The purpose of the mix

Went to the refectory [''cafeteria''] on campus to pick up some cheap food. Thursdays is apparently live music day in the seating area out front. Today, a jazz group: drummer, electric bass, keys, sax, and trumpet.

Out front, you could barely hear the snare, and couldn't hear the kick drum at all. Tracked down the sound guy and suggested boosting the upper-mids on the kick, so you could at least hear the ''twack''. He declined.

He said that in jazz music -- esp. this type of jazz (whatever that means) -- you're not supposed to hear the kick drum. Or the snare, really. Just the poly-rhythms of the cymbals.

Uh, o.k. Maybe. But I really doubt that any style of music would include instruments that you can't hear at all!!! Sure, you'd want to mix some louder and some softer, to vary the prominence of the different instruments. But you'd think you'd want to be able to hear all of them -- at least subliminally, as a wash or fill.

If you can't hear an instrument -- why bother playing it? He should've told the drummer to just save his leg muscles.


But, I didn't argue; his gig. (Although arguably, the gig of the musicians, not the sound guy -- it should be their call as to what instruments are heard or not.) And I don't know jazz; maybe it's true. [Readers?]

On the other hand, he looks to be about 45 years old. Maybe that's why he's a university sound guy, not on the road with Metallica or the Foo Fighters: he's just not that good.

Maybe.


--GG