Jeff Zahos

I am a percussionist – I play timpani, drumset, orchestral percussion, keyboard instruments, hand drums and more! 

On Saturday, March 7th, 2010, I had the pleasure of recording my friend Cody Jensen’s Senior percussion recital.

Shown here is a Gangsa duet written by I Ketut Gede Asnawa. This is the premiere performance and features Matt Plaskota along with Cody.

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Gangsa Ro – I Ketut Gede Asnawa. Cody Jensen and Matt Plaskota, Gangsa

You can view more of the recital at:
Cody’s YouTube channel

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During the Spring 2009 semester, Italian composer Girolamo Deraco was in residence at Truman State University.  I had the great privilege of performing on the premiere of two of his pieces (Nebula Picta for four players on one marimba and Little Puppets’ Symphony) and commissioning him to write a work for solo timpani (Thou for solo timpano).

Below you will see video of the premiere performance of his Little Puppets’ Symphony, a chamber work involving collaboration between music, dance and theatre, a feature of many of Deraco’s works.

The piece offers a peak in to the mysterious (and sometimes absurd!) process of creative invention, and is a bit of a wink of the eye in self-acknowledgement  of the composer’s own eccentricity.

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Last year, my friend James brought up the idea of building woodblocks specifically for Iannis Xenakis’s Rebonds.  Here’s what we came up with:

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That’s my friend from Truman State University, Scott Quade performing on a set we made.  Scott, like many others at the school, is a fantastic percussionist.

Anyway, James had some sketches of a set of blocks which belonged to a former teacher.  Along with this, Kolberg makes “Power Blocks”, which are often used for the piece.  There is a great video of percussionist Pedro Carniero playing Rebonds B.  Carniero’s blocks are cool, but of course I’m partial to “XenakibloX”!

…next up will be designing and building a mounting system for the blocks.

Recently I had the opportunity to produce and record a project with percussionist Matt Jacklin.  We completed two sessions, one week apart in Foellinger Great Hall at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

Matt_Jacklin_Recording_Project

We recorded three pieces:

Session 1 (4.11.2010):  Bernard-Francois Machet – Phenix (for vibraphone and 9 tom-toms)

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Session II (4.18.2010): Andrew Thomas – Merlin (for marimba),  Jacob Druckman – Reflections on the Nature of Water (for marimba)

Session I Photos:

Session II Photos:

This is a vibraphone “rescue” project I completed for a local musician. The instrument was given to him by a friend in derelict condition, and only had the bars (the part that is struck by mallets), the damper bar and the frame intact. It did not include a pedal to operate the damper, or, more importantly, resonators.  Because it was given to him by a friend, the instrument has special sentimental value, and it is affectionately called the “Red Vibes”.

MAIN IMPROVEMENTS/FEATURES:

Damper System

Damper Bar – New felt on damper bar

Pedal- Completely new, wide damper pedal for easy access while playing through whole range of instrument.

Resonators

Dimensions – 1/4 wavelength one-end-open, one-end-closed (half open) aluminum tubes, 1 3/4″ outer diameter (equal to the bar width).

Tunable – Tube stops made with aluminum discs with rubber o-ring as a seal (similar to a piston in a combustion engine). Each tube stop has a 1/4″ hex bolt through it, allowing each resonator to be tuned individually with a hex wrench.

End Correction – Gap between bar and tube provides end correction for 1/2 open tube resonators. This ensures the vibrating bar is at the anti-node of the wave, which is slightly (about 1/2″) outside the open end of the tube.

Finish- I investigated several finish options, (anodizing, lacquer, etc.), but decided a “brushed” finish would be best (least expensive and cool looking).

Bars (keys)

I cleaned the keys (along with cleaning and lubricating other existing metal parts) using Scotch-Brite, steel wool and acetone.

THE PROJECT

Design

I designed a pedal mechanism which would mate to the existing damper bar hardware and that would be easy to remove and reassemble at performances. I had it machined from aluminum at Wagner Machine Co. in Champaign, IL (they were in Urbana, IL at the time). This was the easy part…

Because the resonators are part of the sound-producing system of this instrument, designing and building them was particularly challenging. They needed to work with the existing frame and be easy to assemble/disassemble, in addition to making the instrument sound better.

The operating principle of resonators in keyboard instruments is that when a vibrating bar is situated near the end of a tube of equal fundamental frequency (f₀₎, the column of air in the tube will vibrate sympathetically. Because the bar and tube resonate sympathetically at f₀, but have different resonances at the harmonics (f_n), f₀ is amplified more than the higher harmonics. This means that the loudness of f₀ is greater than the loudness of f_n, making the instrument sound less “bright” or more “mellow”. There may be matching of higher harmonics between the resonator and bar, along with the vibraphone, but the main amplification is at f₀. This is the signature sound of the vibraphone, and what I sought to achieve in my design.

