jim anderson

I forgot to mention that the multi-track master of "Let's Get Lost" is 24 track analogue with Dolby SR noise reduction (15ips 185nw/+0) and the mix was an analogue on an SSL 9000 J. The two layers on the SACD are identical. The only difference between the two stereo layers is their resolution. You can clearly hear the difference between SACD and Redbook.

Jazz 1 I just spent the last couple of days listening to Gonzalo and his quintet at the Village Vanguard in celebration of the release of "Avatar." When we recorded those tunes, they were hot off the press and now the band has them under their skin. They've just returned from a tour of Russia and are hitting the road some more. The "Avatar" piano is a Yamaha 9' grand. I was trying something a little different with the sonics of the band, in general, and wouldn't mind hearing some opinions. Best, Jim

Bill, Jane and I (I may have described this in a previous note) came up with this idea an album or two ago. The first may have been on "Like Silver, Like Song." The thought was that we'd certainly like to have this played on the radio, but she'd also like to be able to present it in the manner that she'd perform the set, live. Since there's generally room on most CD's for a little extra (or lagnappe, a little something extra, as the folks in Louisianna might call it - spelling optional), I suggested that we create the 'concert suite' that she was looking for and tuck it in as an MP3. We do this after the project's been mastered, insuring the same sound as the CD. It takes us about two hours to create the suite and we bounce it in real time as a 44.1kHz file that Alan Silverman can turn into a high quality MP3. I say 'high quality' because not all MP3's are alike and he takes care in the coding of the low resolution file. I hope you're enjoying it! Best, Jim

Hasn't died in my house...

On the "Solo" CD, there's no difference. The original was recorded for Blue Note and the import shouldn't be any different, unless they put in a bonus tune (which I doubt). While recording that album, I tracked enough microphones to make a proper surround mix, if it was ever called for. My favorite track is the second... The new Gonzalo recording "Avatar" will be released by Blue Note 2.8.08

jazz1 What do you think of the piano sound on Gonzalo Rubalcaba's album "Solo"

Groover, Would you want to expand on what you're calling the size of the voice? These days, many projects are mixed many ways: vocal up, vocal down, vocal stems, etc., and the decision is made in the mastering. I really don't work that way and don't like to give others the opportunity to play around with the mix. As far as who's making the decision, not to be facetious, it's the one who's writing the check. It could be the artist, producer, record company, etc. I know, I like to work in the studio and create a balanced mix that everyone agrees upon. The mix can be manipulated a little in mastering, but not drastically remixed. As far as the piano in Mythologies, thanks, it's a 7' Fazioli. http://www.fazioli.com/eng/index.php It was interesting, for me. When I first heard the instrument, I had to come up with some new tricks to record it. It didn't project like a Yamaha or a Steinway. We used a Fazioli on the new recording, as well, and I'm pretty proud of what we were able to come up with.

I am sure that they must be a difference, but why is SACD disapearing? I noticed that the last Patricia Barber never made it to SACD, will the new one have the same fate? As a music lover with a few 1000's RBCD should I invest in a SACD player? How many SACD's sound better than the best RBCD,s you've recorded. Thanks

When we would record David Murray albums in the '90's and we ended up with a 17 minute cut ("David Murray Big Band"), or a 35 minute cut ("Picasso"), we'd just put it first on the album! Why not? I told that story to Mike Friedman after we had recorded the tracks for Patricia Barber's "Modern Cool" and that's how "Touch of Trash" ended up being placed first. Put it out there and don't be shy...

Jane's MP3 suite of music runs @60minutes!

Most of these demonstrations have some reason that the recordings can't compared in an A-B demonstration: different mastering, etc. I would direct you to my recording of Terrance Blanchard "Let's Get Lost." It is available in SACD and Redbook versions. The master was stereo DSD and Mark Wilder and I mastered it in SACD. The Redbook version is a downstream of the SACD mastering. It's one of the few recordings that allow a direct comparison to be made. Give the two versions a listen and tell me that the difference can't be heard. I presented this set of recordings on a High Resolution Panel at the AES Convention in 2001 and we could hear the difference from the dias sitting behind the speakers, instantly. On the panel was Tom Jung, Akira Fukada, Elliot Maser, George Massenberg, and myself. Believe me, there is difference. JA

No, of course Monk didn't play on KoB. That might have been interesting, though. But the piano was used on Monk's Columbia albums and other Columbia 30th Street recordings. Clinton has many of the M49's and other tube microphones from CBS (they still have the CBS property numbers etched on them). You know that one classic shot of Miles and an M49 on the back of one of his albums, I've always imagined that that microphone was in the Clinton collection... We used Studio A, the large room, to record, and Studio B, the smaller room, to mix. The control rooms are almost similar. Studio B's control room is @a foot smaller in size, except height

