Lindy Hip Big Band ' The Opener '

[thedon]

Here is Version 1 Of this great tune, Well recorded and performed by excellent musicians ,needs more work especially with balance .

[Dangerous]

Sounding good with headphones Don. Am I hearing a fairchild hitting a little hard on the master? not sure. Anyway you're off to a great start. Will have to have a look at this one myself. There's something nice about mixing these tunes.

[bido26]

Hi Don,

I'm the tracking engineer who done this session, also played guitar on the track.
Many thanks for your mix, sounds good.
Just some details how it was done if anyone is interested.
The session was done in Adelaide at the bands rehearsal room.
Recorded on a old Mackie 24 track HDR, with Nady PR-8 pre-amps and a Beringer mixer (for DI'ed bass and piano) the guitar was overdubbed.
A mixture of Shure 57's and Beringer copy of the 57's (cheap mic's), an O/H for drums was a Studio Projects condenser Mic.
The session was almost pure guess work, as I had no monitoring, we just placed the mic's in position and hoped for the best.
The session was very productive, we put down 17 tunes in about 2 hours work, almost all tracks are one take.
Hope this back ground is of some help to those mixing.
I hope to post some more from this session, including some female vocal with the band.
Ciao Bill

[thedon]

Sounding good with headphones Don. Am I hearing a fairchild hitting a little hard on the master? not sure. Anyway you're off to a great start. Will have to have a look at this one myself. There's something nice about mixing these tunes.

Hi ,you right about the fairchild hitting the master ,Need to do more automation to tame some dynamics.
Looking forward to hearing your mix if you decide to have a go
Cheers

[thedon]

Hi Don,

I'm the tracking engineer who done this session, also played guitar on the track.
Many thanks for your mix, sounds good.
Just some details how it was done if anyone is interested.
The session was done in Adelaide at the bands rehearsal room.
Recorded on a old Mackie 24 track HDR, with Nady PR-8 pre-amps and a Beringer mixer (for DI'ed bass and piano) the guitar was overdubbed.
A mixture of Shure 57's and Beringer copy of the 57's (cheap mic's), an O/H for drums was a Studio Projects condenser Mic.
The session was almost pure guess work, as I had no monitoring, we just placed the mic's in position and hoped for the best.
The session was very productive, we put down 17 tunes in about 2 hours work, almost all tracks are one take.
Hope this back ground is of some help to those mixing.
I hope to post some more from this session, including some female vocal with the band.
Ciao Bill

Hi Bill ,
Thanks so much for sharing your recording and session information, might have to get some tips on mic techniques for brass ,nice guitar playing, would love to hear more !

Cheers Don

[bido26]

Hi Don,

Yes... no problems, thanks for the nice comment. Happy to share what little i know about Mic placement. I have some photos taken at the session, gives some idea of how it was done. Your mix sounds great, have had a further listen, you plan to do more work on the mix?

ciao Bill

[thedon]

Hi Don,

Yes... no problems, thanks for the nice comment. Happy to share what little i know about Mic placement. I have some photos taken at the session, gives some idea of how it was done. Your mix sounds great, have had a further listen, you plan to do more work on the mix?

ciao Bill

Hi Bill
would love to see some pics if you have time ,needs more work, I think i went a little overboard trying to make it sound big using harmonic exciters to bring out the brass and would like to spend more time keeping the dynamic range and manually taming some heavy peeks on individual brass tracks which are hitting the master bus in the brass swells ,a tedious job without affecting the whole track with compression which i need to lean more about and would love some advice on an easier way .

Thanks
Don

[bido26]

Hi Don,

Yes... no problems, thanks for the nice comment. Happy to share what little i know about Mic placement. I have some photos taken at the session, gives some idea of how it was done. Your mix sounds great, have had a further listen, you plan to do more work on the mix?

ciao Bill

Hi Bill
would love to see some pics if you have time ,needs more work, I think i went a little overboard trying to make it sound big using harmonic exciters to bring out the brass and would like to spend more time keeping the dynamic range and manually taming some heavy peeks on individual brass tracks which are hitting the master bus in the brass swells ,a tedious job without affecting the whole track with compression which i need to lean more about and would love some advice on an easier way .

Thanks
Don

Hi Don,
Yes I'll send some pics of the session by PM, don't want to post on the site.
From a musical sense, a big band has very wide dynamics, similar to what a symphony orchestra does. In my mix, I used no compression (only on the Bass track) to try and emulate what you would hear listening to a big band. On the master used just a touch of harmonic exciters to brighten up a bit. But..... my mix sounds lacking in punch and not so crisp and clean as the other mix's I have listened to so far.
Not sure what way to go with this! what did they do in the old days when mastering for disk cutting machines!

Ciao Bill

[thedon]

Hi Don,

Yes... no problems, thanks for the nice comment. Happy to share what little i know about Mic placement. I have some photos taken at the session, gives some idea of how it was done. Your mix sounds great, have had a further listen, you plan to do more work on the mix?

ciao Bill

Hi Bill
would love to see some pics if you have time ,needs more work, I think i went a little overboard trying to make it sound big using harmonic exciters to bring out the brass and would like to spend more time keeping the dynamic range and manually taming some heavy peeks on individual brass tracks which are hitting the master bus in the brass swells ,a tedious job without affecting the whole track with compression which i need to lean more about and would love some advice on an easier way .

Thanks
Don

Hi Don,
Yes I'll send some pics of the session by PM, don't want to post on the site.
From a musical sense, a big band has very wide dynamics, similar to what a symphony orchestra does. In my mix, I used no compression (only on the Bass track) to try and emulate what you would hear listening to a big band. On the master used just a touch of harmonic exciters to brighten up a bit. But..... my mix sounds lacking in punch and not so crisp and clean as the other mix's I have listened to so far.
Not sure what way to go with this! what did they do in the old days when mastering for disk cutting machines!

Ciao Bill

Hi bill ,
I will Pm you my email if you have time to share a pic or two
choosing which way to go with the sound is a personal choice sometimes i use something like Herb Alpert to Vince Jones & grace night for some inspiration,I really like the natural sound of your reference mix !

Don

[loweche6]

Really nice spacing! To me, though, your room feels a little like a "Cafetorium" (if you're not familiar, they are a combination cafeteria and auditorium built into one [read: tile everywhere]). It's not a bad sound at all. . . but the verb does feel a tad restrictive, imo. Your balances are really nice, but I hear that compressor hitting everything fairly heavy. Maybe pull back just a touch on the threshold?

Nice work Don.

Draper