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60-436: Sun Ship was one of the few albums John Coltrane's quartet recorded without sound engineer Rudy Van Gelder . According to David A. Wild's liner notes for the 1995 reissue of the album, "the reason is lost in time, but most probably Van Gelder was booked and Coltrane refused to wait." Sun Ship: The Complete Session , a two-CD collection, was released in 2013. On this release, "Amen" is the only song identical to its master take;

120-409: A recording or a live performance , balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization , dynamics processing and audio effects , mixing , reproduction, and reinforcement of sound. Audio engineers work on the "technical aspect of recording—the placing of microphones , pre-amp knobs, the setting of levels. The physical recording of any project is done by an engineer…" Sound engineering

180-509: A scientist or professional engineer who holds an engineering degree and who designs, develops and builds audio or musical technology working under terms such as electronic/electrical engineering or (musical) signal processing . Research and development audio engineers invent new technologies, audio software, equipment and techniques, to enhance the process and art of audio engineering. They might design acoustical simulations of rooms, shape algorithms for audio signal processing , specify

240-507: A collaboration of master musicians, expanding, stretching, probing the furthest reaches, the ultimate possibilities of the time-tested 'tenor plus rhythm' format... Classic recordings by the Classic John Coltrane Quartet, an unforgettable, forever-fresh, essential part of the art of jazz." Edward Mendelowitz called Sun Ship "a riveting glimpse of a band traveling at warp speed, alternating shards of chaos and beauty,

300-514: A day, with two lathes going simultaneously, and I'm glad to see the LP go. As far as I'm concerned, good riddance. It was a constant battle to try to make that music sound the way it should. It was never any good. And if people don't like what they hear in digital, they should blame the engineer who did it. Blame the mastering house. Blame the mixing engineer. That's why some digital recordings sound terrible, and I'm not denying that they do, but don't blame

360-696: A good sound within a room. For audio engineers, architectural acoustics can be about achieving good speech intelligibility in a stadium or enhancing the quality of music in a theatre. Architectural Acoustic design is usually done by acoustic consultants. Electroacoustics is concerned with the design of headphones, microphones, loudspeakers, sound reproduction systems and recording technologies. Examples of electroacoustic design include portable electronic devices (e.g. mobile phones , portable media players , and tablet computers ), sound systems in architectural acoustics, surround sound and wave field synthesis in movie theater and vehicle audio . Musical acoustics

420-420: A peerless technician than a sonic visionary." Writer Stanley Crouch argued in an interview with Ethan Iverson that Van Gelder made particular adjustments to the sound of John Coltrane's tenor saxophone sound when engineering Coltrane's Impulse Records sessions: "I know the difference between the sound of someone in person and the recorded sound of an engineer. Coltrane's tone was much darker and thicker than

480-491: A saxophone player, I would never try it on Alfred's date. Weinstock didn't give a damn, and it worked out great. Alfred would benefit from that... Despite his prominence in recording jazz, some artists avoided Van Gelder's studio. The bassist and composer Charles Mingus refused to record with him. Taking Leonard Feather 's "blindfold test" in 1960, he said that Van Gelder "tries to change people's tones. I've seen him do it; I've seen him do it; I've seen him take Thad Jones and

540-503: A university. Some positions, such as faculty (academic staff) require a Doctor of Philosophy . In Germany a Toningenieur is an audio engineer who designs, builds and repairs audio systems. The listed subdisciplines are based on PACS ( Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme ) coding used by the Acoustical Society of America with some revision. Audio engineers develop audio signal processing algorithms to allow

600-439: A wide and slow, Ayler-ish vibrato (as well as a more strident tone) made him sound as if he were playing in tongues, as if his light had gone from bright to blinding, as if his purity ran the risk of reckless, self-escaping loss of control — as if he went from conveying the divine spirit to being possessed by it." In concluding, Brody stated that Coltrane's "later recordings... reveal Coltrane as he had, so to speak, passed through to

660-404: A wide range of applications, including post-production for video and film , live sound reinforcement, advertising , multimedia , and broadcasting. In larger productions, an audio engineer is responsible for the technical aspects of a sound recording or other audio production, and works together with a record producer or director, although the engineer's role may also be integrated with that of

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720-551: A woman" and she was told women in the city were "still barefoot, pregnant and [singing] in the vocal booth." When Jonell Polansky arrived in Nashville in 1994, with a degree in electrical engineering and recording experience in the Bay Area, she was told "You're a woman, and we already had one"—a reference to Wendy Waldman . KK Proffitt, a studio "owner and chief engineer", states that men in Nashville do not want to have women in

