Agree with Learsfool - Very few jazz recordings even attempt to sound realistic. Could be that they feel the "bigger than life" approach is best. Everything they do is strange. They put one reverb on the bass drum, another on the snare - another on the sax? Right there, you have 3 instruments playing in 3 different rooms. That's why many of the older recordings sounded more real - the engineer had one big plate reverb in the basement and added it to each instrument in various quantities. But - no sense complaining about it because now we have i-phones. The world is so much better for them. People are smarter, wealthier... The future is so bright!
Recording/Engineering Practices
I have a recording of a duet of Ron Carter and Houston Person titled 'Dialogues' on Blue Note HCD7072. I do not know who engineered the recording.
From a physical 'sound stage' one might think you couldn't ask for more. Wall to wall, floor to ceiling. Amazing, involving. Warm. Nice music too!
However it only too a couple of seconds to realize in real life you had two instruments on stage side by side with equal prominence. On this recording you had Carters bass centered and life like, but Person's sax encompassed the entire stage with some emphasis on/in both corners.
I suspect this effect was as much as the result of two tracks laid down separately and then mixed with the tracks of the bass in phase and the sax out of phase.
Anyone have any thoughts or knowledge of recording practices that would clear this up for me?
From a physical 'sound stage' one might think you couldn't ask for more. Wall to wall, floor to ceiling. Amazing, involving. Warm. Nice music too!
However it only too a couple of seconds to realize in real life you had two instruments on stage side by side with equal prominence. On this recording you had Carters bass centered and life like, but Person's sax encompassed the entire stage with some emphasis on/in both corners.
I suspect this effect was as much as the result of two tracks laid down separately and then mixed with the tracks of the bass in phase and the sax out of phase.
Anyone have any thoughts or knowledge of recording practices that would clear this up for me?
5 responses Add your response