Horns in Mix

[Hit$quad]

Hey everybody! I'm doing a mix w/horns playing a major role. It's a jazzy-dance song. Drums are live and programed, live bass loop.

Any ideas on how to get a good blend of horns
as far as eq and
I have a sax/tenor, sax/sopranito, trumpet, trombone doing mainly stabs.
SL

[tom_mac]

try to pan each horn around (subtly) to put them in a good space.

I find that "breaking up" chords across the stereo field gives you a great sound.

[Hit$quad]

Thanks for the reply Tom.
How big should the horns be, in terms of eq. Any prefered spaces on them in terms of a echo/reverb. The song I'm mixing is 130Bpm

[Nomad]

copy the individual horn tracks and delay 10 - 30 msec from the original tracks and pan them in different places.!?!?!?!?!?

[Hit$quad]

I tried to bus it out to a delay with a mod on it and it started to clutter the mix. Remember its a relly fast tempo around 130 bpm.
Although, I can still try it on a small stabs , yeah
Thanks Nomad

[sdevino]

Try recording all the horns at once standing in a semi- circle around an M-S stereo mic setup.

The players love playing together, you get automatic and believable panning plus it sounds great. The performance will more than make up for any sound degradation.

[AG]

Originally posted by tom_mac:
try to pan each horn around (subtly) to put them in a good space.

I find that "breaking up" chords across the stereo field gives you a great sound.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I have to agree with this. In fact I recently mixed each of the fourteen tunes of a 28 trk big band according to their harmonies. Each different. Rather than placing the brass L and reeds R (which I did on a couple of tunes), I opposed harmonies. Example: If the bass bone harmonized with the bone for most of the tune I panned them opposite. This usually allowed me to oppose the tenor and alto as well as the sop and trpt's harmonies and split the flutes and pan all across the spectrum as they harmonize with the opposite side. It worked for me (and the band/artists love the mix too), but I always hated the way big bands were mixed (50's & 60's) with rhythm and solos on one side and the horns on the other. This is my first big band mix so I'd love someone with serious big band mixing chops to listen to these as it hasn't been released yet. (No pay, but I'll buy ya lunch)
In LA hopefully.

AG

[Hit$quad]

Thanks for all the repliess guys.
Steve,
Everything is already been recorded i come just to mix. As oppose to live band this is more of a house dance tune with live horns and live drums plus some sequences

My question was how big should the horns be. I can make it sound like a group of horns playing in the restaurant sort of s latin feel

Thanks again for all replies

[the solution]

This is not a classic arrangement, so i ask: how big do YOU want the horns to be?

[bp78]

sdevino--whatis your mike of preference?