Is there a difference? Yes. Jim

Hi Bill, You know, the interesting thing that Jane and I have done on her past two CD's that many might not be aware of is that when we're done mixing, we take the album and turn the tracks into a suite. This began because Jane was of two minds of how to present the music on "Like Silver.." When she performs, the music flows from one tune into another, but that's impractical when hoping that a radio programmer, etc., might want to only play a single track. I suggested that we create a 'suite' from the album's music and put it on the CD as an MP3 that could be downloaded and listened to on an iPod or computer. There's always room left over on the CD and this way we have the best of both worlds and the fan could have a sense of how Jane might present this music in concert. And we've done that, again, on this new CD. Jim, You know Quad 8 consoles had the highest voltage on the rails giving them some of the highest headroom of any console available. I think the rails were at 32 volts. You might (should?) be able to use your tape machine as your master and have your PT rig slave to it, rather than make the machine follow the PT. It won't be too rock and roll. It'll be great sound. What tape do you plan to use? I did a Ron Carter CD, "The Golden Striker," with 15 ips, 16 track and Dolby SR. Oh, by the way, check out very end of the Cassandra track "Little Girl Lost." Now there's some good old analogue print thru! You can hear her coming AND going! Come to think about it, the piano on that album was the house Steinway D at Clinton Recording (it's the original Columbia 30th Street Studio Steinway which would have been played by Monk and Bill Evans on Kind of Blue and others) and I miked it with a pair of Schoeps cardiod microphones Best, Jim

Hi Jim, Thanks for the wake-up call and good to hear from you. I hope you'll be able to make it to an Audio Engineering Society Convention, someday. This past one, last October, was a major success. A lot has happened to me over the past year. I've got a few new albums in the pipeline: Last summer, I recorded a new album with pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba for Blue Note. This new one is with his trio and horns, for the first time. There's a new project releasing soon with soprano saxophonist, Jane Ira Bloom, and her band drummer, Matt Wilson, bassis,t Mark Helias, & pianist, Dawn Clement. http://www.janeirabloom.com/ I recorded and mixed a project for James Carter for Universal/UK with Michael Cuscuna producing, a new John Zorn - Bar Kokhba Sextet CD called Lucifer: The Book of Angels Vol.10. I engineered the New York City contribution to the NPR's New Year's Eve broadcast, Toast of the Nation. Trio da Paz w/Kenny Barron rang in the new year. Two weeks ago, I was in the studio with pianist, Kenny Barron, tracking his next project for Verve/France, which we'll mix next week, and right now I'm at home listening to the mastering of the new Patricia Barber album for Blue Note, entitled: "The Cole Porter Mix" to be released in the spring. We'll put this puppy to bed, shortly. All of this happened while chairing the department at school and charing the AES Convention, this past October. (I'm also honored to be President-elect of the AES, to be effective next October, following the San Francisco Convention) And we sent our first round of graduates into the world from NYU, of which I'm very proud. I'll attach a PDF of the studio we built at NYU for you to see, if that's possible on the forum. Now about your 2" 16 track Scully. Good on you, as they might say in Canada! I love that format. If you want to check out a couple of projects that I engineered in that format, check out "Rendezvous" with Cassandra Wilson and Jackie Terrasson and "Hubsongs" the music of Freddie Hubbard played by Tim Hagans and Marcus Printup both produced by Bob Belden for Blue Note. 15ips, no noise reduction, +3/185, 2" 16 Track. Got To Love It! A while back, I worked in a studio in Providence, RI that had a 2" 16 track at the output of their pro-tools system, so you could the PT fixes and then get the good stuff from the analogue machine. I did a recording of the Norbotten Big Band, lead by Tim Hagans, with all of the horns on the analogue machine and the rhythm section on PT, which was locked to the tape. After any fixes, etc. that had to be done, we'd bounce it back to the PT and then re-use the roll of tape for the next take. So, it eventually ended up being a 40 track PT session, but the first 23 tracks were of analogue origin. The new Patricia Barber that I'm listening to right now, was 24/96 with the Lynx Aurora front end of the PT for the mix (http://www.lynxstudio.com/aurora/index.html) and used an Ampex ATR 1/2" with Dolby SR +0/185, 15ips for the mix, which I oversaw the transfer back to digital in 24/96 and we used that for the mastering. I also need to give props to John Hardy for all the M-1 microphone preamplifiers he loaned us (the only other pre used were my 4 channels of Millenia). OK, enough from me. What's going on out there? Best, Jim ps that episode (that very episode!) of The Colbert Report was nominated for an Emmy for Best Direction - who would have thought?.

The Colbert people contacted the NYU publicity people, who, in turn, contacted the Tisch folks. They were looking for someone on the panel that would provide the proper amount of gravitas. I trust I complied.

From our chatting between acts, I got the impression he would have been for Frampton. But, frankly, we were all impressed by Chris, as well.

