Herbie Hancock Lights It Up At Newport

[Remoteness]

The Aura-Sonic crew and I had the pleasure to capture the 2008 Newport Jazz Festival.

Our live music mix from the festival was originally broadcasted on NPR & WBGO during the August 9th & 10th dates.

Jazzset with Dee Dee Bridgewater is featuring a few tunes from Herbie Hancock and Dave Holland. It launched yesterday on NPR's website and shall air (radio broadcast) this Sunday, 11/09/08 at 6pm, EST and next Wed, 11/12/08 at 6:30pm. EST. I had a chance to remix these tunes before the air dates. As we all know, large outdoor festivals with no sound checks is not a Remotester's favorite situation so, it goes without saying that I'm happy about the remixes.

Here's the direct link to the Jazzset show:
NPR Media Player

Here's the main page for this show:
Herbie Hancock Lights It Up At Newport : NPR Music

We captured many more artists; Some of the artist will also be part of the PBS television special airing shortly. I'm considering starting a new thread to discuss and show some photos from this awesome event.

Check out some of the many pictures we took during this two day event.

We can get into the technical side of things or whatever may interest you about this gig.

Let me know what you folks think.

[Jungle Jazz]

Man, you get all the good gigs. I'm listening to it now. Sounds great. I never heard Holland play electric bass like that--he's tearing it up!

Care to share your set up info? Did you use your usual C414 (x2) on Herbie's piano?

[jeremyglover]

nice one! herbie rules!

[digitalolive]

Aw man, I miss going to Ft. Adams! I used to go to that festival every year when I lived up north.

Nice job Steve!

[MichaelPatrick]

Very nice Steve. Thanks!

[BLP]

Wow Steve, it sounds amazing! If you're up for it, I'd love to hear about the setup, too...

[springer]

Sounds great Steve! You talk about prime gigs...

I was searching thru the pics for the length of the drummers arms... they must be 35 feet long... Sorry - had to yank your chain about something. Almost everything I listen to these days has either a 70 foot wide piano or drumset - do you think it's a fad? I trust you will get us the mic list when you get thru tearing down all that equipment.
You da man!

[Jazzpunk]

Awesome!

[brle]

Great performance, top sound!
Thanks for sharing!

Sascha

[Remoteness]

Well, thanks for the kind words everyone!
Yeah, I really enjoyed Dave Holland’s electric bass guitar technique.
Herbie does rule and it was awesome to work with him again.

Yeah, Fort Adams Park is an interesting venue on a few levels.

For the most part, my mixing and panning techniques have not changed in decades, so I find it interesting that my drum sound or imaging can be referred to as “these days” or a fad.

With regard to the “70 foot piano” sound (these days) I found that an acoustic piano has a fuller sound across the frequency band in mono when the mics are panned more narrow in the stereo field. I frequently pan them at the 10 and 2 or 9 and 3 o’clock positions. I have a slightly different technique when another piano or Leslie organ is introduced in the mix.

I’d love to share some of my set up info, but it was a hybrid situation since we were not “primary audio” for this event...

We were there to capture the event for radio, television, the Net and a couple of mobile content providers.
We did not handle the mic choices, their placement or the position and volume level of the stage monitoring; this created some challenges for us during the origination and remix developments.

So, I did not use my usual dual C414TLII on Herbie's piano or any of my other techniques that surely would have made the live show and remix session go a lot smoother for us. As some of you folks know, I do my best to maximize the good and minimize the bad leakage with my specific style of transducer positioning and microphone choices.

Without relying on my tried and true techniques this was an experiment in trials and assessments.
Mic’ing for live sound and live capture can be two different states of affairs when the recording company is not handling the mics and their positioning. Adding the fact that there usually are no sound checks on this kind of event we established the necessity to be totally on point. For the most part there wasn’t enough time to balance the inputs; we just had enough time to scratch and sniff out the inputs. The first few tunes of each band’s set were our only balance and equalization time.

With all this said, my amazing crew and I worked with an awesome group of audio technicians to make this event come to pass. IMO, it was more about different techniques than anything else. We got through it and look forward to making next year’s event better than ever.

The Bread Mobile was contracted for this event.
We installed the following equipment for this production venture:

Our XTA 48 channel active splitter system was used as the main splitter system.
We had our Whirlwind 56/52X3 splitter for the acts that had their own MON and FOH desks set-ups.
The splitter fed our True Systems Precision8 mic preamps that were connected to dual Tascam X48s via our portable Bantam patch bay.
The X48s fed our Yamaha M7CL48 digitally via TDIF cards.
All digital devices were clocked using the Brainstorm DCD8 with VS4 module. Man, this clock sounds awesome and keeps everything locked and distributed correctly. I cannot live with out this terrific device.
We also had an extra set of Precision8s feeding the Klark Teknik XL88 for audience sub mixing and distribution.
The M7CL’s mix buss fed our SSL stereo compressor which fed a number of audio distribution amplifiers for all the inside/outside 2 mix feeds. We use one of our Studio Comm systems to switch between the console monitor output, SSL stereo compressor and various external two track returns.
The Brainstorm SR15+ handled our LTC timecode duties.
Sony 20” and 9” color monitors where used for the IMAG and TV truck feeds.
We had a video router to be able to switch between the live switch and TV cameras.
I listened through a pair of Genelec 1031As.
Three Tascam CDRW2000 recorders captured the 2 mixes.
We had a Tascam 4 banger dubber to handle extra CDR copies.

