On Jan 23, 2010, at 2:44 PM, Bruce Daily wrote:
I've only heard the tape library samples. In its pure form the phasing interplay of the 3 'bones is a little annoying, but probably would work better in a mix. Interesting to note that the lower end seemed muted.
IMHO a better split would be the solo trombone and trumpet (starting with the lowest notes on each). A better bottom.
They should b oth be rerecorded because you'd certainly have something better than the original recordings, both of which are of very poor quality. The trumpet player cacks the highest note, for Pete's sake. What was that all about? Sure it's really high, but there are a lot of pros around who could cut it.
Someone floated the idea of a real brass section. I'd like to propose a brass quintet, all playing at the same time. It would sound AWESOME. I guarantee it. The problem most of the "mixed voice" is that they were recorded separately. It really won't work as well as musicians all playing at the same time. One reason the 3 violins still sounds so good to us? Harry C. used 3 violinists to play it. Not one violinist 3 times. That would have sounded crappy. I've tried it.
There are inherent problems using several musicians at once. More chance of mistakes, for one thing, but pros do that stuff all the time and they can pull it off. It would be a very interesting experiment to record some of the multi-instrument voices with live players doing it all at once. The choirs are all recorded this way, come to think of it, and don't they sound great? Imagine getting a full orchestra (of pros) to all start on a low G and go up from there. Your bowels would move involuntarily at high volumes when that was played back on a mellotron (to quote our Martin). Of course, I can't imagine how much recording something like that would cost...
We can dream, though!
Rick