Medeski Martin & Wood
30th Ottawa International Jazz Festival
Concerts Under the Stars
Main Stage, Confederation Park, Ottawa, ON
Monday, June 28th/2010

Source: AT3035's (Cardioids, DIN 90Â°/20cm,) > Hydra XLR's > Busman Mod Fostex FR-2LE (16bit/44.1kHz)
Location: Front row centre -- mics at roughly stage height of 3.5' about 3' from stage edge directed at two speakers positioned on the lip of the stage roughly 10' apart and equidistant from centre
Transfer: WAV > PC Laptop > Sound Forge v.10 (tracking) > Trader's Little Helper (SBE fixing > FLAC Level 8)

recording gear belongs to Andrew Butler (loaned to dug)
taped and transferred by dug (crookedbirds AT gmail DOT com)

FLAC > xACT > Ferret > Soundtrack Pro 2 > Channel EQ (slight EQ done to reduce boomy kick drum) > xACT (FLAC Level 8)
by Tom Luhrs (mmw AT twilightsw DOT com) 7/9/2010

FLAC > MP3tag (ID tags added)
by dug (crookedbirds AT gmail DOT com) - July 12/2010


CAVEAT: This is how it sounded at the show (with some improvements made by Tom Luhrs - see below).


 - ONE SET -

01.  [02:18] - 'Intro'
02.  [09:20] - Agmatia >
03.  [06:06] - Improv >
04.  [12:58] - Coconut Boogaloo >
05.  [07:04] - Just Like I Pictured It >
06.  [07:04] - Amber Gris
07.  [10:13] - Walk Back >
08.  [08:06] - Junkyard
09.  [11:15] - Nostalgia In Times Square
10.  [07:49] - Is There Anybody Here That Love My Jesus
11.  [09:08] - Cloud Wars
12.  [02:16] - 'Billy Speaks/Encore Break/Happy B-Day John'
13.  [08:44] - Chubb Sub
14.  [00:27] - 'Billy Speaks'



NOTE ABOUT RECORDING:
This was my first attempt at recording at a show, with HUGE THANKS to Andrew Butler for loaning the gear! And another HUGE THANKS to Dave Kent, Billy Mulvey, and Co. and the Ottawa Jazz Fest volunteers + crew for arranging/allowing the recording to happen (and of course, MMW themselves!). The sound was perfect for the earlier acts with clear clean music coming out the two speakers at the lip of the stage directly in front of where we were sitting in the front row, especially for the set of Ralph Towner (guitar) & Paolo Fresu (trumpet + flugelhorn) -- check these guys out!

So we weren't hearing the sound coming out of the main stacks speakers -- which I gathered also sounded amazing. When MMW started there was this incredibly horrendous boom eminating from their sound right from the first beat, but nobody in the crew seemed to notice -- it was literally shaking our chests but not in a good way. It soon became apparent that Billly's kick drum was WAY TOO LOUD in the mix coming out of those two stage lip speakers we were hearing (and possibly an onstage amp too?) and it was like that all night. As a result, I had to turn the levels down, as well as the Fostex's equivalent of a built-in preamp, so the kick drum boom wasn't peaking way high which means the rest of the instruments are sitting in a low but clear level in the mix.

Tom then took the recording and tried to meet a happy medium bringing the other instruments up in the mix a bit, making them brighter, while softening the boom from the kick drum making this a much better listen, albeit different from what we actually heard because the kick drum was just BOOMING all night! HA! So another HUGE THANKS to Tom Luhrs for smoothing/softening the boom. The opening tune, Agmatia, where the kick drum boom really took me off guard is still pretty heavy at first, and the recording is still *quite* bassy, but I've enjoyed listening much more since Tom worked his magic.
- dug
