Knight Music demos are recorded with all (or nearly all) of the instruments playing at the same time into microphones, generally recording to six or eight tracks at once. This is different in two ways from the recording techniques now used by most bands.

First, most bands use multi-tracking to record one instrument at a time. Each track is re-recorded until the musicians are satisfied with the result, then the tracks are mixed together to create the illusion of a live performance. This "track at a time" method has been the rule rather than the exception since the technology that made it possible came along in the 1970s.

Second, many sounds are now generated electronically and delivered by direct cable feed rather than played acoustically into a microphone. It's much easier and cheaper to use "horn" sounds from an electronic keyboard than to hire saxophonists and trumpet players. These electronically generated sounds can also be stored as "sequences" so that when it comes time to make the demo, each track can be loaded without performance errors. A recorder that accepts one feed at a time (mono or stereo) can be used.

Technology-oriented recording fits well with the way most wedding and party bands perform. The same sequences (stored sounds) used on the demos are generally used in live performance.

Real-time is tricky

The alternative, having everyone play real instruments at the same time into microphones connected to a real-time recorder, is more complicated. It means getting a whole band together in a room at a time when no one has a prior commitment, personal or professional. An investment in quality microphones is needed and it can take half a day or more to set up the mics, the music stands, and so forth. The recorder needs to be one that allows simultaneous recording on many tracks, unless the musicians are prepared to spend hours adjusting levels to feed directly to two-track  A playing mistake or a cough can mean that everyone has to start over from the beginning.

Why does Knight Music use this older method instead of the faster, cheaper and more convenient way used by almost everyone else?

We record as many instruments at one time as possible because we believe that true live music creates an energy that is impossible to get any other way. The sound of bass, drums, keyboard and horns all playing together makes a groove that simply isn't there when the bass and drums are recorded separately, followed by a session with the keyboard, and only then tracking the horns.

As to whether a keyboard-generated "horns" part really sounds like actual saxes and trumpets, it doesn't take a professional musician to hear the difference. Top professionals like the two keyboardists used to supply horns and strings sounds for Barbara Streisand can make it hard to tell, but for the most part it's usually obvious whether a demo was made with sequences or real horns.

In the tradition

Since Knight Music doesn't use sequences (or live-played keyboard horns and strings, for that matter), it doesn't make sense to use these shortcuts on our demos, either. We have the satisfaction of knowing our demo recordings use essentially the same techniques that have been used to record bands since the 1920s. There a few differences, of course.

• Early engineers used a single microphone and tried to place it where it would capture the players in the best balance possible. We can use four to eight mics or even more, allowing close mic placement and much better fidelity.
• The high-quality recording mics in use as early as the 1940s were capable of excellent results, but they were incredibly fragile. The high-quality Electro/Voice mics we use for recording are so durable that we use them for live performance as well. We may bring in special mics to record kick drum or cymbals, however.
• Early recorders only caught one track, mono, although Les Paul used mono overdubbing as early as 1947. Two-track (stereo) recording took over in the 1960s. Much larger recorders handling 16, 32, 64 and even more tracks came along in the 1970s, but at astronomical prices limiting them to major studios. Much cheaper four-track cassette recorders began appearing in 1979, aimed squarely at musicians who wanted to record their own demos. The first Knight Music demos were recorded on one of these in the early 1980s. In the mid-90s we replaced it with a digital 16-track recorder which can record up to eight tracks simultaneously.

It was the rise of the giant multi-trackers in the 1970s that started the move away from "all at once" recording. Musicians were delighted with way cassette multi-trackers allowed a new freedom from inconvenience and expense, and enjoyed imitating techniques used by engineers on the big rigs

Musicians moved up to digital machines when affordable models appeared, keeping the same tracking techniques they had already learned. When sequencers made it possible to store and reproduce digital lines imitating horns, bass, and drums, musicians accustomed to "track at a time" recording incorporated sequencing as an integral part of both recording and performance.

Learn more

• History of Multitrack Recording - from Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.
• Audio Recording - Hundreds of categorized and annotated links from the non-commercial Open Directory Project.
• Microphone University - Offers sections on microphone technology and mic placement techniques as well as a dictionary of pro audio terminology.
• Recording Live to 2-Track - Article by recording engineer Bruce Bartlett, with diagrams, flow charts, and suggested equipment and settings.
• Live direct to two-track - Chat forum thread from Electrical Audio, a Chicago studio, in which contributors cite modern recordings done the old way.
• Recording - April 2007 blog entry from Pete Townshend of the Who describes recording techniques of the 1960s, and his interest in using them again..
• Caught in the Act - Lengthy article from Electronic Musician magazine describes live recording process including two-track and multi-track.
• Stereo Microphone Techniques - Brief article from About.com offers links to articles explaining  mic placement.

Notes on Knight Music demos

Here are some demo recordings made by Knight Music over the years, with notes on mics, mic placement, recorders and rooms.

