Session Report: A SonataPalooza in PA

Summer is always a nice time of year, to me.  Kids are out of school, it’s prime beach time, and things just generally lighten up a little bit. It’s also the time for recording sessions!  Wait, what?!?

Jack and Craig Better get in a little warmup prior to kicking off the Sonata for 4-valve trumpet by David Loeb (Photo: Pierce Bounds)

I had the chance to record a super fun project in August involving my longtime friend and collaborator, Jack Sutte.  Jack plays trumpet in the Cleveland Orchestra, teaches at the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory in Ohio, and performs with his brass trio, Factory Seconds.  Jack has a multi volume, multi year project ongoing called Sonatapalooza.  Sonatapalooza, besides being a funny word, is an apt description of the project Jack has set out to accomplish.  It is HUGE! He is working on recording ALL of the written sonata literature for trumpet and piano.  Folks, let me tell you, it’s a lot of sonatas!  

The control room - Robert and WIll look mildly concerned - I look like something is about to explode! Photo: Pierce Bounds

We convened in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on the campus of Dickinson College for 3 days of recording at their lovely Rubendall Recital Hall.  Jack’s (and my) classmate from Juilliard, composer Robert Pound, is the head of the music department at Dickinson, and an experienced producer, so Robert manned the helm, while fantastic pianist Craig Ketter was Jack’s musical partner in navigating the sea of sonatas before us.  This “Palooza” volume featured music by American composers, including sonatas by David Loeb, Fisher Tull, and Anthony Plog.  Will Samson came up from DC for a day to assist with setup, mic placement, and just generally getting the sessions rolling.  

The Team (L to R): Chris Clark, Robert Pound, our young page turner, Craig Letter, Jack Sutte, Will Samson Photo: Pierce Bounds

Jack has already recorded a number of sonatas in Cleveland with long time Cleveland Orchestra engineer, Bruce Gigax, and even though we were in a different space this time, he wished to use some of the same mics that Bruce has used in his previous recordings that have worked so well.  Schoeps MK21s in an A/B pattern were used as the main pair, with a pair of MK22s on the piano for reinforcement as needed.  I elected to put up my AEA R88 as a closer main pair, more like a trumpet spot, to have some ribbon mic sound at our disposal in the final mix.  One other little treat was the celeste in the Tony Plog Sonata, mic’d with a pair of Sennheiser MKH8040s from the back - quite a fun instrument to record.  The sound make me feel like it’s almost Christmas! (Think Nutcracker: Sugar Plum Fairy)  Finally, a single close mic (Beyerdynamic 930, I think) was at hand to add definition to the muted trumpet passages as needed.  

Will dials the set up in just right… gotta catch a few of those early trumpet reflections!

This was also my first time using an immersive microphone array in that I used a variation of the 2L cube created by Morten Lindberg, to capture additional mic channels for an ATMOS mix.  Besides the AB main pair, I added a center channel, rear surrounds, side mics in the form of a wide flank mic pair, and four height mics about 12” above the main array.  The idea is that you will hear a more spacious mix when you hear the album in Dolby ATMOS.  If you haven’t checked out Apple’s Spatial Audio selections on Apple Music, or immersive audio mixes on Tidal, then I suggest you do - it’s amazing! 

Merry Christmas!

My good friend and principal trumpet of the San Diego Symphony, Chris Smith, and buddy Tim Saeger (San Diego based trumpet artist and teacher), made this fantastic multi-trumpet video of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing! I’ve been doing some mastering work for their virtual productions this year, and it has been an absolute blast! The guys asked me to master this production for them as well, and as soon as I heard Wesley Nance’s fantastic arrangement, I knew this one would be special. Enjoy!

Trumpeters on this recording are:

Choir 1

Trumpet 1 - Christopher Smith, Principal Trumpet, San Diego Symphony

Trumpet 2 - Wesley Nance, 2nd Trumpet, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra

Trumpet 3 - Micah Wilkinson, Principal Trumpet, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Trumpet 4 - Chad Winkler, 4th/Utility Trumpet, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Trumpet 5 - Andrew McCandless, Principal Trumpet, Toronto Symphony Orchestra

Trumpet 6 - Jennifer Marotta, Assistant Professor of Trumpet, USC Thornton School of Music

Choir 2

Trumpet 7 - Jim Wilt, Associate Principal Trumpet, LA Phil

Trumpet 8 - Jeffrey Strong, 3rd/Utility Trumpet, LA Phil

Trumpet 9 - Tom Hooten, Principal Trumpet, LA Phil

Trumpet 10 - Christopher Still, 2nd Trumpet, LA Phil

Trumpet 11 - Karen Donnelly, Principal Trumpet, National Arts Centre Orchestra | l'Orchestre du Centre national des Arts

Trumpet 12 - Conrad Jones, Principal Trumpet, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra

How to Make a Record, Part 3: Choosing your Team

Let’s be honest.  Making a recording can be an expensive proposition.  It’s really easy to spend $5000 -10,000 on a good recording.  That’s not to say you can’t make one for less…you surely can… but, I’d like to think about what goes in to your project, and specifically what those people mean to seeing your vision through to its final form.

