jim anderson

What are some of the problems that you encounter in your listening?

I'd like to see you change your cheapo rca interconnects with some good MIT (or equivalent) cables. I had the experience of when I was moving into my new house and was setting up my system while unpacking. I just grabbed some rca's, hooked up the cd player to the Levinson Pre and played a cd that was handy (I had already taken the Wilsons out of the crates and my back was hurting a little). The system and the cd sounded fine. When I found the MIT interconnects and hooked them up, a cd turned from sounding ok to very interesting. It was beyond being just a technical issue, the cables made the music sound better! JA

Ok. I'll get things started: The first most common mistake by engineers that I notice is not checking the polarity of the bass di in relation to the microphone, when recording the acoustic bass. The inverse polarity can cause notes to totally disappear or generally make the sound very thin. Another is using a di in which the input impedance is too low, causing a loading which could cause a distortion of the frequency response of the pickup. These kind of problems have been the reason for certain producers calling the bass di 'dreaded'. And you know who they are! I use bass di all the time and in one of my mixes on the recording console you can turn off the bass di and it really won't be noticed that it's gone. A feeling of support will have vanished. JA

Dear B3-ER, Please be my guest. JA

My friend and collegue David Baker died this past summer. I was asked by the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society to reflect on his passing for their publication and this is what I wrote: David Baker, a noted audio engineer, who specialized in jazz, member of the Society and friend, died at the age of 58 in Rochester, New York on July 14, 2004. In the jazz world there are two David Bakers by name: one a leading composer from the University of Indiana and the other an unparalleled engineer. To those of us who knew “Baker”, there was only one. David was born into the audio business as his father, Harry, owned Baker Audio in Atlanta. The company specialized in audio installations for home and professionals. David fondly recalled how, as a young boy, his father would take him to public spaces where he was responsible for the public address installation. The pair would stand and listen for a moment to the public address system and its quality. Harry Baker would exclaim to his young son: “That’s my sound!” Looking back, I believe, that’s where David started his quest to find his own sound. In the back room at Baker Audio, David began experimenting with an Ampex 600 series tape recorder. His living in the south and his audio explorations would eventually lead to his documenting moments in the civil rights struggle of the 60’s. The recordings resulted in the aural history album “Movement Soul” which was released by Folkways. David rarely spoke of his training at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto or at the Institute of Audio Research in New York City, but I’m sure he felt that his real education began at the Apostolic Studios, which were a part of Vanguard Records in the 60’s and 70’s. At Vanguard, David worked with many of the influential rock and jazz performers of the day. My first sightings of his credit for engineering were on “Introducing Larry Coryell and the 11th House” and “Jaco” with Jaco Pastorius, Pat Metheny and Paul Bley in the mid 1970’s. With recordings such as those to his name, he was, in my mind, already a legend. During the early 1980’s, David was no longer to me a credit line on a recording but a close and trusted friend. I remember seeing his date book listing his work for a month. There listed in his upcoming work was a Who’s Who in the world of jazz: Art Blakey, Joe Henderson, Jack DeJohnette, Dave Liebman, Tommy Flanagan, Art Farmer, Elvin Jones, John Abercrombe, Max Roach...one could only dream to work with musicians of such a caliber. David was always busy and always in demand in the studio. If I knew David was working, I would drop by the studio to watch him work and take a look at his layout of musicians and his microphone arrangement. He played a recording studio like a musical instrument and he was never afraid to let anyone, musicians, technicians and producers alike, have the benefit of his knowledge. David always remarked that there were no secrets or mystery in audio and anyone that tried to say that there were, was a charlatan. David was also never afraid to have or give his honest opinion. I recently asked producer Michael Cuscuna about pianist Don Pullen’s final recording “Sacred Common Ground” which Michael produced and David recorded in Power Station’s Studio C in 1994. He told me this story: The recording was a rather complicated arrangement with Native American drummers and singers, African percussionists, and jazz instrumentalists all recorded direct to two track. Late in the session, which was early in the morning, around 3 am, a tired and confused Don Pullen asked Michael, “What do you think?” Cuscuna replied that he wasn’t certain and he turned the question back to Don. Pullen had no idea, either. Don then asked David for his input. “I don’t know, Don” was the response from David and then he left the control room to get some air. When David had gone Don shook his head and said to Michael: “For twenty-five years, he’s been giving me his opinion when I never asked for it and now that I ask for it, he doesn’t have one!” And now that David has left the room, I’d like to hear his opinion one more time. He is survived by his wife, Kyoko, four sisters, and a couple thousand wonderful recordings. -Jim Anderson