Not only am I the envy of my engineering friends, I'm the envy of my regular friends, colleagues, students, my children, neighbors, and other lovers of the Truth. Glad you saw the show.

I completely agree!

Soul Stream, I just remembered, if you want to hear how an organ DI can be used effectively, check out Dan Wall's "Off the Wall" on Enja. While mixing Track two (which is such a hit that I really feel it should have been track 1!), and other tracks, Dan kept having me creep up the DI in the mix, over the course of the record (am I showing my age?). He felt it was the first time that he was hearing a real solid 'bass' sound out of the organ. I had hooked it up in the first place from the preproduction conversations that we had. He was looking for a bit more contemporary sound than his past recordings and I felt this might go a long way to helping him find this sound. Best, Jim

Soul Stream, The percentage of DI was very small. 10% perhaps? Just enough to support the bottom end, since there was no bass player on the date. Reiner, It depends on many things, budget, project, sound, etc. Ron Carter's project "The Golden Striker" was 16 track 2" analogue with Dolby SR, 15ips. That's my favorite format (with or without the Dolby SR). But, if I'm going digital, I'll try for the highest resolution that the budget will allow: 24/96 or 24/48 24/192 is a bit unweildy. Best Jim

By the way, say 'Hi' to Rich Lamb for me. It's been a while.

Allen and Jim, I agree with both of you. The U 87 can be the appropriate microphone for many instruments, but it depends on the tone of the player. For example, with John Zorn playing alto, I wouldn't recommend it. Even some players such as Michael Brecker think the U 47 is too bright. Go figure. That's when I use a ribbon, Coles, RCA, what have you. I usually don't use a combination of microphones on a player, but I might on an amp. It's easier to do that technique like that on something stationary, rather than a player. They do tend to move around. Although, I used to use a combination B&K 4007/RCA DX 77 on Ray Anderson for the edge and the meat of his sound. Good questions Jim

Soul Stream, Thanks. That was the 2nd of Terry's records that I was involved with. The first was to mix the "52nd Street Stories" album. I guess if Joey had something to say about the sound, he would have said something to me. The organ at O'Henry Studio in Burbank was in first rate condition, leaving me with a very easy job of capturing the sound. The only thing that I did was to install a DI. Since this was a live recording with audience, I wanted to cover my tracks and have a signal that I could work with, jic (just in case). The whole session was done at one end of the studio; from left to right: Joey, Guitar, Terry, Conga, Eric with drums directly behind Terry. Only Jerry, the drummer, wore headphones, the remainder of the band could hear everyone acoustically. I had made up a make-shift house for Jerry to give me a chance to get sounds on everyone else, especially the vibes. There were four continuous sets consisting of 2 hours each recorded over 2 days recorded live in front of an audience. I used 3 Coles 4038's for the vibes. For Joey, I believe that I used my ususual DPA 4007's on top and a Sanken CU-41 on the bottom. I've recorded Bobby live, a couple of times, but as far as the studio, he's not made many trips to NYC for recording. The one opportunity that I had to work with him was Kenny Barron's "Other Places" for French Verve in February of 1993. Rufus, Victor, Ralph More fill out the band. It was recorded in a tiny east side studio called East Side Sound over a couple of evenings. I may have said this before, but as far as vibes go, I'm better off not using condensor microphones. Dynamic microphones, ribbon microphones are the best for me. The condensor is too quick and one hears the leading edge of the note and not the tone. Since changing over to dynamic microphones, my studio life has been easier. Take a listen to that album, it's one of Kenny's best. Jim

jazzhound that's a good and complicated question that you ask and i'll engage in some blunt 'truthiness', as stephen colbert would call it, here for some, it was a good thing for many, the oposite the ownership of the studio didn't understand the importance of the facility to the music industry, the audio community, and even the staff, in general to the ownership, it really was a business and, ultimately, a piece of real estate to be sold it was never offered to be sold as a studio, lock, stock, and barrel, which is unfortunate the studio ironically closed fully booked! i mixed the final projects in studio 4, 'terry gibbs-feelin' good-live in the studio' and sean jones 'gemini' the studio wasn't closed wanting for work, it was closed so it could be sold and turned into condos i hope you're feeling my rage and pain, here many friends of mine lost jobs that they had for years, some have recovered; others have not what this meant to the community in general is a mixed bag avatar studios, and others, have reaped the benefits, with more work coming in their doors this keeps a great many people happily employed i've seen a lot of studios close for a great many reasons in my 25+ years in new york many, like hit factory, a&r, etc. didn't have to close some, which i won't name, should ('truthiness' can only go so far) others open, (someone feels the need to loose a lot of money and decides that they should open a studio) it's like that old joke about how does a jazz musician make a million dollars? give them two million hit factory closed and people moved on that's what essentially it meant, i feel thanks for giving me the chance to talk a bit, jim