ENGINEER

Of course you need an engineer.  You might hire an engineer/producer, that can do it all… that can work.  For all but the simplest recordings, I strongly recommend a dedicated engineer.  You’re going to pay them for all the tracking days - likely a “day rate”, that allows for setup, a certain number of hours recording, and tear down time.  They might even ask for you to pay for an assistant engineer if your project is a large one, uses a lot of musicians or a complex setup, or includes video or other aspects of production.  In return for their day rate, the engineer will schlep all their many thousands of dollars worth of gear to the recording site, and figure out microphone placement that gets you the sound you have set your sights on in your pre-production stage.  Mic placement is key.  Get this part wrong, and you will not get what you set out to create.  “Fix it in the mix” doesn’t really work with classical music.  There are a few options, but mostly, you are married to the sound you all create in your sessions.  So, take the time to get it right.  It’s ideal for your engineer to have a sound check in the space, or at least some time built in the first day to get this part set, especially if it’s a new space to them and to you.  

A note about selecting an engineer… There are a number of good engineers out there.  It’s important to find someone you can trust, maybe someone that’s recommended by artists you respect, well, DEFINITELY one that is recommended by artists you respect!  Engineers are generally a really friendly crowd.  They love helping artists make stuff, and most of us know that if we’re not the right one for you, we would love to recommend another talented engineer we know.  We might know someone more local to you, or one that fits your budget, or one that simply has specific skills or capabilities that you need.  

I need to emphasize something here… YOU ARE ONLY MAKING THIS RECORDING ONCE…. DO IT RIGHT.  20 years from now, you will look back on it, and you will be proud of what you made, with no regrets.  

Highbridge Brass: Chris Martin, Mark Ridenour, Chris Tiedeman, Hiram Diaz, and Nathan Miller… soundcheck before a live concert recording

Next up, you have your Producer:

"Why hire a producer?  I mean, I’m already paying this engineer a ton to record my sessions!”  Yeah, that’s true.  Your producer is there for quality control, and guidance.  An engineer can have the greatest ears in the world, but when she’s getting noise in a microphone line, or trying to set levels on her backup recorder, or simply listening to something that is NOT “how many times is the trombone player going to miss that note”, then you need a producer there to make sure you cover everything with multiple takes.  You are going to have to edit your recording together in post production.  It’s a real letdown to spend multiple days recording, not to mention all the practice and work that goes in to preparing to record, and find in your editing stage that you simply don’t have a good take of the third measure after letter C.  Bummer.  Hire a producer.  Someone you trust, that likely either plays your instrument (really well) and/or that has produced a number of recordings and knows what they are listening for…  The producer will keep the sessions on schedule, making sure that you don’t hit your last hour of recording and realize you haven’t even started recording that horribly difficult third movement of the sonata you are tracking.   Most producers operate on a “day rate”, like your engineer. Some producers can even do your editing for you! I’ve written on this, previously, in my blog as well…

Oh, hey, remember back in the Pre-Production stage, you got your producer and engineer a copy of your scores?  Thank you for that, it will be much appreciated and it will help them produce a great recording with mapped out takes ready to go.  More on this in Part 4...

Engineer and Producer’s view… lots of time and concentration spent here to make a great recording!

Photographer/Videographer

Do you plan to document your sessions?  With just a little bit of planning and time devoted to some documentation, photos and video of your sessions can generate behind the scenes social media content that will literally last for years.  It’s worth it to pay a photographer or videographer to come in and take some informal photos and video footage.  Having a large library of stills and video clips to draw upon will come in very handy when it’s time to promote your album.  This can also be a huge help for Kickstarter campaigns, submissions to your university for tenure, and for your Facebook page, blog, and email list.  

Graphic design

Don’t forget this!  Spending the money to have a real designer come up with a unique graphic, colors, or art for your album cover is still a great way to distinguish your creation.  There are plenty of great freelance designers out there, and companies like Discmakers have their own designers on staff that you can use as part of your CD and download card printing.  

Piano tech

No kidding.  Because who wants to have to listen to out of tune piano, forever in perpetuity, on that recording because someone forgot to get the piano tuned…???

Catering/Gopher/Coffee

You may not have the budget for every single thing here, which is perfectly fine.  Many of us don’t.  Many of these roles can be covered by a single person, and you can have overlap among your team.  You may have friends that want to hang out for a day and help you with one of these.  Your budget may not include enough (nor need) an assistant engineer.  It’s super helpful to have a person that can be there to make coffee, order food, run to home depot for extra lights (Yep!), and generally take care of all the minutiae that can occur over a multi day recording session.  Heck, your mom would probably LOVE to come hang out and help! 🙂  Think of ways you can make the entire experience easy on everyone - sometimes all it takes is bottled water, fresh coffee, and a timely food delivery or take out for lunch to keep the sessions rolling.  

PHEW!!!  That’s a lot, I know.  Do you best.  And remember, you’re going to all this trouble, so let’s do it right!

Teaching Online Lessons (decent audio)

Hi friends!  Holy cow, have things changed in the past week.  I am hopeful that many of you are adjusting to the idea of online instruction, and to the many responsibilities that have now been dumped in our plates as teachers, parents, musicians, and just human beings.  

