This is partly related to a recent thread about Brian McNamara.
It seems to me that the recording of uilleann pipes, as with the playing, follows special rules. Here I’m referring to the solo or quasi-solo uilleann pipes recordings (quasi-solo in the sense that the album is primarily uilleann pipes but there may be a few duets/trios with other instruments such as fiddles, concertinas, etc).
These special rules seem to me to require an “honesty” in recording that is not seen in most other aspects of recording. Even orchestral recordings have over-dubbing. For instance, it seems to be frowned upon to double-track or to fade-in or fade-out. In fact, it seems that for a recording to have serious clout among the piping community, it should be a case of the piper playing as if the microphone were the audience at a live recital.
This obviously makes it more challenging for the piper but is there an end benefit for the listener?
It’s an interesting area but I don’t think limiting creativity should be allowed. I guess the same argument in the photography world between documenting and artistic expression is to be found in the audio world.
I feel that we should allow creativity to flourish. I enjoy live ‘as it is’ recordings but I equally enjoy manipulated ones providing that the artist, not the sound engineer, came up with that creativity in the first place.
I might be wrong but I got the impression that people were disappointed at the thought of BMcN multi-tracking or using pitch correctors (- not the case it seems).
I had assumed that the majority of pipers (at least from the 1970s onwards) recorded the chanter separately from the drones and regulators. However, in the past few weeks, I’ve re-listened to a few CDs (Jimmy O’Brien-Moran and Neil Mulligan, for instance) and come to the conclusion that they recorded chanter, drones and regulators all in one shot.
I think it depends on how you think about piping. If your goal is creating a particular sound, i.e. the recording itself is the goal, then the pipes (and double tracking, etc.) become a means to that end.
On the other hand, if the recording is intended to be the acquisition and fixation of a solo piping performance then double-tracking is the wrong approach and is, in a sense, a cheat. And I do think that the nuances of solo piping (which I suppose include various awkward regulator reaches, squeaks, bellows noises…) come across in such live recordings, and to some extent are ‘missed’ when absent from a studio recording, even casting asside purity-of-essence concerns.