Jazz recording

[Roland]

Thought I would just post a jazz recording I did last month. See what you think, I'll post some details about it later if anyone is interested!

Jazz sample 2.mp3

Roland

[DesertDawg]

I like it! Sounds very nice... excellent job on that one - as I'm sure you know.

And yes, you are obligated to post details... why else would we all be here? Just to bitch about how there's no good music made anymore & to find out what's the best hundred-dollar mic to record Oud with?

[Roland]

Another sample from the same gig.

Jazz sample 1.mp3

[jnorman]

roland - what a great job! sounds fabulous to me - very tasty. please do post the details, signal chain, space, post processing, etc. thanks.

[Uncle Russ]

Outstanding recording. Yes, please elucidate.

[Roland]

Thanks all for your kind words. Yes, I thought it sounded good, however it's always difficult to be objective about your own work.

The recording was made in a marquee about 50' x 150' set-up to house bands for a local food festival. The band is a local outfit, all pro players.

I was hired to provide a sound system and mix FOH (monitors were mixed from FOH as well). The recording is the FOH board mix (What was sent to the main PA) though I did take it before the FOH eq.

Microphone wise, was as follows

Kick Beta 52
Snare Beta 57
HH SM81
Flr Tom Sennheiser 504
Rack Tom Sennheiser 504
Overheads SM81's
Bass and Keys DI (Behringer)
Sax Shure 58
Trumpet Shure Beta 57
backing Vocal Shure 58's
Lead Vocal Sennheiser E865

Desk was my Venue Profile all effects were internal. Prior to posting this I changed sample rates from 48 to 44.1 and converted to mp3. There was no sound check as such because a couple of the players turned up with about 10-15 min's to go to show time so I spent 5 mins doing line checks. Sample one is the first tune of the set, taken from about 4 min's into the concert, so I think the balance came together quite quickly.

I wish in some ways I could have got a bit of mic on the bass, but he was sitting right next to the kit, so I doubt it would have been usable. Because I was monitoring on the PA (two HK Actor DX systems), I've put a little more bottom end on the bass than I would had I been monitoring on a good system or post mixing it, (you can hear the lowest couple of notes just bottom out a little) probably because the system doesn't really go all the way down there.

Roland

[Dave Ferris]

Very nice!

Who are the players? Pianist sounded excellent, I liked his Rhodes solo too, he caught me off guard at the top of his solo when he had it layered with that synth sound, I thought it might have been a midied vibraphone kinda thing. I noticed he likes repeated notes. Tasty use of the keyboard on the straight eighth tune. Trumpeter top notch too. The Rhythm section sounded very modern ECM on the Ballad. They really dug in on the straight eighth tune nicely.

I didn't recognize either tune so I'm assuming they are both originals.

My only very slight critique--on the Ballad at the end of the piano solo when he was playing up in the high registers, there was a unexpected thunk for just a second. It sounded like it was more in the instrument itself then an engineering thing.

Overall from my muscian's ears, great job of capturing their vibe and beautiful playing by all.

[videoteque]

Very nice Roland!!!

Nice to hear great things recorded with normal gear!

[Storyville]

beta 57 on trumpet. wow, never tried that. always assumed it would be too bright.

Sounds fantastic. You win.

[Roland]

Originally Posted by Dave Ferris

Very nice!

Who are the players? Pianist sounded excellent, I liked his Rhodes solo too, he caught me off guard at the top of his solo when he had it layered with that synth sound, I thought it might have been a midied vibraphone kinda thing. I noticed he likes repeated notes. Tasty use of the keyboard on the straight eighth tune. Trumpeter top notch too. The Rhythm section sounded very modern ECM on the Ballad. They really dug in on the straight eighth tune nicely.

I didn't recognize either tune so I'm assuming they are both originals.

My only very slight critique--on the Ballad at the end of the piano solo when he was playing up in the high registers, there was a unexpected thunk for just a second. It sounded like it was more in the instrument itself then an engineering thing.

Overall from my muscian's ears, great job of capturing their vibe and beautiful playing by all.

You are right, they are both originals, the track named sample 2 is a piece called Louis Borenius, written as a dedication to a percussionist and silicon mallet player the band's leader knew. It was a bit of a shock for me when he announced it at the gig as I knew Louis quite well, though hadn't seen him for a few years and I didn't know he had died.

The "thunk" is I guess just a hazzard of live gig recording, to be honest I was pleasantly suprised that there wasn't more. I totally agree with you the pianist does it for me, lovely touch, the trumpet player is late 30's early 40's and plays mostly for fun as he is a producer and recording engineer for Universal (not likely to be getting booked by him! lol) though I've recorded him three times on live shows! The sax player used to play with Seb Roachford's Polar Bear.

As a jazz set I enjoyed it, partially for the original music and the players did a good job.

Roland

[Remoteness]

Very smooth.
Keep up the good work.