Anyone see the PBS Big Band Special?

[lamp]

The Big Band Sound of WWII, with Eric Felten on PBS. It looked like they had RCA 44 ribbons on Vocals and RCA77's all over the place. What looked like Coles on the trumpets. Anyone notice the 77 by the floor tom?

I tried to dig up some info on how it was recorded but no luck. It was done by New River Media. I don't think they were lip syncing. It looked to me that they actually recorded with these mic's.

I couldn't stop watching so I turned on the stereo system and the clarity was great. What a treat. There is a VHS tape available for sale also. Im not really a big band buff, but anybody who loves big band or old mic's would dig this.

[Remoteness]

LAMP!!!

Wow, it’s 6/12/2006 and I just found another dead thread in the wrong forum today which you originally posted in 2004. Crazy, stuff... DAMN! It's very frustrating to me...

In any event, I did that recording aboard "Jethro" with Dave Wilkerson and Robert Carvell back in 2001.

Yeah, the Big Band Sound of WWII with Eric Felten Big Band in a taped live teleproduction from the Clarendon Ballroom in Washington, DC. I recorded and engineered it and the terrific Tom Davis was the audio producer for this event.

Yep, we had RCA 44s & 77s; Coles 4038s, a couple of M49s for the room and one TLM103 for the piano. Yes, a TLM103. Tom wanted to keep it in the ballpark in reference to the mic choices of the 30s and 40s. Pretty much everything was ribbons back then. There's a bit of a stretch going on with the M49s and TLM103; the there were no "Juice Boxes" back then but, what are you going to do? If that stuff was available in the 40s they would have use them.

I recommended that Tom consider contacting Wes Dooley about handling all the ribbon mics for this session. Wes was a big help and the project worked out great from start to finish thanks to Tom, Wes and the ASL crew! The folks at New River were awesome too!

I took pictures of some of the pages from the gigs location file for your review.

I'm sorry about the "Better Late Than Never" vibe of this thread -- Perhaps we can give this thread some life since it surely deserved it back in 2004.

Drums weren’t really mic'd like that back then (let alone if any drum mic'ing was done in the first place) but, a little stretch is not too bad since not many folks would have realized it in the first place.

New River Media produced the video and delayed broadcast.
Aura-Sonic, Ltd. handled the location audio recording.
Tom Davis mixed it back in Nashville at SeisMic Sound.
There was no lip sync and everything was everything...
I want this to be clear -- No playback machines were harmed in the making of this teleproduction!

If you want to know more about the lighting and video departments just ask me.

Thanks so much for the (dated) kind words about that session.
I trust you feel the same way today – 5 years and a month or so later and we still dig this production very much!

[Remoteness]

What about the track sheet?

[ajfarber]

Yea Steve, I'd love to record a bigband with just ribbons. Lets do one MONO direct-to-disk. Break out your lathe.

[Beech]

Man Steve, you do get around! It would be cool to hear some audio clips from the session. So was it a Glen Miller style band? I do love that music. And (since I've never had the luxury of using real 44s or 77s) were the RCAs all originals? I guess Wes was able to supply a bunch in pristine condition. Did you use any of his recreations? Did you record to Tascams as is your norm?

Don't worry about the "better late then never vibe". There's no such thing around here!

thumbsup

[Remoteness]

Daire,

It’s always a pleasure to hear from you – On the phone or on Gearslutz.

I don’t think I have a video tape of this project. I wish I did – Tom did a great job mixing the performances. I saw the original on PBS and that was it for me.

Yeah, Eric Felten really has his act together when it comes to that style of music.
I believe VHS tapes of this event are still available online through Amazon.com.

Yes, Wes Dooley hooked us up with some really sweet RCA ribbons. They truly were in pristine condition. If I’m not mistaken everything was original.

Back in 2001, we were recording to Tascam DTRS machines.

[mdbeh]

That's an amazing mic list!

It looks like some of the players were grouped in twos around a single ribbon mic. Were they positioned to each play into a side of the mic (figure-8, right?), or were they more like area mics?

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by ajfarber

Yea Steve, I'd love to record a bigband with just ribbons. Lets do one MONO direct-to-disk. Break out your lathe.

I know two Big Bands that would love to do it!

We can workout a backend deal with the band.

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by mdbeh

That's an amazing mic list!

It looks like some of the players were grouped in twos around a single ribbon mic. Were they positioned to each play into a side of the mic (figure-8, right?), or were they more like area mics?

Yeah, that mic list IS amazing indeed.

They were more like area mics... We had to make it look pretty for the cameras.