| The Commusic IV master is just about completed. I need to go back
and redo one submission, but it's a minor change. I've even made
a copy that I will give (for $2.50) to the person at tonite's MUSIC
noters get-together who agrees to make the most copies.
The master is a Maxell MX with Dolby B.
Here's the (very) preliminary liner notes outline
Side A
Paul Harmon
- A Smaller World
- We're Not Supposed to Die
- Leap!
Karl Moeller
- Seven
- Walk in Music
Frank Rene
- ?
- ?
Brad Schafer
- 10 to 9
- Compromise
Side B
Brad Schafer
- Hand in Hand
Peter Laquerre
- You Better Start
- Rebecca
Dave Bottom
- Born in Chicago
- TV Eye
- Pay Day
Steve Sherman
- ?
Dan Dube
- The Reason Why
- In Your Dreams
Mitch Norcross
- Visions
Tom Janzen
- ?
- ?
- ?
The "?" mean either that I don't seem to have received any indication
of the titles (Frank Rene) or that I just didn't write them down
on the crib sheet I brought into work.
In any case, ALL contributors should send me:
1) Liner notes if you haven't already
2) Do you want your submission tape returned. If so, have you sent me return
postage.
3) How do you want to get a copy of Commusic IV:
a) record over submission tape (it must be a C-90)
b) New tape, if so have you provided me with the $4 to cover
the cost of the tape, postage, mailing envelope?
NOTE
Do NOT even ask me to front you the money for ANYTHING.
I just won't. I haven't been stiffed on anything for
the Commusic tapes, but I have been stiffed for similar
things. It's not like it would break me, but I'm just
not willing to let it happen. Call it a personality
quirk of mine. 'nuf said.
Please answer ALL of these questions, not just some.
I'm going to start making copies. The contributors will get the
first copies I make. If you have some kind of problem with how
your submissions came out, I'm willing to correct the master for
SUBSEQUENT copies, but I'm not going to re-do any existing copies.
If making a correction involves sending me a new tape back, YOU
will have to pay postage both ways. I did my best, but I am not
going to pay for any mistakes I made. Remember I'm a volunteer.
I've thought of some methods to make this thing go smoother. I'm
going to be posting some submission guidelines in the submission
note. THe most significant change is that I'm going to require
a form, just so that I can keep all the various instructions (mastering
instructions, tape return instructions, what you sent me, etc) in
a consistent form. I tend to forget things that are spread all
over various notes.
The 10 folks whose contributions are on Commusic IV are the first
10 folks from whom I received tapes. If your stuff didn't get on,
it's because it was received after these 10. I also decided not
to put my stuff on partially out of generosity to allow room for
others and, I admit, partially to be able to take more time to
do it 'right'.
The only tape I believe to have in my posession that there wasn't
room for on Commusic IV is Paul Kent's. If you sent me a tape
and you're not Paul Kent AND you aren't listed above, contact me.
One or two folks said they're tape was "in the mail" but I have
no record of receiving them (and I've been keeping pretty good
records).
The ordering instructions are the same as always. They're posted
in 945. Be aware that it will be about a week before I've finished
the contributor copies which have top priority.
I'd also like to ask that if you know several people who are intending
to order a copy and the slight audio degradation of an extra tape
generation isn't very critical to you, PLEASE get your friends to
make a copy for you instead of ordering one from me. Remember,
I do not make any money off this and I have good reasons for wanting
to keep it that way. It's simply extra work for me.
One additional note, once I get a few copies made, I'll be hauling
a bunch down to a LEDS-BIM so LEDS-BIM attendees might wanna hold
off on sending their order via mail. You can save a little postage
and handling.
For the moment, I'm not going to add a surcharge (to pay for a dubbing
deck as has been proposed). I'll give advance notice if I end up
doing that.
OK, comments on the content. It's good. While my personal opinion
is that the musical content may be slightly down from Commusic III,
it's clear that the technology improvements are making an impact.
While I prefer the content of Commusic III, I'd still say I prefer
this tape to Commusic I and II.
