Recording & Mixing 5 tunes in a day

[endorka]

Hello folks,

I've added a post to my website about a recent session, recording and mixing five original jazz tunes with Reaper in my studio. Have a look & listen, and let me know what you think :-)

http://www.jenclarkmusic.com/gary-ke...es-in-one-day/

Cheers!
Jennifer

[jopatius]

First one
00:15 OK I'm listening.
00:30 It's refreshing to hear actual instruments instead of the synths...
01:20 Clarinet, is it? The lead instrument? I'm not a particular jazz fan, and I'm sure it fits to the genre, but this kind of...
02:00 aah now we have the guitar, yes the clarinet started to...
02:46 you've convinced me enough that if you guys were playing at the corned of my local pub, at this point of time I'd turn to whoever would be sitting next to me and start to have a nice conversation, trusting that your music will give us the nice cozy athmosphere and somehow carry us somewhere.
And that's a lot from a "non-jazz" guy like me!

Second one:
I'd stop the conversation with the person sitting next to me and check this out - at least 01:30 minutes before getting back to the conversation

OK at 01:50 I click the next song

Third one:

Everything here is so right to my ears (recording, mixing, playing, all) that I can't provide any additional insight with my comments. I'm just surprised no-one commented this during the past 1 1/2 months? I mean there have to be jazz-guys here who can dig deeper to this than me.

I got interested enough that I'll check out your web-page a bit more next.

[endorka]

Thanks for listening Jopatius, and posting your thoughts. It was really useful having the times next to your comments, I was able to recreate your listening session exactly :-)

When I'm in the pub or restaurant, I really enjoy some atmospheric background jazz, so it's nice to hear that you heard that in the music too. Track 3 is also my favourite, Gary wrote it about Polaris, the North Star, and I think it really does bring that to mind. It has a "frozen" vibe to it - temperature/ice/snow, not the Disney musical :-) I particularly enjoy the guitar solo around 2:20.

The lead instrument on track 1 is a soprano sax. It does sound like a clarinet, and is quite often used instead of one in modern jazz/swing. The sax player switched to tenor sax for track 2.

Cheers!
Jennifer

[susbemol]

Wow, brilliant work, Jennifer! As mentioned, everything sounds spot on - the vibe, the playing, the mixing.

Although every instrument does sound great, I particularly enjoyed the drums sound. Really lovely stuff!

Thanks for sharing it.

[endorka]

You are most welcome! The drums (and drummer) sounded great to start with, which of course helps immensely. As an engineer I did my best not to get in the way of that quality :-) The room acoustics are good too, so all that was necessary in the mix was a little EQ & compression, and a tiny bit of reverb on the snare. Nice!

Cheers,
Jennifer

[Tod]

Originally Posted by endorka

You are most welcome! The drums (and drummer) sounded great to start with, which of course helps immensely. As an engineer I did my best not to get in the way of that quality :-) The room acoustics are good too, so all that was necessary in the mix was a little EQ & compression, and a tiny bit of reverb on the snare. Nice!

Very nice Jennifer, this is the 2nd post today that I have to say, we don't hear enough of this around here.

The musicians played quite well, was there any rehearsing, or had everybody played together for a while, or used charts? Probably a combination?

You did a great job of recording it and mixing it. Sounds like a good small group of jazz players playing live to me.

[endorka]

Originally Posted by Tod

The musicians played quite well, was there any rehearsing, or had everybody played together for a while, or used charts? Probably a combination?

Thanks Tod!

No rehearsal at all, and although some of the musicians had played together in other groups, this was the first time this particular group played together. The recording started about 40 minutes after we met :-)

Gary sent us charts with chords and melody a few weeks in advance, and gave us a rough idea of who would be playing what.

Cheers!
Jennifer

[kindafishy]

Very nice recordings. I listen to jazz just the odd time really, but when I do, this is exactly the style I like. Great musicianship all around and excellent compositions, IMO.

Really enjoyed all aspects of the songs, the recordings and the mixes.

Nice job.

[endorka]

Originally Posted by kindafishy

Very nice recordings. I listen to jazz just the odd time really, but when I do, this is exactly the style I like. Great musicianship all around and excellent compositions, IMO.

Really enjoyed all aspects of the songs, the recordings and the mixes.

Nice job.

Thank you! What other types of music do you enjoy?

Cheers,
Jennifer

[G-Sun]

Originally Posted by endorka

Hello folks,

I've added a post to my website about a recent session, recording and mixing five original jazz tunes with Reaper in my studio. Have a look & listen, and let me know what you think :-)

http://www.jenclarkmusic.com/gary-ke...es-in-one-day/

Thanks a lot for sharing Jennifer!

