Engineering Winners Board Certified Dylan Beasley Daniel Blanck, a senior at Manlius Pebble Hill School in DeWitt, N.Y., has been studying studio engineering and design for two years at Syracuse University under the tutelage of James Abbott. He has recorded professional independent projects in addition to his own school’s orchestra, wind ensemble, jazz groups and soloists. He has even founded his own recording engineering company, Basement Recording Corporation. Blanck, who plays guitar, included in his SMA entry a studio recording of “Body And Soul” that featured him with a trio of piano, drums and bass. Another standout selection from his submission was “Come Rain Or Come Shine,” sung by a female vocalist with a trio. “I hoped to achieve a Blue Note, smoky-bar-room 1950s feel,” he said. “This recording was influenced by the work of Rudy Van Gelder. The vocals are upfront in the mix and spot-miked. The stereo pair-recorded piano provides a wide foundation for the vocals. The bass is also spot-miked, providing a solid, clear, low resonance. Finally, the drums were spotmiked with an overhead stereo pair. The sweeping of the brushes on the snare can be felt from the snare’s spot mic.” Blanck has been working with another of his teachers, Joe Colombo, on recording a live big band once a month in a club in downtown Syracuse, N.Y. “This project allowed Dan to experiment over time with mic placement and mixing of a live 17-piece band,” Colombo said. “We are in the final stages of mastering the recordings.” Dylan Beasley has completed three years at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA), where his official discipline is media arts, including audio and video classes. He focuses his energy on audio engineering under the instruction of Steve Reynolds. Previously, he was under the jazz discipline at NOCCA, practicing trumpet and gathering connections that have since become major recording sources. “My goal as a recording engineer is to record things I believe to be worth recording,” Beasley said. “With so much talent around my school, I focus on that.” Beasley has become the requested engineer of NOCCA’s jazz students for college audition recordings and personal demos. “Dylan is particular about microphone choice, placement and room acoustics,” Reynolds said. “Advanced stereo techniques were used on some recordings. Mixing techniques such as parallel compression, EQ, reverb and/or appropriate use of natural room ambience were used depending upon the musical genre.” Brian Gerstle’s recording experiences range from course work and independent projects to an internship with one of his professors at University of Miami, Paul Griffith. A jazz trombonist and music engineering major, Gerstle has taken the university’s recording services and sound reinforcement class every semester, which has allowed him to progress from setting up gear and wrapping cables to being chief recording engineer on campus for the past two semesters. Gerstle has also gained recording knowledge in his studies with professor Joe Abbati, which have focused on the studio environment in particular. Gerstle’s SMA submission was a jazz quartet session originally recorded for a friend, graduate student drummer Daniel Susnjar, who was applying to the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program last year. “I miked the drums with two overheads, two kick drum mics (beater and head on the opposite side), and two snare mics (top and bottom), as well as tom mics (one high and one low),” Gerstle said. “Every time I mic drums, I always measure and apply the appropriate sample delays to each spot mic, with reference to the overheads. This prevents comb filtering and cancellation, which allows for a fuller, more natural sound. On piano, I added a shotgun mic below the piano to add more body and low end. I chose to use only one mic each for bass and sax.” At press time, Gerstle was about to be named the University of Miami Outstanding Senior for the Music Engineering Program for the past academic year, according to one of his instructors. —Ed Enright 94 DOWNBEAT June 2009
32 nd Annual Room 107: High School Jazz Vocal Group Winner College Outstanding Performances Pascal LeBoeuf “House Without A Door” Manhattan School of Music Justin DiCioccio New York Jeremy Siskind “Little Love Song” Eastman School of Music Harold Danko Rochester, N.Y. Performing Arts High School Outstanding Performance Luke Marantz “Looking Up” Booker T. Washington HSPVA Bart Marantz Dallas College Winner Kurt Reeder “Waltz For A Woman” Brigham Young University–Idaho Aaron Miller Rexburg, Idaho High School Winner Phillip Golub Untitled Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences Evan Avery Santa Monica, Calif. CONTINUED ON PAGE 98 Jazz Arrangement June 2009 DOWNBEAT 95
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