[Dixielandjazz] Our "long distance" recording

[jim at kashprod.com]

Andy asked how we went about doing our "long distance" recording:

 

Thanks, Andy.  I sent our drummer an idea of the tempo I wanted, and the
arrangement of choruses, solos, ending, etc.  He then laid down the drums
according to my "arrangement".  Next, the pianist played along with the
drums, followed by my singing & playing along with those two recordings.
Next, the trumpeter added in his bits, followed by the bass.  Our drummer
put it all together on a program he has on his Macintosh computer.  Don't
know what the program is, however, he says it is complicated & he's just
learning.  The drummer then redid his drum track to fit in with what we had
all done.

 

This is much the way most of the recording sessions I did during some 30 yrs
of session work.  The rhythm section would lay down their tracks, then the
winds would come in, followed by the strings, followed by the vocalist.
Terribly clinical!   Funny story:  when I was producing, I often used around
20 in the winds, and 35 in the string section.  I only once booked the brass
after lunch.  From then on, I always booked the winds in the am, and the
strings in the pm.  Note...Spanish lunch usually includes:  before dinner
drinks, a bottle of wine with the meal, after dinner drinks & even maybe a
cigar! (By the way.I DON'T do that!)

 

Back to our recording.  Each musician listened on their computer to the mix
of audio recorded previous to their additions while recording on their
smartphones the video & audio of their "bits".  Not a very musical way of
working, and not really musically satisfying at all.  Knowing each other in
the band so well, did allow each of us to leave a bit of room for the other
guy to fill in, particularly speaking about any interplay between myself &
the trumpeter.  I knew what he would be doing, more or less, after me, and
left room for him to do it.  

 

Anyway, I decided to try to put together an altogether new song for us
thinking that might be a little more fun than just banging out one of our
regular tunes.  It was mainly for our fans to enjoy while we still can't
perform publicly.  The result is nice enough, but as I said, the work itself
is tedious & not at all enjoyable.

 

Jim

 

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