[Dixielandjazz] Acoustics

[Charles Suhor]

When playing with a combo or big band in an echo environment like a gym 
or a shopping mall, my best break is when I know the book, the head 
arrangements, musicians' approaches to time, etc., because of 
longstanding playing with the group. Hard to explain, but based on this 
prior knowledge we can visualize what we can't hear directly, and 
everybody "humors" everyone else as we lay into the time and phrasing. 
There's a limit to this that Jim has described but I've never been in 
that bad a situation. Also, it's much worse if an electric guitar or 
piano are playing a flat four-on-the-beat rather than comping, because 
the delay in 4/4 is very unforgiving.

Charlie Suhor


On Mar 29, 2005, at 11:15 AM, Jim Kashishian wrote:

>> The drums were coming back about a half second late.
>
> This is an interesting subject that I have mentioned to our pianist 
> many
> times.  (He happily sends me on my way with some phrase or other that I
> can't mention here!)
>
> If we are on a large stage in a fairly large auditorium with the drums 
> to
> one side, the bass in the middle, and the acoustic (grand) piano to the
> other side of the bass...and, the two front men (me, included) standing
> equally between them in the front, we can often hear two different 
> times
> going on behind us.
>
> It is not a repeat of a beat, or anything so bad as that, but you just 
> know
> that "it's not all together" behind you.  Cuts down on the possibility 
> of
> that "magic drive" you get from the rhythm section when all is fine.
>
> I try to explain to the pianist that, since he only wants his piano in 
> his
> monitor, there is no way in hell he can play perfectly in time with the
> drummer (who has the whole mix), as he is hearing the drums after it 
> goes up
> into the heavens & comes back.
>
> He can't believe that the distance can make a difference, but I can 
> easily
> hear (in my studio) 25 miliseconds of delay applied to the left 
> speaker with
> no delay applied to the right one.  I just know that there is more 
> than 25
> mS between the position of the piano to the drums & the piano on a 
> large
> stage when you account for the area above (where all the scenery 
> floats!).
>
> Any comments from you "tech freaks" out there?
>
> Jim
>
>
>
>
>
>
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