780-423: Is concerned with researching and describing the science of music. In audio engineering, this includes the design of electronic instruments such as synthesizers ; the human voice (the physics and neurophysiology of singing ); physical modeling of musical instruments; room acoustics of concert venues; music information retrieval ; music therapy , and the perception and cognition of music . Psychoacoustics

840-419: Is increasingly viewed as a creative profession and art form, where musical instruments and technology are used to produce sound for film, radio, television, music and video games. Audio engineers also set up, sound check and do live sound mixing using a mixing console and a sound reinforcement system for music concerts, theatre, sports games and corporate events. Alternatively, audio engineer can refer to

900-492: Is offered by colleges and universities. Some audio engineers are autodidacts with no formal training, but who have attained professional skills in audio through extensive on-the-job experience. Audio engineers must have extensive knowledge of audio engineering principles and techniques. For instance, they must understand how audio signals travel, which equipment to use and when, how to mic different instruments and amplifiers, which microphones to use and how to position them to get

960-520: Is regarded as one of the most influential engineers in jazz. Van Gelder was born in Jersey City, New Jersey . His parents, Louis Van Gelder and the former Sarah Cohen (Jewish), ran a women's clothing store in Passaic . His interest in microphones and electronics can be traced to a youthful enthusiasm for amateur radio . He was also a longtime jazz fan. His uncle, for whom Rudy was named, had been

1020-945: Is the scientific study of how humans respond to what they hear. At the heart of audio engineering are listeners who are the final arbitrator as to whether an audio design is successful, such as whether a binaural recording sounds immersive. The production, computer processing and perception of speech is an important part of audio engineering. Ensuring speech is transmitted intelligibly, efficiently and with high quality; in rooms, through public address systems and through mobile telephone systems are important areas of study. A variety of terms are used to describe audio engineers who install or operate sound recording , sound reinforcement , or sound broadcasting equipment, including large and small format consoles . Terms such as audio technician , sound technician , audio engineer , audio technologist , recording engineer , sound mixer , mixing engineer and sound engineer can be ambiguous; depending on

1080-475: Is typically learned from years of experience listening to and mixing music in recording or live sound contexts. For education and training, there are audio engineering schools all over the world. According to Women's Audio Mission (WAM), a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco dedicated to the advancement of women in music production and the recording arts, less than 5% of the people working in

1140-406: Is well documented here, in a set of performances which together act to showcase the abilities of each member of the quartet." In his AllMusic review, Thom Jurek wrote: "After nearly four years together, this band had achieved a vital collective identity. When Coltrane moved toward metrically free styles of rhythm and melody (with tunes often based on one chord or a short series of notes as themes),

1200-547: The Academy Award-nominated soundtrack to "Dirty Wars", Van-Ahn Vo (NPR's top 50 albums of 2013), Grammy-nominated St. Lawrence Quartet , and world music artists Tanya Tagaq and Wu Man . There certainly are efforts to chronicle women's role and history in audio. Leslie Gaston-Bird wrote Women in Audio, which includes 100 profiles of women in audio through history. Sound Girls is an organization focused on

1260-657: The Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, "only 6% of the students enrolled on its sound technology course are female." Women's Audio Mission was started in 2003 to address the lack of women in professional audio by training over 6,000 women and girls in the recording arts and is the only professional recording studio built and run by women. Notable recording projects include the Grammy Award-winning Kronos Quartet , Angelique Kidjo (2014 Grammy winner), author Salman Rushdie ,

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1320-498: The London Daily Telegraph wrote of "Van Gelder's extreme fastidiousness" as an engineer, and his insistence on "no food or drink in the studio, and on no account was anyone to touch a microphone. He himself always wore gloves when handling equipment". Though his output slowed, Van Gelder remained active as a recording engineer into the new century. In the late 1990s, he worked as a recording engineer for some of

1380-468: The Van Gelder sound of the 1950s and 1960s have focused on Van Gelder's recording of pianos as a particular source of criticism: The best Van Gelder recordings feature wonderful-sounding brass, bass walks, and cymbal shimmers, but one instrument he rarely got right was the piano, which, on most of his albums, sounds hooded. Some engineers suspect this was due to reflections over the piano, brought on by

1440-508: The audio and acoustic industry. Audio engineers in research and development usually possess a bachelor's degree , master's degree or higher qualification in acoustics, physics, computer science or another engineering discipline. They might work in acoustic consultancy, specializing in architectural acoustics . Alternatively they might work in audio companies (e.g. headphone manufacturer), or other industries that need audio expertise (e.g., automobile manufacturer), or carry out research in