Dear Jazzhound, Thanks for the kind words, but I must give the credit to Troy Halderson. Due to a scheduling snafu, I wasn't available for the original recording. Thanks to Don Sickler and Roy Haynes, they asked me to come in and mix the project. I do know that Troy likes the classic Neumann M 49's that they have on hand at Clinton (they came from Columbia's 32nd street studios, as they have etched 'CBS' and an inventory number on them) for horns. (I always like to imagine that the one you're using is the one pictured in the classic photo of Miles listening to a playback in the studio). The one thing that I did was to insist on using analogue tape for the master. That may be supplying some of the air that you're hearing! Best JA

Phil, Thanks for the kind words. As you know, Terry has very definite ideas of what he wants! I used the Sony 777 along with a couple of EMT plates as the basic reverbs. On the Sony I used a custom reverb that I sampled for the last Patricia Barber project, "Verse" along with the St. John the Divine. I didn't use any of the automation on the computer and brought all of the tracks out to the SSL K series console's faders. I always feel that using the mix bus on the computer lacks something that a good analogue console can provide. You're right about giving the bg elements their own sound. The strings had a little longer 'verb than the soloists. I felt the strings should be lush and fill out the arrangements, as you had intended. I also have to give a nod to Scott Hull's mastering on the project. His gear always sounds great on this kind of project. As far as new projects: I'm in the middle of a project with Tim Hagans and his Norbotten Big Band and the Swedish folk group Väsen. We'll be in Piteå, Sweden, in July to finish mixing and in September Patricia Barber's new cd will be released: "A Fortnight in France". It was recorded on her recent tour in 24/96 and I delivered the mixes for mastering in the same format. She's got some great new songs. My favorite is the opening number "Gotcha". Typical Patricia: humorous, intelligent, pithy... There's a couple of Chinese traditional music projects on FIM, the latest of which is on SACD in stereo and surround, along with 2 others that are in the can and will be released over the next year or so. Also a new project for Mack Avenue, Sean Jones, that should be out by now. Pete Malinverni on Reservoir and a TV show on PBS "In Performance at the White House" featuring Natalie Cole. All that, along with the new program at NYU (The Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music) and I have enough on my plate! Best JA

Had an interesting discussion with Dave Greene, concerning micing the top part of the Leslie. His brother Ed Greene suggests putting the microphones 180º on the horns and Dave likes to put them at 90º. Give both a shot. JA

Hi, For some reason I've recorded quite a few organ albums in my day. I use a basic technique that i picked up from Hollywood mixer Ed Greene: 2 omnis across from each other (180º) and a card in the bottom/back. On both make sure you don't get hit by wind blasts as the mechanisms fly by top and bottom. Now it's critical for the player to get the mix of right hand lines (or left and right hand lines) and bass lines (whether they come from pedals-which many times they don't-or from the left hand-which many times they do) because all the bottom speaker is - is a low pass of the horns on top and the horns on top is a high pass of the feed for the bottom. i have taken in a di from the organ for being able to tighten up the bottom end (on one of my favorite cd's Dan Wall's "Off the Wall" on Enja-track 2 is a killer and should have been the opening track!). Dan had never had that done to his organ in the past and found it invaluable to getting the sound that he wanted. i've been told by very reliable sources that the di is the key to the early jimmy smith recordings by rvg, who shall remain nameless mic pre designer, john hardy, an accomplished organist in his own right, gave me a schematic for the b3 and leslie which we used for determining the proper spot for picking off the sound i do recommend finding one and going to a good tech to give you a hand, otherwise you'll have that club owner on your back again also, CHECK THE POLARITY when you record i can't stress this enough! now, i was at a day long seminar in toronto this past june and presented a couple of tracks, one of which was from jimmy smith's damn (same organ set up as angel eyes-previous day) and Ed Greene's brother Dave, a monster mixer based in Toronto, told me he disagrees with his brother's technique and likes to put the upper microphones at 90º He feels that you get more of the leslie effect at 90º than at 180º My feeling is that you've cut yourself down to recording 25% of the swing of the top speakers instead of 50%. Everyone to their own devices. One effective approach to the bassline/pedal clarity is German organist Barbara Dennerlein. She has a special midi pedal that she takes with her, and uses with any organ, and triggers that to a sample that she has of a bass player. it may be a famous bass player but don't tell them, there will be royalties to pay. (and i'm only guessing, i didn't ask because i didn't want to know) as far as mics, i may have stated this in the past, but i've consistantly used b and k 4007's for the top and sanken cu-41's for the bottom with the omni-it's less prone to wind noise hope that clears things up

Next?

