Jazz Demo

[jordancolburn]

Hey, I've been lurking on these forums for quite a while and thought I'd finally step in and post.

I've recently been getting back into recording for other people and am trying to avoid some mistakes I made in the past. I used to make poor tracking decisions with a 'fix it in the mix' mentality (for both performance and tones). I'm now focusing on good simple tones and good performances, and here's one of my recent attempts with a friend on some demos of his jazz compositions.

https://soundcloud.com/jordancolburn/1-2-2014a
(there was some glitch on the opening note, due to an export error, but this is just a rough mix)

I'd appreciate any and all feedback!

[JWL]

Sounds really good to me overall. Everything is clear and present.

Maybe just a bit thin in the upper bass/lower mids.... I hear that mostly in the sax. It could use a little more authority as the lead melodic instrument. Subtle though, I do dig the overall balance.

Nice job!

[jordancolburn]

Thanks for listening! I actively took some of the low mids out of the sax because it seemed a little "honky" on some of the lower notes, but I was worried I went a little too far. I'll try adding a bit back in.

[ubertar]

Sounds great. This might sound stupid, but it's almost too clear... I feel like I'm on stage with the musicians instead of listening from the audience. It's making me nervous because I feel like my turn is coming up but I don't know the charts! Maybe a touch of reverb would help? Seriously it sounds really good though.

[JWL]

Yeah, sounded like a bit too much taken out. Maybe try some complimentary EQ in that area with the bass so the sax sounds more authoritative and they don't fight one another.

[jordancolburn]

Maybe a touch of reverb would help? Seriously it sounds really good though.

Thanks a lot! Reverb was one of the other areas I was iffy on, I actually thought I had too much 'verb if anything. I had a fairly bright hall most things were bussed into. Maybe a darker setting would add that ambience without being overwhelming?

[JWL]

Or just EQ the 'verb returns. DOn't radically change it, it sounds fantastic. Just maybe time the high end a bit.

[jordancolburn]

Thanks! I did a small remix and I think it helped a bit, the sax having more body helped a lot. I'll post here after I do another edit, my friend wanted to copy the cymbal part from one section into another.

Which brings me to another question one of you more experienced guys might be able to help me with. This is one of my first OTB mixes, and I printed stems just to see if I could accommodate any changes without having to tweak the board again (I left the mix on the board just in case).

My initial stereo stems were Piano, Drums, Bass, Sax (all dry) and one reverb return. With this I was able to tweak the sax EQ a bit and boost the verb and turn down the highs on it. My issue comes from trying to accommodate his edit with the stems, obviously copying the drum part will mess up the reverb. Should I have printed the reverb for each part in the stem as well for editing purposes?