1500-569: The baritone saxophonist Gil Mellé , introduced him to Alfred Lion , a producer for Blue Note Records , in 1953. In the 1950s, Van Gelder performed engineering and mastering for the classical label Vox Records . He became a full-time recording engineer in 1959. In 1959, he moved the Van Gelder Studio to a larger purpose-built facility in Englewood Cliffs , a few miles southeast of the original location. An obituarist in

1560-465: The best quality recordings. In addition to technical knowledge, an audio engineer must have the ability to problem-solve quickly. The best audio engineers also have a high degree of creativity that allows them to stand out amongst their peers. In the music realm, an audio engineer must also understand the types of sounds and tones that are expected in musical ensembles across different genres— rock and pop music , for example. This knowledge of musical style

1620-487: The context they may be synonymous, or they may refer to different roles in audio production. Such terms can refer to a person working in sound and music production; for instance, a sound engineer or recording engineer is commonly listed in the credits of commercial music recordings (as well as in other productions that include sound, such as movies). These titles can also refer to technicians who maintain professional audio equipment. Certain jurisdictions specifically prohibit

1680-477: The creative use of audio as a sound engineer, and (ii) training in science or engineering topics, which then allows students to apply these concepts while pursuing a career developing audio technologies. Audio training courses provide knowledge of technologies and their application to recording studios and sound reinforcement systems , but do not have sufficient mathematical and scientific content to allow someone to obtain employment in research and development in

1740-536: The drummer for Ted Lewis 's band in the mid-1930s. During his high school years, Van Gelder took trumpet lessons and played in the school band. Van Gelder trained as an optometrist at Philadelphia 's Pennsylvania College of Optometry because he did not think he could earn a living as a recording engineer. He received an O.D. degree from the institution in 1946. Thereafter, Van Gelder maintained an optometry practice in Teaneck, New Jersey until 1959 when he made

1800-432: The electronic manipulation of audio signals. These can be processed at the heart of much audio production such as reverberation , Auto-Tune or perceptual coding (e.g. MP3 or Opus ). Alternatively, the algorithms might perform echo cancellation , or identify and categorize audio content through music information retrieval or acoustic fingerprint . Architectural acoustics is the science and engineering of achieving

1860-528: The field of sound and media are women. "Only three women have ever been nominated for best producer at the Brits or the Grammys " and none won either award. According to Susan Rogers , audio engineer and professor at Berklee College of Music , women interested in becoming an audio engineer face "a boys' club, or a guild mentality". The UK "Music Producers' Guild says less than 4% of its members are women" and at

Sun Ship - Misplaced Pages Continue

1920-492: The four other songs appear in unedited form, plus alternative takes of all five tracks, false starts, breakdowns, incomplete takes, and inserts. Sun Ship consists of five independent tracks, unlike many of Coltrane's other works from this period (e.g. Ascension , First Meditations , Om , Meditations ) that are suites or single large works. Wild's liner notes state: "It's likely the five compositions were sketches rather than full arrangements - Coltrane usually relied on

1980-597: The medium. Van Gelder continued to reside in Englewood Cliffs until his death on August 25, 2016. Van Gelder was secretive about his recording methods, leaving fans and critics to speculate about his techniques. He would go as far as to move microphones when bands were being photographed in the studio. His recording techniques are often admired by his fans for their transparency, clarity, realism, warmth and presence. Van Gelder pioneered use of close miking techniques , peak limiting, and tape saturation to imbue

2040-416: The music with an added sense of immediacy. He also demonstrated a commitment to superior signal-to-noise ratio while recording and mastering, allowing Van Gelder to achieve greater volume on his LPs and minimize tape hiss and vinyl surface noise. Van Gelder was unusual compared to other recording engineers of the time insofar as he enjoyed ownership of the entire recording and post-recording process (excepting

2100-416: The near-telepathic communicative abilities of the group to flesh out his ideas. 'With John we could come in, he would give us two notes and we could play a whole composition on two notes,' Tyner recalled. 'Sometimes he wouldn't bring in a tune, he'd bring in a scale, and we'd play the scale and everything would be right there. We were familiar with each other, the musicianship was high.' That level of creativity

2160-519: The next generation of women in audio, but also has been building up resources and directories of women in audio. Women in Sound is another organization that has been working to highlight women and nonbinary people in all areas of live and recorded sound through an online zine and podcast featuring interviews of current audio engineers and producers. One of the first women to produce, engineer, arrange and promote music on her own rock and roll music label

2220-440: The other labels didn't play up their engineers (Columbia covers never so much as mentioned Plaut), while Alfred Lion, Blue Note's proprietor, promoted Van Gelder's sound as a boutique blend—something of a mystique—and the other labels who hired him followed suit, as if to boast that they too had the special sauce. Audio engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer ) helps to produce

