It’s hard to imagine now, but in the early days of recording, engineers miked the musicians with one or two mics positioned high in the studio.

But one person had an idea and the famous Rudy Van Gelder jazz sound was born. When you’ve got some time here’s his story with excellent text, photos and examples …

The Van Gelder Sound – RVG Legacy (http://rvglegacy.org/the-van-gelder-sound/)

Cheers.

Excellent story! Thanks for posting.

Yes it is Greg which makes me wonder, why did Mr. Van Gelder adopt or one might say, invent his close micing recording technique. It says that he heard ‘something different’ which caused him to try it. Or maybe it was because his first studio was just a room in his house, doesn’t look like there’s any acoustic treatment there, so he probably couldn’t get satisfactory sound from all the instruments.

It’s so obvious now that my guess is, others were also trying the same close mic. set up, but not to diminish his accomplishment, Rudy got there first with the chance to use it on a few notable 5 star record sessions, and word got around.

If anyones interested there’s an Amazon Kindle book, Complete Recording Sessions of Rudy Van Gelder. On 11 May and 26 Oct. 1956, the Miles Davis original quintet recorded their 4 LPs, Relaxin’ Steamin’ Workin’ and Cookin’. I’ve still got those 4 historic titles on worn 12” LPs.

Cheers.