Big Band. Two Mics.

[sneezebomb]

Really just posting this for the sake of demonstrating what a big band can sound like with just a single stereo pair of mics. I was surprised at the result.

A friend recently asked me to record his big band playing at a local club here in Seattle. I have a very modest mic collection and, in the interest of portability, chose to record to a Tascam DP-02. The Tascam only records two tracks simultaneously. So i set up a pair of mics in XY and hoped for the best.

Now I'm not trying to pawn this off as a brilliant recording but I have to say, it sounds way better than i expected.

I'm always interested in hearing examples of other people's set ups so I thought I'd post this for those of you who are like me.

Care to guess the mics I used? (Maybe it won't shock those of you who've been doing live recordings for a while. Surprised me though.)
_A_ Train sample.mp3

[boojum]

Sounds good. The only thing I find is that the mids and highs are more than the bottom end.

Can you give us more details about the distance from the band and so on??

Cheers

[SynthLine09]

When it comes to recording a big band, i have almost always found that less is more, especially in a good space. I dig the recording, this is also my favorite jazz chart

[mathieujm]

Great, but you have the same problem as boojum in his recent thread : invert the phase of one side and it will be... better

JMM

[sneezebomb]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

Less is more...that's what gave me the guts to try this in the first place. I read some articles about the history of recording big bands and there were several guys who felt that more mics = more problems. One nice discovery on my part was that big bands kind of mix themselves, dynamically.

Phase - I actually flipped the phase on one of the channels going in. I thought it sounded better. Maybe it did something weird to the stereo image?

The setup - Two SM57s in XY about six feet high and maybe three feet from the first line of musicians (sax section). Right next to the conductor actually. I favored the side of the stage with the piano, bass, guitar, and drums. I wasn't allowed to place center stage per the venue's rules.

Mics were fed into a Presonus blue tube preamp which then fed into the Tascam.

You're right about the mids and highs, but damn...i didn't think a pair of 57s would sound that good. That was really what made me want to post this. (of course, i'm also always amazed by the sound of a drum set picked up by one mic so....)

[Tommy-boy]

it sounds good. Definitely lacking in low end - makes sense given the 57's roll off on the lows.

[SynthLine09]

I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty amazed that a pair of 57's sound this good!

[gareth.h.rees]

Originally Posted by SynthLine09

I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty amazed that a pair of 57's sound this good!

Ditto! Would be interesting to do the whole 'transformer mod' on them which I think I'm right in thinking gives more low end?

Put them in some SDC looking bodies and call it a day!