When it's time to master, just cry Wolf!!

And now, it has been mastered. Yes, the recording is 100% complete. It is done. No more changes in anything. It even has it's "ISRC". What's an ISRC you ask? Well, it's the code that goes on all commercially releases CDs that links it to all the info on the disc. The code that helps track radio play and many other things. Sort of like a digital barcode on the CD. Now, of course, before I went to mastering I had no idea what in the heck that was.

Anyway, on July 31 I drove to Arlington, VA to meet a Mr Bill Wolf at his studio to master this baby. Bill is one of the absolute best in the DC area. He has several grammy winning CDs that he has been a part of and I was excited to have him working on this project. I also brought along my trusty sound engineer, Mack McLaughlin. There were definitely some times when I was very glad to have him there. Bill sometimes asked questions that were totally in "geek speak" and I needed to have Mack there to interpret for me. Plus, they have worked together before and have great admiration for one another's work.

So, about 3:00 we got started. It began with a tour of the complex. Bill's workspace is in the confines of a much larger production company. Large kitchen/dining/entertainment area. Free coffee, espresso, etc. All kinds of goodies. Also got a new slant on the competition of politics during out little tour. This company does lot's of TV work and come election time they are cranking out the ads for clients. Sometimes there are Republicans and Democrats in the building at the same time working on their spots. They actually have to hire security in order to keep the two sides from trying to spy on what the other is producing as far as ads. Don't you just love election time?

Anyway, Bill had already listened to the final mix and wanted to know a few things up front. Primarily, what kind of dynamic range was I looking for. The recording has a very large dynamic range. Most modern recordings, jazz included have little dynamic range. The jazz may be played with dynamics, but a lot of them are taken out with compression and a flattening of the levels. Pop music has about zero dynamic range. It's all one level. And there has been this alarming trend of recording CDs hotter and hotter. Bill had a few recording magazines laying around and I read an article call "The Volume Wars". Seems the average level on a CD has increased by about 14 db over the last 10 years. That's a lot. One engineer in that article even mentioned that he no longer wanted to be listed on certain CDs by certain big acts because of how bad the sound was getting due to increased volume.

Anyway, back to my project. We decided to keep that big, full dynamic range. We made some ever, ever, ever so slight tweeks on a few of the softest tunes. Bill had a device that he called "the bootstrapper". It is so titled because he says it pulls things up by the bootstraps. It was actually designed for classical music radio stations. For anyone that has listened to classical music in the car you know that there are times when you can't hear anything unless you crank the volume all the way up. Then of course you get crushed at the loud parts. Well, this device gives a slight boost to those soft parts and recognizes a gradual increase in volume and slowly goes back to the original setting. There is still a lot of dynamic range. And you would still have to turn things up in your car. But not as much. And it sounds very natural.

Bill was very conscientious about the spacing between the tunes and the length of the applause. The three of us listened countless times to each fade of applause and the amount of silence between each track. Details one never thinks about when just listening to a CD.

So, a mere ten hours later we were finished with the whole thing. I left the studio a little after 1 am and had a one hour drive to get home. I was exhausted, but a very happy camper. Bill had great ears, a great attitude and was totally into the music. And he had a musicians perspective on it. He wasn't concerned about make it commercial or "sellable", he's concerned about making it right and good.

So, now my good friend Brian Sacawa, curator of the Mobtown Modern Concert Series is in contact with a label that we believe will want the CD. I'll keep everyone informed about if and when someone picks it up and when it will be available for purchase. And if you ever have a recording that you need mastered, just cry Wolf.

More 2nd Clarinet, Please.

