Can you get a copy of old performance programs from that time?

Some times the organizations keep a file - that might narrow the field a bit.

It might not be totally impossible. epersonae and I probably have a small cache of taped performances and not-necessarily-matching programs between us as well.

I can also figure out a way to get her a lo-fi copy of an excerpt of the tune itself (dubbed from the VHS). Might be a blast from the past for her, and if I'm really lucky it'll get stuck in her head as well.

You know, if you post part of the music here someone might know what it is.

When I Have Time later, I can try to capture previously mentioned lo-fi audio and put it in a temporary audio chunk here.

Even if PhonePost was available in my area, I think my account subscription lapsed (which may change after I get paid for my work, probably next week).

...I don't remember the name either, but I have my Vienna PYSO tape right here (Athena, the goddess of wiseness!) including the case with the radio program, so I should know later today....

Excellent work, trooper, I knew I could count on you.

And yeah, mmmm.

Nocturne from Serenade for Strings & Orchestra by Norman Leyden, who is apparently associate conductor laureate at the oregon symphony.

I'm enjoying the whole tape, too; good stuff.

I'd love to get a copy of that VCD, btw, even a crappy one. (any tips on copying tapes to CD/mp3/etc.? I've got two different PYSO tapes, 3 All Cities, a tape of me telling Kristina about the Europe trip, two Misc. demo tapes, plus a fistful of mix tapes. interesting...I think the orchestra tapes were about the only ones that survived the Xmas theft of '93.)

That was beautiful; to paraphrase Max (of Sam & Max), I may weep openly. I hope I can provide a veritable fount of information in exchange.

I've done a few vinyl dubs to digital (I still own a Radio Shack turntable!), and it's been a while since I did any tape dubs. I've found that my Blues Brothers vinyl rips didn't really need a lot of post-editing for whatever reason... then again, maybe I just liked the sound of the vinyl and wanted to keep it.

As far as tape dubbing tips, I'm a lazy audiophile, which means I try to find a nice common denominator between the least amount of work and the best result. I usually record through a wave editor that can show me the audio levels (to get a good idea of where to set the volume for maximum output without clipping). That way you can get a better signal-to-noise, and the resulting audio is already in an editor where you can mess with it some more. I use CoolEdit 2000 for mixing and filters (tape hiss reduction might come in handy if you can find its frequency range).

Also, recording studio vets will try to even out the frequencies on the tape player (no extra bass, no extra treble, etc.); if every system the audio goes through (while recording) is bass-heavy, you'll end up having to turn down the bass on your speakers just to tolerate the final playback.

My first VCD transfer of Austria required two CDs, because it was well over an hour long and I made it standard-compliant (this was before I knew what KVCD was). It's probably a lot less work to just make copies of those than it would be to double-re-encode or re-dub-encode into one KVCD that may or may not play in something that isn't a computer, but I'll see what I have lying around.

*heart* *ShorDurPerSav* etc.

Oh, also, if you're making a backup CD for dubbed audio, don't compress it to mp3 before you get the full uncompressed waves to CD. It may not make much of a difference with lower-fidelity audio, but it's good practice.

And personally, I can't tell the difference between 96 and 128 when it's a vinyl source. So you can probably save some space with the compressed copy if you compare a few different bitrates side-by-side and see what you can live with.

but what sort of *hardware* is necessary for this kind of escapade? (I should say that all I have in the way of stereo equipment is a seven-year-old sony boombox with detachable speakers.)

yes, there's a good chance I'll just type/scan the playlists from the mix tapes that are your handiwork, but I'm definitely of the mind to dub the old orchestra tapes, before they degrade beyond hope.

...Oh. On the PC side, a soundcard and enough hard drive space should really do it. It doesn't require much CPU at all to record stereo/44100. So, you basically need a computer, a soundcard, a stereo with a headphone jack, and a stereo cable to connect them (typically Radio Shack, male/male, 1/4" stereo cable).

I've considered trying to video-capture some of the other old PYSO VHS tapes, but really, there's not a whole lot to watch on them so much as listening. What do you think?

yeah, I don't think there's much too exciting about watching a bunch of gawky jr. high kids sitting on a stage with a bunch of instruments. :)

If you now the notes, perhaps you can put the composition here and someone could play that on their respective instruments and recognize it, or you could send it to the old bandmaster and ask.

Temporary link to .ogg audio has been edited into the post. ~700Kb, full tune, lowest .ogg quality possible with the plugin I have (and it's not even that bad, which I find interesting).

Which program do I need to play that?

The numerous Winamps, and most other stuff I'm aware of, will understand it just fine; haven't tested Media Player.

Google really needs a way to do this. You know... put ina few notes and get the results.

If I didn't dream this up at one point, someone did; the problem, of course, is that the database would need to be very big and very slick, and its provider would need to pay for it indefinitely (in order for it to be any use to the general public in the long-term).

Oh, and it would have to be able to be understood by the layman somehow; not everyone is musically-inclined.

I'm pretty sure the subject came up while I was a "professional web surfer"; if it had existed back then, one of my then-co-workers would have likely found it.

Maybe you can write it in MML And then search for it on google as I did when I searched for "1C:4 mml" (ie quarter note C in the first octave).

Ooh, that might be a fun Flash project in three or four years.

Yay I love going back to the good music from the past. Mmmm Saltarello from Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony #4 in the rain in April, 2001 at the University of Illinois State Orchestra Championships where we won 1st place....