Klarinet Archive - Posting 000225.txt from 2009/02

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Different reed setups and some shameless self-promotion
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:27:39 -0500

Tom -- thanks ever so much for all the nice comments and advice. :-)

> 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.

In my case it was Bb all the way... :-)

> 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.

Indeed, Ron (our producer/engineer/studio owner) followed pretty much
that line of working -- recording in a room with little reverb and then
using various filters and effects to touch up the sound. I don't
remember the exact setup (I don't have much music-techy background) but
I recall he set up two mics for me, one 'main' mic and another at a
greater distance for ambience. (In practice, I think it turned out we
didn't need the second one at all.)

He was great to work with -- a very low-key approach, very quiet and
unobtrusive, but taking care of the techy side very capably and
efficiently, giving us most of what we needed without us even having to
ask. When we did ask, or when we had to experiment with different
setups for whatever reason, he was able to set things up very quickly,
leaving us free to play.

I don't know if he'd ever recorded a clarinet before but he did a very
good job -- the raw tape sometimes didn't sound very good, or like what
I'd heard when playing, and I was worried I'd need to do retakes, but Jo
(singer/guitarist) wisely counselled me to wait and see how it sounded
in the mix -- and indeed it came out much better. Our involvement in
the mix side of things didn't need to be much more than comments along
the lines of, 'this bit louder here, this bit quieter, this bit sounds
too harsh...'

> 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".

One of my best takes was from exactly such messing around -- on a song
I'd only been introduced to the night before recording it :-)

Nice to discover your own MySpace page -- one of my friends is starting
a Klezmer band, so I'll have to forward her the link ...

Best wishes,

-- Joe

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