Audio quality wise, I have to admit that not using the Beta for
mastering has had some impact. Although, I now think that the biggest
problem seems to be that Dolby NR seemed to REALLY WORK for some
submissions, but slightly screwed up other submissions. I have
a feeling that Dolby NR is either very critical to calibration, or
very prone to going out of calibration. I'm going to suggest that
when possible, people send me two copies of each submission, one
with dolby, one without and trust me to choose which works out best.
I used two decks to do the mastering and Dolby seems to work well
(noticeably well) between those two decks. THus, I tend to doubt
that it's my decks that are out of calibration, but I may have that
checked before I start Commusic V.
db
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| C O M M U S I C I V
L I N E R N O T E S
Recording Date: 1-Feb-1988
Summary:
Side A
Paul Harmon
- A Smaller World
- We're Not Supposed to Die
- Leap!
Karl Moeller
- Seven
- Walk in Music
Frank Rene
- Learning to Sail
- We Can Be (What We Want to Be)
Brad Schafer
- 10 to 9
- Compromise
Side B
Brad Schafer
- Hand in Hand
Peter Laquerre
- You Better Start
- Rebecca
Dave Bottom
- Born in Chicago
- TV Eye
- Pay Day
Steve Sherman
- Just About Enough
Dan Dube
- The Reason Why
- In Your Dreams
Mitch Norcross
- Visions
Tom Janzen
- Le Sacre de Printemps: Stravinsky.
- Suite for Cello: Prelude: J. S. Bach.
- On D: Tom Janzen
Paul Harmon
"A Smaller World"
"We're Not Supposed To Die"
Both of these songs were written/played by me and recorded on a Portastudio
244. Instruments and signal processors included:
Ensoniq ESQ-1
Fender Stratocaster
Kramer DMZ-1000
Yamaha RX-15
Hohner Marine Band harmonica
Deltalab Effectron I digital delay
Furman RV-1 reverb
Pearl Overdrive
"Leap!"
Also recorded on my Portastudio, with the same signal processors.
This is a free improvisation with some pre-planning. I decided in advance
that there would be four sections, and that they would alternate being
in/out of tempo from section to section. I recorded a drum track that followed
that plan, and then improvised over it until I felt it was finished. Except
for the distorted guitar in the second in-tempo section, everything here was a
first take. Instruments were:
Yamaha SA-2000 guitar
Fender Precision Bass
Boss DR-110 "Dr. Rhythm" (unfortunately)
Karl Moeller
"Seven" and "Walk In Music" - karl moeller
The selection of these two submissions was based on some value
judgements about Commusic noters' listening tastes. Call it market
research. I wanted 'you' the majority of noters (read 'rockers'?)
to like my submissions, and thus I was reluctant to send pieces
prominently featuring sampled ethnic instruments, like 'Andean
Agogo in 11/8' and 'Weekend Raga'. Or the entirely percussion
'Big Thing Stomps Around'.
"Seven" - karl moeller
This was one of those gratifying experiments. I recorded a left-hand
piano part to Performer's metronome clicking away in 7/8. Then I
recorded a right-hand part, and dumped it to cassette and played it
in the car for several days. Sections of the righthand part didn't
work at all, so I edited them out.
One of my goals for this piece was to avoid use of the 8track, so
I created an Emax performance diskette with fretless bass, drums,
sax, and Kurzweil strings (doubling the right-hand piano part).
Then I recorded the bass line, drums and sax. The Emax sax phrases
neatly filled the holes in the righthand piano part. Tried to make
the bass/snare parts as heavy as possible. I've since remixed it
holding off the righthand chords for two measures.
The phrasing works, complementing the time signature, and
occasionally the right-hand part slides into polyrhythms over
seven. I like it. It rocks.
"Walk In Music" - karl moeller
This piece was commissioned, and was used as walk-in music for
both the audience and actors in a locally produced play. When I met
the cast of the play several of the actors (all college students)
asked me if they could get copies of it. High praise. I love exact
specifications. BTW, my 'sound design' for the play won a 'Best In
State' award at the Arizona College Drama Festival 12/87.
The piece is both energetic and dreamy. Lots of bass/drums 'street'
feel, but becomes sort of meditative due to the stasis of the
bass pattern and the ethereal Fairlight stereo sweep on top.
Four basic layers in this piece, done with Performer synced to 8-track.
