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Classical pianist's (Milli Vanilli) hoax


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This was FASCINATING... and also quite stupid. How dumb really were these "aficionados"? Has piano performance really become so lock-stop that all of these high-brow classical music geeks were not able to tell a particular Hungarian pianist from another American? No one bothered checking the name of the concerto orchestra or conductor? This woman was an explosion in the music community, and no one ever thought to even look up the people she collaborated with? I would just out of wanting to hear more from the collaborators! I can just imagine one of these gents running going, "Marvelous, Marvelous, Bravo!" with their pre-frontal cortex just completely switched off. Idiots, the lot of them!

 

I will say this, Barry must be one of the greatest audio engineers of his time. He was taking stereo masters and processing them to sound like completely different performances, such that the original pianists didn't know it was their own playing. He was obviously manipulating the reverb to sound like different venues. A good producer can recognize the room from the sound, and no one caught that the "little church down the street" was actually a recording done in the Concertgebouw? SERIOUSLY?! People are still listening to these recordings and saying, "the sound is perfect", even better than the original... from a stereo mastered remix?! Dude's got mad skills. Damnit, it's a crying shame he wasn't out there recording and engineering some of the greats all along. What he did was probably more labor intensive... and pointless.

Puck Funk! :)

 

Equipment: Laptop running lots of nerdy software, some keyboards, noise makersâ¦yada yada yadaâ¦maybe a cat?

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My pipe dream is to release the complete works of Scott Joplin. I need Barry to be my agent. ð

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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I wrote an editorial about this in the magazine, years and years ago when the scandal first broke. Some of the emotional details around the outer edges of the story were heartbreaking.

Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) :D

Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant

Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1

 

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I remember that from Netflix (I think) several years ago.

 

I think one reason they got away with it for so long was that she had been a legit pianist before.

 

What I keep wondering is, did the actual pianist(s) or his/their estate(s) ever sue the fellow for his actions?

-Tom Williams

{First Name} {at} AirNetworking {dot} com

PC4-7, PX-5S, AX-Edge, PC361

 

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This reminds me of an incident, on a much smaller scale - nonetheless amusing enough to share. We were waiting on line for a table at a local restaurant with a clear view of the lounge. The entertainment for the evening was a self titled "One Man Band". He was seated at a Yamaha S90 piano singing and playing Billy Joel. My assessment was vocals were marginal, but holy shit! he's got Billy's piano chops down note for note. Yeah, you know where this is going! After dinner, relaxing in the lounge I took a seat behind this marvel to witness his prowess only discover a Karaoke machine! The Yamaha wasn't plugged into anything while his hands were banging the soundless keys. What a joke!

Stan

Gig Rig: Yamaha S90 XS; Hammond SK-1; Rehearsal: Yamaha MOX8 Korg Triton Le61, Yamaha S90, Hammond XK-1

Retired: Hammond M2/Leslie 145, Wurly 200, Ensoniq VFX

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Since he was releasing albums, was he manipulating the entire album from the same artist? That would help to have a consistent sound and a more convincing 'new' album, but it would also leave a much bigger footprint of someone else's work. Towards the end Barry admits taking some 'parts' of other recordings. He says that his wife was in pain while playing, and he simply wanted to mask the noises she was making! I was surprised he even came up with that awful excuse.
www.youtube.com/c/InTheMixReviews
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I have known a small handful of people like 'Barry' over the years.

 

They"re people who see telling lies as merely one of the skills they possess to achieve their aims. When you catch them in a lie they merely move on to the next one, then the next. If you"re able to checkmate them they still never 100% give up on the lie. They are experts in obfuscation and equivocation after a lifetime of practice.

 

You sigh, roll your eyes and think 'surely your life would be less complicated if you just told the truth'. But that"s not how they think.

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Similiar story. A friend told me about this "pianist" in a restaurant who was very good. We went to se him and sat in the back of the room at the bar. There was a black tablecloth covering the "piano". He sang every song and never looked down at the" keys" I soon realized I knew this guy from years ago as a good guitar player and singer and even with an Arranger keyboard he couldn't be doing all that music. Sure enough on his break i went over to say hello. Behind the curtain he had three things. His drink, ashtray, and a CD player. First time I encountered a Kareoke entertainer. Sad thisg is they liked him there, he was a good singer, and he did 4 nights a week for a few years.
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It was always my foolish hope that she didn"t know. That she would play and he would record her and she never listened to the CDs. That he just did it to make her happy. .... but the truth would probably disappoint me.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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