- May 9, 2006
- 1,808
- 0
- 36
Last May, I think, a band went to make an EP on the studio I work on. Some may probably even remember a thread I had about 'em a while ago - I was having huge problems with them and needed to say some angry-ish words so they started behaving better. After that, the band too a hiatus from the studio (almost two months), and when they went back, they had around 5 days to finish guitars and track vocals. OK, we did that on a hurry, recorded all the vocals in ONE day, everything was rushed and I was well aware that it would never be a good sounding record. OK.
The studio took the vacation break, and when I went back, I had another client to do. I also waited for some guest musicians that where recording some stuff, so I could start mixing the completed product. It took almost one more month for that...Already on september, I started mixing it all, just to find that those guitars that were tracked were so bad that it was unusable. Terrible performances, a lot of tuning problems (they didnt want to use my guitars - instead they use theirs $150 cheap-ass chinese poplar guitars). I decided to retrack everything by myself and took almost 10 days to do everything. Some stuff was so bad I had trouble understanding what they were trying to do. I tracked everything, took a couple more days to edit and started remixing. At the same time, I was doing some unpaid work my boss required me :Smug: for a TV show (editing and mixing a one hour long worth of audio) and some other stuff outside the studio - shit, I was NOT getting paid so I needed to feed my kids. Anyway, with all this, I delivered the mixes by November or so and asked 'em to email me (they weren't living here anymore) with the needed changes, and I'd gladly do them. OK.
On december 28th (!!!!!!!!!!), I received the changes, at least one month after I asked them. OK - the problem is, the place I work is also a music school. The drum room ceiling fell off, so all drum classes were done at the studio - so the studio was basically closed. Around january 10th, the bassist called my boss but he wasn't at the studio, neither me, and them he started saying all absurd and angry stuff to the receptionist that works there. My boss called me, asking me for an explanation, and when I opened up my email box to send 'em an email, they sent me an uber angry email, saying the wanted the tracks to finish it at another place, that they wouldn't pay us a thing anymore, that I was running away from them (at the time, my cell phone died and I had no money to buy another one - but th guitarist lives 20m from my house!!!) and a bunch of nonsense stuff. I politely replied, and got an even angrier response from the guitarist - someone whom i had some problems even before I was an AE. He simply disliked me at the time and started telling people things about me. The studio reopened at january 20th, so I STILL didnt have enough time to do much stuff.
To be honest, I was ready to throw shit on the fan, give 'em the tracks and tell them good bye. But my boss didn't want to lose the client, told 'em a bunch of lies (his biggest ability is telling lies
) and they accepted to finish it with us. But this turned so much to a lose-lose situation: to be honest, I am having A LOT of problems dealing with the whole music, the really bad performances, and turning it on a quality material. I am taking like 5x more time to do things I usually do just to make it not sound THAT bad. It sounds like a putrid fart, so I am trying at least to lessen the damage. The band, is clearly upset (with a reason, although a lot of the problems we're dealing with is their fault) and IMO I expect them to not receive the things we do that well anymore. And my boss...well, he's sitting at the computer watching porn all the time He's scheduling more work at the studio, so I ended up with just a couple days last week to work with this, and I am hurrying to finish it off before the next project.
Man, there are some clients that is just better to let go. They just bring us problems that turn into a snowball of more problems. Money is good, but work like that is a lose situation for everybody
I honestly don't have a clue of what to do anymore to make this thing end FAST.
The studio took the vacation break, and when I went back, I had another client to do. I also waited for some guest musicians that where recording some stuff, so I could start mixing the completed product. It took almost one more month for that...Already on september, I started mixing it all, just to find that those guitars that were tracked were so bad that it was unusable. Terrible performances, a lot of tuning problems (they didnt want to use my guitars - instead they use theirs $150 cheap-ass chinese poplar guitars). I decided to retrack everything by myself and took almost 10 days to do everything. Some stuff was so bad I had trouble understanding what they were trying to do. I tracked everything, took a couple more days to edit and started remixing. At the same time, I was doing some unpaid work my boss required me :Smug: for a TV show (editing and mixing a one hour long worth of audio) and some other stuff outside the studio - shit, I was NOT getting paid so I needed to feed my kids. Anyway, with all this, I delivered the mixes by November or so and asked 'em to email me (they weren't living here anymore) with the needed changes, and I'd gladly do them. OK.
On december 28th (!!!!!!!!!!), I received the changes, at least one month after I asked them. OK - the problem is, the place I work is also a music school. The drum room ceiling fell off, so all drum classes were done at the studio - so the studio was basically closed. Around january 10th, the bassist called my boss but he wasn't at the studio, neither me, and them he started saying all absurd and angry stuff to the receptionist that works there. My boss called me, asking me for an explanation, and when I opened up my email box to send 'em an email, they sent me an uber angry email, saying the wanted the tracks to finish it at another place, that they wouldn't pay us a thing anymore, that I was running away from them (at the time, my cell phone died and I had no money to buy another one - but th guitarist lives 20m from my house!!!) and a bunch of nonsense stuff. I politely replied, and got an even angrier response from the guitarist - someone whom i had some problems even before I was an AE. He simply disliked me at the time and started telling people things about me. The studio reopened at january 20th, so I STILL didnt have enough time to do much stuff.
To be honest, I was ready to throw shit on the fan, give 'em the tracks and tell them good bye. But my boss didn't want to lose the client, told 'em a bunch of lies (his biggest ability is telling lies
) and they accepted to finish it with us. But this turned so much to a lose-lose situation: to be honest, I am having A LOT of problems dealing with the whole music, the really bad performances, and turning it on a quality material. I am taking like 5x more time to do things I usually do just to make it not sound THAT bad. It sounds like a putrid fart, so I am trying at least to lessen the damage. The band, is clearly upset (with a reason, although a lot of the problems we're dealing with is their fault) and IMO I expect them to not receive the things we do that well anymore. And my boss...well, he's sitting at the computer watching porn all the time He's scheduling more work at the studio, so I ended up with just a couple days last week to work with this, and I am hurrying to finish it off before the next project. Man, there are some clients that is just better to let go. They just bring us problems that turn into a snowball of more problems. Money is good, but work like that is a lose situation for everybody
I honestly don't have a clue of what to do anymore to make this thing end FAST.