The only thing wrong with a basement studio is if it puts the aural stamp of 'basement studio' on the recording and I can't do anything otherwise with the tracks. It's a combination of myself, the artist and the music itself that is telling us to leave it in the basement studio or put it in Carnegie Hall. Jane loves for her music to soar and it's my job to make it do that with whatever it takes to do that. If it didn't soar, you'd know it and, at the least, be wondering: "What happened?"

Mike, My technique in recording (multitrack, that is) is to not do anything that I can't reverse later. This means my tracks will be dry (no reverb) and flat (no eq) for the most part. This comes from many reasons: the wonderful tube eq that you've been using on the featured horn player has begun to spit and sputter during THE take, for example...Taste in reverb changes over time, big room, small room, no room...Most of the recordings from studios are close miked and something has to be added in the mix. If someone else is mixing a multi that I've recorded, I shouldn't box them into a sound and I'm not crazy about it if they've done that to me. They should have put some of the air from the room on a couple of extra tracks for me. That always comes in handy (Val Valentine taught me that). In the mix we'll use what we think makes a credible recording. If you listen to the new Jane Ira Bloom "Chasing Paint", James Farber recorded her band in a small basement studio in New York's Soho section. I mixed it at Avatar using the Sony 777 Sampling reverb, using a sampled space that I had made and also the Concertgebow sample that Sony provided (St. John the Devine comes in handy, too). Those factors you shouldn't be aware of. It should seem that it was always like this.

Roger, There's a couple of ways to set up a piano trio in a live situation that will result in a satisfactory recording. I've done it with Billy Taylor in the studio (where he doesn't want to wear headphones and he sets up this way live, too). On stage right (audience left) is the drummer, next to him is the bass player and to the bass player's left is the pianist's back. The two should be taking cues from the pianist anyway and really don't need to see his face for cues, the bass player can also watch the pianist's left hand for any quick changes he might make to the bottom of the chords. (Urban Griot, is the BT album in question). Also Oscar Peterson live at the BlueNote on Telarc was set up this way. The addition of the guitar slightly infront and stage right to the bass was the only change. This set-up gives you a fighting chance at a decent piano sound. A little plexi-sometimes can help, too. On Benny Greene "Testifyin'" at the Village Vanguard we put a couple of pieces around Carl's drum kit, but only about 3' high. Enough to help the recording but not enough to change the live sound for the band.

My most sincere apologies to all, but I have been busy, here and some of it not directly related to recording projects. And you must remember when baseball season begins, my loyalties get stretched very thin! As a VP of the Audio Engineering Society, I was invited to speak at the Toronto Day-long seminar "From the Producer's Chair". A fascinating day at the Regent Theatre (a teriffic post place during the day/and a first run movie house at night) which featured producers/engineers from TV (David Greene), Pop (Bob Ezrin), Film Scoring, and me on Jazz. I was also in Banff, Alberta for the Conference on Surround Sound with the likes of Bob Ludwig, George Massenberg, Peter Cook, Geoff Martin, David Moulton, Akira Fukada (and on and on) and about 200 other illuminaries-amazing people (here's a link: http://audioworld.com/cgi-bin/FrameIt.cgi?...ile=FrameIt.cfg and another http://www.banffcentre.ca/aes/) Paul Stubblebine and I presented a stereo/surround recording that we had worked on for FIM "The Flying Song" - chinese traditional instruements to be released first in XRCD and then in SACD stereo and 5.1 I also was in Vancouver working on the 2nd Chinese project for FIM, last weekend, that should be out next spring. I'm also finishing a new Von Freeman recording that's due out in the fall on Premonition. And not to mention I'm on the committe (with some very gifted people) helping to create the upcoming AES Convention in October (10-14). Hope you can make it to NYC!!! (another link: http://www.aes.org/events/115/) But the real news is in a press release that's going out soon: Jim Anderson, AES VP for Eastern Sections US and Canada, has been appointed Visiting Professor in the newly created Clive Davis Department for Recorded Music in the Tish School for the Arts at New York University. The Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music offers a course of study leading to a Bachelor of Fine Arts that is designed to educate students in all aspects of contemporary recorded music, with a special focus on the art of identifying musical talent and developing creative material within the complex range of recorded music technologies. The program, the first of its kind in the country, recognizes the creative record producer as an artist in their own right and musical recording itself as a creative medium. Anderson has been active on the New York recording scene for the past 23 years and prior to that was on staff at National Public Radio. And I've been seriously hitting the books! Ok that's enough about me.

