Hi Synthzone Friends!

I put up a short 2 minute video clip of my recent 2/8/04 'San Francisco Chinese New Year Festival' performance on my website:

http://scottyee.com
Go to the 'Song Demos' Page

Unfortunately, much of the original footage was ruined by the sound of loud & distracting banging drums in the background, so this video clip only consists of a few short segments.

This is a 'WMV' format video clip so you'll need 'Windows Media Player' to play it. If you don't already have Windows Media Player installed on your computer, there's a link on my site's 'Song Demos' page to download/install it for FREE (both PC/Mac versions), but most Winodws PCs already come pre-installed with Windows Media Player.

I hope the video clip gives you a sense of what it was like to be there 'live'. Enjoy.

Scott

Scott....

Thanx so much for giving us a chance to experience your performance at the Chinese Festival in SF. I felt like I was there. You seem to be having a ball playing for the masses it's part of the "natural high" of this "Thing of Ours"...
You make it look easy & effortless, as it should be!!! hope to hear & see more from you Scott.....Bravo!!

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 02-23-2004).]

Scott an amazingly great quality video. I was expecting some crap home movie quality....not. Personally I enjoyed the little jazz improv you were doing in the second cut, very cool.
Terry

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jam on,
Terry http://imjazzed.homestead.com/Index.html

Ditto - I liked the piano solo especially. Congrats on working with the video thing until you got it... it makes a fine addition to your website. Good job overall.

Minor point - even though I realize the sound on the video was picked up by the video camera mic (?) and not the best choice for recording quality, I thought the instrumental sound was a little thin compared to your vocals, which sounded fuller in comparison. Was that just my perception? Seemed like the Tyros could've used more bass/lo-mids, but again that's just comparing it to your voice which sounded good...

Hi Scott. Nice performance! The clip was very useful to have a visual idea of your playing technique (left hand is very busy comping!). And a very jazzy chord progression with a great right hand impro over it.

I kind of agree with Jim's comments about the overall sound. In cuts #1 and #3 the sound is slightly better balanced (more low-end), and the image suggests the camera is more or less in the same position (closer and slightly to the right side of Scott). Cut #2 is the one that sounds thinner and the camera is in a different position (right in front of Scott). That makes me think that the impression we get is due to the poor sound capture process (the camera mic).

Thanks for sharing, Scott.

-- José.

Scott, I had a listen to the video performance. Thanks for sharing part of your presentation at the Chinese New Year festival. The camera you used tended to darken some at times then brighten up. Not sure why that was. Maybe the person was veering in and out of the shade/sun while shooting? Or maybe the camera doesn't have very good low light capability? Anyway no biggie.

It was very enjoyable to watch nonetheless. The Tyros sounded really good. Were you using onboard Styles or were you perhaps accompanying a CD backing track[s], etc.? And I take it the Harmonizing was done with the Tyros' onboard Harmonizer?

Thanks again for sharing scenes from your Gig with us Scott.

Best regards,
Mike

[This message has been edited by keybplayer (edited 02-23-2004).]

Great clip Scott! Thanks for putting this on your site... just the right sort of thing for people to get the 'feel' of a Scott Yee gig!

All the best,
Rich

Scott, really enjoyed your video clip; the video quality is amazingly good; wish I could have been there to enjoy your performance live.

Donny, Terry, Jim, José, Mike, Rich, and Andrea:

Many thanks for both viewing my video, as well as giving your thoughtful replies.

On the comments made about the recording quality, I need to explain that the performance conditions (as usually the case) were less than idea for sure, and was more a spontaneous recording made by a friend (audience spectator) on a Sony DV recorder with built in mic. In addition, the final WMV file required compressing the original file significantly to afford internet accessability. Unfortunately, a 5.90 MB WMV file doesn't look or sound anything like the 500 MB AVI file, which it was converted from.. And even the intermediate AVI file had to be compressed from the original video capture file which was several times larger.The lighting problems were due to it being a hand-held video relying on exisiting light only. Also there was a lot of extraneous low frequency noise (banging drums, and popping firecrackers) so the low frequencies needed to be cut which is why you are missing the bass. I personally think my friend did an excellent job of recording the event considering the circumstances.



Jim, good observation. Unfortunately had to cut the low frequencies (EQ) substantially to reduce the annoying banging drums, popping firecracekrs, and crowd noise. I think another reason the sound on my instrumental sounded thin is because (like Jose Mathias mentioned) the proximity of the camera & mic at that time changed. Btw, Jose, noticed you changed your Sythzone user name. Speaking of, did you know that the intrumental I played is my improv solo of: "Route 66".



Mike: CD Backing Track(s)?! NO! Utilizing a Pre-recorded backing track (CD, midi, or otherwise) is against my religion. I pride myself in performing all my music 'live'. I find backing tracks 'lock me in' and create too much predictability (canned) keeping me from delivering a fully live spontaneous performance. I nearly always play in 'auto accomp' arranger keyboard mode, playing full left hand comping chords (btw: did you guys notice the rootless jazz chords played? ), simultaneously triggering the auto accompaniment, while comping & soloing with the right hand, and triggering fills, registration changes, and vocal harmonies (with built in Tyros vocalizer) via foot pedals.

Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to view my first ever internet video clip. I may consider adding more performance videos in the future (hopefully in a more controled performance venue). - Scott

Scott......you say here you you pride youself on playing live and scoff at people using smf backing tracks....then you say...you always play in auto accomp arranger mode.....but in reality acccomp backing mode is in certain ways no different. I also pride myself on my overall sound and performance to my audiences using all the tools available to me I also use both methods and also incoprporate just live piano/electric piano only on some tunes too. Scott these are just tools of the trade and I am surprised to hear you sneer at others using these formats. Honestly to me using the arranger "ALL THE TIME" sounds a bit boring and style repeatative to me versus and mixing it up with some custom 10-16 track SMF backing tracks...but thats just me and who am I? Scot this is not a slam just a curious fellow musician doing some wondering on others thoughts about this topic.

take care



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