Analysis of environment  "So what" is recorded in an open space somewhat resembling a hall. The big open space means that there would be a lot of reverberation which makes the recording sound bigger and more spacious. I believe that it was recorded in this environment to give the sound a bigger thicker sound however the room that this is recorded in also has a lot of people In it this is a less then ideal recording environment because the more people in a room. The more noise that would be created from their movements and them speaking. All of these noises can bleed into the microphones and lead to a recording sounding messy and having a lot of unscored background noise in it. The fact that all the instruments where recorded in the same room means that there is a lot of bleed from each instruments into other microphones this makes the recording sound muddy. This could have been fixed by using divisors to separate instruments. Overall hall gives the song a thicker reverberated sound. The sound quality could have been improved if there the instruments where divided so there was no bleed.   Sound spectrum/contrast between instruments   This song has a range of different sounds and frequencies. The main instruments in the song where the brass section. The trumpet would have been in a frequency range of 165 Hz  to 988 Hz. This range would have sat perfectly between the bass range of between 33hz and 523 Hz of the bass and the higher registers of the piano. These instruments worked well together in the mix because they where all in different frequencies ranges so they didn’t clash with each other as much as instruments with similar frequencies would have. The frequencies could have sounded better and more pronounced by using an eq affect and taking out the frequencies that aren't native to that particular instrument. This would help the instrument to blend better.    Sonic field/mix and balance   The main hearing focus of this song is the trumpet. The trumpet or whatever brass/woodwind instrument is soloing is always at the ground of the mix and is the most pronounced instrument. I believe the engineer has brought the trumpet to the front of the mix because brass/woodwind instruments are usually the main instrument in jazz and the other instruments are just supporting. The engineer would have brought these instruments to the front of the mix by turning them up so they are the most noticeable instrument. Overall I feel like the main instruments where able to be heard clearly however this meant that other instruments where too quiet and this lead to a unbalanced mix. 




Blend - how different sounds come together to make one sound  

The different instruments all combine to make multiple different sounds and textures. Every instrument has a different frequencies rang and timbre which means that they have different sounds. It is the job of the engineer to combine all of these sounds but still keep the integrity of all of the sounds. One way of doing this is using eq. Using eq to cut out extra frequencies that aren't produced by the instrument will help the instrument to sound more clear and to sit better in the mix. In this live version of the song it sounds like little to no eq has been used. This lack of eq makes the song sound muddy and dull. Overall the different instruments didn’t blend very well together mainly because there was no eq added which made some instruments not blend well with others. 







Clarity - how clear a sound Is 
Not all the instruments in “So what” are clear and at some parts it is hard to hear different components. The instrument that this is most evident for is the double bass. The double bass is the most quiet instrument in the ProFormance and it is right at the back of the mix. At 7:53 during the Bass solo it is hard to hear the bass. Considering that it was the bass solo it should have been at the front of the mix. The result of the bass being so quiet meant that the solo didn’t sound as pronounced as the other solos. I think that the engineer could have turned up the bass during the solo to make it sit better in the mix however they didn’t do this because the double bass and piano where sharing the same microphone, so turning up the gain would subsequently make both instruments louder rather than just one. 





Positioning - where a sound is placed in the mix or in the recording. 
The different instruments in this song where placed in specific places to create the best sound for the song. The drum kit was placed at the back of the room. This is because it is the loudest instrument so bringing it further away from other instruments helped to get rid of microphone bleed. There were also 2 overhead microphones which were recording the double bass and the piano and the other capturing the drums. Using this microphone technique has pros and cons. The main con of this technique is the fact that it is harder to adjust the levels of different instruments when they are rerecorded with the same microphone and it also leads to a sound sounding truther away, however this also using this technique also makes the instruments sound thicker and warmer due to the extra room noise. Over all these micing techniques make some instruments sound further away. This effect could have been enhanced by using a reverb simulation tool like a plate reverb to create a more reverberated sound to push some sounds further back in the mix. 











Depth of field 
In the live part of the version of the song there isn't as much space in the mix However in the studio version of the song it sounds a lot more spacious with every instrument sitting perfectly in the mix. The engineer on the studio version used panning to give the instruments more space. The instrument that this is most noticeable on is the drums the cymbals of the drums are mainly panned to the right this helps it to not clash with the brass instruments which are panned slightly to the left. 



Equalization 
The brass instruments sound a little bit muddy. I believe that this could have been fixed with a low cut filter added to the signal chain. Because the brass instruments used were in the higher requestors they wouldn’t have been able to produce bass frequencies so using this filter would have cut out all the excess frequencies and made the instrument sound brighter clearer. I think that this wasn’t done because of the technology available for live performances at the time. 






dynamics and volume change 

This song has a lot of changes in dynamics. For the first few minutes of the song the dynamics not change very much and are in a relaxed state, however when the Saxaphone comes in the dynamics of the song changes and becomes livelier. The musicians make this change in dynamics to make the song more musical suspense and to build musical tention in the song. The musicians use the use of dynamics well using crescendo's and diminuendos. The song would have been made better by having a change in dynamic more often which would have made the song more exciting. 






In conclusion I think that this the live version of the song is good considering the technology of the time. However I also believe that this performance could have sounded a to better with some more attention to detail for example making everyone leave the room while the band was recording. There is a clear difference between this version of the song and the studio version of the song but I also think this is because with the studio version they could have rerecorded takes that where subpar. 


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