A couple of years ago, I started a website called The Virtual Trombonist.  The content of that site is still out there a little bit, although much of it lies dormant these days.  The reason for that is that when I started it, I just didn’t have very much interest in online instruction.  There are a lot of reasons for that, which I don’t plan to explore today… 😮  But, I did learn a lot about portraying a good quality trombone sound, as well as creating an experience that a student could actually hear over the internet, and found a few things that might be helpful to you all…. Many of you have likely already figured this out, but here we go… 

I will preface this by saying, there are a million ways to skin this problem, so please reply with any ideas that have worked well for you! 

Rule #1:  Video quality can suck, but if you have good audio, things will go generally well.

• Do you best to connect to a solid wifi (or wired ethernet) connection.  Run a test via a site like speedtest.com to see if you have enough bandwidth.  Check your upload speed.  If I’m getting speeds below 10 mbps I’m going to sweat it.  Most modern services will be fast enough.  If you’re running on cellular service, that’s where you need to figure it out.  Make sure you are in a place where you get “good” cellular reception.  Test it out on some connections before you rely on it to teach.  

• Coach your student beforehand (and maybe their parents) to figure out the connection on their end.  Good location, wifi access, etc.  Give them the best chance to get set up to get the most from the lesson.

• A word about video quality…. It’s awesome to have amazing looking video.  If you have time and resources to get your lighting adjusted, know something about lighting for video, etc., then go for it.  Otherwise, make sure you don’t have a window behind you.  Don’t be back lit!  Have the window behind your camera/computer, with you looking into the light.  Much better view for the student.  If you’re a trombone player, make sure you don’t knock your laptop over with your slide.  Ask me how I know.  

Rule #2:  Have a decent mic, but don’t overthink it. 

• Any decent USB mic should suffice for teaching online.  Yeah, it’s super cool to have your stereo ribbon mic on a crazy boom stand hanging over your practice area, but really, your young student just needs to hear you clearly (speaking), and get a good idea of a quality sound from you on their end.  An Audio Tecnica AT 2020 USB+, or Rode USB mic, should work great.  I have a super cheap Samson USB mic, that when I initially plugged it in, I actually laughed out loud it sounded so good, and for like $60!  Don’t get me wrong, these don’t sound like a Sennheiser, Neumann, or Royer mic you would find in a studio.  But hey, the goal here is different!  

• I prefer to wear headphones.  I block out all the other nonsense noise in my house (kids, cats, squeaky dryer), and many of these USB mics let you monitor through the microphone.  Plug your headphones in to the mic headphone jack, and listen to the sound as it comes in to the system.  You will be able to tell if it’s clipping, or in other words, it’s turned up too loud.  Or, not loud enough!  Use your ear.  If it’s distorted and nasty sounding, turn the microphones gain down.  If it’s not loud enough, turn it up.  You’re a musician, use your ears!  

Rule #3:  Pick a platform

• I used to use Skype.  A lot of people dish on Skype, but it was pretty reliable.  You could do FaceTime but then you alienate about 50% or more of your students.  I am lately a relatively enthusiastic fan of Zoom.  You can do meetings with multiple people, and they have a free tier as well. 

Rule #4:  Include parents, and offer “extras”

• As I said above, Zoom allows you to record the call, which is important on a lot of levels.  First of all, if you are teaching minor children, it’s always a good idea to invite the parent to be present for the lesson.  In fact, I wouldn’t teach a lesson without a parent present on the other end.  At the very least, you can record the call, and Dropbox the recording to the student afterwards.  That way, everyone has a copy.

• Regarding recording lessons…. Joe Alessi used to require all of his students to record every lesson.  This was in the mid 1990s (gasp!).  No joke, those were recorded on cassette tape!  Students should be listening to their lessons.  They forget what you said, mom wants to know what you talked about, and they may just need to review until it sinks in!  Record and Dropbox.  Easy peasy.  

• Record other videos for your students.  Record a warmup routine for them to play along with.  Have them record their practice through the week for you.  Make videos for the parents about what they should be doing to help.  Hey, as the father of school age children, any contact from a teacher is like golden information you can take to the bank, especially the good teachers.  Kids come home from school and can’t remember, literally, ANYTHING that happened that day that relates to actual education.  Help your parents out.  The topics are endless.  How can you educate a non-musician parent about what actually happens at solo and ensemble, or all-region auditions?  

Mic placement tip:  

    If you have one USB mic, set it up so that you can speak into relatively close up.  I set mine up near my computer so I can speak into it, then swivel my chair so it’s “looking” at me from a profile view, which keeps the trombone from being super loud into the mic.  I can also have my music stand off to the side.  I hope that makes sense.  Speaking mic = direct sound; playing mic = indirect sound.  

I would love to have any questions in the comments… feel free to ask away!  If you’d like more info, let me know!  

Cheers to you and your families.  If you are struggling, I see you, and my thoughts and resources are here to help.  Drop me an email at chris@clarkmediaproductions.com if there’s anything you need help with.