I used the term "Caribbean pitfalls" in recording PAN MUSIC on this forum recently and I was challenged to define the term. Almost in a way as if I did not have support for my statement. Many times I have said on this forum that I am here mainly to advocate for quality recorded PAN MUSIC and to keep the forum active. My constant cry on this forum for years now has been "WHERE IS THE MUSIC?" and to date I have not heard a single piece of recorded PAN MUSIC that has met my expectation in terms of MAINSTREAM GLOBAL RADIO.
I will give a hint today about what i mean by "Caribbean pitfalls" in recording the PAN -- reluctantly! Very reluctantly!!! Because I am not on here trying to assist wannabe "PAN STARS" with over-inflated egos groping in the DARKNESS.
And it is not really my duty to shed light for the BLIND.
I could well list TEN PITFALLS but I will start with one and if I find enough intelligent debate I will expand.
The TRINI/CARIBBEAN/BRITISH PAN SUPERSTARS walk into the recording studio as if they were sent by GOD to deliver music to the world. But they lack any consciousness of the RECORDING PROCESS. Clear the way leh me pass and put down this recording because I am a SUPERSTAR. And they proceed to record oblivious to ALL MUSIC CONVENTIONS.
My gripe is that if they ever escaped their egos (and pimping of the instrument) and took some input from the sound engineers who live the RECORDING LIFE and have become wise in creating the best sound -- we will suddenly start to see recorded pan music getting some global attention.
Replies
Claude,
Books could be written about this subject, as there have been books, or at least multiple chapters written about recording the piano.
Some general thoughts: Acoustics is key. No mater whether you close mike, like many do, or do a pure orchestral recording like Sanch, or something in between, if the acoustics of the space is bad, you probably will be disappointed at the results. The instrument is acoustic, the sound doesn't essentially come from one spot like a horn, so the acoustics of the space are going to enter into your recording.
There is no one "correct" way to record the pan, or most anything else. For one thing, people's tastes differ. What one listener may consider a great recording, another may think is awful.
What would be likely to work for a solo pan or small ensemble might not work at all for a 120 player panorama side.
It is "easier" to make good recordings of pan (or most anything else) with equipment that is affordable to many than it was even 20 years ago, with the advent of inexpensive decent quality gear, however it is also easier to make awful recordings if you misapply that gear.
There are what I would consider "excellent" recordings of pan from the 1950's on, there are also awful recordings. Some of those excellent recordings were made in Trinidad by Trinidadians, some made by "foreigners", both in Trinidad and elsewhere. Some of the recordings I consider "excellent" sound vastly different than others, but some starters:
The pans need to be tuned and of reasonable quality; garbage in garbage out.
The musicians have to have at least some level of skill
The arrangements & music have to be enjoyable very subjective.
The technical quality has to be "decent" not necessarily "perfect" which probably doesn't exist, but any technical issues shouldn't distract from listening to the music, unless the recording is so special in content that one can overlook the technical issues just to listen to the content. This means reasonably low distortion, reasonable frequency response, reasonable balance between the instruments, lack of objectionable hum, noise, bad acoustics, extraneous noises etc.
The pickup of an instrument (the micing, particularly if close miced) has to be of a pleasing timbre (very subjective). This depends on the instrument and player, but also on the choice of microphone(s) the acoustics and the placement of the microphones.
Most quality recording engineers should be able to get a decent recording but they might find it wise to spend some time studying the instrument and listen to both the live group and some recordings which the producer is trying to emulate. Recording pan is actually easier than amplifying pan for an audience. However, it is considerably more difficult to get a good recording if the music is also being amplified through speakers anywhere near the band. Furthermore, getting a good recording (or amplifying pan) is much more than throwing a couple of SM58's somewhere randomly in front of the band. That is why you do need an experienced recording engineer, or at least some lessons from one, and not just a DJ who suddenly thinks he or she is capable of amplifying/recording a steelband.
