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Old 06-29-2018, 03:03 AM   #31
Phil Masters
 
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Default Re: Musical Instruments by TL?

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What exactly does a "studio engineer" do? Are they expected to design sound equipment? Or to open it up and repair it if it breaks down? Or is their job purely one of controlling it when it's being used?
As I understand it, the job is primarily Electronics Operation, though doubtless with some elements of Electronics Repair, if only at the basic “keep the stuff running” default-from-Operation level. But it’s a fairly creative sort of Operation.

From what I’ve read, in a pop/rock recording session, they basically function as the producer’s technical support. The producer says “I want some deep reverb on the guitar there, and a softer tone to the drums”, and the engineer figures out how to make that happen and make it good. In a classical music recording session, the producer has more of a managerial role, and the engineer decides what sound to make happen. But there’s obviously plenty of fuzziness at the boundaries between the various jobs.

The pop/rock producer probably has a bit of Electronics Operation and a bit of Musical Composition (specialised in Arrangement), or maybe a Professional Skill. Building new equipment is (mostly) for the design engineers (with Electronics Engineering) at the record company. Though plenty of studio engineers and producers have improvised or kludged up new systems.

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Steel drums are definitely idiophones. They were originally made from literal drums in the container or barrel meaning (not the stretched membrane instrument meaning), that were cut and then worked so that striking different parts produced different notes.
And getting a tune out of them is more than a party trick. They’re quite pleasing as solo instruments.

The fun thing is setting skills for someone like Hannah Peel, for whom Mechanic (Music Box) is a compositional and performance skill...
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Old 06-29-2018, 09:46 AM   #32
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Default Re: Musical Instruments by TL?

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The fun thing is setting skills for someone like Hannah Peel, for whom Mechanic (Music Box) is a compositional and performance skill...
In Powers: The Weird, I had the skill of Mechanic (Musical Instruments). That's probably appropriate here, though I suppose one might define Mechanic (Automata) for things like music boxes and player pianos. Or there could be a skill of Professional Skill: Musical Instrument Maker that sort of paralleled Armoury.

In any case, I think the compositional part would be Musical Composition. Though I would certainly allow a Singing or Musical Instrument roll to improvise variations on an existing tune or in a standard format like figured bass or "long boring guitar solos." I'm not sure, though, if there is a skill of Musical Instrument (Music Box); they aren't normally "played" except by winding them up and starting them, right?
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Old 06-30-2018, 04:43 AM   #33
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Default Re: Musical Instruments by TL?

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I'm not sure, though, if there is a skill of Musical Instrument (Music Box); they aren't normally "played" except by winding them up and starting them, right?
That's true for a one-tune box, but some are "programmed" with paper strips (or drums, or punched metal disks, but those are bigger jobs to prepare). Once the strip is punched out, the only option would be to vary the speed of play by changing the winding speed (unless that's regularised by a clockwork mechanism) -- but preparing the strip is a partial way of creating a performance.

It's actually an exact low-tech counterpart to programming a sequencer or whatever, which is an established part of modern electronic music recording and performance.
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Old 06-30-2018, 06:36 AM   #34
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In Powers: The Weird, I had the skill of Mechanic (Musical Instruments). That's probably appropriate here, though I suppose one might define Mechanic (Automata) for things like music boxes and player pianos. Or there could be a skill of Professional Skill: Musical Instrument Maker that sort of paralleled Armoury.
These days I've come around to thinking of musical instrument making as a kind of variation of Machinist - it is after all a skill of using a diversity of materials to make a sort of tool with precision parts. This clashes a little with some other people's view of what Machinist is about though.
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Old 06-30-2018, 02:42 PM   #35
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This clashes a little with some other people's view of what Machinist is about though.
Not mine. Electronics Repair may benefit from being treated in the same way.
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Old 07-01-2018, 03:10 PM   #36
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Default Re: Musical Instruments by TL?

Hopefully without derailing my own thread, another "I've been reading fantasy books, and came across an anachronism" question. (The thread was inspired by the Finder's Stone trilogy from Forgotten Realms, starting with Azure Bonds.)

When did professional cooking and mixed drinks become common? I mean, I read through the Volo Guides from AD&D 2E (Forgotten Realms), and they talk about the meals that are cooked in inns and the drinks available. Even in a high-magic world like Faerun, I wouldn't expect plentiful herbs/spices, or a plentiful selection of drinks (e.g., I'd expect locally-brewed beer, maybe some young wine for the nobles, and maybe some mead if all the bee hives haven't been killed; anything beyond that, I don't see being common).

Does Low Tech or its companions talk about trade, distillation, or so on?
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Old 07-01-2018, 04:28 PM   #37
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Default Re: Musical Instruments by TL?

Low-Tech lists "Distilled Liquors" as a TL3 thing, dropping in price at TL4, as a side-effect of alchemical pursuits. As Forgotten Realms is pretty solidly TL4^, IMO, having a number of hard liquor drinks is not out of place.

Taverns in the "place for travelers to stop and get a bed for the night and a meal" have been recorded as far back as Roman times (TL2), and would not be out of place as far back as Mycenaean Greece (TL1). Herbs and spices have been known since neolithic times, though the spices tended to be locally grown rather than imported.
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Old 07-01-2018, 04:28 PM   #38
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Default Re: Musical Instruments by TL?

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When did professional cooking and mixed drinks become common? I mean, I read through the Volo Guides from AD&D 2E (Forgotten Realms), and they talk about the meals that are cooked in inns and the drinks available. Even in a high-magic world like Faerun, I wouldn't expect plentiful herbs/spices, or a plentiful selection of drinks (e.g., I'd expect locally-brewed beer, maybe some young wine for the nobles, and maybe some mead if all the bee hives haven't been killed; anything beyond that, I don't see being common).

Does Low Tech or its companions talk about trade, distillation, or so on?
"Professional" is complicated, but I would say that as soon as you have households of a few dozen people, you get someone who does most of the cooking ... people who make a serious part of their living brewing appear earlier. I am not sure what you mean by mixed drinks, "alcohol + water" and "alcohol + herbs and spices" are universal but the things a mixologist serves today were mostly invented within the last century or two.

I would expect lots of spices in Faerun, just like in imperial Rome or the 16th century of our world (or pretty much any time in the 'spicy' parts of the globe!) The whole point of herbs is that they can be dried and stored and that a small quantity gives a big taste, so they make great trade goods. Ancient and medieval societies had lots of locally-growing herbs which have since died out or been abandoned for something a bit more efficient or stronger-tasting that grows in another climate. The peasants relied on those to flavour their meals, while the rich had expensive imports from the other side of the world, just like the peasants wore pewter and glass while the rich wore silver and imported gems wrested from some awful desert or mountain at the cost of many lives.

Gaius Petronius Arbiter knew about wine snobs paying obscene prices for old vintages, and the merchants who swindled them. Again, wine is a good trade good ... that is why cargo capacities were measured in tuns (wine barrels) in the middle ages.

I think that Low Tech talks about distillation.
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Old 07-02-2018, 12:26 AM   #39
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I think wine barrels might have been used as the unit of measure/account because they where the preferred way to move things as the alternative was break-bulk (lots of little boxes) a man can roll more goods in a wine barrel then he can carry in his hands.
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Old 07-02-2018, 07:51 AM   #40
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Default Re: Musical Instruments by TL?

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I think wine barrels might have been used as the unit of measure/account because they where the preferred way to move things as the alternative was break-bulk (lots of little boxes) a man can roll more goods in a wine barrel then he can carry in his hands.
Actually, before wine barrels, the main approach to shipping used amphorae.
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