My Socially Distance Big Band video!

[MerlinWilliams]

https://youtu.be/GcAixS2NQIk - A Tribute to Art Fern by the Jazz Mechanics Big Band

Audio here on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-51358469...te-to-art-fern



All audio using Reaper! Had 35 tracks on this project.

[reborn579]

i think this is pretty cool. very good groove, considering everyone was basically playing by themselves. really good sound as well.
and i liked the guys playing brass in a car - i think it was a car, right?

[Judders]

Great job!

Very cool, well put together, awesome playing, good mix... Loved it!

Personal favourite was the trumpet player sat in a field.

[MerlinWilliams]

Originally Posted by reborn579

i think this is pretty cool. very good groove, considering everyone was basically playing by themselves. really good sound as well.
and i liked the guys playing brass in a car - i think it was a car, right?

Yep, the bass trombonist sat in a Citroen he was restoring. He recorded in both seats, so I split screened him.

Thanks for the nice words about the sound.

[MerlinWilliams]

Originally Posted by Judders

Great job!

Very cool, well put together, awesome playing, good mix... Loved it!

Personal favourite was the trumpet player sat in a field.

Thanks!

I like the trumpet in the field clip too. He got some great late day light.

[Judders]

Did you have any specific tactics for tackling so many different recording spaces? It sounds surprisingly cohesive.

[MerlinWilliams]

Originally Posted by Judders

Did you have any specific tactics for tackling so many different recording spaces? It sounds surprisingly cohesive.

Most of the audio portion was recorded in the group's regular rehearsal space. It was myself and the performer and the other producer in the room at any one time.

I generated a tempo map, bass line, and bare bones drum part in Finale, exported a MIDI file to Reaper, then assigned VSTs. That gave me a framework to record parts, starting with the lead trumpet.

Only one of the audio tracks was recorded independently by a band member.

That made unifying the audio relatively easy.

Once the final mix was done, I sent out a copy with the click track intro, and asked the players to do a video performance, with their phone hearing the track. That way I could sync the video to the existing track, then just mute the phone audio.

Rhythm section players were recorded and videoed simultaneously, because of the improvised nature of their parts.

[Judders]

Ah, that makes a lot more sense! Thanks for the detailed answer.

[kindafishy]

Well done! This sounds really great and the video was so perfectly put together.

[toleolu]

Very cool.

Your system must be a beast to be able to handle that many video tracks at the same time.

[Fergler]

That's awesome, I know one of the trombonists.

[CEART]

Originally Posted by MerlinWilliams

https://youtu.be/GcAixS2NQIk - A Tribute to Art Fern by the Jazz Mechanics Big Band

Audio here on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-51358469...te-to-art-fern
All audio using Reaper! Had 35 tracks on this project.

Hi Merlin,

I am surprised and very happy to find this type of musical work based on jazz, especially big band, plus the music of Rob McConnell, fantastic jazz trombonist, composer, and arranger. The overall level of this musical montage raises the bar for Reaper as well as a multimedia resource, and even more used with professional criteria as you did.

As previously was mentioned, the massive video assembly work on Reaper is amazing. I love the balance, clarity and tone from brass and in general of all the instruments and band performers, as well as the solo part. BTW, you guitar sound is very elegant, present and jazzy during the trombone solo, with your Tele Squire you managed not to miss a jazz box guitar at all there!

I'm glad to know you are Canada based, I have more than 10 years as part of the PG Music team as guitar Artist RealTrack for Band-in-a-Box (jazz samba and fusion styles) and global Spanish-speaking forum host, so congratulations to you and the entire band for this excellent production. I will bring this video to Peter Ganon hands.

Thanks for sharing!

Carlos E. Arellano
PG Music BIAB RT Artist.
Spanish Host.

[Mattheas Boelter]

This is really solid stuff! You got an awesome sound of the group. They play together impressively well for having been recorded separately.

[MerlinWilliams]

Originally Posted by toleolu

Very cool.

Your system must be a beast to be able to handle that many video tracks at the same time.

I actually composited video tracks - then I could combine four videos (one of each section) instead of 20 separate video tracks.

[MerlinWilliams]

Originally Posted by Mattheas Boelter

This is really solid stuff! You got an awesome sound of the group. They play together impressively well for having been recorded separately.

Thanks. There was quite a bit of editing done as well. Note corrections that weren't on the printed parts, note releases, etc.

[MerlinWilliams]

Originally Posted by CEART

As previously was mentioned, the massive video assembly work on Reaper is amazing. I love the balance, clarity and tone from brass and in general of all the instruments and band performers, as well as the solo part. BTW, you guitar sound is very elegant, present and jazzy during the trombone solo, with your Tele Squire you managed not to miss a jazz box guitar at all there!

I'm glad to know you are Canada based, I have more than 10 years as part of the PG Music team as guitar Artist RealTrack for Band-in-a-Box (jazz samba and fusion styles) and global Spanish-speaking forum host, so congratulations to you and the entire band for this excellent production. I will bring this video to Peter Ganon hands.

Thanks for sharing!

Carlos E. Arellano
PG Music BIAB RT Artist.
Spanish Host.

Just to be clear - I stated in the OP that the audio was done in Reaper. The video assembly was done in Corel Videostudio Ultimate 2020.

Does PG music still handle Encore? I have old scores in Encore that I need to access, so I can port them over to Finale.

[vitalker]

Very nice video and music. Thanks! The only annoying thing were sharp transitions.