Mike's Recordings Mix

Audio recording of "There Will Never Be Another You", performed by the Martin Hoff Big Band. Arrangement by Frank Digesere and recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020.

The group is a collection of talented musicians who get together for the love of making this kind of music. 

This was recorded virtually, with each band member recording their part into personal equipment (some of them phones) and uploading for audio processing.

There Will Never Be Another You - Big Band

Tad Dameron's On A Misty Night. My friend Brian on soprano and tenor saxophone.

On A Misty Night

Re-upload of this pretty tune.

Recorded with my friend Martin on the tenor sax. 

This recording is my first attempt at integrating orchestral strings into an arrangement, and uses Native Instruments' Session Strings Pro 2. The bass is Orange Tree Samples Core Pear Bass, and the drums are provided by Steinberg's Groove Agent. The Piano is Native's The Grandeur. This recording was mixed and mastered using Cubase Elements on an iMac.

Autumn Nocturne

A rendition of the traditional Greensleeves in 5/4 time. A bit of an homage to Dave Brubeck with snippets of Take Five and Blue Rondo a la Turk thrown in.

Green5sleeves

Song from the play/movie "My Fair Lady". It kind of started as an excuse to use a ukulele in a song, and then took on a life of its own.

* No real musicians were used on this project *

This is all me and software instruments. I do this as a hobby and hope to learn a few things along the way.

On The Street Where You Live

Christmastime Is Here / A Child Is Born mashup.

Christmastime Is Here

Just a mellow version of this classic song. I wanted to capture the mood of sitting in an old cabin in the woods next to the fireplace drinking hot toddies.

Moonlight In Vermont

Composer: Pee Wee Ellis
Made famous by Jaco Pastorius

This is an adaptation of the Kris Berg big band arrangement, noted by middle breakdown section preceding the solos. Most recordings and performances play at a breakneck tempo, but I decided to slow it down to give it more of a laid back funk flavor.

All instruments were played/programmed by me. I had a few goals for this recording:
1. Feature a jazz guitar and see how close I could come to programming a performance that sound like a human
2. Use a jazz brush drum kit to help emphasize the laid back groove and take the biting edge off

This recording features Orange Tree Samples’ Evolution Jazz Archtop Guitar VST and Fluffy Audio’s Jazz Drums - Brushes VST. I like the realism and character of these tools. Other instruments include Organs Tree’s Core Pear upright bass and UJam’s Groovemaster One for tambourine and hand claps.

Nord Spotting: After not using them in the past few recordings, I’m giving the Nord library little bit of love here. The piano is the Mellow Upright, pretty much straight out of the Electro 6D with just a wee bit of extra reverb and compression on the track. The organ is also from Electro, both upper and lower manuals. Again, just a small amount of track processing.

And yes, the piano solo is borrowed from another tune. It just seemed to work well with the groove ;-)

The music I post is not intended for commercial distribution in any form. I do this as a hobby and share it here for the joy of it.

The Chicken

As always, this music is shared here for non-profit enjoyment only! There is no commercial intent behind my music creation, and I prohibit anyone from taking these recordings for their own commercial purposes. 

Medley of two American standards: It's Only A Paper Moon (composed by Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg and Billy Rose) and Tuxedo Junction (Erskine Hawkins, Bill Johnson and Julian Dash). 

The goal behind this recording was to challenge myself to create near-authentic wind and acoustic instrument parts. I tried to emulate how these instruments might be played by real musicians to achieve something a bit more than just a mechanical sound. Particularly for the horns, all dynamics and articulations were manually created.

The entire guitar part was recorded manually. I was looking for Freddie Green style strumming, but could not find MIDI patterns that I liked. Instead, I voiced and played the rhythm and solo freehand. This helped achieve the slight inaccuracies in timing for a more realistic sound.

Same mindset was used for the bass. I wanted to achieve some of the nuances and realism an actual bass player would bring to a recording session. 

Bass: Orange Tree Samples Core Bass Pear
Drums: Kontakt Abby Road 60’s Drummer with various patterns added from Band-In-A-Box
Clarinet: VG Jazz Clarinet
Trumpet: Kontakt Session Horns Trumpet
Guitar: Kontakt Picked Nylon, manual playing (no auto rhythm)
Piano: Nord Piano Library Pearl Upright

Recorded, mixed & mastered with Cubase Elements 14

Effects:
Arturia Pre TriA
Arturia Comp VCA-65
TDR Nova GE EQ
Brainworx bx_console Focusrite SC channel strip (drum track only)
Reverb: Native Instruments Raum, modified Subtle Acoustic preset
Arturia BusFORCE and Slate Digital Fresh Air were used on the Master Track.

I limited the use of effects gear to mimic the limitations of a real studio with minimal outboard gear.
All instruments use the same reverb buss to simulate all musicians in the same room at once.

Drums:
Jazz Drums Brushes: R24_4_4_Swing_135 w/ September In Oslo Kit
AR60’s Early Kit Full: Jazz: 01 Swing 150BPM Triplets

It's Only A Paper Moon

Conclave Live at Robbin's Reef Boat Club, Bayonne, NJ, August 19, 2015. This was recorded on a Zoom H2 outdoors on a windy and humid day. Sorry for the wind noise. Musicians: Marty Hoff on Saxophone, Mike Verdugo on Guitar, Mike Sales on keyboards, Duke Lukic on bass, Gavin Davies on drums.

Penny Arcade - A Conclave Recording

Palladium - A Conclave Recording

Recorded on March 3, 2018 at a house birthday party. This features Cliff and Martin Hoff on saxophone.

Marty's Birthday

I Thought About You

Recorded on March 3, 2018 at a house birthday party. This features Cliff Hoff on saxophone.

Marty Hoff's Birthday

Spring Is Here

Laura

Conclave recording of "Pools", originally recorded by Steps Ahead. Conclave is a group of jazz musicians based in New Jersey. 
Martin Hoff - Sax
Mike Verdugo - Guitar
Mike Sales - Keyboards
Duke Lukic - Bass
Gavin Davies Drums

Pools - A Conclave Recording

Rendition of Paquito D'Rivera's "To Brenda With Love", performed by Conclave, a jazz fusion group based in New Jersey.

To Brenda With Love - A Conclave Recording

Rendition of Paquito D'Rivera's "Samba For Carmen", performed by Conclave, a jazz fusion group based in New Jersey.

April 2016

Samba For Carmen - A Conclave Recording

Rendition of Robben Ford's composition "Revelation", performed by Conclave, a jazz fusion group based in New Jersey.

Revelation - A Conclave Recording

Marty Hoff Big Band performing Makin' Whoopee, Featuring Cliff Hoff on Tenor Saxophone. Song written by Walter Donaldson and arranged for big band by Chris Connolly.

These musicians are part of a collective that gets together once a month for the love of the great big band jazz music of the past and present.  Musicians from their 20’s through their 70’s make up the band at every rehearsal.  This project welcomes and features a nonagenarian in 93 year old Cliff Hoff, a Dorsey Bros., Maynard Ferguson and Glenn Miller band alumnus.

Makin' Whoopee - Big Band

Just a casual Jazzer. I am not seeking commercial gain from any of my projects, and do not permit others to profit from my own work.

These recordings are created to share a little bit of how I see music, as well as to learn new skills in home recording and virtual instrument techniques. 

My main DAW is Cubase Elements, and I use VST instruments and effects mostly by Arturia and Native Instruments. I also play Nord and Roland keyboards. I am not endorsed by anyone, nor am I interested in an endorsement for financial purposes.

Mike's Recordings Mix

Mike Jazz Piano