Fabrication and Assembly

As mentioned above, the damper pedal was machined at Wagner Machine Co.:

Note that significant mass has been removed from the pedal to keep the action lighter.

Wagner was also the site of drilling the holes for the resonator tubes and rails. The tubes were cut using a plumbing pipe cutter. The brushed finish was achieved using sandpaper, steel wool and Scotch-Brite with the tube spinning on a metal lathe. The tubes are attached to the rails by round head hex bolts and nylon-insert lock nuts.

U-Channel aluminum was used for the endpiece on each resonator set. The original instrument included a small metal bracket with a raised knob in the middle. The U-Channel endpiece has a hole into which the knob fits, holding the resonators in place.

The curve of the resonators made smoother after the “rough” photo above was taken.  The curve was made more smooth.

The vibes on a sunny fall day before being returned to their owner!

Jeff Zahos – Audio Recording Portfolio (Details below):

Jazz Quartet

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Solo Harp

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Solo Marimba

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Female Jazz Vocalist with Backing Band

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Solo Viola

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Solo Piano

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Solo Percussion

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Solo Tenor Voice

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Jazz Trio

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Jazz Quartet

In early 2008, I had the pleasure of recording Ryan Leatherman, a very talented saxophonist playing with a jazz quartet for a demo CD. The recording was done in Smith Memorial Hall Rm. 25.

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Setup/Equipment

• MOTU 896 interface (recording at 96kHz/24bit) – Onboard preamps used

• Recorded and mixed in Cubase

• Drum overheads preamplifier – Hamptone HVTP2 tube preamp

• Microphones:

Sax – Heil PR 30 (cardioid dynamic)

Bass – Heil PR 40 (cardioid dynamic)

Guitar – MXL 603 (cardioid consenser)

Drum Overheads – (2) MXL 2001 (large capsule cardioid condenser) (ORTF Configuration)

Bass Drum – Shure SM7 (cardioid dynamic)

Process/Issues/Evaluation:

This live multitrack session was completed in a lecture hall/jazz rehearsal space with no baffling/gobos. The quartet set up as if performing live, except that the saxphonist faced across the front of the band to keep the polar response null point of the sax microphone facing the drums. This was done to allow maximum flexibility in mixing the sax. This also placed the mic facing the keys, for a tone which I prefer. The bass mic looked up to a spot slightly above the bridge, very close.

The main issues in this session centered on maintaining a very natural performance feeling for the musicians while giving me tracks which were mixable and flexible (mainly by having properly selected mics and rejecting direct sound from the drums). Perhaps I would use a close mic on the snare drum, if I had another shot at this session. I feel like the high ratio of indirect to direct snare drum sound is slightly inconsistent with the intimacy of the cymbals, but not objectionable.

There is no editing/crossfading in this example.

Solo Harp

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Setup/Equipment

• TASCAM DA 38 Digital Tape Recorder (44.1kHz, 16bit)

• Mixed in Cubase, using MOTU 896 interface

• Hamptone HVTP2 tube preamp, (2) MXL 604 (small capsule omnidirectional condenser) (spaced omni pair configuration – 3ft. separation, 6ft. height, right mic facing top strings, left facing center strings)

• ART Tube MP preamp, pressure zone microphone (pzm) (hemispheric polar pattern), on floor between spaced omni pair

Process/Issues/Evaluation:

This track comes from a recording session that took place over several days in a university recital hall (900 seats). Though no splicing was necessary in the end (the performer was exceptional), making sure the setup was exactly the same session to session was a challenge. Additionally, using the spaced omni pair in close proximity to the instrument required careful placement, resulting from a bit of experimentation. In the end, I felt the ratio of direct and reverberant sound was exactly what I had in mind, without the use of much of the signal from the hemispheric pzm.

There is no reverb added, or editing/crossfading in this example

Solo Marimba

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Setup/Equipment

• TASCAM DA 38 Digital Tape Recorder (44.1kHz, 16bit)

• PreSonus Firepod (onboard preamps, analog outputs), (2) MXL 2001 (large capsule cardioid condenser) (ORTF Configuration)

• ART Tube MP preamp, MXL 604 (small capsule omnidiretional condenser)
• Edited in Cubase

Process/Issues/Evaluation:

Solo marimba in a large concert hall (2,100 seats). The instrument was noisy, however beginning around 00:14 seconds, what sounds like distortion does appear. A particular frequency range **(name it)** was problematic, most likely to the mic amplifier circuit. Because the session was gratis (and during a specified time slot), I did not stop the performance to try to troubleshoot the situation.

