Psyched on Sonics! Live Jazz Album Recording in the NYC Subway

Every month, Matt McCorkle of EqualSonics.com brings you a day in the life of a New York City recording engineer.

An album in motion tends to stay in motion.

THE MISSION: Capture a Jazz Band’s Subway Performance

NYC artist Jonathan Batiste and I had been working together for quite some time before embarking on this latest endeavor. Our most notable project thus far was holing up for a week at a beautiful Upper West Side apartment and recording on a 7-foot Steinway piano, while another was recording grand piano and double bass overdubs on the Rubin Museum’s downstairs stage.

Both Jonathan and I are very eager and open to trying new and unique recording methods, particularly those that capture the magic between performer and environment.

This leads us to this entry of “Psyched On Sonics:” Recording Jonathan Batiste and the Stay Human Band late night in the subterranean caverns of New York City’s subway system. The concept for this piece of work was to create an album to capture an experience and take the listener on a sonic adventure. If you’re not familiar with Jonathan and his work, be sure to visit his Web page for more info on his travels: his M.O. is for him and his “marching band” of tuba, tambourine, harmonabord, saxophone, electric guitar, and vocals is to play while staying constantly in motion around NYC.

All these recordings became part of the artist’s new album, “MY NY.” The Record Release Party is tonight, November 1st, 10:30-11:30 at Rockwood Music Hall (no cover). Come by!

THE EQUIPMENT:

The setup was very similar to the one used in my nature recordings. The microphones were a matched stereo set of AKG C414 XLS. I can’t stress enough how the stereo matched set allows for phenomenal-sounding stereo recording. The nine polar patterns on the new XLS models allow for great control over how tight or wide your source requires the stereo image to be.

The recording device was the Sound Devices 702 battery-powered digital recorder. The recording sample rate was set at 192 KHz with a 24bit depth resolution. The playback on the 702 at 192 KHz is simply stunning. Of course, this would later be down sampled, but for the time being I was in pure audio bliss.

The headphones were the same as I used in the nature recordings, the Audio Technica ATH-M50. An extremely comfy fit and, so far, the best isolation-to-sound-quality ratio I have come across in professional headphones.

THE STRATEGY:

The plan was to follow Jonathan Batiste and the Stay Human Band around on their routes performing for lucky, late night commuters. It was a run-and-gun operation. Hop on one car, record, get out, hop on another car, and repeat. Since this was a one-shot stereo recording with no overdubs, and “no fixing it in the mix,” it was important to mix acoustically by picking my spot in the car according to my position in relation to all of the instruments.

We also wanted to make sure to capture lots of commuters as they added the key element to these tracks – laughter, applause, and impromptu backing vocals. Once on the subway car I had to be quick to note my surroundings and place my microphone setup appropriately. I didn’t want to be moving around, as it would smear the stereo image and ultimately yield a strange recording.

THE BAND:

The band featured Jonathan on the melodica but boasted a number of other fabulous performers. It  consisted of a tuba (Ibanda Ruhumbika), saxophone (Eddie Barbash), electric guitar w/portable amp (RyLand Kelly), tambourine (Joe Saylor) and accordion (Sam Reider). I stayed as far away from the tambourine player as possible, since this instrument cut through the entire subway car! My plan was to stick close to the melodica while keeping the tuba and saxophone in close proximity. The electric guitar also needed to be in close range because the amp was unable to overpower most of the other instruments and subway noise.

THE ROUTE:

We planned to meet up at 11pm on a Friday night, record for a two-hour duration, and take various routes on the A and 1trains through Manhattan. It was a beautiful summer night and New York City was bursting with nightlife energy. This was a perfect time to capture not only the performance, but also the city’s buzz.

Subway relay!

Starting out at Columbus Circle we headed downtown and back uptown again. Everything was captured, from the band playing on the platform waiting for trains, getting on and off the subway cars, and of course while performing in the train. I was always recording because “you never know what you might be missing” in an unscripted situation and uncontrolled environment such as this!

