Key changes within the tunes were carefully chosen and were really complemented by the drum score. I feel Harold Gillespie’s arrange- ments of the drum scores really complemented the tunes. In the tune Edwyn’s Digi Place, we used counter harmonies with a ‘network’ of pipers playing long note chords, then building up with one-on-one harmonies. Really, though, music is music. If it works, it will survive.” After the disappointment of their 1995
Worlds campaign, the 1996 to 1998 period with Victoria Police was a very special time for Murray. The success of the 1996 tour of the UK, Indonesia and the USA, the Motherwell concert, recording the Masterblasters CD in Melbourne, the release of his own book, win- ning The Worlds in 1998, the future must have looked pretty rosy for Murray Blair. Nothing is ever quite as it seems, however. In 1996, at the peak of his career as a performer and band member, Murray was diagnosed with Focal Dystonia, a neurological condition usually affecting the hands. Murray sought treatment across the globe to keep him piping, from MRIs in the US to treatment in clinics in Germany, but to no avail. This condition eventually led to him retiring from Victoria Police but not retiring from the piping scene. Heavily involved in the local Australian folk scene in the band Caledonia and Piping Hot, which would eventually become Dalriada, his important role in piping would be reflected in many projects, only now being recognised for how revolutionary they were. Brainstorm- ing with Athol Chalmers from Telstra (the Australian telecommunications company) they developed Hype TV. Years before broad- band internet was around, Murray and the team behind HYPE TV were streaming up to 20 hours of audio and video per month. Bringing interviews and recordings of piping luminaries such as Field Marshal Montgomery, Richard Parkes, Simon Fraser University and St Laurence O’Toole’s Terry Tully to remote areas was years ahead of its time. “Hype TV gave me some fantastic stories,
great memories,” said Murray. “Jock McCal- lum from the Humpty Doo Highlanders, just outside Darwin in the Northern Territory retelling a story about fishing with Pipe Major Angus and crocodiles, piping in the far North of Australia and how his band raises money selling meat trays to attend their local yearly competition…in Indonesia, is priceless. sending Pipe Major Angus Macdonald a stuffed
Jock
‘Our perception of the sound being produced in Scotland was that it was mellower than we were used to... it would be slightly boring if we all sounded the same’
crocodile to The National Piping Centre is a favourite. I often wonder what happened to that crocodile…” In the years after Victoria Police, Murray
went on to consolidate his early training in au- dio engineering into what many modern piping listeners accept as the benchmark in recording and sound presentation. It is a testament to Murray’s skill and passion for sound that those at the pinnacle of piping have chosen to be re- corded by him. Roddy MacLeod’s Piobaireachd Volume 1, Alasdair Gillies Loch Broom, The Lord Todd DVD and CD — all are ‘must-haves’ in any collection. “While in Japan, I met up with Roddy (R.S.) MacDonald in Osaka and as they say, one thing led to another. ‘The Big Break’ you often hear of came through this meeting. Producing Good Drying and the artistic licence that Roddy allowed me was a great privilege. I’ve only ever tried to replicate what the piper wants to hear from his or her instrument. Some sound engineers don’t understand what pipers want from their recording. The understand- ing of what the piper is looking for is the key. If someone is using Eezedrones, Hendersons and a McCallum chanter; that’s what you have to replicate. A great piper’s sound is like their signature. There is no point in making it sound something it’s not. If a piper plays with a flat B, they play with a flat B. That’s what you have to produce on the CD. “Guys like Roddy MacLeod have a beautiful,
perfectly balanced and harmonic pipe. Roddy has the accolades and prizes to prove it. Record- ing his pipe is often just a matter of balancing the drone to chanter, because the harmonic is there right from the start.” Field Marshal Montgomery, Simon Fraser
University, Shotts and Dykehead, Victoria Po- lice, ScottishPower, Vale of Atholl, Manawatu Scottish, Strathclyde Police have all been recorded by Murray. All of these bands have recordings that display their excellence. “Recording pipe bands presents more chal- lenges to the producer and audio engineer.
PIPING TODAY • 13
Recording live or in a studio makes no dif- ference. Pipes and pipe bands are live, that is the attraction to the instrument from both the artists’ and the audience’s perspective. The key with recording is the selection and placement of the microphones. Drums spilling into drone tracks are always a problem. Tenor drums are notoriously difficult to balance into the mix. “You can’t airbrush a sound. It has to be there at the start. You can make the mix louder, but the harmonic still won’t be there. Having said that the higher the level of the band, the less they seem to have to do with the recording and mixing. “They know their sound, they just expect
you to reproduce it. “When I left Australia and first went to Scot-
land to record, I learnt a very valuable lesson. Our perception of the sound being produced in Scotland was that it was mellower than we were used to. Here in Australia, for 20 years since Crozier and Ross have been on the scene, the sound has been bold and vibrant. It’s very different to Scotland and that is the great thing about it. It would be slightly boring if we all sounded the same.
Photo: Stuart Curnow
PROFILE
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