So, three months and 21 days later, I have finally returned to the keyboard, computer keyboard that is, to update my two or three followers about what has been happening since May 12. I suppose I should actually start with what did happen on May 12. As you know that was the big day of the premiere of my version of Rite Of Spring and in a nutshell I would have to say it was fantastic. We managed to get the whole band there on time and get a sound check and clear stage in time to open the doors 30 minutes out. That in itself is no small miracle. Getting 17 musicians to one place in the city on time is a major feat. And when the doors opened there was a good line going down the block waiting to get in for the first show. This on a night when there were some major rainstorms. It seems to be common for me. My big CD release concert many years ago at Blues Alley in DC was hampered by snow. Only about two inches. But if you know anything about the DC area, two inches of snow means go to the store for bread and milk, get some movies and wait for spring. (The season, not the Stravinsky work) But I digress.

So, we get a good intro from Brian Sacawa, the concert series curator, and kick it off. The audience is on the edge of their seats but probably not as much as the band. This is very tricky material and we have had very little rehearsal. We made it through without any major wrecks. I think I conducted everything right. There were a few bleeps and blops in wrong places. A few hairy moments. Oh yeah, I goofed the end of the last piece. Supposed to be "off on three". I gave a hold. Some went with it, others didn't. And I forgot to turn on my mic for my solo on the last number. Oops. Even so, the place went bonkers after that show. Tim Smith from the Baltimore Sun was there and wrote a glowing review. The show was also attended by a gentleman that writes for DMV classical and he wrote an amazing review. They are posted on my Facebook page. (Again, you may friend me if you want, just mention something about Stravinsky in the request)

The band was very relieved to get through the show and was wondering how they would endure a second one. A beer did the trick for many of them. And the second show was definitely more relaxed. A mixture or relief and alcohol is a good thing. And, both shows were recorded to 24 tracks so.......

.....we have finally begun to mix the performance. And a difficult task it is. This is really, really hard music to engineer and recording live in very close quarters makes it even harder. For instance, mixing a Basie recording would be quite simple. Once you have a good mix/balance/EQ for the sax section you would barely have to touch it the entire time. You can leave it there for the length of the album. The instruments don't change and individuals very, very rarely end up in a combination of horns from other sections. My arrangement is totally the opposite. The sax players change from saxes to flutes, to clarinets, to bass clarinets. Brass change to various mutes and the tumpets play flugels as well. All in many different intrument combinations. A tutti figure might get played by a combination of one sax, one clarinet, two flugel horns and a trombone in a bucket mute. So you mix those eights bars but have to change everything after that because now the bone takes the mute out and plays with his section, the sax switches to a line w/ trumpets and the clarinet plays a different line, joined by a second clarinet. And we need more of the second clarinet. But we can't boost him too much because he sat right next to the bari player and he is bleeding heavily into the 2nd clarinet's microphone. Me:"More second clarinet, please." Mack McLaughlin: "Can't, that boosts the bari too much." And so it goes. Thank God for automated boards, too. Otherwise we would need four guys on the board with their fingers on all the faders pulling things up and down over the course of a tune. Engineers and their staffs used to actually "rehearse" doing that to mix a tune down to two track.

Anyway, the recording is not without it's faults. In this day of pro-tools one can make all kinds of amazing edits and fixes, provided you have good seperation with your tracks. That's one thing we don't have. So we will have a very honest recording. A rarity these days as everything is so "fixed" in the mix that it isn't really at all reflective of what was actually played by the musicians in real time. We'll have some warts. But it is a recording of the world premiere. How often does that happen?

Anyway, word has slowly spread about the project. I was contacted by some people from The San Francisco Conservatory about the project. I sold a copy of the arrangement to a guy in Australia. By the way, anyone else interested in purchasing the chart? I am selling it for those that would like to perform it with their own band. However, not everyone is so enthused about the work. I applied to do a presentation/clinic about my project at next year's JEN (Jazz Education Network) conference but they didn't want it. Tried for a performance too and they didn't want that either. (This is the organization that has risen out of the ashes of IAJE) They'll probably have yet another Yamaha artist presenting something he prepared just two days before the conference. Ah,...the benefits of corporate sponsorship.

So, I'll try to post again soon and give any estimates I may have about time lines for mastering, producing and releasing the recording. Until then, keep swingin'.