Hello Young Lovers and Lullaby of Birdland are from Beautiful Love, a full-length jazz album recorded in a single afternoon in the summer of 2006. The space is a living/dining room at a house in Delray Beach. Two E/V N-DYM 357 mics were placed as a coincident pair behind a spinet piano against a wall, and a third 357 was placed on a floor stand in front of the bass amp. Sax and trumpet each got an  E/V N-DYM 457 located about six inches from the bell. The 357 is a cardioid uni-directional mic, and the 457 is a hyper-cardioid, offering a tighter pattern with less pickup from the sides than the 357.

Two mics were used on drums. A large-capsule mic supplied by the engineer was placed about six inches from the kick and angled up to catch mounted toms as well as the kick sound. A single overhead condenser mic was placed well up (a vaulted ceiling helped) and pointed down at the spot between the snare and hi-hat. This picked up snare, hi-hat and cymbals.

A Fostex VF-16 digital recorder was set on the dining table, with all seven mic cables running into direct-recorded channels. The L-shape of the room let the engineer see and hear everyone from nearby, and the quiet operation of the recorder avoided the need for a glassed-in booth. Afterward, effects built in to the recorder were applied. Bass was compressed, some reverb was applied, and tracks were panned to create a stereo spread. The overall result was not compressed.

Remarkably, Evelyn Russell's vocal was recorded while the band played, in the same room and at the same time, and she didn't even use headphones. Ordinarily we dub vocals after the fact but decided to try everything live at once since we had an 8th input available on the recorder. The resulting cross-channel bleeding is obvious but the quality of Evelyn's singing suggests it was worth it.

Jamaica Farewell was recorded with a quality stereo mic (sold long ago, make unknown) on a DAT recorder at a wedding in Fort Lauderdale. With a single mic, placement is crucial. This mic was on a low stand and out front as far as we dared, in line with a spot between the bass amp and the drums. A monitor speaker near the mic boosted sound from the horns, which were located at the far end of the stage, but the guitar and keyboard amps were plenty loud enough on their own.

String of Pearls is with a trio of piano, bass, and drums that played in the late 1980s on Friday nights  at Erny's of Delray, a jazz-oriented restaurant and saloon that sadly is no more. This was recorded with an inexpensive Sony F-99M stereo mic on a Toshiba DX-900 VCR, one of the first machines capable of PCM digital audio recording to VHS tape. The automatic gain control is on, which created some level pumping you can hear, but at least it made for a nice strong signal-to-noise ratio without distortion at a time when no one was available to ride gain.

These Foolish Things and I Get a Kick Out of You would be our lowest-tech recorded demos, using the Sony stereo mic to feed an inexpensive Technics RS-B29R cassette deck equipped with stereo mic inputs. I sat behind the baby grand piano, to the left. The bassist was very close to me on the right, and the drummer just to his right. My vocal came from a small amp between me and the bassist although I think the mic is picking up my vocal directly, not from the amp. The sax was just in front of the bassist, without a mic, the open piano lid just to his left. Somehow we found a spot for the recording mic right in the center of all that and the results, although not hi-fi in the slightest, seem to be very musical.

Night Train and Choo Choo Ch'Boogie were two of many demos recorded in a single afternoon at a house in Lake Worth. The recorder was again the Fostex VF-16 and the mics were E/V 457s, 357s, and a couple of 257s. The room was large, square-shaped, and with a low ceiling. Two saxes, trumpet, and trombone were arranged in a straight line, with one mic between the two saxes, and a second between the trumpet and trombone. The drums were in the opposite corner, with an upholstered sofa offering some separation from the rest of the band. A floor-stand mic was used on the bass amp, but we used a direct stereo feed from a keyboard set to piano sound. A pair of speakers away from any mics let everyone hear the keyboard without needing headphones. Lead vocal, vocal harmony, and guitar were all dubbed separately some weeks later.

Sing, Sing, Sing was recorded at a joyous wedding at the historic Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. This was in the main ballroom, an enormous room with a very high ceiling. We used the same quality stereo mic and DAT machine used to record "Jamaica Farewell." The energy of the drumming is a prime example of what is often missing with planned tracking.

Watch What Happens, String of Pearls, and Wind Beneath My Wings were recorded by the 14-piece Ted Knight Big Band at a country club dance. We used five microphones, E/V 357s and 457s. It's a corner setup, rhythm in the middle, saxes to the left and brass to the right. One pair of mics is set in front of the four saxes, a second pair is set in front of the six brass. Each pair is set to a fairly wide angle. The fifth mic is center and high, pointed slightly downward, picking up the keyboard, bass and drums in a nice balance, as well as the claves I played in front of them. The room was very dry, and the reverb added from the Fostex recorder sounds natural. A soft flute instrumental lead on the third number was not picked up by the mics, which allowed us to dub a lead vocal afterward.

Volcano is one of the earliest demos we have, recorded around 1981 on a four-track cassette machine in the back of a music store after closing. Keyboard (with keyboard bass), guitar and drums were recorded in the first session. Vocal and two flutes were dubbed after the fact. Dubbing the flutes was an attempt to imitate tracking techniques later abandoned in favor of "all at once" recording. We double-tracked the vocal, another "modern" technique we did not use again.

Heart of Rock and Roll was from the same session as "Volcano." Saxes, vocal, and the guitar solo were dubbed in a later session. Yes, that's really me playing the organ with my right hand and the bass line with my left, live with the drums and rhythm guitar.