Current Tape Reviews
Artist Name: JohnnyO Quartet |
Title: Shiny Stockings |
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Date Posted: May 2009 |
Genre: Jazz |
Equipment Used:
Sony portable Digital Audio Tape machine, and two condenser mics clipped to a table cloth. (See below for more details.)
Production Notes & Credits:
“Shiny Stockings” is a live jazz instrumental recording. Dennis Mellen played piano, Paco Martin played drums, and Paul Dioguardi was on “guitar/bass”. No information was given on the origin of the sax performance, however since the group is called the Johnny O Quartet, we will take a flyer and assume that “Johnny O” was the sax player as well as the recordist. (Come on, folks, please take an extra ten seconds and make sure I don’t have to guess at the critical stuff, okay?)
Reviewed By: Marty Peters
Recording: Nice stuff, this. The production notes tell us that it was recorded live to a Sony portable digital machine using two condenser mics clipped to a table cloth! The two track was then dumped into Steinberg Nuendo, eq-ed and processed through a Mackie d8b console and run through a Amek stereo buss compressor to an Alesis Masterlink recorder.
Fair enough then. What results is a terrific recording that captures both the real tone and the vibe of a strong performance. We love the raspy brush sound on the snare, the bass is round and rich, and the piano sounds like, guess what? a piano! In fact the only fault that we can find with the track is some obvious distortion on the sax, and a slightly low volume piano solo—but hey, it’s two mics clipped to a table cloth, watcha gonna do?!
Suggestions: Boy, sometimes it’s nice just to hear a recording that is free of overdubs, overprocessing, over everything. Of course it takes some skilled players and a decent room to pull it off, but it’s a golden opportunity to remember that as recording musicians it’s so easy to get lost in the manipulating of the music, we often forget about the music. So thanks, fellas, for the reminder. As for that sax distortion, next time try clipping those mics to the chandelier instead!
Summary: “Got live if you want it”.
Contact: JohnnyO, johnnyo@skindeeprecords.com
Fair enough then. What results is a terrific recording that captures both the real tone and the vibe of a strong performance. We love the raspy brush sound on the snare, the bass is round and rich, and the piano sounds like, guess what? a piano! In fact the only fault that we can find with the track is some obvious distortion on the sax, and a slightly low volume piano solo—but hey, it’s two mics clipped to a table cloth, watcha gonna do?!
Suggestions: Boy, sometimes it’s nice just to hear a recording that is free of overdubs, overprocessing, over everything. Of course it takes some skilled players and a decent room to pull it off, but it’s a golden opportunity to remember that as recording musicians it’s so easy to get lost in the manipulating of the music, we often forget about the music. So thanks, fellas, for the reminder. As for that sax distortion, next time try clipping those mics to the chandelier instead!
Summary: “Got live if you want it”.
Contact: JohnnyO, johnnyo@skindeeprecords.com
About: Marty Peters
