Recording jazz

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Whoopysnorp

Whoopysnorp

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I'm going to be doing a recording of my friend's jazz quartet soon (2 saxes, bass & drums). I've only done rock before, but I'm looking forward to doing this. Am I correct in thinking that the best first step in recording a small jazz group is to put up a pair of condensers and then add mics only if necessary? What kind of positioning should I be thinking about for the condensers? Tell me any jazz experience you have that may help.
 
I never recorded a jazz band... But in general, put the stereopair in the most sensible location, practice with the soloist stepping closer to the mic, make sure they understand that moving will be hearable in the balance.

And with the stereopair, still add normal mics. You don't have to use them in the mix, but you'll be glad you did lateron. ;)

Don't look for a rocktype sound in the drums. The kick isn't supposed to have kick in it...

And if it's a double bass, these things are VERY silent, make sure you really put a mic on this, and lok carefully for where you put it, experiment. I noticed on a violin, that when close micing, just moving the mic a few millimeters (using a clipon) changed the sound tremendously! I guess the same is gonna be true for a double bass with centimeters...
 
Thanks, Roel. It is a double bass, and we were thinking of using his pickup plus a condensor somewhere on it. Trouble is, I only have four tracks into my PC (I'm using a Delta 66). I can have up to eight mics in my mixer, though. I mix the output of that to four channels and send it to my PC. So if we're lucky, the 2 condensors will be sufficient for the general tone, and I can use one additional channel for the bass mic, and the final channel for a direct input of his pickup. If I want more mics than that, I'll just have to fine-tune the mix before pressing record.
 
Be carefull with those pickups... A friend of mine (sucks on his doublebass, but that's not the topic :p ) has one of those, and it really sucks. It sounds like Shnitzels. Or something. Might be better of with the mic...
 
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