collective purchase of musicians

[adrianallan]

On another forum a composer auctioned off recording time on e-bay.

He had bought in the services of an Eastern European orchestra and had paid for an hour's recording time; his piece only lasted 50 mins so he had 10 minutes' recording time left to "sell off" to the highest bidder.

Along similar lines, has anybody here considered hiring a group of professional musicians for, say, a couple of hours, to rehearse and record some of our music? If we shared the cost it might not work out all that expensive.

It's only an idea - I just think that it's a shame that so much decent music is never making it past virtual instruments (which are good, but never the real thing).

The difficult bit is of course agreeing on what instruments and other logistical issues. I live in Manchester and the area is full of many pro/ semi-pro musicians eager to supplement their income.

Anybody think this is a good idea?

[steve]

I think it's a great idea in theory. You've already mentioned some of the difficulties in making it work, but if folks were serious, none of them are insurmountable. I suppose the details would make all the difference, but it would be exciting.

[adrianallan]

Glad you think it's a reasonable idea. I would have thought that piano plus soloist may be a good starting point to keep it simple before hiring string quartet etc, just to see if it's a viable idea. I would imagine that a professional could almost sight read most of what we write on this forum as nobody here writes virtuoso or weird modernist music. Having mock ups will help the musicians a lot. The other issue is recording - whether we' re happy with a nice but basic recording device or alternatively hiring a recording studio at much more expense.

Just some ideas that I have which you're welcome to disagree with.

[steve]

Sounds logical enough, except the "soloist" wouldn't necessarily be the same. We'd have to find a combination we've all written for [the real issue with this idea!], or else operate some sort of round-robin style sharing system. [Such arrangements are not unheard of. We'd all basically be paying for one member's work to get recorded at a time. Each person would get their turn eventually (hopefully!).]

As for recording quality, I suppose it and the money involved would have to be in proportion.