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Double Bass whats going on in this video?

#2
I think, for starters, that he's miming on the bass for the purposes of the video. The music was recorded separately, and so they're a little out of synch. It also sounds like there are some, lets say glitches, or really crazy edits happening. Along with some heavy handed processing.

EDIT: After a second listen, I'm pretty comfortable saying that this is a HEAVILY comped performance.
 
#4
You've got to give the guy a lot of credit for all the hard work in creating the version then patching together some very impressive playing. Don't be too hard on him, please. Most fine recordings of world famous artists and orchestras are the result of patching together many takes. Look at the positives, not for the negatives.

Does anyone know more about the artist, Lev Wexler?

Respectfully, DP
 
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#6
You-tube showed me another performance from the same player, and I have to say that it also smacks of significant after editing. Here's the link I'm afraid that I have to disagree with David Potts because these clips sound like fraud to me, with extensive editing, liberal auto correct, etc, and that does a real disservice to the few bassists alive today who actually play nearly as good, namely John Clayton, Lynn Seaton, Christophe Luty, among them. I think this vid is a put-on. Whether it's a challenge to see if we can see it for what it is, or an intentional fraud, I can't say.
 
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#10
It's hard for me to have a strong opinion about these things in general. On the one hand, there's something very special about "live" or un-edited recordings, and it's nice to hear honest representations of good musicians. On the other hand, the recording industry has become so reliant on clever editing that consumers have come to expect a flawless product, even from bassists. It's hard to escape the feeling that everybody else is doing it, and I don't want to put myself at a disadvantage.

The video in question fails in a few ways. Editing tricks get much more complicated when you're adding visuals, and clearly whoever edited this video was an amateur. There's a reason why most pop music videos seem to switch angles or scenes every few seconds. If you insist on doing a straight shot, you can't super-impose an entirely different recording. "Lip-synching" is nearly impossible on a bass -- it's too obvious when the sound doesn't match.

The other problem is the very obvious auto-tune. If you need to record it one note at a time, fine. But you can't just record it badly and expect a computer to fix it. The technology isn't nearly good enough yet to make it sound right.
 
#11
PaulCannon said:
But you can't just record it badly and expect a computer to fix it. The technology isn't nearly good enough yet to make it sound right.
Click to expand...

I am glad the technology is not that far (yet). So we still need good musicians to play. However with vocals the technology is quit far already. Lots of times on professional recordings you won't hear when it's auto tuned. I think most (if not all) major commercial studio productions use it on vocals. Sometimes also on live performances of famous singers. I hate this.
 
#12
This man is more of an actor than a musician to me, I guess you have to judge him accordingly.

EDIT on the other hand, he seems old enough to not even knowing what the auto-tune is. This may be some guy playing for the whole life in symphony orchestra and it's perfectly all right for him to play a bit out, then some of his student comes up and goes hey, I'm gonna make these records sound even better etc
 
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#13
No one has come with an answer for "Who is Lev Wexler?" I haven't had time to look for other clips of "live" performances yet. Have any of you analysed whether the notes are actually playable where his left hand falls, eg the pizzicato harmonics of the accompanying lower part? On close listening I think I do hear synthesized passages that have used sampled sounds. Even if this is faked it is still fun to listen to?

DP
 
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#14
I spent some time examining a number of his videos pretty closely, and I concluded the following:
  1. He doesn't actually know how to play the bass, or at least not at all well, but he does take some effort to mime it.
  2. As such, he's probably never performed live on bass in his life, at least not professionally, not even in an orchestra, nor has he ever taught a student. (AKA, the guy's a pure fraud.)
  3. The soundtracks are of two varieties:
    1. Synthesized (not even played on a bass - this isn't a matter of editing or auto-tune after the fact, it's a matter of playing it on a keyboard, then miming the bass motions along to the pre-recorded soundtrack)
    2. Some student or amateur player played the piece (not very well), and he stole the recording - he used one or two of these when he was trying to "prove" that he was real. But the sound was totally different and the sync was still not good, and suddenly the intonation wasn't even very good.
He spent an awful lot of time trying to convince all kinds of young, adoring students online that he was some great bassist, deleting critical comments that pointed out how fake he was, and then when called out seemed determined to "prove" how real he was, but his postings dropped off around the time that YouTube disabled direct messaging. (Probably PURELY coincidence.)
 
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#15
If you slow down the videos you'll see that he's all over the place, not only not in sync but showing no signs of actually being able to play the instrument or knowing the pieces, other than miming air-guitar style. He's on the wrong strings, in the wrong positions, going down when he should be going up, sliding when the sound is distinctly articulated and vice versa, etc. He can look easy and fluid because he doesn't have to actually produce any real sounds.

Relevant is TwoSet Violin's frequent debunking of fake violinists (in movies etc.), and also Nahre Sol's latest PBS SoundField video, on Editing in Classical Music, particularly the part where they do a blind test of whether they can tell which is real, the real recording or the virtual instruments (MIDI sampler). Hint: they fail a lot, even on their own instruments.

Also, the most popular YouTube video of the Beethoven Moonlight Sonata (with 170 million views and counting) is a programmed midi sampler, but yet almost nobody notices that fact (which becomes pretty obvious by the 3rd movement).
 
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#16
korotkov said:
This man is more of an actor than a musician to me, I guess you have to judge him accordingly.

EDIT on the other hand, he seems old enough to not even knowing what the auto-tune is. This may be some guy playing for the whole life in symphony orchestra and it's perfectly all right for him to play a bit out, then some of his student comes up and goes hey, I'm gonna make these records sound even better etc
Click to expand...

I don't think he's ever played in an orchestra in his life, even an amateur one, performed live on the bass as a classical soloist or chamber musician, or taught a student. I don't think he even knows how to play the instrument. Slow down the video and you'll see what I mean. He's just miming to a midi sampler in most cases, and occasionally to some student or amateur player's recording.
 
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#17
David Potts said:
No one has come with an answer for "Who is Lev Wexler?" I haven't had time to look for other clips of "live" performances yet. Have any of you analysed whether the notes are actually playable where his left hand falls, eg the pizzicato harmonics of the accompanying lower part? On close listening I think I do hear synthesized passages that have used sampled sounds. Even if this is faked it is still fun to listen to?

DP
Click to expand...

Yeah if you slow down the video you can see he's not on the right strings, not in the right positions, going down when he should be going up, sliding when it should be articulated, etc.
 
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#20
To quote from the article I posted "I hope this video inspires other bass players to learn this piece and other pieces of comparable difficulty". I think this is a valid point, beyond what people believe the authenticity of the videos to be. IMHO of course.
 

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