Mysteries from within the Notation Rabbit Hole

[rythmicillusion]

Janek: With your expansive background and knowledge of transcription, I'm going to bet that you've encountered sonic territory that had or has no widely agreed standard notation practice. I am very interested to hear about your approach in general, and perhaps how you would tackle a couple of these U.S.Os (Unidentified Sonic Objects) that I've heard flying around.

At the beginning of a tune I'm working on, there appears to be a reversed piano crescendo from ppp to fff over 30 seconds. A sustained harmony (for sake of a more tangible example, lets call it a root position C major chord) with no discernible rhythm. How would you approach notating something like this? Or would you simply write in "30 second sample of reverse piano crescendo)? Do you often encounter this sort of difficulty when trying to decode "studio magic", or is that something you stay away from?

Maybe a little less out there, but still very alien to my ear, is ring modulation. There are some Wayne Krantz guitar lines that I'd like to transcribe and translate to bass, and I'd love to get very accurate with describing the sound. However (and probably why it excites me so much), the depth is such that it is hard for me to unravel all the individual sounds that make up a single attack, if that makes any sense at all.

Also, a slightly technical question: Do you have favorite speakers, headphones, CD decks, etc., for transcribing particular sounds (a certain combination for bass guitar, for example, and maybe something different for trumpet), or do you have a "rig" that works great for whatever you're listening to?

Thanks in advance...and while I did some searching here, I really hope that my questions are not redundant and worthwhile to answer!

-Andrew

[janekbass]

when I come across anything that isn't in a basic general notation situation I just don't write it down. I write down things that are coherent to read after the fact, so effects and little one off sounds and colours, I don't bother with at all. Transcription for me is about writing down things that can be read and made sense of later on a piece of manuscript paper.

Wayne is out there with his lines. and the nature of a ring modulator means that the actual notes that are coming out of the amp are note always the same ones being fingered on the guitar. far better to just listen to the vibe of what he's doing if that's what you dig, and then try and duplicate that yourself.

For the longest time I used the cheapest piece of crap hand held tape recorder for transcribing from. Bad sound quality, horrible to operate, and generally not that great. But it did the job for me. I now use my laptop to playback audio, and that's all through my studio system at home. It's all personal preference when it comes to gear.

Easy,

Janek

[rythmicillusion]

Janek: That knocked some sense into me, so thanks for that.