At one time, Goodman was playing five shows every evening, to 21,000 people a night, and his band was rivaled in popularity only by clarinetist Artie Shaw, who scored such a hit with “Begin The Beguine.” Goodman was quick off the mark: his broadcasts on Camel Caravan, a program sponsored by a tobacco company, brought him legions of new fans – many of whom saw him live. It was also a time when radio audiences were at their peak and stations needed fresh music to help fill their schedules. The height of the swing era was between the years 1935 to 1940, and many jazz bandleaders enjoyed huge success - none more so than Goodman, a dazzling clarinet player. This coincided with a feeling in jazz circles that bigger was better. Listen to the best of big band jazz on Spotify.īut as America came out of the Depression, the public wanted musical entertainment the big band era was about to begin. Even superb musicians like Benny Carter and Hawkins went to Europe to find work with radio orchestras. Ballroom dancers had also tired of the rigors of frenetic jazz dancing and came to favor the more sentimental music sung on radio shows by crooners such as Bing Crosby. In the immediate aftermath of the 1929 Wall Street Crash, big bands felt the effects of the Great Depression, with even Henderson forced to disband temporarily. Even Armstrong, whose work with his Hot Five and Hot Seven Bands had been so innovative in the 20s, began working with an orchestra, producing his own marvelous big band music. Henderson’s bands were pioneers in getting harmonized arrangements to work for large groups of musicians. In Henderson’s music lay many of the origins of “swing,” and it is no coincidence that he was later to work as an arranger for the King Of Swing, Benny Goodman. In the Roaring Twenties, the burgeoning record industry attracted musicians to big American cities, and new bands such as McKinney’s Cotton Pickers could have strings of bestselling hits.įletcher Henderson was a major force in establishing big band music, with accomplished ensembles that included musicians of the quality of Louis Armstrong, saxophonists Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter, and clarinetist Buster Bailey. It’s one thing that separates a great-sounding song from a clearly home-produced song.Though the golden age of big band music is associated with the 30s, it originated a decade earlier in the Jazz Age, when jazz bandleaders began to lead groups that emerged out of small jazz combos, swelling in size and musical ambition. But how do you get fuller sounding songs? It would be nice if there were a “make my song sound fuller” knob I could turn on. This is a learning journey I’ve been on myself. And producing music from a walk-in closet, it’s hard for me to get that wide and deep sound. I have, however, learned a few things so far about making my songs sound fuller. My friend who’s a mixing engineer recently showed me how generous panning is one of the tricks to a full song. It’s scary when you start turning that knob to even 50% left or right, but it’s okay. It won’t sound weird when everything starts coming together. It’ll end up giving you a much wider mix. Of course, it depends on what instrument you’re working with. Like, the main vocals probably shouldn’t be panned more than 50%. I usually like my vocals sitting in the 10-30% range so they stay upfront in the mix. But if you’ve recorded an acoustic guitar in stereo, try panning one of the tracks 60-70% one way and the second track 20-30% the other way. The point here is don’t be scared to be generous with your panning. Fill the space with delayĪnother thing my engineer friend taught me is to add delay to occupy empty space and to just generally fill things out. If you’re using the same delay on multiple tracks, try bussing those tracks to an FX track with the delay applied to it.It’s okay to use delay presets (as long as they sound good).Don’t go too crazy or else the delay can become distracting and make the song muddier.Here are some general tips for using delay that I’ve found helpful (tips, not rules): I’ve found delay to be really useful for transitioning to a new part of a song, to make vocals sound bigger, and to make weird (but fun) sounds. Then you don’t have to add the same delay to each and every track.
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