Forostar
Ancient Mariner
That is the worst advice I have ever read on this forum. I totally disagree. Thousand percent. I enjoyed most if not all releases with headphones. We're talking about Van Gelder and I love separation personally. Perfect match. For me jazz is a lot about recognizing and enjoying individual contributions (Individuals are often mentioned on album covers as well). The music breathes with space in between instruments. I like to and can focus very well on drums, which is most important for me. I started to like jazz because of the great drummers. Drums on the side have a large audio spectrum range and the playing and sound, especially cymbals, can be heard very well this way. With headphones there's more focus, more to be deduced; more ear for detail (hello Lewis Porter), more enjoyment.
On Van Gelder's sound, I found some content that IMO really can be heard best by using headphones:
While recording at a high level, with only two microphones on a stand, Van Gelder managed to get a clarity from the drums and bass that no one else had. In fact, he caught the sound of an entire rhythm section – bass, piano and drums – in proper perspective, something other engineers hadn’t thought possible. Using real and electronic echo, Van Gelder pulled sound and power from horn players unheard of outside of live performance. When Van Gelder moved to Englewood he built an elaborate studio with churchlike ceilings and cross-beams. By this point, he’d dropped the optometry.
Van Gelder always got spectacular performance in the high end from his gear, which was obviously most evident in the cymbals on his recordings. From what I've heard (with my ears), recording technology didn't really hit its full stride with high fidelity and full-range frequency response until around 1955, but regardless he was always a frontrunner with respect to this.
Although I usually prefer mono mixes of his stuff, if I want to hear the detail and intricacies of the drums (for any jazz recording really), stereo listening with headphonesis definitely the way to go.
... the one thing that I've felt Van Gelder really captured when almost nobody else was doing it was the full power of the drumkit. The way he recorded Tony Williams and Elvin Jones and Max Roach - those recordings sound like real drumkits, and the simulated sound of a lot of drum recordings has always been a pet peeve of mine (and carries on to even the jazz recordings of the 2000s, by the way). Inevitably, when I want to hear a fifties or sixties recording with 'real' drums, I put on something RVG did.
I'm very fond of the drum sound, and especially the clarity and airiness of the ride cymbal sound, on albums like Smokin' by Miles Davis and Somethin' Else by Miles Davis Cannonball Adderly. It's not a big or showy or in-your-face sound, but it's very clean and natural sounding, and sympathetic to the music, IMO.
On Van Gelder's sound, I found some content that IMO really can be heard best by using headphones:
While recording at a high level, with only two microphones on a stand, Van Gelder managed to get a clarity from the drums and bass that no one else had. In fact, he caught the sound of an entire rhythm section – bass, piano and drums – in proper perspective, something other engineers hadn’t thought possible. Using real and electronic echo, Van Gelder pulled sound and power from horn players unheard of outside of live performance. When Van Gelder moved to Englewood he built an elaborate studio with churchlike ceilings and cross-beams. By this point, he’d dropped the optometry.
Van Gelder always got spectacular performance in the high end from his gear, which was obviously most evident in the cymbals on his recordings. From what I've heard (with my ears), recording technology didn't really hit its full stride with high fidelity and full-range frequency response until around 1955, but regardless he was always a frontrunner with respect to this.
Although I usually prefer mono mixes of his stuff, if I want to hear the detail and intricacies of the drums (for any jazz recording really), stereo listening with headphonesis definitely the way to go.
... the one thing that I've felt Van Gelder really captured when almost nobody else was doing it was the full power of the drumkit. The way he recorded Tony Williams and Elvin Jones and Max Roach - those recordings sound like real drumkits, and the simulated sound of a lot of drum recordings has always been a pet peeve of mine (and carries on to even the jazz recordings of the 2000s, by the way). Inevitably, when I want to hear a fifties or sixties recording with 'real' drums, I put on something RVG did.
I'm very fond of the drum sound, and especially the clarity and airiness of the ride cymbal sound, on albums like Smokin' by Miles Davis and Somethin' Else by Miles Davis Cannonball Adderly. It's not a big or showy or in-your-face sound, but it's very clean and natural sounding, and sympathetic to the music, IMO.
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