21st of September Multitrack, 3 saxophones 4 mouthpieces.

[Koen88]

Hi there,

I made a multitrack recording on this one, it turned out quite fun to listen, but the multitracking with 3 saxophones did lead to some tuning, inequalities.. And requires quite some balancing timing wise, so playing the same bit quite a few times to get it right was a common practice last 2 weeks..

https://soundcloud.com/koen-bidlot/2...ber-earth-wind

used a cannonball big bell alto, keilwerth toneking alto, amati keilwerth toneking tenor, with on alto a lebayle metal jazz 8 and a soloist, and on tenor my vandoren T99 (pre Java??) and a Guardala studio/MBI. all with legere reeds. and a cheap clip on mic (40 pounds or so).

after my initial mix Wade helped me out to balance the mix, as I knew it was far from optimal but a bit clueless where to start..

changes were made in harmonies of the backing, eased down the drum track and even cut it out in some places, and some better dynamic variation.

it's not perfect, but I havent got the time (nor the patience) to work on a track for a month so I just said it's enough for now...

but it was fon to due (cheesy right?) and learned something about balancing a mix too!

 

[Jamesmac]

Hi there,

I made a multitrack recording on this one, it turned out quite fun to listen, but the multitracking with 3 saxophones did lead to some tuning, inequalities.. And requires quite some balancing timing wise, so playing the same bit quite a few times to get it right was a common practice last 2 weeks..

https://soundcloud.com/koen-bidlot/2...ber-earth-wind

used a cannonball big bell alto, keilwerth toneking alto, amati keilwerth toneking tenor, with on alto a lebayle metal jazz 8 and a soloist, and on tenor my vandoren T99 (pre Java??) and a Guardala studio/MBI. all with legere reeds. and a cheap clip on mic (40 pounds or so).

after my initial mix Wade helped me out to balance the mix, as I knew it was far from optimal but a bit clueless where to start..

changes were made in harmonies of the backing, eased down the drum track and even cut it out in some places, and some better dynamic variation.

it's not perfect, but I havent got the time (nor the patience) to work on a track for a month so I just said it's enough for now...

but it was fon to due (cheesy right?) and learned something about balancing a mix too!

Not cheesy, but could be rhythmically tighter, with more defined articulation. That's being super critical, if you recorded this in a pro studio with an experienced producer... for sure TOP OF THE POPS.

 

[Profusia]

Haha I think the cheese was the "fondue". I like listening to your sound clips Koen but you may have to improve your jokes! lol

I'm at work without my earphones so can't take a listen. Will try to remember to later though.

 

[Sue]

Took me right back to 21st of September chasing the clouds away. Made me boogie so that's what music is all about right? Fun, fun and more fun - thanks Koen

 

[Koen88]

Haha I think the cheese was the "fondue". I like listening to your sound clips Koen but you may have to improve your jokes! lol

it was indeed the fondue haha, well sometimes I like those little jokes that give me a chuckle ;-)

Took me right back to 21st of September chasing the clouds away. Made me boogie so that's what music is all about right? Fun, fun and more fun - thanks Koen

so you did "remember the 21st of september" ;} and good to hear you had fun listening to it, that's what it indeed is all about.

 

[Ivan]

Fun fun fun

 

[Profusia]

Finally got around to having a listen to this Koen. Really liked it - took me right back - nice one!! I agree that you could tighten up on the rhythm and phrasing a bit, and maybe stay in character of the piece a little more. But that last point is probably a personal reflection being so familiar with the original (very much my era and taste at the time). Hard I'm sure to get it spot on with multiple instruments. Despite that it has a nice feel though and is certainly fun so thanks for posting it and well done - I enjoyed it a lot.

 

[Wade Cornell]

I think they liked it! So where are you going to set your sights? Good suggestions if you wanted to push further on this one or you've got an audience for something new. This was an excellent effort in which you gave yourself a whole lot of challenges which also opens a lot of doors.

 

[Koen88]

I think they liked it! So where are you going to set your sights? Good suggestions if you wanted to push further on this one or you've got an audience for something new. This was an excellent effort in which you gave yourself a whole lot of challenges which also opens a lot of doors.

yes I've had a lot of good remarks and constructive feedback on this one, very nice of you all! For me this was just a learning experience on several levels, mostly multitracking and mixing of several instruments in one track...

in the future I'll definitely do more of these (multitracks) but only when I've got more time on my hands because when you start such a project a lot of time gets involved and if you dont have enough, you'll have to make more concessions then you actually would like to make. (lesson learned)

so I dont think I'm going to make changes to this one once more, I've been away for a week (withouth sax!) and my new musical challenged await allready (Hosting the sax on the web TOTM) and I have a few gigs coming up this summer and I'll be doing some composing and arranging for the band.

in short it's allways just to have fun, for me and hopefully to the listeners which consist mosly of fora members and (music)friends and family..

again thanks all for the constructive feedback!

 

[rhysonsax]

Really fun Koen. We've just started doing 'September' in our function band (we're always bang up to date) and it's quite a challenge for me as the only horn player.

I would be really interested to hear some more about how you did the multi-tracking, as I have just done a sax quartet recording using Audacity and my Zoom H2n. For instance, what technology did you use, did you have a click track, how many takes did you have to do, how did you pan the different sax tracks, how did you go about listening to the track as you were recording ?

Rhys

 

[Koen88]

Really fun Koen. We've just started doing 'September' in our function band (we're always bang up to date) and it's quite a challenge for me as the only horn player.

I would be really interested to hear some more about how you did the multi-tracking, as I have just done a sax quartet recording using Audacity and my Zoom H2n. For instance, what technology did you use, did you have a click track, how many takes did you have to do, how did you pan the different sax tracks, how did you go about listening to the track as you were recording ?

Rhys

I used a (cheap) clip on microphone, and as software I used Mixcraft 6. I had a MIDI file which I used as a backing and for a source of sheet music that's what I used for the 2nd 3rd voices.. The drumtrack of the midi file was clear enough to hear the tempo so I used that to keep time. after noodling around a bit with the original track on youtube I had some ideas for a nice improv and some variations.. So I started recorded some of those fragments and after a take or 8 per voice I had the different solo lines as a rough take.. after that I started recording the other voices which took a take or 3 per voice, because the timing can be quite challenging sometimes. after that I had a rough recording that I used as a beta and collected some views and comments on that take.

after that I played some more fillings and cut out quite a bit of background instruments from the midi track to make it a more clean track. after that I adjusted / re-recorded some solo's and fills and all in all this has about 30 to 40 takes and about 13 hours in it... But thats also because I couldnt play 3 hours consecutively or so.. it was mostly played in sessions of about 1 to 2 hours..

panning wise I centred the solo saxophones and made the background voices left and right depending on which line they played and the drums and bass also centred but lowered volume.