V
Voyager Records
New member
Hello all,
I want to record a jazz quintet (tenor sax, trumpet, acoustic bass, piano, drums) live in one room, no headphones or overdubs and very little if any effects, relying on the acoustics of the room and the natural balance of the performers to get much of the final sound. À la 50s/60s jazz recordings, I suppose. My question is, are there any specific instrument placement/baffling techniques I should be aware of to avoid an excess of mud? Also, how large of a space should I be considering? It sounds as if albums like "Kind of Blue" and "A Love Supreme" were recorded in fairly large spaces, and that's the general feel I'm aiming for.
I have 8 inputs (I work in a college recording studio and our resources are somewhat limited by our budget), so I'm thinking of tracking the drums and piano in mono with SDCs and giving each horn and the bass its own LDC. I have a large-ish room at my disposal, one with a medium-sized office attached to it that could serve as an "isolation" room for the acoustic bass if needed (I'd leave the door open so all musicians could hear/see each other).
The mics at my disposal: 2 Audio Technica AT4050s (I'll probably set each horn player up with one), 2 Shure SM-81LCs (I'd use one as a mono drum overhead and one to capture the grand piano), 1 Blue Spark (for the acoustic bass), a Shure SM57 (as a spot mic on the snare), and an AKG D112 (for the kick). The studio also has a Nady RSM-1, a Røde NT-1A, an Audix D4, and another SM57. I'd add a touch of EQ and compression on some of the individual instrument tracks if necessary to tighten things down, and I want to do the old "pan the drums hard right and the piano hard left" thing.
If you guys have any other suggestions/tips, let me know! This has always been a dream project of mine...nothing beats the energy and emotion of that 50s/60s jazz record sound. Obviously, I don't have Neves and Neumans and Miles Davis and whatever else at my disposal, so the final product won't sound exactly like "Kind of Blue", but it should be pretty dang cool anyway.
Thanks!
I want to record a jazz quintet (tenor sax, trumpet, acoustic bass, piano, drums) live in one room, no headphones or overdubs and very little if any effects, relying on the acoustics of the room and the natural balance of the performers to get much of the final sound. À la 50s/60s jazz recordings, I suppose. My question is, are there any specific instrument placement/baffling techniques I should be aware of to avoid an excess of mud? Also, how large of a space should I be considering? It sounds as if albums like "Kind of Blue" and "A Love Supreme" were recorded in fairly large spaces, and that's the general feel I'm aiming for.
I have 8 inputs (I work in a college recording studio and our resources are somewhat limited by our budget), so I'm thinking of tracking the drums and piano in mono with SDCs and giving each horn and the bass its own LDC. I have a large-ish room at my disposal, one with a medium-sized office attached to it that could serve as an "isolation" room for the acoustic bass if needed (I'd leave the door open so all musicians could hear/see each other).
The mics at my disposal: 2 Audio Technica AT4050s (I'll probably set each horn player up with one), 2 Shure SM-81LCs (I'd use one as a mono drum overhead and one to capture the grand piano), 1 Blue Spark (for the acoustic bass), a Shure SM57 (as a spot mic on the snare), and an AKG D112 (for the kick). The studio also has a Nady RSM-1, a Røde NT-1A, an Audix D4, and another SM57. I'd add a touch of EQ and compression on some of the individual instrument tracks if necessary to tighten things down, and I want to do the old "pan the drums hard right and the piano hard left" thing.
If you guys have any other suggestions/tips, let me know! This has always been a dream project of mine...nothing beats the energy and emotion of that 50s/60s jazz record sound. Obviously, I don't have Neves and Neumans and Miles Davis and whatever else at my disposal, so the final product won't sound exactly like "Kind of Blue", but it should be pretty dang cool anyway.
Thanks!