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From: Hugh Messenger
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 15:09:01 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Re: Hugh

I'll just put one smiley at the top ...

:)

... and apply it to the rest of this message.

On Thu, 11 Jul 1996, Douglas Tate wrote:

> Note please our net Guru, keeper of standards, layerdown of rules, arbiter
> of quarrels,

Why do I get the feeling you're about to start an argument?

> impartial remover of clients when harp content nonexistant.

When? I think I've only ever booted one person off the list and had to
seriously warn one other. Everything else is resolved like gentlefolk.

Or am I misunderstanding "remover of clients"?

> I
> would say that he is guilty of minimalist content.

Moi?

> The mention of the word
> harmonica juxtaposed to the name of a famous and dearly loved player

Surely you mean "cantankerous old goat"?

> thereby
> trying to enhance his own reputation by association is hardly what I would
> call Harp content.

That's the beauty of making the rules. You get to break 'em.

In my defense, I spent most of yesterday in a comfortable opiate derived
haze, after my orthodontist was kind enough to prescribe some good drugs
after all the drilling, hammering and chiselling.

> #############################
> In the Blue corner: .......... I'm ready.
> #############################


Ready as any man can be.

> statements of belief.:
>
> The harmonica has not been successfully synthesized yet. (Which the heck
> noise do you synthesize?)

Agreed. Although some half way workable solutions at using a harmonica as
a midi trigger have been produced.

> The sampled sounds of harmonica are still not convincing when used to
> produce tunes from single sampling. (sample a tune and it sounds like a
> tune, play it again and it sounds the same (sheer poetry!))

Agreed. Exactly because, as you originally said, it has the most
expressive range of any acoustic instrument.

> Amplified harp, where the object is to present the actual sound of the harp
> and not a 'version' of it is pretty good, but still altered because the
> viewpoint of the listener is not usually that of the microphone.

The same way you lose some of the direct and spacial effect of any sound
you amplify using ambient techniques. Done by a professional in a
controlled setting, it can be near as perfect as you are going to get.
Done with a beat up '57 through a karaoke machine, it sucks.

But sometimes you just gotta do it, or nobody is going to hear you. Which
takes a lot of the fun out of playing for people.

> Harp and amp used as a creative combined instrument has tremendous potential
> in music and is being fully exploited by many superb players.

And has been for nigh on 50 years.

> The unamplified harp has its place in modern music.

Agreed, as does the amplified harp.

> The amplified sound of a harp seldom reflects the true range of volume and
> tone that the player is producing as the involuntary movement relative to
> the mic produces greater variations in these factors than the same movement
> relative to a listener.

Speaking for myself, I feel that I get a greater range of volume and tone
when I'm playing through my rig. Unamplified I can go from pin-drop to
loud. Amplified I can go from pin-drop to ear-bleed.

Tonally I also have more to offer when amplified. I can go from as close
to acoustic as makes no difference, through to clipped, distorted,
chorused, delayed, reverbed, compressed and generally unrecognizable as a
harmonica. But still have all the usual acoustic tone available, usually
by just stepping over to the vocal mike (SM58).

It's a philosophical thing, and one of the reasons I seldom attend events
like SPAH. It's one thing taking flak from the rest of the music world
("the harmonica isn't a real instrument") without having to deal with a
similar attitude from other harmonica players ("amplified blues harp isn't
a real instrument").

Don't mind me. I seldom get a chance to pitch in on harp-l discussions,
and will rant on about anything when I get some time off.

-- hugh