Session Report: A SonataPalooza in PA
Summer is always a nice time of year, to me. Kids are out of school, it’s prime beach time, and things just generally lighten up a little bit. It’s also the time for recording sessions! Wait, what?!?
Jack and Craig Better get in a little warmup prior to kicking off the Sonata for 4-valve trumpet by David Loeb (Photo: Pierce Bounds)
I had the chance to record a super fun project in August involving my longtime friend and collaborator, Jack Sutte. Jack plays trumpet in the Cleveland Orchestra, teaches at the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory in Ohio, and performs with his brass trio, Factory Seconds. Jack has a multi volume, multi year project ongoing called Sonatapalooza. Sonatapalooza, besides being a funny word, is an apt description of the project Jack has set out to accomplish. It is HUGE! He is working on recording ALL of the written sonata literature for trumpet and piano. Folks, let me tell you, it’s a lot of sonatas!
The control room - Robert and WIll look mildly concerned - I look like something is about to explode! Photo: Pierce Bounds
We convened in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on the campus of Dickinson College for 3 days of recording at their lovely Rubendall Recital Hall. Jack’s (and my) classmate from Juilliard, composer Robert Pound, is the head of the music department at Dickinson, and an experienced producer, so Robert manned the helm, while fantastic pianist Craig Ketter was Jack’s musical partner in navigating the sea of sonatas before us. This “Palooza” volume featured music by American composers, including sonatas by David Loeb, Fisher Tull, and Anthony Plog. Will Samson came up from DC for a day to assist with setup, mic placement, and just generally getting the sessions rolling.
The Team (L to R): Chris Clark, Robert Pound, our young page turner, Craig Letter, Jack Sutte, Will Samson Photo: Pierce Bounds
Jack has already recorded a number of sonatas in Cleveland with long time Cleveland Orchestra engineer, Bruce Gigax, and even though we were in a different space this time, he wished to use some of the same mics that Bruce has used in his previous recordings that have worked so well. Schoeps MK21s in an A/B pattern were used as the main pair, with a pair of MK22s on the piano for reinforcement as needed. I elected to put up my AEA R88 as a closer main pair, more like a trumpet spot, to have some ribbon mic sound at our disposal in the final mix. One other little treat was the celeste in the Tony Plog Sonata, mic’d with a pair of Sennheiser MKH8040s from the back - quite a fun instrument to record. The sound make me feel like it’s almost Christmas! (Think Nutcracker: Sugar Plum Fairy) Finally, a single close mic (Beyerdynamic 930, I think) was at hand to add definition to the muted trumpet passages as needed.
Will dials the set up in just right… gotta catch a few of those early trumpet reflections!
This was also my first time using an immersive microphone array in that I used a variation of the 2L cube created by Morten Lindberg, to capture additional mic channels for an ATMOS mix. Besides the AB main pair, I added a center channel, rear surrounds, side mics in the form of a wide flank mic pair, and four height mics about 12” above the main array. The idea is that you will hear a more spacious mix when you hear the album in Dolby ATMOS. If you haven’t checked out Apple’s Spatial Audio selections on Apple Music, or immersive audio mixes on Tidal, then I suggest you do - it’s amazing!