- May 9, 2006
- 1,808
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A few days ago a girlfriend of a known singer / guitarist of the place i live called me asking to mix a few songs from their Heavy Metal band and blah blah blah. Well, i like challenges and this would be a good marketing for my studio since they're selling a good bunch of CDs at other state here in Brazil. So I scheduled them to today...They also needed to record a few vocals that they didnt do on their previous recording sessions.
Today, the guy came to the studio with his annoying girlfriend/produce. First he started to tell me some stories from their trips, how cheap he got a 5150 a couple days ago (for the price of a Peavey Classic 30!!!! I almost killed myself because he bought it from a buddy of mine) and asked to start mixing one of their songs. Well, i hate to mix anything from 0 with people watching, but 'let's do it'...
I opened the song, saw a couple of guitar recordings : Guitar 1 (labelled 57, U87 and 414) and Guitar 2. I Figured that this was the guitars from each 'side', and started mixing. After 45 mixing they started to tell me how it was sounding empty, how the guitars were dull, blah blah blah. I agreed with many observations and started to ask about what they used to record.
The drums were a beaten Pearl Export with old skins and el cheapo B8 cymbals (not even Sabian or Paiste or Zildjian!!!). Bass was a Washburn cheapy. Guitars were a cheap Strato copy with single coils into a Marshall 8080 and a Crate GFX!!!!!! And i thinking to myself 'its no wonder its sounding like that...' The drums sound so weird that even with Sneap's samples, things sound bad.
To make things worse, both amps were recorded at the same time, one with a SM57 the other with an AKG 414 and with a ROOM MIC BETWEEN THEM!!!! A Neumann U87!!!! And this was heavy metal with palm mutes, fast phrases, etc. What the hell the Friggin engineer was thinking when he put a room mic in front of a loud guitar amp and WORSE, to record metal ?
I started talking to them about re-doing those parts, using the 5150, using my Soldano clone, one of my Gibson guitars, and they were like 'no no no, lets try this and that...lets pan this another way...'. After a while, i finally convinced them to re-do the guitars. It wont sound great, but at least i can drown all the crap that's recorded with nicely recorded guitars
So, they gave up mixing the song and we started recording some vocals. The guy inst a great singer but he does some great 80s metal vocals. Those funny metal vocals, very high pitched. Not good sounding, but funny instead. But it ends up sounding good eheheh After ONE take, his gfriend started to say : 'baby, lets do it phrase by phrase...'. With the will of asking her to shut her f'ing mouth, i politelly said 'lets do a few more takes and see what happens...'. SHe agreed. Thank God.
And at the middle of the take she starts to say things 'hey baby, sing like this!', and starts singing off-key, off-time, and off everything that musically exists. And thats because the bitch is graduated on classic piano. Probably shes better with her hand than with her mouth.
The guy was already starting to become pissed of, but he's too cool to let that happen. AH, i forgot. She writes the lyrics for him, so she thinks she knows it all. 'Baby, i write all the complaints you say everyday, so you have to sing like I want...'. Dude, at this time i didnt know what to do anymore. I opened firefox and started to read a couple forum just to let the anger go away, because it was though...
And the worse is that, there are 3 more sessions, 3 more songs for recording vocals, and 5 songs to mix. At least i will get to record a 5150
Today, the guy came to the studio with his annoying girlfriend/produce. First he started to tell me some stories from their trips, how cheap he got a 5150 a couple days ago (for the price of a Peavey Classic 30!!!! I almost killed myself because he bought it from a buddy of mine) and asked to start mixing one of their songs. Well, i hate to mix anything from 0 with people watching, but 'let's do it'...
I opened the song, saw a couple of guitar recordings : Guitar 1 (labelled 57, U87 and 414) and Guitar 2. I Figured that this was the guitars from each 'side', and started mixing. After 45 mixing they started to tell me how it was sounding empty, how the guitars were dull, blah blah blah. I agreed with many observations and started to ask about what they used to record.
The drums were a beaten Pearl Export with old skins and el cheapo B8 cymbals (not even Sabian or Paiste or Zildjian!!!). Bass was a Washburn cheapy. Guitars were a cheap Strato copy with single coils into a Marshall 8080 and a Crate GFX!!!!!! And i thinking to myself 'its no wonder its sounding like that...' The drums sound so weird that even with Sneap's samples, things sound bad.
To make things worse, both amps were recorded at the same time, one with a SM57 the other with an AKG 414 and with a ROOM MIC BETWEEN THEM!!!! A Neumann U87!!!! And this was heavy metal with palm mutes, fast phrases, etc. What the hell the Friggin engineer was thinking when he put a room mic in front of a loud guitar amp and WORSE, to record metal ?
I started talking to them about re-doing those parts, using the 5150, using my Soldano clone, one of my Gibson guitars, and they were like 'no no no, lets try this and that...lets pan this another way...'. After a while, i finally convinced them to re-do the guitars. It wont sound great, but at least i can drown all the crap that's recorded with nicely recorded guitars
So, they gave up mixing the song and we started recording some vocals. The guy inst a great singer but he does some great 80s metal vocals. Those funny metal vocals, very high pitched. Not good sounding, but funny instead. But it ends up sounding good eheheh After ONE take, his gfriend started to say : 'baby, lets do it phrase by phrase...'. With the will of asking her to shut her f'ing mouth, i politelly said 'lets do a few more takes and see what happens...'. SHe agreed. Thank God.
And at the middle of the take she starts to say things 'hey baby, sing like this!', and starts singing off-key, off-time, and off everything that musically exists. And thats because the bitch is graduated on classic piano. Probably shes better with her hand than with her mouth.
The guy was already starting to become pissed of, but he's too cool to let that happen. AH, i forgot. She writes the lyrics for him, so she thinks she knows it all. 'Baby, i write all the complaints you say everyday, so you have to sing like I want...'. Dude, at this time i didnt know what to do anymore. I opened firefox and started to read a couple forum just to let the anger go away, because it was though...
And the worse is that, there are 3 more sessions, 3 more songs for recording vocals, and 5 songs to mix. At least i will get to record a 5150
