Do a Big Band??

Hey, folks. So my mother and I are planning to perform a vocal duet in the style of those Trad. Pop/Big Band vocalists from the 40's and 50's at our church's upcoming Christmas party. I wrote out an actual big band chart for two trumpets (plus an 8va), three trombones, and three altos, plus a virtual bari and rhythm section. But allow me to cut to it:
 
She and I will be doing EVERYTHING. She's playing alto, and I'm playing trumpet, trombone, all rhythm sec., and production.
 
I simply want all of the tips you guys can give, in one shot. Especially about mixing, recording, etc.
Thanks a lot!!

If I get you right, you're recording a backing track that you can then sing to later with your Mom and you want it to sound like you're singing with a live Big Band (rather than to a backing track)
 
My advice would be to treat the whole process in your studio as if you were micing up a stage, the only difference being you're pressing record rather than sending out to a PA.
 
Close mic ALL the instruments, preferably with dynamics not capacitors. You want them as dry as you can get, there'll be plenty of room reverb to worry about when your playing back at the party.
 
Assuming you're going to be using a "standard" PA setup with speakers either side of a stage area, group similar instruments, then push them hard(ish) left/right,  maybe upto 75% pan, to create space on the stage for your vocals.  A real Big Band is physically a big thing with instruments grouped.  Copy it.
 
DON'T go overboard with effects, use limiters to catch peaks and nothing else. Record quieter than you're used to because brass has a very big dynamic range and can get very loud, very easily. To fake a live performance you want to keep that dynamic range, not tame it.
 
Be very sparing with eq.  It's easy in your studio to listen back, not like what you hear and spend hours sweetening things up to make it sound "nice".  Except it won't sound like that when played back through a PA in a large room/hall.
Spend time on your mic position and recording levels, keeping the mics close, to get a good clean recording and you shouldn't need to EQ very much.  Your aim here is to replicate from the PA the raw sound of each instrument as if it were on the stage with you.
 
Mixing...
Are you running playback from 2 track or from a portable DAW?  
If you're mixing down to stereo you're going to have to guess at the instrument balance.  This is the easiest on the day, you just plug your iPhone with the backing track into the PA. It is the hardest to produce because you're not mixing in the space it will be heard.  Different instruments will (or won't) resonate in the performance room and you'll have to adjust for that, but you'll not know until you get there and listen,  so you'll have to guess at it and go for a middle-of-the-road compromise mix.
The best option, if you can, would be to take Sonar on a laptop so you can balance the instruments in situ.  You can then treat it like a real live event and you're doing FOH.  A stereo feed from your laptops built in sound card straight to the PA is plenty good enough in this situation.  Remember to turn off system sounds 
 
 
Or, you could record and mix just like you would any other song and take that to sing to,  but it WILL sound like karaoke !!
 

Here's another production tip that may not have occurred to you..
 
Brass instruments are LOUD, a full band is VERY LOUD, (not in comparison to Metalica, but way louder than acoustic guitar or piano for example).  It seems obvious when spelled out, but when recording you must play quieter during the parts where you'll be singing.  You can't just pull down the faders during the mix to quieten it, that would sound like someone is playing with the PA volume.
If you listen to some of the old big band recordings done before modern technology you'll see exactly what I mean.  During vocal parts, a good half of the band will stop playing so the singer(s) can be heard, and the rest will be playing quietly.  This is often punctuated by bursts of maximum volume "stabs" or 4 bar refrains between verses/choruses.
 
The same goes for solo instruments. As loud as a trumpet may sound when played in your kitchen it is no match for a full rank of assorted Saxs playing at full blast.

Thus, I've reached my dilemma- today, we recorded saxes, andI can get a decent micro-balance in sections. But I'm having trouble with overall section balancing.
Basically, I went in to record my final trombone tracks, and see, there's a shout chorus in this song where the entire band is playing the same rhythms in chords. It's VERY loud, and I had to turn my input down quite a bit on the interface to account for that.... but now the dynamic range is too extreme for it to really sound the proper volume next to the saxes, which obviously can't get anywhere near as loud as a trombone, and so didn't need low input levels. 
 
How do I solve this? Play quieter? Record at multiple volumes? Compression??

Well, I think you and your mother will drive yourselves crazy trying to do what you are trying to do. Come back down to Planet Earth. Planet Earth to davdud101 and mother. Borrow a good synth if you do not have one, and one that will sound excellent in the first place. (perhaps you need to try out a synth from the local music store and need it for a week. Before going to a local music store, practice the parts on the synth you have.)
 