I do know that sometimes RVG would put a pair of KM 84's, or if it were an earlier time, KM 54's or KM 56's (I may have those numbers incorrect, but I know what they look like) facing straight down to the sound board in the holes on the piano's harp. Each one hole in from both ends. It gives even coverage on the piano, but has that slightly stuffy sound that lacks articulation. And the piano's lid would be fully open.

Jim, You're missing Eddie's "My Foolish Heart" on Venus, featuring Scott Hamilton. It was recorded at Avatar Studios on September 26 & 27, 2002. Steve Gilmore was on bass and Bill Goodwin is on drums. And I totally agree with you, Eddie is in teriffic form. Jim Anderson

Go and push the red button. Best of sessions!

My nephew, Chris Anderson, is a talented engineer specializing in live sound and reinforcement. I'm posting an e-mail he sent me, yesterday. I'm presenting this to show some of the insanity we face in real situations. The Diva in question has, unfortunately for us, taken an audio course and is a shining example of a little knowledge being dangerous, very dangerous. I'm choosing to not disclose the name and location to protect the guilty. Chris writes: Fellow production folk, Because I care, I am sending this to save you the potential mistake of ever working or vending an (insert name of Diva<ja>) concert. I have mistakenly found myself mixing monitors for 2 dates here in (city in California<ja>) and as you can guess, I will never do it again. In utter disbelief I have written down many of the things that have occurred today as they are too absurd to just be forgotten. A note: A lot of this will not make sense to you. It did not make sense to us today either and was the source of myriad debates that occurred during this (insert action done to pig<ja>). I know what you're thinking, and I was the consummate professional. I was praised by many including the road manager and agent for not beating her lifeless right there on the stage. There were actually 3 monitor people here for the show. She insisted that no one be in charge but that we work together to "get it done." Keep in mind this crew was highly competent and had great attitudes. Despite this here is what happended. First some background: I spoke to DIVA's agent, road manager and Diva herself prior to coming to (city in California). I was told they have had some problems with monitor engineers in the past and they needed a patient and even tempered engineer for this show (stop laughing). The sound company was briefed same and to hedge their bet, brought excellent gear: Midas Heritage 3000, Meyer, Clair and EAW wedges (she got to pick) and EAW line array. I was faxed a memo from her with 5 points to follow for the show. 1. Do not use any splitters to get her mic into the consoles. "Just go direct." 2. Do not use any compression whatsoever on her mic/wedge/mix. 3. Do not use any eq on her channel/wedge/mix. 4. Do not set anything (what is there to set?) before she gets there. 5. Set all gains to Max for maximum gain and headroom. We began the day with signal flow. She supervised (supposedly she took a 6 week course in sound somewhere and is now completely untrusting of anyone who does sound as well). We connected her vocal mic directly to an input on the monitor desk, fed FOH from the pre fader direct out and then fed her vocal verb from a mix send on the desk. This was okay for about 1 minute. She decided that you cannot use a mix to feed the reverb and switched the reverb send to the direct out so it would "just come back on the faders." We were supposed to put the FOH feed on the "other" direct out, "these consoles have hundreds of direct outs don't they". We tried to fake her out by feeding FOH with a mix. For the rest of the day we changed this simple routing in the console as it was unacceptable to use the monitor board as monitor board. As this story starts to get really boring and no better, here are the highlights of the day as bullet points.(and in case you were wondering, you don't tell her anything, you also do not debate or otherwise offer a counter opinion.) -Essentially she wanted to magically split her vocal mic into 3 sends without using splitters or the console. -We changed her wedges twice -We changed her verbs twice because they "didn't move the meters on the console" -After the grueling 4 hour sound check where each band member pulled me aside and apologized for her, she changed her vocal mic right before curtain -We were not allowed to use a mix or send to drive her monitor mix -She cut all the subwoofers after soundcheck (had them removed) because her show didn't need "all that bass." This was not based on stage boom as it was very tame. It was based on perception. She never went out to listen and everyone including the promoter objected to cutting them -After sound check, she made the crew remove the front fills because "they would kill the audience" -She then made them put up "side fills for the audience." They could not be the 3 way EAW KF300s that were available, they had to be something "big" -After the "soundcheck" she posted her body guard behind the monitor desk with orders to not let any of us touch it no matter what. At this point the console was in mute and the send to FOH was off because she kept shutting it off. I had to point this out to her manager in order to get the console turned on for the show. -We kept moving the FOH feed around the console because she would walk behind the console and start pressing buttons and "turning things off that we were not using because the more things that were on, the more it would drain her power" -5 minutes late for curtain she freaked out again about how her mic was routed and wanted to "change it." She insisted we should have used a splitter. (Yes, you're right, she originally specified NO SPLITTERS, everything direct.) -She corrected my sloppy panning settings on the console because "they should all be straight up/center." She was commenting on and changing all the gains. -Asked that the monitor console be replaced 3 times as the VCAs were junk and it couldn't be trusted. The console was fine and very nice by the way -Had us take her vocal out of the bands mixes twice -She was nice enough to shut off some of the amps we "weren't using" including my cue. -Complained about the Crown amps that were being used for her monitors. The amps were house amps and her wedges were self powered, per her request. I rode back to the hotel with the backup singers who again apologized profusely and pointed out (in case I didn't already notice) that she is CRAZY. We are back tomorrow at 3PM to "sort out the sound problems". This is a cruel cruel joke! <He later wrote:> After re-reading my dispatch to all of you last night, I realized that it did not even touch on the lunacy of the preceedings. I had a nice talk with her manager this morning (everyone here has been lovely except for one person in particular). I pointed out that they apparently do not need a monitor engineer and I would be happy to be sent home. He thanked me for coming out and I think that is my 24th apology recieved this trip. We discussed the obvious and he closed with the statement "she is in a lot of pain." Whatever! There are no more flights out today but I am getting out early tomorrow AM. I guess the bodyguard is doing monitors for the 3PM sound check and the show tonight. It certainly isn't going to be me. Thanks for your support and yes I am still getting paid. JA

