipment sound like. It is important to use monitoring headphones instead of your common leisure headphones. You will not get an accurate sound using Beats, Skullcandies, JBLs, Sony (unless they are specifically labelled as monitor/studio headphones.
@@BENVLSC I would absolutely agree -- both the mics/recorder and headphones can color the sound significantly, so it's important to know your equipment.
That is also the same challenge when simply recording yourself and listening back, in terms of getting a fully accurate picture of what's going on. So I would certainly recommend that people try out whatever different options are at their disposal. That being said, I still find that listing on even average quality equipment at a distance is informative. One just has to be aware that there still might need to be some interpretation of what one is hearing back.
This is absolutely brilliant! Thank you for sharing the concept. Wondering about recital prep and doing this with the accompanist... would they benefit? Would your adjustments ot your own playing be different with the piano sound in the room as well?
That's a really interesting question! Once you add another performer into the equation, I would think that things would get more complicated--especially since we continually make quick adjustments based on what we hear from the piano next to us in that sort of situation. That being said, I would be very curious to try this in a duo situation where both performers have a feed from the distance mic. It might require the addition of a small mixer or headphone amp to the audio chain (on stage, connected to the long extension cord), but that shouldn't add noticeable delay. If you try this out, please let me know how it works for you!
Do the noise cancelling headphones help boost the signal at all? Only asking because I tried the same setup with an older Tascam recorded but could barely hear a thing using regular headphones.
It's possible that some do boost the signal slightly, but we were actually trying this test with the noise canceling off. I personally tend to use my passive Sony headphones for this that have no boost. You might want to double-check that your input level on the tascam is as high as possible without distorting, and that your output level is also turned up as high as necessary. But if both input and output are maxed out, then something else might be going on (?)