Next record the parts from the synth that uses way better players and sample software than probably both of you can actually play. (maybe not but then again, it is professional sounds on a synth done that way in the first place).
 
Combine the parts (changing the effects out of the synth recording it (and having some reverb and other things may just help add to the effects of the room, but never over-do it, always less but not dead effects).
 
No one that I know of in the world does this kind of music and stuff without having professional people around, professional rooms to do it in, and in the end - sound stages set up by professional people. It is all fine and well to think that way, but really in reality it is a lot harder to achieve without years of experience and practice. Come back down to Planet Earth and do what will make it sound as good as it can be.
 
If you think a lot of people will know the difference between real instruments and a synth, then I think I would have to disagree with that. If you have real instruments, then they may decide that your egos are so big, that you could not find the other people who can play the real instruments and did not have a room or sound stage to record it on in the first place, and well, it came out like it did, an attempt to sound professional but could not be done or the people could not get together and show up in the church in the first place (??). Nothing wrong with not being able to afford it in the first place, but with a synth and a decent attempt that what you did, still was done by both of you, it did not sound bad, and was not an attempt to feed your egos about what actually could be done and was done in the end when it came to perform it.
 
Yes, other people have gone through the same things, and still perhaps some people will try it. Fine, if you attempt this all with real instruments and playing the real parts of the music, make sure you can do it all in the first place, or just get back to reality and do what will not sound bad, playing the parts on a synth and making sure it comes out correct in the first place. Unless doing a solo adding to a synth, the synth wil probably be smoother overall for the music and good luck trying to balance all the real instruments out to sound good as a mix in the end. That is a lot of work, and you and your mother may not really have the time to actually finish it before the Big Event. To me, get the real people, get the real sound stage (or church), get the time and get it together before when the Big Event comes, or really think of what can really be done, and solve what you both are doing by really thinking about how it will turn out, not dreaming how it should turn out, because a lot of times, it may not turn out in the end, and all that time will end up with nothing but cancelling out of it, because it could not be done.
 
Just an opinion, not a reference about anyone and what they can achieve. Make sure you both can achieve it.
And there is a volume pedal on a synth like an organ in a church and well, playing the part better may be all that has to be done, even if it does not sound real to either of you and you wish it was real instruments.
 
Well, good luck with it.
 

Karyn has a lot of great advice on details already, but I will throw out a mixing "big picture" to consider. A song is akin to a book, so each section (chapter) needs its primary focus on what is most important. The listener needs to feel logical shifts in this focus. Volume reduction and pauses leave "residual perception" of preceding material, so what comes next into focus (like vocals, instrument phrases, etc.) can take center stage. There are many ways to facilitate this, but keep the logical shift in focus for the listener in mind when mixing.

As you are mixing in SONAR, consider volume automation (or even pauses) to loud sections needing to "relinquish focus."

Yes, but also what the listener is hearing (and what they remember). Example, many songs start with a repetitive, catchy riff, which is repeated throughout a song. Once a listener has heard it a few times, they will remember it, so the volume no longer needs to be "loud" to be heard (and can also distract from what you want to be heard, especially vocals). When mixing, moving the listeners focus logically is important, and things they have heard repeatedly become "ingrained" so even at lower volumes (or paused) the introduction of new material can occur seemlessly. Volume changes can be very subtle, but incredibly effective (i.e. -3dB is pretty substantial, but leaves "room" to be heard... plus "frequency masking" is a phenomenon where the loudest of things at the same frequency will "be heard").
 
Listen to something similar that you like and hear how they do it. Separation of material is most often done with panning/EQ/volume (the settings on a console strip), but volume alone can be incredibly effective (bear in mind that reverb is the "perception" of being far away, so be wary of using reverb on something which should have focus).
 
For some reason, as I typed this "Bad to the Bone" came to mind... very loud intro of a repetitive riff, then drum/another riff... when the singing starts, that riff is only done at the end of each line, and on a sax which is much quieter, but the audience "gets it." During the sax solo, the guitar volume is reduced dramatically, but still there and audible, but the sax has focus.
 
As Karyn mentioned, brass can get LOUD, so be conscious of the frequencies they are filling and if they need to be "that loud" to be effective.

Mettelus,  the main aim here is to produce a recording to use as a backing track so it sounds as if the band were actually there.  All the tips and techniques I've been offering are only relevant to a live sound situation.
 
I agree with you about the use of dynamics to focus the listeners attention, but that is more of a studio production and arrangement technique,  we're trying to fake a live performance..