I'd want to give all three a listen and then decide, of you can arrange it. The other thing is that I always like to have a pair of microphones and never one of anything.

The list looks very good and the prices fair. I would make sure that with your vendor establish an agreement that you can return or exchange anything that you're not happy with or might like to 'audition'. Best of luck with your new rig!!

Ah, a bass amp! I'll bet you it's feedback from the speaker of the amp to the pickup or perhaps the pickup is picking up acoustic sounds (from the drums, possibly? can happen), other that those made by the bass and thereby causing the ring (or feedback). Knowing Michael, I'd say he's right.

I always put a high pass around 160hz on the high hat, I hate to go much higher (and a little 8K and perhaps a 10K shelf, too).

While in Amsterdam, I was able to catch Wayne's band at the Concertgebow. Danilo on piano, John on bass and Brian on drums. A great concert! He's a national treasure.

I have always liked Jim's show and was always pleased when I'm was in an area where I could pick it up. Thank god for the internet!

Many have recorded on it. Pete Malinverni, Jon Mayer, and Gary Smulyan's new one cd's, all on Reservoir; Roland Hanna and Eddie Higgins for Venus (both soon to be released); Bebo Valdes recorded his big band and a small group using it; Ron Carter's trio with Russell Malone and Mulgrew Miller, soon to be released on Somethin'Else (japan) and eventually Blue Note; Bill Charlap playing with the Phil Woods Quintet soon to be released on Verticle Jazz; Marc Copland and Greg Osby did a duo session for Nagel-Heyer; Eric Reed and Kenny Asher used it on a new singer for N-Coded, Raya Yarbrough. So, it's seeing some very nice usage. Also some other engineers have started using it: James Farber and David Baker to name a couple.