2280-505: The other side. In the Sun Ship session, he is still breaking through; it's a key moment of transition, of personal as well as musical transformation. The album Sun Ship captures that vast musical and moral change; the complete session documents it in action, like a sonic documentary film. It's a treasure, a joy, and a revelation." Disc 1 Disc 2 Rudy Van Gelder Rudolph Van Gelder (November 2, 1924 – August 25, 2016)

2340-441: The piano "as distinctive as the pianists' playing" itself. This unique sonic quality is considered a key component of the Van Gelder sound. Such a piano sound was initially the consequence of recording in a living room rather than a purpose built recording facility, where close miking of the piano strings was necessary to avoid sound bleed from other instruments. Though creating a distinctive albeit compressed piano sound, critics of

2400-600: The pressing of the records themselves). This control gave Van Gelder the opportunity to ensure that the final records reflected the sound of the original tape recording, with each record bearing his hallmark: a small 'RVG' inscribed into the run-out area. Though instrumental in developing the so-called 'Blue Note sound', Van Gelder's approach was often dictated by the production personnel with whom he worked. Blue Note's Alfred Lion worked closely with Van Gelder during sessions: Alfred knew exactly what he wanted to hear. He communicated it to me and I got it for him technically. He

2460-501: The producer. In smaller productions and studios the sound engineer and producer are often the same person. In typical sound reinforcement applications, audio engineers often assume the role of producer, making artistic and technical decisions, and sometimes even scheduling and budget decisions. Audio engineers come from backgrounds or postsecondary training in fields such as audio, fine arts , broadcasting, music, or electrical engineering. Training in audio engineering and sound recording

Sun Ship - Misplaced Pages Continue

2520-419: The quartet's rhythmic pulse and collective interplay evolved accordingly... While a summation for this quartet, Sun Ship is also an exciting if unfinished prelude to Coltrane's final period of transformation." Wild's 1995 liner notes describe Sun Ship as "a quintet of compositions, five multifaceted performances, four close-knit partners assembling to follow one member's restless explorations. A meeting of minds,

2580-493: The recording booth. At a meeting of the Audio Engineering Society , Proffitt was told to "shut up" by a male producer when she raised the issue of updating studio recording technologies. Proffitt said she "finds sexism rampant in the industry". Other notable women include: There are four distinct steps to the commercial production of a recording: recording, editing, mixing, and mastering. Typically, each

2640-400: The recording trade, Van Gelder might be the most overrated engineer in audio history....Van Gelder would alter the sounds of the individual instruments – and the entire recording – with compression, equalization and reverberation both as they were being recorded, and after.... But for me, the so-called "Blue Note sound" has always been a musical, rather than audio, innovation, and Van Gelder less

2700-552: The requirements for public address systems, carry out research on audible sound for video game console manufacturers, and other advanced fields of audio engineering. They might also be referred to as acoustic engineers. Audio engineers working in research and development may come from backgrounds such as acoustics , computer science , broadcast engineering , physics , acoustical engineering , electrical engineering and electronics . Audio engineering courses at university or college fall into two rough categories: (i) training in

2760-447: The shape and size of his parents' living room and, later, his studio. It may be significant, in this regard, that his best-sounding album (and one of his best musically too), Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch! , does not feature a piano. Van Gelder has also been criticized for his use of compression and high-frequency boosting, both of which, it is argued, compromise the sound. Journalist and radio producer George Hicks wrote: For many of us in

2820-491: The songs featured in the soundtracks for the Japanese anime series Cowboy Bebop . From 1999, he remastered the analog Blue Note recordings he made several decades earlier into 24-bit digital recordings in its RVG Edition series. He was positive about the switch from analog to digital technology. He told Audio magazine in 1995: The biggest distorter is the LP itself. I've made thousands of LP masters. I used to make 17

2880-426: The sound on those Impulse! records engineered by Rudy Van Gelder. But maybe Van Gelder chose that sound because he could hear that Coltrane was an alto player first before switching to tenor." Within a few years of opening his studio, Van Gelder was in demand by many other independent labels based around New York City, such as Prestige Records . Bob Weinstock , owner of Prestige, recalled the following in 1999: "Rudy

2940-553: The transition to full-time recording engineer. In the evenings after work, Van Gelder recorded local musicians who wanted 78-rpm recordings of their work. From 1946, Van Gelder recorded in his parents' house in Hackensack, New Jersey , in which a control room was built adjacent to the living room, which served as the musicians' performing area. The dry acoustics of this working space were partly responsible for Van Gelder's inimitable recording aesthetic. "When I first started, I