The bass line was played realtime to a Performer click, no repairs or
quantizing. The sound is a composite of the Fb01 'Cheeky' patch, an
Emax pizzicato acoustic bass, and the MKS-20 'clav' sound. During
the chord/chorus section there is also a right-hand component that
repeats thru the chord changes. Used a single track on the Fostex,
later stereoized with chorus and analog delay (perhaps too much)
during mixdown.
The Emax drum samples were apparently ported from the E-Mu Systems'
SP-12 drumbox. The drum track is a carefully quantized 16 measures
that repeats thru the piece, with edited pauses to match the bassline.
The drums got 2 tracks on the Fostex in order to preserve the stereo
imaging, and to allow me to use gated reverb on them (only got one
reverb unit, doncha know).
I wanted the piano part to sound chordal rather than linear. The
sound is mainly MKS-20 piano 1 with a dollop of Emax stereo grand
for hammer slap. Two Fostex tracks.
The top layer is an Emax sample of a Fairlight 'vocal' patch, using
the Emax' analog controls to diddle the filter and stereo panning.
Also used two tracks on the Fostex for obvious reasons.
Frank Rene
SONG #1
"Learning to Sail"
The way this piece started was very different than the way it ended
up. It originally wasn't going to include any horns, but one night I tried
it and it stuck. The reason I wrote this piece was to see if I could come
up with a reasonably interesting tune combining ordinary and not-so-ordinary
chord progressions/tensions. The drums,bass and electric piano were sequenced.
The horns,sax and piano parts were not. The recording was done on a Fostex
4-track with no bouncing. No outboard effects were used with the exception
of some digital reverb on the drums.
MUSICIANS:
---------
This piece was entirely written and performed/recorded by myself.
INSTRUMENTS used:
----------------
Ensoniq Mirage,ESQ-1
------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------
SONG #2
"We can be (what we want to be)"
My brother asked me to come up with a top 40-ish tune to which he
would write lyrics around. So that's what I tried to do in this piece.
The tune came out pretty much as planned. To give the tune something
extra, I added a bridge that had a different motif than the rest of the
tune and a guitar/drum break just to break things up a bit. The drums,
bass, horns and two of the syth parts were sequenced. The other synth parts,
strings (and of course) guitar and vocals were not sequenced. The recording
was done on the Fostex 4-track. Digital delay was used on the vocals
as well as to produce a stereo field from the rythym section. No track
bouncing was done on the 4-track.
Music - Frank Rene
Lyrics - Brian Rene, Vicki Oliveria
MUSICIANS:
---------
Keyboards - Frank Rene, Mark Dwinell
Drum programming - Frank Rene
Vocals - Brian Rene
Guitar - Don Mousseau
INSTRUMENTS used:
----------------
Ensoniq Mirage,ESQ-1
Roland Juno-6
Custom Kramer guitar
Brad Schafer
LINER NOTES - COMMUSIC IV
-------------------------
Tape contains three songs, which are in various stages of development.
All recording performed on TEAC Tascam 144 (Dolby B).
All mixdowns to Yamaha K-960 (Dolby B used).
All songs copyright � Brad Schafer / OldAbe Music, 1987.
10 TO 9 (8:45)
-------
"10 To 9" is more or less a recording of a jam session. The body of
the song was written in about 5 minutes, the bass line was sequenced
in about 2 minutes, used four drum kit patterns in "repeat forever"
mode. The title of the song is of dual meaning - the piece was
recorded at 10 to 9 (ie, 8:50pm); it is also almost 9 minutes long,
and took 10 "phrases" to get to 9 minutes ... hence, "10 To 9".
Although somewhat repetitive (what do you expect for 30 minutes from
start to finish?), there is a good deal of synergy developed between
Kent and myself during the piece. It is interesting to hear in
retrospect how players can complement each other almost automatically.
The most blatant error in the piece is toward the end, where I
mistakenly changed a patch on the Oberheim and was kind of forced to
go with it. As the piece is a jam, and thus has no real conclusion,
the piece kind of breaks down at the end - but the breakdown (and
obvious ending) is kind of fun to listen to.