I am not a big fan of "laying down tracks", where you record the tracks of a multitrack recording one at a time, and mix them down later. If the band isn't all there playing together, it usually looses that spontaneity and "life" that comes when the musicians are "communicating" as they are playing. It is hard to communicate with a pair of headphones...
Beyond that, there are two extremes of recording and a lot of in-between. You can go for a pure orchestral recording, a pair of mics chosen (pattern, response, etc) and located in accordance with one of the known orchestral recording techniques, recorded in stereo, with no multitrack mixdown. You can close mic all the pans to multitrack, different than laying down tracks as all, or most of the tracks are laid down at the same time, and then mix down. Or often for a smaller ensemble, or a mixed steelpan and electronic instrument band, use an overall stereo pair and "spot mics" on some or all individual instruments and again mix it down afterwards.
For panorama sides, you probably want to depend mostly on the orchestral miking, possibly augmented with a few spot mics if you have a multitrack recording. If you forgo the stereo pair and only mike let us say a couple of tenors, a second a cello and a bass you might as well tell most of the band to stay home, they won't be in the recording. But you do need a space with decent acoustics, large bands often sound better when recorded outside for that reason.
For smaller groups, you can get good recordings purely with an orchestral stereo pair, even indoors with good acoustics, but there are advantages in adding spot mics, as it lets you improve the balance in the mixdown process, and, for example, bring up the level on a soloist and drop the rest of the band back a little for a better mix. But, if you are going to add spot mics or record solely close micing, you need to space the instruments apart more than most bands typically position themselves, as otherwise the spot mics will pick up "spill from other instruments than the one(s) they are supposed to be recording. This problem of recording "spill" has destroyed many recordings, and not just of pan, and is one reason some people like to record individual tracks. One thing here, a good engineer often aims the spot mics, not so much to record the intended instrument, as to not record what he doesn't want leaking into the mic. This is done by choosing the mics carefully, and knowing where the "nulls" for that directional mic are, something a musician probably doesn't know, and a reason why musicians shouldn't spend too much time telling the engineer how to aim the mic.
As far as where to put the mic, except for the bases, I'd avoid putting a mic close below the "belly" of the bottom middle of a pan. There are good reasons based on physics and the design of a pan why that often doesn't give a good recording. It tends to result in a harsh sound with excessive overtones and non-harmonic distortion. These recordings may be why some people say the pan is a "noisy" instrument. If all else is equal I prefer to use a quality cardioid mic located a little above the front lip of the pan aimed at the far side lip of the pan. I feel this often gives a decent balance between the notes. For a second pan, if you can afford two mics, mic each side the same way, and when mixing down, pan each side slightly differently to give the sound some "width". I don't recommend panning a second recorded that way hard right and hard left, to the listener it ends as the pannist with the longest arms you've ever listened to.
For 6 bases, I've had good luck with an omnidirectional mic with good bass response buried between the two middle bases as far in as you can place it without the musician kicking the mike. There are those who often mic bases from above, but you have to put the mic so far from the bases to pick up all 6 with any degree of balance, that other pans, and often particularly the trap set leaks horridly into the bass mic. Just as much sound comes out of the bottom of the bass as the top, and by burying the mic in the middle, the bases themselves block some of the spill from the other instruments.
I could go on, but this is a start.
Others may have other ideas, there is no automatic right or wrong, the end results are what count.
Andy Narell has the best Pan recordings I agree. Ego of the player does enter into the frey, as butting heads with the producer never brings good results.
I own a Pan set in a recording studio which is mine, so I don't face that problem, unless I butt heads with myself :) Most of Andy's stuff incorporates conventional instruments also, which makes the track shine a little more - the problem faced by most Steel 'only' bands in a studio setting is the acoustic nature of the metal. Most music today is multitracked - that is one track/instrument at a time, and applying this to Pan has much merit and eases the post production proces. However, it looses a lot of the authentic feel of what makes a Steel Band a Steel Band - that is, the instruments resonating within each other to create a warm tone that makes the art. stand alone and uniquely.
