[Dixielandjazz] Monitors - Was recording Jazz

[Robert S. Ringwald]

Paul et al:

While your technical info is correct, the problem with hearing drums or
other instruments that are 10, 15, 20 feet away can be compounded by the
various echos bouncing around from the ceiling, floor walls, etc.

Sure they can be measured in milliseconds, but they can still give you
problems.

It is not so bad when you are doing a live performance & you have the
ambiance, crowd noise, etc.

But, when someone is listening to your recording in their front room without
the ombiance, the slight deviations in rhythm  can become apparent.

During the Turk Murphy Carneigie Hall concert in about 1988, my daughter
Molly I sat onstage behind the band as the place was full.  We could hear
the rhythm section in real time & the horns 1/4 second later bouncing off of
the back wall because their backs were to us.

This was in Carneigie Hall which is supposed to have superb acoustics.

When I mentioned it to Jim Cullum during the intermission, he gave us seats
in his box out front.  Sitting there, the sound was great!

I once recorded for producers who insisted on having artistic control--Bad
mistake.  Their comment was, "90% of the people will never know the
difference."

My reply was, "Yes but it is the other 10% that I am worried about."

I can tell you of a couple of stupid musical decisions that they made, but
that will be for another time when we are dissing producers.

Bob
mr.wonderful at ringwald.com
Placerville, CA, USA, Earth, Sol's System, Milky Way
Amateur (ham) Radio Station K6YBV
Fulton Street Jazz Band
See: http://www.ringwald.com
Boondockers Jazz & Comedy Band
See: http://www.theboondockers.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stephen Barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 8:12 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Monitors - Was recording Jazz


> > <paul.edgerton at eds.com> wrote about sound delay. (polite snip)
>
> > .the speed of sound is roughly 1100f/s. To
> > have a one-second delay the other instrument would have to 1100 feet
away.
> > If the drums are only 15 feet away, that's a delay of about 7
milliseconds.
> >
> > This is an example of the Haas Effect, which says that for delays less
than
> > roughly 20 ms (the exact threshold varies among individuals) the delayed
> > sound cannot be separated from the original. The ear hears it as one
sound.
> > Delays of more than 20 ms become two distinct sounds.
>
> Thank you Paul. Our band never uses monitors and I was beginning to get an
inferiority complex about not using them from sound guys who would tell us
that we couldn't
> possibly keep correct time without them, because of sound delay or
inability to hear. None of us are ever more than 12 feet away from anyone
else in the band, or more than 6
> feet from the drummer. And we just have a "thing" about not using them.
Hard to get us old guys to modernize, I guess.
>
> So far, we've managed to keep time pretty well as evidenced by the
swinging rhythm section heard on our live CD, recorded in a 1200 seat
concert hall without monitors.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
>
>
>
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