[JPL] Bobby Broom record

[Jim Wilke]

George, and anyone else interested,

If you record with a single inexpensive stereo mic 3 tables back from 
the stage in a club the predominate sound picked up is what's closest 
to the mic:  the audience at the tables around the mic.  Notice on the 
CD how one person's hand claps are so audible?  That's the guy 
recording the show, he's the closest source of sound.   Sounds like 
he's right beside the mic and the band is about 20 feet away, or more.  
  Also, this is not high art in the perception of this audience ... 
they're there to cruise and booze but they like the musical 
accompaniment.

Recording engineers will tell you it's all about mic placement.  I've 
recorded hundreds of performances in jazz clubs, concerts and 
over-reverberant museums and cathedrals, and if the mics are within 6" 
- 12" of the instruments the audience will sound miles away.  (signal 
to noise, right?)  I often add mics aimed at the audience to pick up 
the applause so I can turn them up or down as needed.

Most Monterey and Newport festival concerts are recorded from on-stage 
mics and sound great, but I've also heard a few that sound like amateur 
bootlegs from a portable recorder 30'  or more away from the stage - we 
hear the house sound speakers and the audience on either side of the 
recorder's mic.  Also, a good house sound mix is rarely a good 
recording mix.   Recent Keystone Korner CDs illustrate that - they were 
obviously taken from the house sound mix and lack the bass and sizzle 
of a good recording mix.

I love recording live jazz on location.  It's true that the best 
performances are often impossible to duplicate in the studio, but if 
you also want good sound you have to use good mics for each instrument 
and keep them close to the instruments.  My models and inspirations 
have been and still are Rudy Van Gelder's recordings of Blakey at 
Birdland and Cafe Bohemia, Wally Heider's many live recordings around 
LA,  and Phil Edwards in the Bay area.

More than you wanted to know, right?

Jim Wilke
Hatchcover Productions
http://www.jazzafterhours.org/hatchcover.html


On Thursday, April 17, 2008, at 07:37  PM, georgetfuller at juno.com wrote:

>
>      Bobby's  playing is good  ,, the sound quality could have been 
> better ( it's just  O K  )  and audiance noise ?  That is one of the 
> issues that blows my mind  // Attend the Monterey Jazz Festival or 
> jazz gig at Kuumbwa Santa Cruz or jazz venue around the central  
> California Coast or northern California  -- you can hear every note of 
> the performing musicians -- the audiance is attentive and very 
> respectful of who is on stage and the other people at the event who 
> are there to hear the concert //  we have recieved releases of great 
> ballads only to hear an audiance  ( for instance  at the blue note  ) 
> that think it's all about them  //   please ,, enact a no talking 
> policy at least during  the performance of a ballad // over 800 
> concerts later at the Jazz  and Blues  Company  KRML  since 1995  -   
> the audiance is cool - George Fuller / Facilities Director KRML Carmel 
> , Ca.
> ____________________________