3000-407: The use of the title engineer to any individual not a registered member of a professional engineering licensing body . In the recording studio environment, a sound engineer records, edits, manipulates, mixes, or masters sound by technical means to realize the creative vision of the artist and record producer . While usually associated with music production, an audio engineer deals with sound for

3060-415: The way he sets him up at the mike, he can change the whole sound. That's why I never go to him; he ruined my bass sound". Even Blue Note president and producer Alfred Lion criticized Van Gelder for what Lion felt was his occasional overuse of reverb , and would jokingly refer to this trait as a "Rudy special" on tape boxes. Richard Cook called Van Gelder's characteristic method of recording and mixing

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3120-463: The week to different labels". Writer Fred Kaplan has argued that Van Gelder's reputation with the record-buying public was aided by Blue Note Records' conspicuous mentions of Van Gelder on their album covers: Van Gelder was hardly the only great jazz engineer on the scene in those days; he may not even have been the best. Other stellar figures included Fred Plaut at Columbia, Roy DuNann at Contemporary, Val Valentin at Verve, Roy Goodman at RCA. But

3180-502: The white heat of virtuoso musicians in the final moments of an almost preternatural communion, ecstasy and feat." In a review of Sun Ship: The Complete Session , Richard Brody wrote: "this album... highlights Coltrane’s tense and increasingly conflict-torn contention with his own musical heritage, style, and material," and described Coltrane's fast playing as "a vortex of obsessively involuted streaks of chordal fragments that yield to furious, sound-shredded shrieks and bellows that suggest

3240-476: The will to break through the stuff of harmonic investigation to sheer expressive sound, the swinging patterns of pounding rhythm to shifting biocentric undulations. It's radical enough, ecstatically musical, and imbued with the spirit of the new thing." Regarding some of the slower passages, Brody wrote: "I've always thought of Coltrane as an essentially religious artist whose seraphic spirituality seemed clear and bright (though often earthy and rugged). His adoption of

3300-601: Was Cordell Jackson (1923–2004). Trina Shoemaker is a mixer, record producer and sound engineer who became the first woman to win the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album in 1998 for her work on The Globe Sessions . Gail Davies was the first female producer in country music , delivering a string of Top 10 hits in the 1970s and 1980s including " Someone Is Looking for Someone Like You ", " Blue Heartache " and " I'll Be There (If You Ever Want Me) ". When she moved to Nashville in 1976, men "didn't want to work for

3360-429: Was amazing in what he heard and how he would patiently draw it out of me. Such close supervision rarely applied when Van Gelder was recording for other labels, such as Prestige or Savoy , enabling him to explore and pioneer new sound engineering techniques: When I experimented, I would experiment on Bob Weinstock's projects. Bob didn't think much of sound . . . So if I got a new microphone and I wanted to try it on

3420-737: Was an American recording engineer who specialized in jazz . Over more than half a century, he recorded several thousand sessions, with musicians including Booker Ervin , John Coltrane , Miles Davis , Thelonious Monk , Sonny Rollins , Art Blakey , Lee Morgan , Joe Henderson , Freddie Hubbard , Wayne Shorter , Horace Silver , Herbie Hancock , Grant Green and George Benson . He worked with many different record companies, and recorded almost every session on Blue Note Records from 1953 to 1967. He worked on albums including John Coltrane's A Love Supreme , Miles Davis's Walkin' , Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage , Sonny Rollins's Saxophone Colossus , and Horace Silver's Song for My Father . He

3480-409: Was interested in improving the quality of the playback equipment I had," Van Gelder commented in 2005; "I never was really happy with what I heard. I always assumed the records made by the big companies sounded better than what I could reproduce. So that's how I got interested in the process. I acquired everything I could to play back audio: speakers, turntables, amplifiers". One of Van Gelder's friends,

3540-521: Was more nonchalant, organizing what were essentially blowing sessions for some of the best musicians in jazz history". Van Gelder said in 2012, "Alfred was rigid about how he wanted Blue Note records to sound. But Bob Weinstock of Prestige was more easygoing, so I'd experiment on his dates and use what I learned on the Blue Note sessions". He also worked for Savoy Records in this period, among others. "To accommodate everyone, I assigned different days of

3600-503: Was very much an asset. His rates were fair and he didn't waste time. When you arrived at his studio he was prepared. His equipment was always ahead of its time and he was a genius when it came to recording". According to a JazzTimes article in August 2016, "jazz lore has formed the brands into a yin and yang of sorts: The Blue Note albums involved more original music, with rehearsal and the stringent, consistent oversight of Lion; Weinstock

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