For all you "hundreds" of Jazz fans :)

[mcramer]

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemus ... dID=700516

Thought i would post a few tracks from the recent recording i did of my Jazz ensemble "Soul Purpose Jazz". This was my first try at live recording and there is quite a few things i wish i could change, but i guess you learn from your mistakes! Only posted a few but there's about 15 songs from the night in total.

Midnight Newsroom is my favourite but i've had it stuck in my head for the past few weeks!

And I'm on bass by the way

Here's what i used:

Main Interfaces:

Motu 8pre
Presonus Firestation connected to 8pre via ADAT

Drum microphones:

Samson QKick - kick drum
Behringer C2s - Overheads

Instruments:

Alto - SM57
Tenor - SM57
Trumpet - Shure Beta 98H/C
Trombone - SM57

Keyboard - straight into firestation pre
Bass - D.I. from bass amp, re-amped with bass pod xt pro during mixing

Software:

Cubase SX 2

All the mics fed into the 8pre pre-amps.

Overall i'm fairly pleased with how it came out. Probably could have done better with decent pre-amps with the SM57s, and the Alto doesn't sound very nice (found out half way through the guy who set up the mics had put the microphone pointing underneath her bell!! )

Also it doesn't really sound live, lol. Didn't have any mics left over for a room mic! Ah well, better luck next time but i'm fairly pleased considering it was my first live recording and i had about half an hour to soundcheck! hehe.

Any feedback good or bad welcome

[DSG LABEL]

i think it sounds great.. is this original music or just you guys jamming to some stuff?

[nanashiwanderer]

the sounds them selves aren't bad, the mix needs a little work it seems a bit messy to my ears... you did a good job caputring the sounds, it seems like everything is nice and present and not fighting with each other too much. Some things sound artificial partically the kick drum, and the bass.

[mcramer]

i think it sounds great.. is this original music or just you guys jamming to some stuff?

No it's all original music (not composed by us) except for a improvised solos in the middle of the songs. "I Wish I Knew..." is practically all improvised around the basic melody. Cheers

nanashiwanderer - thanks I know it's a bit messy, unfortunately there's nothing much i can do about the messiness now, we had such a small amount of room there that the amount of microphone bleed was horrendous. I've rolled off the bass in all the SM57s to clean things up a bit, but the trumpet was the worst it bled into all the other mics along the front row.

The bass is certainly not artificial lol. The kick drum on the other hand is half artificial. The sound i got was too boomy, no padding whatsoever in the drums, picked up a lot of reverberation within the drum itself, so i've mixed in a sample on every beat to give it a bit more punch.

[mhughes]

Hey, how great to hear this--I've listened once through & will do so a few more times, but first impression is: excellent! Ensemble is pretty tight & arrangements are good. Not wild about the sound of the trumpet but sax sounds very good. Bass & drums are good.

'Round Midnight is one of my favorite pieces ever. If you haven't heard guitarist Roland Dyens play this do yourself a favor & find it--it's on his Nuages disk.

For a live recording, and under the circumstances you describe, this is a really strong recording. Congratulations!

MH

[mcramer]

I wouldn't say Round Midnight isn't the most interesting to play from a bass players perspective, but it certainly is a beautiful piece. Alex (the tenor sax player) plays it superbly in this recording.

Thanks very much mate

I will certainly look in to the Roland Dyens version! cheers!

[mcramer]

Just noticed on your page mhughes you have Mercy Mercy Mercy (sounds awesome by the way). So just uploaded our version of it to the sound click page

[tecnolover]

I think it sounds very good considering the mics you are using.

Obviously you'd get better detail from the drums with some better overhead mics and better instr. mics. 57's are decent all round mics but they don't pick up the details that good Jazz recordings are known for. But everyone has to start somewhere! All in all I think it sounds decent. I might bring up the kick just a tad in the mix. Good work.

[mcramer]

Thanks

I think I'm gonna leave this mix alone, i'm fairly happy with how it's turned other than a few minor niggles and instead of trying to fix this I'm just gonna wait until my next recording which will be in a studio with plenty of space and all the time in the world! All the stuff i know i've done wrong on this recording will go towards hopefully making a much better recording next time *i hope*

[Travis Coats]

Really enjoyed it, it calls to mind some kind of early 1900's nightclub feeling. I am not too big on jazz, but you guys did great on recording it! It definately had the whole jazz, "improvisational, on the spot" quality if know what I mean.

I think the recording accurately represented what jazz was and still is...LIVE

[mcramer]

Thanks Travis

Update: The song 'Round Midnight is now #1 in the Soundclick Jazz - Cover songs chart, aaaah yeah

[adhesive]

Man, I just listened to Midnight Newsroom...

Now I know why you guys look so happy in the picture!

[mcramer]

It's such a happy tune don't you think Thanks!

[adhesive]

...and another FAT kudos to Round Midnight. I listened to the other one in lo-fi mode (slow connection). This one I dl'd, and it sounded fantastic, *especially* considering the setup you described. Hats off!

Is it just me, or does the trumpet player flub once, maybe two-thirds through or so? on the end of a little flourish?

[mcramer]

If you mean play a wrong note then probably yes! hehehe, there's a couple of bits, made me laugh! In fairness it just isn't easy improvising.

[adhesive]

No doubt! I certainly don't have the chops for it. Well, I can improvise vocals, but that's not really the same thing, or at least I don't see it that way (maybe because it's the only instrument that comes fairly easy for me!)

[mcramer]

I can improvise pretty well with the scale in front of me. Take that away and i always sound exactly the same lol.

[jlunn5]

Whoa.. this is good, I really like string of pearls. Would you mind if I streamed a couple of these songs on my website www.lunnrecords.com, I'll include your name, title and link with it also.

Thanks,
Jamie

[mcramer]

Hmm, no offence to you but i don't really know you, so i'd rather not. I can't see a place for it on your website anyway hehe.

Cheers anyway though.

[C]

See - got a hustle - but no game. Exactly what I said. You should read more carefully before you try to offend people.

[mcramer]

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I'm glad we discovered this way to get round the filter!

[C]

Wow, is that all it takes on this site to become a top contributor? A thousand posts is worth a thousand hand shakes. You should stick to hand shakes.

[mcramer]

Just leave me alone, huh? I didn't do anything to offend you and now you seem to be going out of your way to offend me. Real mature mate. How old are you?

[C]

Did you like my hand shakes comment? I was just kidding What pluggins do you like - do you think the ones that come with pro tools le are good enough? I mostly deal with hip hop and R&B. I hate to tell ya, but it is the most popular music in EU........well maybe in a couple years.

[mcramer]

I don't use pro tools, only Cubase SX and only the plugins that come with that. Can't afford any others! lol. Plus i'm more of a "live" sound person, i.e. trying to the original sound source as natural as possible without the need for plugins.