'So record everything together', most people come to this conclusion. However, the majority of studios don't have the space to fit even the most standard of Pan sets (if you include 6 bass in the mix), and even when the do, the amount of mid frequencies flying around even a well treated room is insane, and you end up having to filter a lot of stuff, which again detracts from the warmth of the sound.
I have found a compromise between the two approaches works best, at least when close miking pans. (I won't bore you with exactly how I record).
The other issue raised in this informative post is also one of recording good Pan music for the airwaves and commercial use. Pan is a niche in most countries, but turns heads when it covers popular music (we recently had a lot of success with Adele's Rolling in the Deep - which we played on Polish TV, and Star Wars - Duel of the Fates/Imperial March - which went sort of mini-viral on Facebook). The problem starts when you start getting popular, you start treading into copyright territory, and most bands are not knowledgable enough about this to push it further or don't have the time. Radio stations need to have a clear copyright situation before airing any Steel Band's stuff, so the wrok has to be done on that front.
Please Claude, expand on your post here, I find it most interesting.
Adam
Oh, Adam!!! Thanks for your input!!! But this is such a complex discussion. I have to begin by taking you back a bit and saying that when I talk about recording the music I am not thinking about recording a STEELBAND or a PANORAMA band. And let me diverge and congratulate you on your recent STEELBAND recording successes. Keep moving forward with your ideas.
I am advocating for recordings with the PAN as part of a conventional music production. A tenor and double second at most. But mostly a tenor. Nothing new! It has been done a thousand times (and done wrong) even as recently as the new release from Rachel "RED HEAD" Hayward. Actually, if you want, I can mail you a copy of her CD and then we can proceed to have a private email discussion about all the "Caribbean pitfalls" in that CD and ways to meet the market place with the right product.
As Raf Robertson said: PAN is an instrument that we are trying to define as not an instrument, but something special [and spiritual]. But anything that has 12 notes is an instrument.
And that is where the problem begins with accepting this instrument which fails miserably 99% of the time that it gets recorded. But once somebody does it right it will fly around the world with diplomatic status. My gripe is why so many talented pan players failed so miserably in recording the instrument. The answer is very simple: Attention has to be paid to the recording process. A player just cannot take his name and his fame and walk into the studio thinking that all he has to do is play the magical (spiritual) instrument blind to the challenges facing the proper recording of the instrument.
Recent research by a pair of American physicists has shown that the sound from steel drums actually radiates more from the sides of the pan than from the top or below. Right or wrong, the producer and the engineer and the player should take this into consideration. Maybe having a pair of microphones at the side of the pan might be critical to the final sound. Leave no stone unturned!
Because of the natural reverberation quality of the PAN players end up with a recording that could sound a little bit (or a lot) out of focus. You address that!!! You just can't walk into the studio as MR. PANSTAR and bowl over everybody without taking input or doing experimentation to get the sound of a musical instrument.
Mike placement is critical to the clarity of the final sound. Distance is the pan player's best friend when recording the PAN because the transients are huge. If MR. PANSTAR is too busy to waste time with all that preparation he will get the same results he always gets.
The room sound is key!!! If there are any standing waves, the PAN will flutter echo loudly.
Microphone choice and experimentation HAVE TO BE major considerations when doing the recording.
Our Pan recording artistes to date have not taken the time to put emphasis on this aspect of the recording process. The real sad part is that there are people out there who could take any halfway decent PAN MAN and carry him into a studio and solve all these problems in a heartbeat. But arrogance and ego factor heavily into the process. Especially in NEW YORK where there is so much PRODUCTION TALENT. Some of which is selling very cheap if you put the time into finding it.
I will stop here Mr, Adam!!! I will not even open the can of worms that is SONG SELECTION or approach to hitting the notes or measured performance. Beside all that, the stubborn idea that PAN could play any kind of music further weakens the final product that comes out of the recording studio.
Andy have the best recorded Pan music and ah don tink he have a Grammy. As for the pan player in the studio I will say it's up to the studio to make the pan sound sound good, I don't see what ego has to do with it.
THE best? more correctly ONE of the best. Have you heard the album "Qunitessence" by Samaroo Jets?