Recording Jazz: The absolute basics

Recording jazz can be one of the most rewarding and one of the most unnerving things a recording engineer has to deal with.

It's a blend of studio recording and and live recording. It requires the engineer to be constantly on his toes. However, recording jazz can be one of the most rewarding recording experiences you can have.

The first thing to remember when recording jazz is that jazz is an improvisational art and it is important to convey the sound and feel that was in the room at the time of recording. This means you will want to keep overdubs to a minimum or better yet don't overdub at all. This can be a foreign concept to many who record in home or project studios where very few sessions involve more than 3 or 4 instruments at a being recorded at a time (I'm counting drums as a single instrument).

When recording jazz you have to keep in mind the fact that the interaction between musicians is so critical in this style. So its vitally important for the musicians to be able to see and hear each other in the most natural way possible. This means you will most likely have to put musicians close together. So you are most likely going to have some bleed, but that's OK it will contribute to the overall sound of the recording. Excessive bleed happens when one instrument is playing to loud. You can control this bleed by positioning instruments in an intelligent way, this is the way the earliest recordings were done. The pioneers of recording would position the most important/quietest instruments closest to the recording device and position the louder instruments farther away. Doing this and making sure your mic choices and positions are right will keep bleed at a manageable and even profitable level.

While overdubs are undesirable when recording jazz I have occasionally had a jazz artist that wanted to overdub its rare and I wouldn't consider those artist as pure jazz musicians. If you must do an over dub it is important that if you can possibly record in the original space you do this is the best way to make sure your overdub gels with the main track.

Now if you haven't already guessed the most important thing in recording jazz is having a good room. Now a good room for recording pop may not be a good selection for jazz. You'll have to use your ears and the artist vision of where they want the music to sound like it is being preformed. I mention this because several jazz artist I have recorded wanted to sound like they were performing in a jazz club. To get this "jazz club" sound it's not imperative to have a perfectly treated room (which is a good thing for many home recordists). I have recorded jazz in living rooms, churches, auditoriums, and of course jazz clubs. It may even be a good idea to try a live recording although this is a major under taking.

Most of all I advise that you try to see the band perform live if you can not just when you're recording a jazz group but any band who performs live. This is the first thing you should do when preparing to record jazz groups. And trust me if there is ever a time to plan ahead it's when you are going to be recording a group that where overdubs won't be a major part of he finished track.

Now go out and a make a record that would make Miles jealous.

Compression Made Easier

Learning how to set up a compressor can be a challenge, but here's an easy way to find the best setting. First set the release to its fastest possible setting and the ratio to a higher setting than you think you should need, then set the threshold so that there is always some compression. Next listen to the attack, because you have set a fast release it becomes easy to hear the attack. After you have the attack that you want then set the release, followed by the ratio and threshold in that order. The reason that this is helpful is because it allows you to isolate certain elements of what the compressor and set them to give the best possible sound.