The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Reinventing Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On"
New Orleans' renowned Dirty Dozen Brass Band weathered Hurricane Katrina but paid the price - a number of the band's members lost their homes and possessions. The band decided to remake Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" and earmarked a percentage of the record's sales for the Tipitina's Foundation, an organization benefiting the New Orleans music community (www.tipitinasfoundation.org).
Producers Anthony Marinelli and Shawn Amos took on the project with engineer Clint Bennett at the board. The album consists of mostly instrumental versions of Marvin's songs, with a few vocal renditions in Dirty Dozen's unique style.
The record was tracked at Westlake Studios in Los Angeles, CA and Bismeaux Studio in Austin, TX. Clint used R-121's and R-122's on all of the horns, an SF-12 on drum overheads and an SF-24 for brass section room miking and group vocals. The sonic quality of this record is astonishing - a nice example of what ribbon mics can do for you!
Audio Samples
Flyin'
High - Mix
Flyin'
High - Tenor Sax soloed (see pic)
Flyin'
High end - Mix
Flyin'
High end - Vocals, Claps, Percussion: One SF-24 stereo ribbon with musicians gathered around it. (see pic)
Flyin'
High end - Horn Stem: R-121's and R-122 on various horns. (see pic)
Flyin'
High end - Drums: SF-12 on drum overhead, low and towards the front of the kit. (see pic)
Flyin'
High end - Sousaphone: R-122 on sousaphone. (see pic)
What's Goin On - Mix
What's Goin On - Trumpet and Trombone (see pics)
What's Goin On - Electric Guitars (split left and right)
Save the Children - Trumpet (see pic)
God is Love - Background Vocals (see pics)
Right On - Trombone (see pics)
Session Photos
Click on photos to enlarge and to view comments.
Audio Samples - Room Miking The Band
The choice and placement of room mics is one of the key elements in professional recording. Clint Bennett used our phantom powered SF-24 stereo ribbon microphone for room ambiance on all of the brass section tracking dates. During the first session, Clint soloed the SF-24 and felt that the sound he was capturing was not immediate enough, so he moved the mic to another position - lower and closer to the musicians. This change in the microphone's position gave him exactly what he was looking for.
Clint was kind enough to give us solo SF-24 tracks from that first session, so that you can hear the sound the SF-24 was capturing in the two different positions. It's a great example of the difference mic positioning can make.
| Right
On (far) - see pics |
Right
On (tight) - see pics |
Room Miking The Band