Sounds great.
Nice tunes.
Gordon Paton on saxophones really shines some places (and lovely sound). But then I'm a sucker for saxophone
Your playing e-bass. Works well. But why? Easier for the time-factor?

I'm happy if I can record and mix 2 songs a year,
so you're lightyears ahead of me

I'd love to work with you one day.

[G-Sun]

Closer listening:
What's the sax-chain. Some ruff edges there, but that's a little preference. Ok NT1000.. a more classy mic would be preferable. Yet, if you had something like an JLM LA500, much would improve. On the cheap side an Trion 8000 could work well, ideally a U47/67 maybe, or a ribbon
Lovely glue and homogeneous sounding.
Lovely jazz-drums, with excellent stereo-image. Love it!
Jazz-guitar is very appropriate sounding.
No volume issues despite the short time for mixing.
I little noise-reduction on that guitar could be a good thing.

[kindafishy]

Originally Posted by endorka

Thank you! What other types of music do you enjoy?

Cheers,
Jennifer

Lots! Lately I have been spinning a lot of Curtis Mayfield, Billy Talent (saw them live last week - amazing show), Jane's Addiction, Parliament, Queens of the Stone Age, Sheepdogs, English Beat (weird one amongst the others, I know) and Royal Blood.

Just very into either funk, riffy-groove-heavy rock or southern feel, vocal-focused tunes lately.

I'll have another listen to this today, I really like it. Great vibe.

[endorka]

Originally Posted by G-Sun

Your playing e-bass. Works well. But why? Easier for the time-factor?

Thanks for listening to the music G-Sun :-)

Yes, I used the bass guitar mainly for time and convenience, since I was engineering the session as well as playing. Having to put down the double bass, do something in the DAW or adjust a mic, then pick the bass up again is far from ideal. With the bass guitar it's much easier and faster, as I can keep it on when doing DAW stuff.

Jennifer

[msore]

Thank you very much for your nice description of a nice jazz event.

For myself, and I think for many others, description of the event is a part of what used to be common in productions by record companies. Photos, liner notes, song notes, details about the players, accounting for what made the event unique - all these are of great interest to some listeners. I really miss such info in the two worlds of CDs and Streaming.

And I thought the music was charming, literate, not-too-fancy, intimate and as you said, "flowing".

congrats and thanks five times.

[endorka]

Originally Posted by G-Sun

Closer listening:
What's the sax-chain.

1) Nomad Studio Channel SC-226;
Compressor not used, 12AX7 valve emulation quite a bit, 3.6dB boost @ 520Hz, 1.12dB cut @6.2KHz

2) T-Racks Opto-Compressor 5:1, 2.6ms attack, 35ms release, "compression" set to 4.4. Quite subtle, doing nothing on quiet passages and a little shaving of peaks by around 2dB

You reckon it could have done with a bit more compression?

Lovely glue and homogeneous sounding.
Lovely jazz-drums, with excellent stereo-image. Love it!
Jazz-guitar is very appropriate sounding.
No volume issues despite the short time for mixing.

Thanks :-) I was really pleased with the drum sound too. Amazed that most of it comes from a pair of Behringer ECM8000 measurement mics!

I little noise-reduction on that guitar could be a good thing.

Well spotted, it is a bit hissy isn't it? Apart from reducing a few of the worst spots on one of the quieter outros I didn't have time to tackle this properly. For some reason it didn't respond well to Reafir. Izotope RX 5 would probably fix it in no time, but unfortunately I don't have it. That's another item added to the studio wish list, along with all your expensive microphones :-)

Cheers!
Jennifer

[endorka]

Originally Posted by kindafishy

Lots! Lately I have been spinning a lot of Curtis Mayfield, Billy Talent (saw them live last week - amazing show), Jane's Addiction, Parliament, Queens of the Stone Age, Sheepdogs, English Beat (weird one amongst the others, I know) and Royal Blood... Just very into either funk, riffy-groove-heavy rock or southern feel, vocal-focused tunes lately.

Some right good stuff there, especially Jane's addiction. Used to love playing bass along to their first album.

Cheers,
Jennifer

[endorka]

Originally Posted by msore

For myself, and I think for many others, description of the event is a part of what used to be common in productions by record companies. Photos, liner notes, song notes, details about the players, accounting for what made the event unique - all these are of great interest to some listeners. I really miss such info in the two worlds of CDs and Streaming.

I love reading all that kind of thing myself, to the point of obsession, and that's the reason I wrote about the session. So it is very gratifying to hear that you enjoyed it :-)

It's one of the great things about art, isn't it? You can do things based on what you like, and hopefully it connects with people.

Cheers,
Jennifer

[msore]

Yes, J, and art about art is cool on more levels.

