PHOTO : VIVO MUSIQUE PHOTO : VIVO MUSIQUE
For piano , he used two Neumann M 149 tube dual-diaphragm condensers placed inside the piano , and on upright bass a Remic D5400 LB . “ That was Alain ’ s mic and every musician agreed to use it .” Messier also took a direct XLR out from the bass player ’ s amps , which they used primarily for monitoring , and / or took a feed from the pickups the players had installed on their basses .
“ For saxophones , I used a Royer R-121 ribbon mic . Sometimes I like to use an AEA R44 , which is very nice but it was too big for the close shots the video people wanted . On one occasion we also had a trumpet player who had his own Beyerdynamic M130 , which was also nice . And , on flute , I used a Schoeps CMC 6 .
Additionally , drums and piano were run through a Neve 1073 preamp , and brass and the vocal presenter / MC ’ s mic – a Neumann KMS 104 BK Cardioid mic , through a Neve 1084s .”
As for treating the audio pre-broadcast , beyond a bit of compression , Messier says : “ I used a Lexicon 480L for some reverbs for the piano and brass players . The mix I sent to the video team from the SSL buss also had a limiter on it to get the level I needed for the web .”
“ I was recording directly into Pro Tools at 48khz / 24-bit ,” Messier continues , “ with the output coming from our SSL Duality console . But all my moves for the mix were done using an Avid S1 Slimline control surface .”
As for additional sweetening and FX : “ The most work I did was on bass because not everyone had the same sound or quality of bass , and , obviously , when you change drummers you change kits . So that depended on the kit and the player ; sometimes we dampened the kick , some players prefer to have it ringing .” Overall , Messier says , he wasn ’ t striving for a unified sound , “ It just came up as what it was . I love jazz and I respect the musicians . I can impose stuff , but I start from the musician ’ s point of view .”
There is also a different mindset for players when recording versus playing live . While you ’ d think it was similar on the engineering side , “ It ’ s not pop music ,” Messier says . Put bluntly , for jazz performances , the rawer and the more natural , the better . And , for Messier , there ’ s something he ’ ll take from this experience into his work as a recording engineer : “ It ’ s not often that we mix as we go . In my case , because I don ’ t mix live shows , I always go back and tweak . You let a lot of things go as you mix live .” Among them , players moving , and adjusting to that , he notes ,
MARGINAL STUDIOS ’ PEI YAO XU particularly brass players : “ I ’ m sure they forget what ’ s in front of them and just close their eyes and play .” Messier says there was give and take between the audio and video side of the shows . “ But at the end , because Mathieu is a sound guy as well , he understood what I was going through . We exchanged a lot of information about how we should do this or that . So … Musicians , Mathieu , me , studio , Alain – it ’ s a combination of everyone .”
As pandemic live shows go , this was a particularly nuanced and intimate offering . For myself , as an audience member watching the livestreamed shows , it truly felt uniquely engaging . To achieve that , Bourassa says , “ it ’ s all about teamwork . The individual elements combine to create the ideal result ; the space itself , the players , and the open , simple approach to capturing the audio .”
Their success in doing so was reflected by the feedback from the online audience and the media outlets that Glenda Rush , who did PR for the festival , received : “ I was told that many of the artists ’ shows lend themselves to this type of format .” Rush also adds that the online “ chatting ” ( which the musicians were able to participate in and could view via a video display set up discreetly in the space ) that took place during the shows , across the board , reflected how highly engaged both the average audience member and press alike were . “ It ’ s not easy to organize something without the public [ there ],” Bédard says , “ but I think that each concert had a great result – the sound and images were great and everyone was very happy with that .”
“ Every concert was a joy to do ,” Messier sums up . “ Everything went very smoothly and it was great to see musicians get together for again . I thanked Alain many times for the happiness this gave everybody involved .”
Kevin Young is a Toronto-based musician and freelance writer .
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