There is no reverb added, or editing/crossfading in this example

Female Jazz Vocalist with Backing Band

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Setup/Equipment

• MOTU 896 interface (recording at 96kHz/24bit) – Onboard preamps used

• Hamptone HVTP2 tube preamp – Vocals and direct input electric bass

• TASCAM DA 38 Digital Tape Recorder (44.1kHz, 16bit)

• Microphones:

Vocal – Heil PR 40 (cardioid dynamic)

Piano – MXL 603 (cardioid condenser) (ORTF Configuration)

Drum Overheads – (2) MXL 2001 (large capsule cardioid condenser) (spaced pair placement)

Bass – Direct input

Process/Issues/Evaluation:

This live multitrack session was completed in a house dining room with no baffling/gobos. The main challenge was capturing the vocals without too much bleed from the drums, for maximum flexibility in mixing (the vocalist was not playing piano). The null point of the vocal microphone faced the drums. Additionally, the mic was placed at standing height in a doorway which led to the larger living room, where I liked the sound of the voice better (this also helped with separation). This was a sort of “lesser of two evils” choice, as the room reflections complicated adding reverb (very slight) convincingly.

There is no editing/crossfading in this example.

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Setup/Equipment

• TASCAM DA 38 Digital Tape Recorder (44.1kHz, 16bit)

• Mixed in Cubase, using MOTU 896 interface

• Hamptone HVTP2 tube preamp, (2) MXL 2001 (large capsule cardioid condenser) (ORTF Configuration)

• ART Tube MP preamp, pressure zone microphone (hemispheric polar pattern), on floor near rear of stage, to one side

Process/Issues/Evaluation:

This track comes from a recording session that took place over several days in a university recital hall (900 seats). Though no splicing was necessary in the end (again an excellent performer, and the audition for which this recording was made prohibited editing), consistency from session to session was again a challenge. The position of everything was recorded and taped. Again, only a touch of the PZM signal was used. I found that moving the performer up and downstage had a noticeable effect on the sound, even when the microphones stayed the same distance from her. In the end, I found a spot I liked, and you hear the result.

There is no reverb added, or editing/crossfading in this example

Setup/Equipment

• TASCAM DA 38 Digital Tape Recorder (44.1kHz, 16bit)

• Mixed in Cubase, using MOTU 896 interface

• Hamptone HVTP2 tube preamp

• ART Tube MP preamp

Percussion – MXL 603 (cardioid condenser)

Drums – MXL 603 (cardioid configuration)

Process/Issues/Evaluation:

This session was recorded in the band’s rehearsal space. In planning this session, I considered close mic’ing each instrument or group of instruments closely. In the end, I decided that the essential sound of the band was captured better by positioning the band creatively in the room, and achieving stereo imaging and depth in real-time/space, rather than in mixing. I built a “low-tech” drum isolation booth using various materials at my disposal (file cabinets, blankets, carboard boxes with packing noodles, etc.). The drums were recorded mono to be consistent with the “live” feeling.

There is no editing/crossfading in this example

Solo Piano

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Setup/Equipment

• TASCAM DA 38 Digital Tape Recorder (44.1kHz, 16bit)
• Mixed in Cubase, using PreSonus Firepod interface (44.1kHz, 16bit)
• Hamptone HVTP2 tube preamp, (2) MXL 604 (spaced omni pair configuration – 1.5m separation)
• PreSonus Firepod, pressure zone microphone (hemispheric polar pattern), on floor near lip of stage, equidistant from 604s

Process/Issues/Evaluation:

In this particular space, (a 900 seat university recital hall), the spaced omnidirectional pair with a touch of the pzm mixed in has become a favorite setup of mine for recording piano recitals. I have tried ORTF, XY and close ORTF, with and without a hemispheric mic, and the omni pair provides the piano tone and combination of direct and reverberant sound I am looking for.

There is no reverb added, or editing/crossfading in this example.

Solo Percussion

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Setup/Equipment

• TASCAM DA 38 Digital Tape Recorder (44.1kHz, 16bit)
• Mixed in Cubase, using MOTU 896 interface
• Hamptone HVTP2 tube preamp, (2) MXL 2001 (large capsule cardioid condenser) (Overhead ORTF placement)
• ART Tube MP preamp, Heil PR40 on bass drum

Process/Issues/Evaluation:

This session was particularly interesting for several reasons. The multiple-percussion setup of this piece resembles a drumset in that it’s main elements are kick drum, snare drum, tom-toms and cymbals, with bongos, and various woodblocks and cowbells added. In planning, I vacillated between close mic’ing the various instruments or groups of instruments and using a stereo ORTF mic’ing/bass drum or spaced overhead pair/bass drum setup. After some brief experimentation, I decided to use an overhead ORTF pair and bass drum mic, for several reasons.