RECORDING ERRATA
Other than bass line and drums, all playing was recorded live and
as-is, with no corrections, overdubs, or quantization. Headphones
used for monitoring during recording.
Players: Kent Burnside, guitar; Brad Schafer, keyboards
Mixer: Peavey Mk III 16 chan
Guitar: Fender hollow body
Guitar FX: Tokai Magicalbox (Rockman clone)
Synths: Oberheim OB-Xa (controller)�, 2 Yamaha TX7
Drums: Roland TR-707
Sequencer: Yamaha QX7
FX: None�
� The Oberheim is sorely lacking as a controller,
transmitting only MIDI note-on/note-off, with no
velocity, sustain, modulation or pitch bend.
� MIDIverb II used during mixdown from 144 to K960
COMPROMISE (5:41)
----------
This piece was my first attempt at composition/ recording/ MIDI. It
was recorded over a 2 week period around Christmas 1986. I had never
used a sequencer, drum box, or and kind of tape sync before attempting
this piece, and had never attempted to write any music before this
time.
"Compromise" was sequenced (and quantized extensively) using the QX7.
There are roughly 7300 "notes" in the piece - I ran out of memory
several times until the magnificent Mr. Edd (Cote) gave me a few hints
about the QX7 temporary buffer (thanks, Edd). Again, the Oberheim was
used as a controller, which was quite frustrating, as it does not
respond to or transmit anything but note on/off.
In programming the drums, I tried to intersperse random rim shots and
accent "strange" beats in order to make the playing sound a bit more
realistic. The mix seems to be a bit heavy on percussion, the hi-hat
in particular.
I got a bit carried away with tape sync, ping-ponging and layering,
using all three synths on each take. 4 MIDI channels were used; each
channel used all three synths (including the Xa in bi-timbral mode).
Due to this over-extension, there is a bit of distortion that shows up
every now and then.
The guitar lead was recorded thru the Peavey, using the board's reverb
unit. The mix is entirely wet - no dry signal was recorded. That's
why the guitar has no bite.
Unfortunately, after the first pass of "Compromise" was on tape in its
entirety, the sequence was lost (I forgot to back it up to tape). At
some point, I plan to resequence the piece, but have not yet done so.
My least favorite part of "Compromise" is the synthesized bells during
the solo at the end of the piece. These were recorded realtime and as
an afterthought, and are much too bright and loud.
RECORDING ERRATA
Players: Brad Schafer, guitar & keyboards
Mixer: Peavey Mk III 16 chan
Guitar: Hagstrom Swede (Patch 2000)
Guitar FX: Tokai Magicalbox (Rockman clone)
Synths: Oberheim OB-Xa (controller), 2 Yamaha TX7
Drums: Roland TR-707
Sequencer: Yamaha QX7
FX: spring reverb in mixer�
� MIDIverb II used during mixdown from 144 to K960
HAND IN HAND (4:22)
------------
This piece is another "half hour" effort. It was written around a
friend's lyrics, which discuss her personal struggle in giving her
life completely to the Lord. Since the piece is written for a female
vocal range, I have not attempted to add vocal tracks myself. 8-)
While the piece as-is can stand on its own as a soundtrack, it is not
yet complete. I would like to add a rhythm guitar track and sax fill
to the song at some point in time, as well as rearrange the bridge and
transition to coda al fin�.
"Hand In Hand" was written in about � hour to an hour, and recorded
over a period of roughly 5 days. The bulk of this time was spent
programming the drum kit and playing with the MIDIverb (ie,
non-productive).
All keyboard parts (excepting bass line) were played live into the ESQ
and then mixed to tape, allowing the Oberheim (strings and analog
synth patches) to be mixed live during recording.
The Peavey mixer is far superior to the BiAmp. Had I been able to
borrow it again, I would have.
RECORDING ERRATA
"Hand In Hand" was recorded in one pass to two tracks of the 144.
Players: Brad Schafer, keyboards
Mixer: BiAmp 1202 12 chan
Guitar: none
Guitar FX: n/a
Synths: Ensoniq ESQ-1, Oberheim OB-Xa, 2 Yamaha TX7
Drums: Roland TR-707
Sequencer: ESQ-1
FX: MIDIverb II
Peter LaQuerre
- You Better Start
- Rebecca
I use a Fostex X-15 4-track cassette deck, which I mix down to my
Nakamichi BX-1 stereo deck. I wrote and performed both songs.
