[Dixielandjazz] The art of recording

[cmhallin at algonet.se]

It is with great interest that I have followed the discussions over the 
last few days on the philosophies and ideals of how music can and/or 
ought to be recorded.

So that my comments on these issues can be read in their proper light, 
I should perhaps first of all declare where I stand, generally, on the 
art of recording. For me, this is very similar to what I think of using 
(e.g.) stock arrangements, as discussed here last month: in the final 
analysis, for me it is the end result that counts. If is sounds good, 
it is good, and how you got there is of secondary importance.

More specifically, it is my opinion that, no matter you view on 
recording, it is of rather little value for this debate to claim the 
superiority of the recording practices of the direct engraving era, for 
the simple reason that (a few experiments aside) as long as you 
recorded directly to patrix, you really did'nt have much choice. What 
you played was what you got, because that was the only way to get 
anything at all. This is fair enough as it goes; however, we simply 
have no idea how the musicians of that era would have preferred to 
record, had they had access to the same techniques and equipments that 
we do.

I do, of course and obviously, recognise and tremendously admire the 
enormous skills displayed by the recording musicians of the direct 
engraving era, in overcoming the severe limitations of having to get 
everything at least satisfactory in one and the same take.

However, I don't think that recording everything in one and the same 
take makes the result intrinsically better than something recorded in 
multiple takes. This, in my opinion, is a romantic rather than a 
musical point of view (and I really wonder if those who claim the 
inherent superiority of single take over multiple could actually tell 
the difference in a blind test of modern recordings).

As a matter of fact, we know of at least certain musicians who 
recorded in both periods that they were not averse to availing 
themselves of technolgy as it developed. I'm specifically thinking of 
Louis Armstrong's recording of Atlanta Blues on his W.C. Handy album 
from the fifties, where he first plays a trumpet obligato behind his 
own singing, and then sings a duet with himself! Does this make it bad 
music? I don't think so...

This said, for my own recordings, I have always preferred to stay *as 
close as possible* to single take recording, although for slightly 
different reasons. In my view, music that is based on musicians 
reacting to and playing off each other as they go along(which should be 
that case for OKOM) , the result is likely to be musically richer and 
better if they're all playing at the same time.

This, however, has never stopped me from what I would consider a 
judicious amount of splicing between takes, because on one we nailed 
the song but fluffed the ending, or re-recording and splicing on just 
the ending. When you have limited ressources (studio time ain't exactly 
cheap), this practice makes sense, compared to always re-recording the 
complete performance. Not to mention that with the latter, you also 
risk the band, or individual musicians, losing their spontaneity and 
getting fed up with the song through too many takes.

Again, for me all of this boils down to this: a recording is not a 
live performance (unless, of course it purports to be a live recording) 
but a constructed piece of art, where what counts is whether or not you 
find the final result pleasing. Not necessarily perfect, or without 
fault. That is not what I mean. Something can have faults, and still be 
perfectly pleasing, or be perfect and faultlessly un-pleasing. If it 
sounds good to me, it is good to me. If the same thing sounds bad to 
you, it is of course bad to you, but only because of how it sounds to 
you, not how it came to be in the first place.

Whew. Thus endeth my sermon, or at least my tuppence'orth input.

All the best,

/Mattias


---
Mattias Hallin · Brussels · Belgium · <cmhallin at algonet.se>

"Oh bury me thar! With my battered git-tar!
A-screamin' my heart out fer yew!"