[Bass6]

If you'd said you did this over the course of a week or so, I would've said yeah, pretty good, a few rough edges, but better than ok.
But all five in a day? Shut the front door!
I've listened to lots of jazz over the years, live and recorded, and I think the best element is that you have completely captured that 'live' feel to the session, without it sounding rushed or compromised.
In a previous life I once recorded six tunes in a day with a jazz/funk band, but the mix was done another day and it sure didn't sound this good!
Top job Jennifer. Congratulations.
6 x

[G-Sun]

Originally Posted by endorka

1) Nomad Studio Channel SC-226;
Compressor not used, 12AX7 valve emulation quite a bit, 3.6dB boost @ 520Hz, 1.12dB cut @6.2KHz

2) T-Racks Opto-Compressor 5:1, 2.6ms attack, 35ms release, "compression" set to 4.4. Quite subtle, doing nothing on quiet passages and a little shaving of peaks by around 2dB

You reckon it could have done with a bit more compression?

Your settings works quite well.
Valve-emulation is contribution to a little clarinet-like tone?
Comp: That's fast/fast. I'd probably default to slow/fastOrSlower. But it works well.

Anyway, performance and vibe is king.
And you've captured that perfectly

Thanks :-) I was really pleased with the drum sound too. Amazed that most of it comes from a pair of Behringer ECM8000 measurement mics!

Well spotted, it is a bit hissy isn't it? Apart from reducing a few of the worst spots on one of the quieter outros I didn't have time to tackle this properly. For some reason it didn't respond well to Reafir. Izotope RX 5 would probably fix it in no time, but unfortunately I don't have it. That's another item added to the studio wish list, along with all your expensive microphones :-)

You've achieved great results with inexpensive mics,
so my hat of to you!

Love that music.
Please tell Gary he makes wonderful jazz

[endorka]

Originally Posted by Bass6

I've listened to lots of jazz over the years, live and recorded, and I think the best element is that you have completely captured that 'live' feel to the session, without it sounding rushed or compromised.

Thanks for listening, another bassist, no less! I'm glad you liked the live sound, it's something I also enjoy in jazz recordings. "Kind of Blue" has quite a few bum notes on it, but it only serves to enhance the character of the record. I think many modern jazz recordings are too polished sounding, often to their detriment.

In a previous life I once recorded six tunes in a day with a jazz/funk band, but the mix was done another day and it sure didn't sound this good!

It would be really interesting to hear the recordings, if you still have them.

Cheers!
Jennifer

[endorka]

Originally Posted by G-Sun

Comp: That's fast/fast. I'd probably default to slow/fastOrSlower. But it works well.

It's probably ok because the compression wasn't kicking in that often. Next time I record some horns I'll try the slower attack as you suggest, thanks.

Originally Posted by G-Sun

You've achieved great results with inexpensive mics,
so my hat of to you!

I tried one of the Behringer ECM8000s recording classical guitar last week, and the results weren't so good for that. The guitar sound is so much quieter than the drum kit that the self noise from the Behringer was quite obvious. The Rode NT1000 sounded magnificent, fortunately.

Cheers,
Jennifer

[G-Sun]

Originally Posted by endorka

I tried one of the Behringer ECM8000s recording classical guitar last week, and the results weren't so good for that. The guitar sound is so much quieter than the drum kit that the self noise from the Behringer was quite obvious. The Rode NT1000 sounded magnificent, fortunately.

Classical guitar and drum kit. That's a tuff one regardless of mic

Cheers
Geir

[Bass6]

Originally Posted by endorka

Thanks for listening, another bassist, no less! I'm glad you liked the live sound, it's something I also enjoy in jazz recordings. "Kind of Blue" has quite a few bum notes on it, but it only serves to enhance the character of the record. I think many modern jazz recordings are too polished sounding, often to their detriment.

Amen to that - most recordings these days are a bit too 'perfect', even supposedly 'live' gig recordings...overdubs, autotune etc. Rough edges add to the excitement for me, especially if the players are right on the edge - you can't capture that in take number 25, overdub 13, drop in the last 4 bars!
Often thought that album should be 'Kind of Off Your Face' given Mr Davis's predilection for, ah, stimulants. I once worked with Miles Davis, although he was a carpet cleaner with a rabid jazz fan for a dad, not a jazz legend! Nice bloke though.

It would be really interesting to hear the recordings, if you still have them.

Cheers!
Jennifer

Ah, now you're asking. It was a looong time ago - I may still have the wax cylinder somewhere (well, ok, CD) - I'll see if I can find it.
My first foray into recording myself and mixing is here
https://soundcloud.com/user-766856198/i-wish
if you'd care to have a listen. Definitely rough around the edges, and I will have a go at polishing in the near future but I'm a bit worried I'll mess it up! Practice makes perfect I guess.
All the best,
6

[HugoRibeiroDotCom]

Wow! Very impressive and great musicianship by all!

cheers

[G-Sun]

Btw: Where can I buy the record?

and, what would you say would be some top other records in the same genre/style?

