Siks Haedo est une formation orchestrée par le compositeur et guitariste Diego Lipnizkyranging from Jazz to Classical to African music. I was lucky enough to record them at SAE in the studio featuring a Neve VR Legend in 2014.
We should have recorded one or two tracks and mixed them straight away, but as the band is so efficient, we recorded 6 tracks, mixed and mastered them in my home studio in Paris.
There's nothing like a good listen to know what you're talking about:
Registration : The approach
This was my first jazz recording and I hadn't yet heard their music, so I asked them to play me a piece before I even started. I immediately realized that I'd have to record them live, which implied a major constraint in addition to having only 4 hours at my disposal: the studio was small in front of these musicians, so I had to place them judiciously in order to get the right sound for each one, and the cleanest possible reproduction in the other microphones. I didn't want to distort their sound identity either. In the end, instead of the one or two tracks originally planned, all 6 were recorded, with only the horns being re-recorded to improve the musicians' performance. Incidentally, I recorded and mixed in 96Khz because... why not? It was only after mastering that I switched the files back to 44.1Khz/16b.
Recording : Hardware
As always, it was a question of doing the best we could with the materials available.
The microphones/tools used are as follows:
- Guitar: Shure SM57
- Overheads: 2x Neumann KM 183 in AB configuration
- Kick: Rode NT2-A
- Toms: Seinheiser MD421
- Saxophone: Beyerdynamic M88
- Trumpets 1 and 2: Shure SM57 and Neumann TLM 103
- Double bass: Shure SM57 and DI BSS
- Piano & Synth: DI BSS
Mixing
First of all, we selected the takes with Diego, then I mixed them in my own way, and finally I went back to Diego for the final touches, the volume automations... As with the recording, it was a question of preserving the naturalness and dynamics of the tracks as much as possible. This didn't stop me from compressing or even limiting drum elements when necessary, to contain the dynamics a little while restoring detail. EQ was mainly focused on attenuating a few unpleasant frequencies and masking effects, with of course a few small accentuations to restore the detail of each instrument. Reverbs are mainly used to create ambiences, a universe. Finally, a little secret: with Diego's agreement, and forced to note that the result was convincing, I slightly autotuned the Sax so that it would blend better with the other brass instruments!
Mastering
Mastering consisted of using a light multi-band compressor to subtly reduce a few peaks and restore a little more clarity in the highs, without aggressiveness. This, coupled with a well-dosed limiter, enabled us to achieve a relevant level of loudness without losing the dynamics and detail of the tracks. Last but not least, a switch from 96Khz 24b to 44.1Khz 16b, and as always, the creation of MP3s for easy online distribution, have been achieved.
Conclusion
A superb experience, and the desire to do more jazz! Special mention to Stéphane Adsuar, whom I personally admire as a drummer for his precision. Many thanks to Diego and the whole band for their friendliness and excellent music!
I'll leave you with a live sample of their talent ...
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