Output details
35 - Music, Drama, Dance and Performing Arts
University of Salford
Gondwana Records Recording Portfolio
From 2008 Williams has worked as the chief recording / mix engineer for Gondwana Records producing seven albums to date. The research aim of these recordings was to produce a sound which recalled ‘classic’ jazz releases of the 1950’s and 1960’s at studios such as Columbia Studios 30th Street Studio (New York) and Rudy Van Gelders Studio (Englewood Cliffs), but utilising contemporary digital recording and mix techniques.
Through photographic research and drawing on his experience of contemporary classical and popular music recording techniques Williams addressed problems which often occur in recording acoustic jazz in small studio spaces:
• acoustic isolation of instruments conflicting with line of sight (essential for improvised material) and the capacity for mid / distant microphone technique. Through careful microphone placement and by placing performers ‘in the round’ instrumental spill became both manageable and beneficial.
• Headphones can negatively affect performance. Careful positioning of performers enabled the ensemble to ‘self-balance’ in the acoustic environment, obviating the need for headphones.
• Recording techniques in rock / pop often rely on multi-microphone applications to enable clarity in a dense arrangement. In acoustic jazz, this can result in poor phase cohesion and spatial dislocation of instruments. Minimising the number of microphones helped maintain phase coherence across the microphone array.
• Seeking the sound that originally came from recording onto analogue tape, Williams used either digital emulation, or mastering to analogue tape as multitracking to this format was not possible.
The work has international impact: Matt Hallsall’s third album was nominated for the MOBO “Best Jazz Album”, and won the BBC Worldwide "Jazz album of the Year”. All the records in the catalogue have reviewed in broadsheet press (Guardian / Independant) and specialist magazines. BBC Music Magazine awarding 2010’s Colour Yes five stars for both Performance and Sound.