Here's Dave's and Herbie's (Festival Patch) input lists:

Dave Holland-Pair #-Designation-Mic
1 Kick- Audix D6- Kick
2 Kick- SM91- Kick
3 Snare Up- SM57- Snare Up
4 Snare Down- SM57- Snare Down
5 Hat- Audix SCX-one- Hat
6 Rack- Beta 98/ADX-20- Rack
7 Rack- Beta 98/ADX-20- Tympani
8 Floor- Beta 98/ADX-20- Floor
9 O/H- CM-H8B- O/H
10 O/H- CM-H8B- O/H

18 Bass DI- DI- Bass DI 1
19 Bass Mic- Beta 52/DI- Bass Mic
20 Key 1- DI- Bass DI 2

29 Vocal 5- AT 4055- Vocal Talk

33 Piano Low- DPA 4011- Piano Low
34 Piano High- DPA 4011- Piano High
35 Piano Hole- AKG 451/CK22- Piano Hole
36 Piano PU Low- Schertler- Piano PU Low
37 Piano PU Hi- Schertler- Piano PU Hi

47 Horn 10- RE20- Sax 1
48 SA- E835S-

Herbie Hancock-Pair #-Designation-Mic
1 Kick- Audix D6- Kick
2 Kick- SM91- Kick
3 Snare Up- SM57- Snare Up
4 Snare Down- SM57- Snare Down
5 Hat- Audix SCX-one- Hat
6 Rack- Beta 98/ADX-20- Rack 1
7 Rack- Beta 98/ADX-20- Rack 2
8 Rack- Beta 98/ADX-20- Rack 3
9 Floor- Beta 98/ADX-20- Floor
10 O/H- CM-H8B- O/H
11 O/H- CM-H8B- O/H
12 Perc 1- Audix D2/DI- Hsonic
13 Perc 2- Audix D2/DI- Hsonic
14 Perc 3- Audix D2- Snare 2

19 Bass DI- DI- Bass DI
20 Bass DI- DI- Bass DI
21 Bass Mic- Beta 52/DI- Bass Mic
22 Elec Guitar 1- SM57- Elec Guitar Left
23 Elec Guitar 2- SM57- Elec Guitar Right
24
25 Vocal 1- 4055/ULX RF B58- Guitar Vocal
26 Vocal 2- 4055/ULX RF B58- Guitar Voc Effect L
27 Vocal 3- 4055/ULX RF B58- Guitar Voc Effect R
28 Vocal 4- 4055/ULX RF B58- Vocal Herbie
29 Vocal 5- 4055/ULX RF B58- Vocal 1
30 Vocal 6- 4055/ULX RF B58- Vocal 2
31 Piano Low- DPA 4011- Piano Low
32 Piano High- DPA 4011- Piano High
33 Piano Hole-AKG 451/CK22- Piano Hole
34 Piano PU Low- Schertler- Piano PU Low
35 Piano PU Hi- Schertler- Piano PU Hi
36 Keyboard 1- DI- Oasys L
37 Keyboard 2- DI- Oasys R
38 Keyboard 3- DI- Recept L
39 Keyboard 4- DI- Recept R
40 Keyboard 5- DI- Mac L
41 Keyboard 6- DI- Mac R

45 Horn 5- CM-H8B- Sax

48 SA- E835S

...Jazzing up some serious Rock & Roll mics for this live outdoor event.

[iluvatar]

Hey Steve,

That recording sounds great; it sounds more like a studio recording and less ambient than I would have expected.

While you were there, did you happen to run into a guy by the name of Bob Potter? Early 50's w/ a grey pony tail? Would've been with the Klondike crew. I know he used to work that show, but I'm not sure if he's still on it.

-Dan.

[BLP]

Originally Posted by Remoteness

31 Piano Low- DPA 4011- Piano Low
32 Piano High- DPA 4011- Piano High
33 Piano Hole-AKG 451/CK22- Piano Hole
34 Piano PU Low- Schertler- Piano PU Low
35 Piano PU Hi- Schertler- Piano PU Hi

Ah, so that's what a sexy live piano kit looks like...

[Remoteness]

I don't know if Bob Potter was there, but Klondike was there handling the smaller stages.
Klondike really saved our arses when we got the word to record Soulive with Fred Wesley literally at the eleventh hour...

