new sound clips

[joebrent]

So, I have a new trio, with Ken Robinson on clarinet and Shawn Conley on bass, and humbly speaking, I think it's pretty good... Clips available on my website, here's three attached right here. Hope you enjoy!

[swinginmandolins]

Thanks for posting the clips, I enjoyed them. I assume that you used the Labraid?? Sounds great!

[joebrent]

Thanks! Yep, that was the Labraid, 'Pähkinä'.

[John McGann]

Beautiful! Mando and clarinet are made for each other (they may not know that, but we do!)

[joebrent]

Thanks John! Btw loved the vids of you with Matt --

[Tim Pike]

I enjoyed that! The clarinet and mandolin do sound good together!

[MandoNicity]

Very nice! I really enjoyed this. It drove me to your site and I have to say that I really loved your solo on the Lips song. Great stuff!

[MandoNicity]

I'm very curious about your Labraid. Do you have any clear photos somewhere, and maybe a discription? The makers site is a bit lacking on info. cheers!

JR

[swinginmandolins]

On Brian's site(Labraid) it take 3 clicks on the Dark Brown mandolins(Grand Concert) to get the pics. There is also a thread here back when Joe received it.

[JEStanek]

I'm very curious about your Labraid. Do you have any clear photos somewhere, and maybe a discription? The makers site is a bit lacking on info. cheers!

JR

Here ya go. Thread, details, everything.

Jamie

[joebrent]

Thanks again for the kind words! Yeah, Brian's an exceptional talent. It's really a privilege to play one of his instruments. Lots of info in that thread Jamie quoted above, some more on this page. By the way, we're now a quartet, we just added guitar virtuoso Nadav Lev to the group, our first gig together will be in Vermont on May 8.

[SincereCorgi]

Sounds fantastic, the spare texture really lets the nuances of all three instruments come through. How did you turn your mandolin into a pandeiro for "Bedstuy"?

And is there a way to get full tracks? Maybe you guys could sell a downloadable EP or something?

[DougC]

Very nice Joe. I'm wondering how you miked the clarinet and the mandolin? I play (mandolin) with a clarinet in our klezmer band and that instrument, as you know is really loud. Again, thanks for the mp3's I really like them.

[swinginmandolins]

I can't get over how well Brian matched the Grand Concert to you! I went back and read through how it was made and it's so cool!
I can't wait to hear more music made on it over the years!

[joebrent]

Sounds fantastic, the spare texture really lets the nuances of all three instruments come through. How did you turn your mandolin into a pandeiro for "Bedstuy"?

And is there a way to get full tracks? Maybe you guys could sell a downloadable EP or something?

The percussive sounds are just chops, but I left the grommets off so it would ring, and for the one note in msr 68 where I scrape behind the bridge. If you're interested, the trio version of the score is here. Of course, we're now a quartet. I don't think this is something I'd be comfortable selling as an EP, it's very rough, just something we threw together on 2 rehearsals, with a few hours of free studio time my buddy let me have. Let us do a few actual gigs first before we put together something like that! The complete tracks can be streamed and downloaded on my Facebook page by going to the 'My Band' tab.

Very nice Joe. I'm wondering how you miked the clarinet and the mandolin? I play (mandolin) with a clarinet in our klezmer band and that instrument, as you know is really loud. Again, thanks for the mp3's I really like them.

My friend Ian Kagey was the engineer for the last Punch Brothers album, so I asked him to engineer our session since he had some experience with mandolin. Because I knew we'd have to compress the clarinet down a bit, we opted not to do the everyone-around-a-single-mic thing Thile does; instead, we used:

Upright Bass - Blue bottle - Grace 801
Clarinet - U67 - Grace 801
Mandolin - TLM103 - Grace 801
Room Mics - Schoeps - Grace 801

We only compressed a little, and of course added verb. I mistakenly posted the raw clips in my first post above, the ones on my website are the real deal.

I can't get over how well Brian matched the Grand Concert to you! I went back and read through how it was made and it's so cool!
I can't wait to hear more music made on it over the years!

In all our conversations, whenever I ran down my list of things I wanted from a mandolin, I always added, "That's what I want, and there's gotta be lots more like me out there who want the same thing." He'll make you a GC to your own specs, if you're interested.

Thanks again, everyone --