Last night I was unloading some gear into my practice space and the guy in the room down the hall was hanging out. It's been a couple months since he's been around so I shoot the shit with him and he tells me all about traveling and doing some producing for some Motown style artists. He tells me he's trying to make the move out to L.A., but wants a good product to take with him but can't seem to get his mixes right. Some of the big name people he supposedly knows out there told him to start over with them too.
He then asked me if I would take a listen and give my impressions. The songs weren't bad, kind of a modern Motown style, but his mixes were not at all good. To his credit, everything he does recording/mixing-wise is completely self-taught and I really can't say I did any better before somebody set me straight.
I asked if I could play with a mix he hasn't done much on yet, just so I can show him some tips and tricks that I like to do and explained to him everything I was doing along the way. In 15 minutes I had a basic mix pulled up better than the one he had been working on for a couple months. Immediately after that he asked if I would mix a couple songs for him and asked my rate. I figured $30 a song wouldn't be too bad, but he came back with $75/song. So fuck yeah, hopefully he isn't just bullshitting me and it would be nice to work with something that isn't metal for once. The only thing that kind of sucks is he uses PT and I don't and I don't think he knows what consolidating is or how to print his midi tracks to audio. I've been meaning to get PT9 for a while so this might be the motivation I need.
Anyone else have cool stories of accidentally getting gigs?
He then asked me if I would take a listen and give my impressions. The songs weren't bad, kind of a modern Motown style, but his mixes were not at all good. To his credit, everything he does recording/mixing-wise is completely self-taught and I really can't say I did any better before somebody set me straight.
I asked if I could play with a mix he hasn't done much on yet, just so I can show him some tips and tricks that I like to do and explained to him everything I was doing along the way. In 15 minutes I had a basic mix pulled up better than the one he had been working on for a couple months. Immediately after that he asked if I would mix a couple songs for him and asked my rate. I figured $30 a song wouldn't be too bad, but he came back with $75/song. So fuck yeah, hopefully he isn't just bullshitting me and it would be nice to work with something that isn't metal for once. The only thing that kind of sucks is he uses PT and I don't and I don't think he knows what consolidating is or how to print his midi tracks to audio. I've been meaning to get PT9 for a while so this might be the motivation I need.
Anyone else have cool stories of accidentally getting gigs?