[endorka]

Originally Posted by Bass6

My first foray into recording myself and mixing is here
https://soundcloud.com/user-766856198/i-wish
if you'd care to have a listen. Definitely rough around the edges, and I will have a go at polishing in the near future but I'm a bit worried I'll mess it up! Practice makes perfect I guess.

I really enjoyed that, thank you. It has a cheeky British vibe that really suits the song.

You chose an incredibly complex song for your first time recording and mixing, but it sounds great. Tons of character.

You're going to have another go at mixing it? I'd say it's really close as it is, only a few tweaks away. Just a few observations;

There's quite a lot of reverb on the lead vocal, which seems to be putting it in the background a bit. I'd like to hear more of the lead vocal, much less reverb and perhaps a wee boost in volume?

The bass guitar playing is good, but I'd say it's not quite sitting right in the mix. The volume is ok, but the tone is too present, or has too much "pitch", or is too hi-fi. My inclination would be to splatter it through and old school amp sim, removing a load of the highs, so it sounds more muffled/percussive. Also some compression to make it pump a bit might be nice. And maybe even adding a very subtle octave above through some FX?

Please post your results here if you remix it :-)

Cheers,
Jennifer

[endorka]

Originally Posted by HugoRibeiroDotCom

Wow! Very impressive and great musicianship by all!

Thank you Hugo :-)

Cheers,
Jennifer

[endorka]

Originally Posted by G-Sun

Btw: Where can I buy the record?

Gary has put it online at Youtube here;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c9W...fHYIrG2HT-KDvX

and, what would you say would be some top other records in the same genre/style?

Difficult to say! My mix reference was Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, but while there are some commonalities, I reckon Gary's music is a bit more angular. Maybe Wayne Shorter influenced? Why not ask him on his Youtube channel, he really knows his stuff and will be able to give you a good answer :-)

Cheers,
Jennifer

[G-Sun]

Originally Posted by endorka

Gary has put it online at Youtube here;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c9W...fHYIrG2HT-KDvX



Difficult to say! My mix reference was Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, but while there are some commonalities, I reckon Gary's music is a bit more angular. Maybe Wayne Shorter influenced? Why not ask him on his Youtube channel, he really knows his stuff and will be able to give you a good answer :-)

Cheers,
Jennifer

Thanks!

[MarkMarker]

Absolutely love it.

[timothys_monster]

This is amazing and shows very well where the focus should be: learn to play your instrument and listen to the others!
At least regarding pop/rock music nowadays everyone (including myself) is throwing out half-baked stuff. Not enough thoughts are put into composition and performance when it comes to the final product. But hours and hours are spent for mixing and mastering.
Thanks for sharing, Jennifer. I really appreciate the little more effort of putting it online

[Reno.thestraws]

Drum Overhead L Behringer ECM8000 *

Well done!

you need three things to make good recordings

1) good musicians
2) good instruments
3) proper room acoustics

you got 3/3

[hamish]

I think I had better also pay my respects here. Very nice straight ahead jazz sound. Lovely work all round Jennifer with the production. You're a credit to REAPER!

[endorka]

Originally Posted by timothys_monster

This is amazing and shows very well where the focus should be: learn to play your instrument and listen to the others!
At least regarding pop/rock music nowadays everyone (including myself) is throwing out half-baked stuff. Not enough thoughts are put into composition and performance when it comes to the final product. But hours and hours are spent for mixing and mastering.

Thank you for listening and writing :-) I agree, no number of hours mixing and mastering will compensate for a significant flaw in composition or performance. I suppose trying to fix things this way is quite common these days, but I come from a time when music was recorded by musicians to tape :-)

Cheers,
Jennifer

[endorka]

Originally Posted by Reno.thestraws

you need three things to make good recordings

1) good musicians
2) good instruments
3) proper room acoustics

you got 3/3

Bingo! Thank you :-)

Cheers,
Jennifer

[endorka]

Originally Posted by hamish

I think I had better also pay my respects here. Very nice straight ahead jazz sound. Lovely work all round Jennifer with the production. You're a credit to REAPER!

That's the kind of sound I like in Jazz, thanks Hamish :-)

Cheers,
Jennifer

[endorka]

Originally Posted by HugoRibeiroDotCom

Wow! Very impressive and great musicianship by all!

Thank you Hugo. I've listened to the music on your website and hear you have a lot of experience recording drums, so that's a big compliment. Cheers!

Jennifer