Klarinet Archive - Posting 000212.txt from 2009/02

From: Tom Puwalski <tski1128@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Different reed setups and some shameless self-promotion
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:26:55 -0500

Joe, firstly 98 percent of the clarinetists on this list couldn't get
onto a recording that sounded this good. So what ever whacky
criticism you might get after posting that I'd take with a grain of
salt. I thought the Timbre you ended up with suited the music and was
well suited to the singer's style. I'm sure Muhlfeld would have done
it on the A clarinet but used Bb on When there is No Time. Nice job
all the way around.

Lets talk recording, Most studios in the USA have engineers that have
never heard a clarinet let alone recorded one. I find that I go into
any session I go armed with my own mics and pre amps. I'm sold on
Ribbon mics, I have a few old shure SM 300s and 33s that I use into
AEA mic preamps. Not really expensive gear but I think they sound
better than way more expensive "condenser" mics. I Have all this
mounted into a rack box with a small reverb unit that I send my head
phone feed into, so I hear my sound back to me in a space ( Hall 2 on
a Nanoverb) again not a very pricey piece of gear. Here is that part
that makes this work, This rig sits on my desk and my mic is set up
and at least one hour of my day I practice with the Mic and the
headphones that record with on. I record my practicing, so when I'm
in a recording session I get my tracks down fast. I'm used to the
microphones, I practice doing complete takes. And If I screw up I use
it for editing practice in apple logic. So I'm learning all the way
around.

Close micing a clarinet is always going to be difficult. It's hard to
stick a mic one foot away from a clarinet and think it will sound like
a clarinet in a great sounding space. I'm thinking of Bela Kovacs on
his Hommage recording. Great playing, great recording gear in a
really nice room------ just add water! So don't be afraid of
tweeking the EQ, Cut the high end if it sounds buzzy, listen to it, if
you like that keep it. I don't care if it is "Digital" and super hi
resolution settings, it's still a recording and just because it's in
Digits doesn't make it "Real". I had a real good friend do some
mixdowns of my klezmer band recently, I had asked him to make my
clarinet sound on tape exactly how it sounds to him when I play. He
E.Qed the crap out of it and when I heard it it sounded very close to
what I hear when I play, and not anything like what was actually
caught on tape. And this was a real high end studio in the Washington
DC area.

Don't be afraid to ask an engineer to tweek your head phone mix, or
add reverb or what ever it takes for you to be really comfortable.
That statement has led me to do all of my own recording lately.
Studio time has gotten cheaper in the D.C area I get go to high places
in off peak time for about $50 and hr. I still now record my guys
into Mac. I'd rather have them in my basement screwing around and
having fun playing than try to lay the "perfect" take. You will
record your best when the whole process becomes "old hat".

You did a nice job on this recording, now to make the process fun!

Tom Puwalski, the artist formerly known as Sarge, Clarinetist with
the Atonement and author of The Clarinetists guide to Klezmer and
Clarinet Basic training.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=347003733

On Feb 10, 2009, at 11:14 AM, Joseph Wakeling wrote:

> What with the talk about different reeds and different performance
> characters and characteristics, maybe it's a fun time to tell the
> following tale ...
>
> Last year a songwriter friend of mine asked me to join a new project
> of
> hers. To cut a long story short, we spent some time in early 2008
> writing songs (well, mostly she wrote songs and I added nice twiddles
> and, importantly, wrote down everything we did:-) then she wrote some
> other songs with our drummer, and then in July we went into the studio
> (this studio here: http://www.upthelane.org.uk/ ) and recorded it all.
>
> This was my first time in a recording studio so a big learning
> experience on many counts. Beyond the obvious ('Stop moving around so
> much, you're going off mic!') there were a whole bunch of things to
> get
> used to.
>
> To begin with there was volume control. Playing acoustically with the
> band, I'd developed a fairly good sense of balance and in the last
> section of our title track ('Mankind Walks') was playing very quietly,
> so as to be audible but very much in the background -- almost like an
> echo of what had gone before. I repeated this in the studio and found
> to my shock that when we played back the tape I was almost inaudible.
>
> The recording chamber itself was a challenge to get used to, with a
> very
> dry, non-resonant acoustic -- it was designed that way -- and
> despite it
> being summer, and warm outside, it was fairly cold in there, with some
> unfortunate consequences: huge amounts of swabbing required, lots of
> water under toneholes.
>
> But the performance of reeds was one of the big surprises. Of
> course, I
> knew intellectually that what the clarinet sounds like to the player
> is
> not the same as what other people hear, but being professionally
> recorded made the differences startlingly clear. Every tiny thing was
> audible -- every breath, every slight nuance, every small (and often
> unnoticeable-at-the-time) error in phrasing or articulation.
>
> A reed that in the recording chamber sounded rich and focused came out
> on tape as whiny and fuzzy with a huge quantity of breath noise.
> Another that sounded too soft acoustically was rich and colourful when
> the recording was played back. The choice of which to use on which
> track became quite an adventure -- but a productive one.
>
> There were other aesthetic concerns. The last track ('When there is
> no
> time') was meant to have a clarinet part that sounded fairly crude,
> but
> how crude should it be? If I messed up in some small way during the
> take, should I keep it ('It's in character') or would it simply sound
> sloppy? Should I record it with a click-track to keep me in time or
> did
> the slight loss of metronome-perfect time suit the music?
>
> The mixing offered further challenges. Mixes that sounded fine on
> studio speakers might sound harsh on the car stereo as we drove home.
> Subtle inflections of playing might get lost in the mix -- how could
> they be rescued without distorting the part? How should we deal with
> the fact that my playing employed a wide dynamic range, whereas the
> guitar and drums were recorded at a fairly constant level?
>
> (Years ago I remember some classical musicians playing the Mozart
> quintet at a local music festival -- with amplification, since they
> were
> in the open air. Early into the second movement someone in the
> control
> box -- very skilled studio guys, but used to recording rock music --
> realised 'Hey, the clarinet is the lead instrument here!' and
> cranked up
> its volume, as you would for a rock vocalist. The musicians on stage,
> who'd established a beautiful balance, almost fell over from the
> shock.)
>
> Anyway (and here's the self-promotion bit:-) we finished the recording
> and came up with a 7-track 'extended EP' (double EP?) in time for a
> gig
> at the Monmouth Festival, another learning experience since it one of
> the only times I've ever _played_ with amplification ('Joe! You're
> STILL wandering away from the mic!'). We're working on some new
> material to turn into a full-length album and 5 of the tracks are
> available on MySpace:
> http://www.myspace.com/mankindwalks
>
> ... though I must say that MySpace's sound quality is not as good as
> that of the purchasable CD :-)
>
> And, since we were talking about reeds, a challenge: on ONE of the
> tracks (and only one) I used two different reeds. Which track and
> where? It's obvious to me, but I'm curious to find out if it is to
> everyone else ...
>
> Hope you enjoy the music, comments welcome. :-)
>
> -- Joe
>
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