"You Better Start" was performed on a Madeira six-string acoustic
guitar and a borrowed electric bass guitar. Difficulties between
two married friends inspired the lyrics, but I "fictionalized"
some of the events.
"Rebecca" was recorded with a Casio CZ-1000 and a Roland TR-505 drum
machine. I even did the bass track with the CZ-1000, but since then
I've come up with some better bass patches--some from advice in the
COMMUSIC notes conference.
Dave Bottom
These three songs were recorded at Studio 8 in Laconia NH using their fostex
A-80, tascam 320, proverb, Yamaha GB2020 etc.
The purpose was to attempt to capture the sound of our old band (now defunct)
the LA East Rhythm and Blues band. We chose two cover songs that we felt
were 1. easy to record 2. were representative of our overall sound. We also
chose to record Payday (also on CM III in a home studio version) as I wrote
that song for the band and we never learned/performed it until now.
The players:
Guitars/vocals: Dave Bottom
Vocals/harp: Doug Brosius
Bass: Steve Brooks
drums: Ray "the count" Corlis
The songs:
Born In Chicago: An old Paul Butterfield song. We recorded the bass guitar,
lead guitar and drums first. Added a rhythm guitar track, redid the lead
guitar track, added the harp and vocals last. I wasn't satisifed with the
lead guitar even when we stopped; it seems a bit frantic to me, but was
kept as it was representative of our 'live' sound which was what we hoped
to capture.
Television Eye: A John Mayhall song, one of LA East's old standards a great
favorite of mine. Rhythm guitar, bass and drums recorded first. We then
added the lead guitar track and did the harp vocals last. If I do say so
I think this is the definitive version....
Payday: My original. Ray helped rearrange the song the night before. We learned
and rehearsed minus the harp player the night before. We must have played this
song a total of 4 times during the rehearsals and the harp player did his
tracks cold with no rehearsals. Recorded the rhythm guitar, bass and drums
first, then did the harp track, then another rhythm guitar track and then the
slide lead finally we did the vocals, backup vocals are myself and our engineer
Bill Plisco.
We started recording this session at 11:00 am, we finished at 4:30 pm. It
was rushed a bit but the quality of the muscians that I had to work with
really shows through. Speaking for both myself and the band we felt the
session was a success, we accomplished exactly what we intended to, recorded
the three songs and had a great time.
personal euipment used:
Doug uses the standard hofner blues harps, mic'd with a shure green bullet
running through a fender super reverb for that dirty chicago blues harp sound.
Mik'd by a beyer mmike of some sort.
Steve ran the bas direct into the board, he uses a musicmman bass, a Precision
bass clone with active electronics.
rays drums are budget, consequently we did have some problems with ringing
etc. a total of four mikes were used, but I dunno what or how....
dave used a fender strat, and a fender lead 1, glass bottle for slide, an
Ibanez DM-1000 digital delay, some stomp box chorus that I borrowed (arion?),
ernie ball strings and tortex picks, run this all through a fender studio lead
mic'd by a Beyer mike of some sort....
Steve Sherman
Title: "Just About Enough"
> 1) Liner notes if you haven't already
Setup: CZ-101, TX81Z, TR-505, QX5, MVII
Comments: The weak point of this is the drums. When I get around to it (like
maybe when I get a DAT), I'll probably redo it. But, the idea is out so I can
start working on my next number. I'm starting to tinker a little more with
improvisation and phrasing on this one. The ending's a bit weak, but the tag
at the very last makes my boy giggle. This song's good for helping me adjust
my attitude...
Dan Dube
Both of my submissions were recorded in my 8-track studio in Nashua. This
is the basic list of studio equipment used:
- Otari Mark III 5050 8-track recorder
- Carvin 16x8x2 mixer
- dbx 166 compression/noise gate
- Roland SRV 2000 digital reverb
- ADA digital delay
- Minolta VHS HiFi VCR
All songs were recorded by the old version of my band, MAX Q.