With the spaced overhead pair setup, the non-cymbal voices were noticably “deeper” in the stereo field than the cymbal, causing an timbral and volume imbalance. The ORTF pair achieved a more “realistic” environment, that is, the impression of being in a small room full of instruments being hit, and not a “fabricated” acoustic space (which would have occured in a dry, close mic’ing situation).

In the end, I was pleased with this recording. I avoided the main personal objection I have to many studio concert percussion recordings; many times, the sounds are more like drum sounds you’d hear on a pop or rock record, unlike the piece would sound in performance. While these are aesthetic preferences, I currently feel that the ‘acoustic’ approach is closer to the spirit of most concert percussion pieces. In most cases, the pieces were written for live, acoustic performance and recordings I make of them should reflect that aesthetic intent as much as possible. There were edits made in this example, no reverb was added.

Solo Tenor Voice

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Setup/Equipment

• TASCAM DA 38 Digital Tape Recorder (44.1kHz, 16bit)
• Mixed in Cubase, using MOTU 896 interface
• Hamptone HVTP2 tube preamp, (2) MXL 2001 (large capsule cardioid condenser) (ORTF Configuration)

Process/Issues/Evaluation:

This is an example of two excellent performers in a very complimentary acoustic space (the same 900-seat university recital hall as above). My method consisted of repositioning the ORTF pair a few times to achieve the desired balance between soloist and accompaniment and between direct and indirect sound. In the end, this became one of my favorite recordings. There is no reverb added in this example. There are edits/crossfades in this example.

Jazz Trio

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Setup/Equipment

• MOTU 896 interface (recording at 96kHz/24bit) – Onboard preamps used
• Recorded and mixed in Cubase
• Drum overheads preamplifier – Hamptone HVTP2 tube preamp
• Microphones:

Piano – MXL 603 (cardioid consenser)

Bass – Direct input

Drum Overheads – (2) MXL 2001 (large capsule cardioid condenser) (ORTF Configuration)

Bass Drum – PZM

Process/Issues/Evaluation:

This project was conceived with the idea of emulating the sound of the work of Rudy Van Gelder in the early 1960’s (a mutual choice of my own and the drummer, for whom this was an audition tape). Of course I did not have any of the same equipment as Mr. Van Gelder, but I attempted to capture some characterstic elements with instrument placement, intentional mic bleed, dynamic treatment and equalization in mixing. There is no editing/crossfading in this example.

Setup/Equipment

• TASCAM DA 38 Digital Tape Recorder (44.1kHz, 16bit)
• Mixed in Cubase, using MOTU 896 interface
• Hamptone HVTP2 tube preamp, (2) MXL 2001 (large capsule cardioid condenser) (ORTF Configuration)
• Presonus Firepod preamps, (2) MXL 604 (small capsule omnidiretional condenser) flanking 15ft. to the left and right of main ORTF stereo pair.

Process/Issues/Evaluation:

This percussion recital was recorded in the same 900-seat university recital hall as several other examples above. The combination of the ORTF pair and flanking omnidirectional microphones has proven to be very effective in this space. The hall is all wood with no curtains, very friendly to keyboard percussion instruments as long as they are downstage of the proscenium. The depth of the accompanying marimba band placed the low register of one instrument and the high register of one instrument a little further back in the stereo field than I would have preferred, and in a recording session, I would have experiemented with the placement of instruments and possibly added a mic on the accompaniment to be able to mix in a touch of direct sound. There is no reverb or editing/crossfading in this example

I play in a couple bands based in Champaign, IL.  One of them – definitely the most domestic-aquatic themed one – is called  Backyard Shark.  I love playing with Ed, Tony and Tommy B – we’ve been together for several years now, which not many bands that have members in 3 cities (4 from Aug. ‘08-May’09) can say.  We have a lot of fun, and we like to think our audiences do, too!  Check us out at:

• Facebook! A book with pictures of our Shark-face
• MySpace! OurSpace
• Flickr! Awesome pics, mostly taken by the awesome Taylor “Hawkins, drummer from the Foo Fighters” Thornton
• Purevolume! LOUD!
• Twitter! Does this have something to do with texting?  I don’t text – I don’t have anything to do with this one…

SHARKIFY!