We found out that the video crew wanted to record that set, but we were commissioned to only record the main stage performances.
I started brainstorming ideas on how we can get our 1000 foot runs handled since we didn't have enough multicore to reach that stage...
Then it dawned on me; I figured that since we had a TV Production truck that specializes in sports they had to have thousands of feet of DT12 snake for those golf specials and such.
I worked out the details with the EIC on the TV truck; we arranged a bucket brigade early the next morning and thanks to Klondike we were able to grab their third ISO output from their 3 way splitter with no real stress.
We had a backup 3 way splitter available on the main stage, but this was so much easier to deal with, especially since we would have had to lug it over to the other stage 1000 feet from our truck.

Klondike and his crew were very cool to work with and a really pleasure to deal with.

Originally Posted by iluvatar

Hey Steve,

That recording sounds great; it sounds more like a studio recording and less ambient than I would have expected.

While you were there, did you happen to run into a guy by the name of Bob Potter? Early 50's w/ a grey pony tail? Would've been with the Klondike crew. I know he used to work that show, but I'm not sure if he's still on it.

-Dan.

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by BLP

Ah, so that's what a sexy live piano kit looks like...

Nahhhh....

I would not have done it that way...

We had more "bad" leakage than "good" leakage to deal with.

I would have taken off the piano lid, placed the mics differently and introduced Kiyohiko Yamaya's Yamahiko pickup system to this setup.

Man, those pickups sound very natural.

I used them for the first time during Omar Sosa's live recording at the Blue Note, NYC.
I was blown away with their tonality and quality of sound reproduction.

I believe it is the best sounding piano pickup to date; hands down, this is the one to beat!

[BLP]

Originally Posted by Remoteness

I would have taken off the piano lid, placed the mics differently and introduced Kiyohiko Yamaya's Yamahiko pickup system to this setup.

Man, those pickups sound very natural.

I used them for the first time during Omar Sosa's live recording at the Blue Note, NYC.
I was blown away with their tonality and quality of sound reproduction.

I believe it is the best sounding piano pickup to date; hands down, this is the one to beat!

Hmmmm, interesting. I've never had access to any hi-end piano pickups so I've always wound up with the two 414's thing for non-classical live piano work. Is your preferred method both or just the pickup?

I must say though, I do like 4011's...

[Remoteness]

Don't get me wrong, I used C414TLIIs a lot in live situations.
DPA mics are wonderful on piano and the 4011s are awesome mics.
I'm always up for a new idea or different approach as long as it sounds good.

For this date:
I would position the mics differently.
I would remove the piano lid to prevent the build up of potential loud stage volume.
I would carefully place the stage monitoring to help reduce the "bad" leakage problems that a live stage can introduce to a recording.

Keep in mind, what may work for live sound reinforcement does not always work for live sound capture.

Because I like options I tend to use multiple sources when applicable, but if I had to only go with a pickup system the only one I would even consider is Mr. Yamaya's system.

I hope this helped.

Originally Posted by BLP

Hmmmm, interesting. I've never had access to any hi-end piano pickups so I've always wound up with the two 414's thing for non-classical live piano work. Is your preferred method both or just the pickup?

I must say though, I do like 4011's...

[BLP]

Absolutely! All but a few of my live recording gigs have been classical, so the pickup was never an option. Good to know Yamaya's pickup is worthy of some serious work, though. I'll have to see if I can find one to play with in the future. thumbsup

[Remoteness]

In my opinion, there is no better solution on a loud stage when sound quality matters.
We seem to use pickups to handle band monitors; with these puppies you can have both.

It's a win win situation.

Originally Posted by BLP

Absolutely! All but a few of my live recording gigs have been classical, so the pickup was never an option. Good to know Yamaya's pickup is worthy of some serious work, though. I'll have to see if I can find one to play with in the future. thumbsup

[blaugruen7]

is this chris potter on tenor saxophone?

[Remoteness]

Yes, indeed it is Chris Potter on tenor sax-a-ma-phonefor both Herbie and Dave's sets!

Here's a close up of him during Herbie's performance set...

[Remoteness]

I'm thinking of re-mixing the two tunes with vocalists Sonya Kitchell and Amy Keys for my own head since the show is already out there.

I never had a chance to really fine tune and clean up the vocals.
Their performances were awesome; IMO, they need to sound as nice in the mix as the other tracks do.

What do you folks think?

[videoteque]

The sound's nice!!!

Remix them and post them, so we can compare!!!

[BLP]

Originally Posted by videoteque

The sound's nice!!!

Remix them and post them, so we can compare!!!

A+ for that idea. I'd love to hear how you'd change things, Steve!

[noamraz]

Hi Steve;

Originally Posted by Remoteness

We also had an extra set of Precision8s feeding the Klark Teknik XL88 for audience sub mixing and distribution.

What was connected to those Precision 8's? (The ones that was connected to the XL88).

Some kind of driver before the Line-Level matrix ?

Best regards, Noam.

[Remoteness]

We had four of our our six audience mics going to this set-up.
We also were submixing the double bass drum and double snare mic situation since we were tracking to 48 tracks with 54 input channels.

[huub]

Looooovely indeed!
The streaming npr audio quality is not bad at all!