1) The Reason Why (Copyright 1986 Dan Dube)
This song was a major experiment in bouncing tracks. This is actually a
3-generation tape consisting of a total of 20 tracks. The basic scheme was
like this:
1st generation (all drums)
Trk1 Trk2 Trk3 Trk4 Trk5 Trk6 Trk7 Trk8
Bass Snare Hi-Hat 1st Tom 2nd Tom Floor Overhead Overhead
Drum Drum Tom Left Right
|
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(mixed down to VHS HiFi)
|
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Bounce #1
Trk1 Trk2 Trk3 Trk4 Trk5 Trk6 Trk7 Trk8
Drum Drum Bass Crunch Crunch Clean Organ Piano/
Mix Mix Guitar Guitar Guitar Special
Left Right Left Right Effects
|
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(mixed down to VHS HiFi)
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Bounce #2
Trk1 Trk2 Trk3 Trk4 Trk5 Trk6 Trk7 Trk8
Mixdown Mixdown Lead Backup Backup Backup Backup Lead
Left Right Vocal Vocal Vocal Vocal Vocal Guitar
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Final mixdown to VHS HiFi
2. In Your Dreams (Copyright 1987 Dan Dube/Bill Knox)
This song was a little less ambitious of an experiment, and is actually
the first song that I ever totally engineered and produced on my own in
the studio.
Here's the basic scheme:
Trk1 Trk2 Trk3 Trk4 Trk5 Trk6 Trk7 Trk8
Bass Snare 1st Tom 2nd Tom Floor Overhead Overhead Bass
Drum Drum Tom Left Right Guitar
|
|
(mixed down to VHS HiFi)
|
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Bounce #1
Trk1 Trk2 Trk3 Trk4 Trk5 Trk6 Trk7 Trk8
Drum Drum Clean Lead Keys Lead Backup Backup
Mix Mix Guitar Guitar Vocal Vocal Vocal
Left Right
|
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Final mixdown to VHS HiFi
Some of you may be wondering: why did he bounce to VHS HiFi instead of bouncing
six tracks to 2? The answer is simple: 2 extra tracks are opened up with
virtually no loss of sound quality.
If you bounced six tracks down to two, that leaves six open tracks for a
total of 12 tracks. If you bounce 8 tracks down to VHS HiFi (with a dynamic
range of 90 db, which is even better than my Otari 8-track!) back to two,
that leaves six open tracks for a total of 14 tracks. You can judge for
yourself if it was worth it - I'm a big fan of this method.
FREE PLUG:
By the way, if you happen to like these tunes and dig the band, be sure
to catch MAX Q live at a gig soon! We'll be returning to the Boston club
scene sometime in late March/early April with a new, improved lineup! Check
Music notes #5.* to see when MAX Q is gigging in your area.
Mitch Norcross
Visions �1988 Mitch Norcross
Produced by Mitch Norcross at Generic Sound
Sequenced using Master Tracks Pro, Yamaha FB-01, Korg Poly-800,
Alesis MIDIVerb II
Tom Janzen
Le Sacre de Printemps: Introduction, beginning; Igor Stravinsky.
Played on a PDP-11/23 in MACRO11 (even the score is an include
file in MACRO11) out an AAV11-C DAC (one channel).
It was recorded on cassette and reprocessed for digital
vibrato and reverberation with effects boxes. The program
allows four simultaneous voices, each with a different
waveform. The horn was just a sine tone, but the other instruments'
waves were found in The Psychology of Music by Carl Seashore.
Seashore gives the relative power of the wave's harmonics for
different instruments. I calculated the relative pressure
levels by hand, and fed these into a Pascal program that
generates both a MACRO11 include file of 256 bytes wave,
and a DECgraph load file to display the wave.
The program does not have envelope control or dynamic control,
but could somewhat readily, with bandwidth degradation.
The sample-output rate is 7.9kHz. It is very nearly in
tune with A440, and could easily play any form of intonation
desired.
Suite for Cello: Prelude; J. S. Bach. Same notes as above, but only
one voice was used until the last note.
On D: Tom Janzen copyright (c) 1983 Thomas E. Janzen. Using .REPT
blocks, the score is very short indeed. Cf. notes for Le Sacre,
above. No vibrato was used.
The operating system was RT11 5.4b.
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