Take note: When recording in the field you’re likely carrying expensive gear, so be mindful of who’s around you at all times! Keep a clean field kit to ensure your personal well-being and your gear’s safety. Making sure all cables are neatly tucked away, your headphones have a short lead as to not get tangled up in a door, rail, etc… The less gear you carry the better.

In the event you are presented with some sort of dangerous situation it’s best to be able to fold your tripod and get to safety. Having to deal with loose cables, tangled mic lines and fumbling around with your recorder could be potentially dangerous.

Remember, when you are out field recording, you have to maintain perspective: You look very, very weird walking around with a bag full of cables, headphones strapped to your head, and a gun-looking device with two ends. Be considerate of people and their space, and don’t get upset if people ask you to leave or ask you questions about what you’re doing.

GROUND LEVEL:

After 90 minutes of recording underground the group decided it would be nice to finish the night off recording some on ground level. Emerging off the Christopher Street stop on the downtown 1 train in the West Village, wandering around for a bit, they came upon a great spot at a busy intersection bustling with clubgoers, traffic, and passers by doubling as backup singers.

(On a side note – as the band was setting up and discussing it’s course of action I took it upon myself to capture some electric NYC nightlife ambience for my ever growing sound effects library!)

Setting up on the street corner, facing my microphones away from the street, they began to perform for the city. It was a great vibe and an even richer experience as musician friends of the band began to show up and hopped right in the performance!

BEDTIME:

After the band performed a whole set on the West Village street corner we broke down our equipment, shared some of the night’s best experiences and parted ways. The next step was to go through the entire night’s worth of recordings and compile Jonathan Batiste’s latest album “MY NY.”

See for yourself — the band in their underground element.

MIX:

Sorting through the many recordings from the evening we were listening for recordings that showcased the experience of the night. We wanted to provide the listener with a sonic journey through New York City on that beautiful summer eve. The band had been cycling through the same set of 11 songs throughout the night so we had multiple takes in various environments to choose from to help curate the listeners’ experience.

One pleasant surprise upon playback was the amazing ambience on the subway car. The full cars are a bit dead sounding, but the vibe is just right for a live recording. The intimate sound of the crowd getting into the performance, the screeching of the subway cars blazing down the track and of course the B-roll of New Yorkers comments and sounds as they pass by.

Once we had the recordings that we wanted to use for the album we began to mix within Pro Tools. Now this was a different mixing than I usually encounter, since the tracks were to remain mostly raw and untouched, but we were mixing the individual song tracks together with one another.

We wanted the listener to have a seamless blend between each track, to create the experience. Mixing only the stereo two-track recordings, I mostly used filters to eliminate the extreme low-end rumbles of the subway. No noise reduction was used, but some slight EQ was used to tame the tuba and some high-end.

Interestingly, I ended up using a Lo-Fi plugin on some of the tracks to dirty up the sound with some slight distortion. I found that some of the recordings were TOO clean and had too much clarity, you would normally not experience listening to a full band in a subway car with that clarity.

By clever use of fades and track placement Jonathan and I were able to make the album play like initially envisioned. For all of the songs I would layer the end of one song on top of another songs beginning in Pro Tools. Then I would play with long cross fades swooping from one song into another seamlessly.

After that, I printed the whole album to one stereo track. On this new stereo track I would go in and snip certain parts between songs — these snips would be the start of each track.

END:

This was truly a unique and incredible recording experience. It proved to be a very solid challenge in the world of field recordings. It was a great treat to be able to record these fabulous musicians. If you ever see them on the subway you’ll be greeted with a pleasant sonic treat.

The MY NY Record Release Party is tonight, November 1st, 10:30-11:30 at Rockwood Music Hall (no cover).

As the owner and operator of his own mobile recording studio, Matt McCorkle of EqualSonics.com is capable of bringing professional audio to anyone, anywhere, anytime. His specialties involve acoustic instrumental recordings, vocal productions, live tracking sessions, sound design, electronic music production and mixing. Whether in the studio or out in the field, Matt’s goal is simple: To create new music and sounds with passionate artists. To contact Matt, please visit EqualSonics.com.

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