Band messes with final mix

There was an indie band I recorded a while ago. The singer had a huge ego and thought he was a musical genius, and had the other two band mates convinced he was as well. He was of course the jobless song writer, and the other band members were the financial aid under his dictatorship. Anyways, after everything is finished, I give them their final mixes. They come back and say that the drums don't sound right to them. They ask if the can sit in on the mixing session so we can get the drum sound they want. Needless to say I break my number one rule and give in.:zombie:

During this nightmare of a mixing session, I solo the bottom snare mic just to see whats going on. The singer goes,"Wait, what did you just do there?" so I told him what I did and he says, "That sounds like shit, turn it up!" :erk: So now I have the bottom snare mic louder than any other drum mic (with added distortion now) and the entire drum sound is god awful, just like they want it.:puke:

After about a week, they come back wanting to re-mix everything again! They told me they showed the songs to all of their best friends, and all of them said they didn't like their music because the drums sounded really bad. What a fucking surprise!:yell:
 
paladin shredder said:
There was an indie band I recorded a while ago. The singer had a huge ego and thought he was a musical genius, and had the other two band mates convinced he was as well. He was of course the jobless song writer, and the other band members were the financial aid under his dictatorship. Anyways, after everything is finished, I give them their final mixes. They come back and say that the drums don't sound right to them. They ask if the can sit in on the mixing session so we can get the drum sound they want. Needless to say I break my number one rule and give in.:zombie:

During this nightmare of a mixing session, I solo the bottom snare mic just to see whats going on. The singer goes,"Wait, what did you just do there?" so I told him what I did and he says, "That sounds like shit, turn it up!" :erk: So now I have the bottom snare mic louder than any other drum mic (with added distortion now) and the entire drum sound is god awful, just like they want it.:puke:

After about a week, they come back wanting to re-mix everything again! They told me they showed the songs to all of their best friends, and all of them said they didn't like their music because the drums sounded really bad. What a fucking surprise!:yell:
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I lost my cool when a singer did something similar (only with the vocals). What was weird/interesting was that seemed to be the only way to get through to him because he sucked at accepting the term "no."

Anyway, we did this 4 hour mix session, he says "yeah that sounds good." I give it to him, he sends me a message later saying that the vocals were to quiet (they were, uh duh) and I reply "why did you waste my time today telling me how to do my job only to go back on what you decided and have me bring up the vocals again?

Blah Blah, he apologized (which was another thing he did that pissed me off, he was an annoying cunt, knew he was annoying, apologized for it, and continued to be an annoying cunt).

I basically said absolutely never again would I let anyone sit in on a mix unless it's "we want a swell here, or an obvious delay effect here" type of deal.

He was also good at disregarding anything I had to say such as:

"If we dime the gain on this amp it will sound like fizz and the guitars will sound muddy in your song."
(so we start with gain at 11 o clock)
"that's not enough distortion."
"ok"
(turn it up to 2 o clock)
"I still need more distortion"
"Again, if I dime the distortion it will sound like shit later"
"that's ok, that's how I like it man"
(2 weeks elapse)
"ok so here is your song"
"Why do the guitars sound so fuzzy?"

Seriously 19 year old know it alls can fuck right the hell off.
 
These stories make me thankful that I was never this way when I was younger, recording in studios. If we sat in on a mix, it was me and my other guitarist only - just to be a second and third pair of ears, if the mix engineer needed opinions on something he did, and to actively listen to see if there were any editting mistakes, etc.
 
I really dislike mixing when bands are around. They want instant results and aren't prepared to sit there while you go through different sounds and try different settings. Can't count the number of times I've been setting something up like a sample replacement plug and obviously it takes tweaking to get it to trigger right. Bands are always " What the hell was that, we don't want that at all!". Similar story with anything that makes something louder. If I through a comp that has some make-up gain on it already they go " ya that sounds better ya!" No it doesn't the comps not doing anything except making it louder and now the tracks clipping!
They also have to have an opinion on everything. I did a mix for band and they kept asking for more bass- I said I thought it was a bit on the bass heavy side as it was but they kept saying it so I gave em what they asked for. Get a call off them then saying the mastering guy asked for a mix with less bass!
 
I did a free mix for someone some time ago. It was one of the best mixes I'd ever done because I did it over the internet and had an unlimited amount of time to mix it. The guy sent me DI's (which he edited himself and did a bang-up job, I might add), and drum midi. I proceeded to mix the song, sending it to him from time to time to show progress and he'd tell me what he wanted me to do with certain effects and what not. Good deal.


2 months later, the guy messaged me and told me that he wanted a full re-mix because the guitars were a little too loud. I said "Fine, but this one I'm going to have to charge for." He refused to pay, then posted on his music Myspace that I was a cheating bastard and to never use me for my mixing services. I sued him for slander, and won.


I don't know who shoved that steel I-beam up his ass, but I haven't talked to him since, and he posted a proper apology on his Myspace.


I'm never going to do an e-mix again unless it's one of the practice threads on here, or the client is paying. Free reamps, maybe, but not free mixes.
 
Jordon said:
I had a somewhat similar situation about a month ago. This band had tracked on and off at our studio for the past year. I was brought in to only mix and master the 7 songs, and I wasn't getting paid much because they were flat broke, and we basically just wanted them out of the studio.

They're a black/death metal band, but they're pretty generic. They had recorded all of their guitars by playing the riff and copying and pasting it. My boss was the engineer on the album, and he said that they were demanding to work a certain way, spouting things about having "20 years experience recording in studios."

The drums were programmed, and the brass was played over the top of it. They didn't want the brass edited. They wanted it "natural," meaning it was off time with the programmed drums.

That's just the tip of the iceberg with these guys. So I was brought in to replace the DFH tracks with samples, stack the kit and mix the songs. I proceed to do this over the course of a few days while they aren't at the studio so I could get my work done without being interrupted every 5 minutes. They come in at the end of the week for a day of going through the songs and tweaking them. They had told me that the mixes were 90% there, they just needed some tweaks. After we get done, they're super happy. They had been worried about consistency from one song to the next, and they sounded great. They pay me for the mixing and pay me upfront for the mastering.

Over the next week, I try to master the tracks, but they call me 15-20 times a day with other tweaks. They would say things like "I listened to the songs at a 'flat response' through my computer, and they sound different then in my car or from how they did at the studio." I tell them that things are going to sound slightly different through different sources. They don't believe that, saying that it should never be that way. They say shit like "the guitars are too thin, they need a lot more treble." I shit you not. And the guitars were FAR from thin. They say the snare sounds too mechanical...I tell them the drums were programmed, reminding them that it was their choice to do that from the start. I could do nothing about it, since I was only brought in to mix and master, not re-program their drums. I tell them things will be done that following Tuesday. They show up to the studio Monday, unannounced and uninvited, just walking in on the middle of another client's session. They tell me to stop work, demand their money back for the mastering and want their sessions. I tell them go get an external hard drive, they aren't getting their money back because I put nearly 40 hours (yes, really) into what was supposed to just be a mastering session and that they already signed the invoice. I give them their sessions, then they ask me to LIE to their label, coming up with some bullshit about why it isn't done. Then they try to guilt trip me.

I told them to leave, and told them to take my name, the name of the studio and any reference to us off of the material if it ever gets release.

That's the basic version of the story, and I know it's long...You can just imagine what the other 75% of the bullshit was like.
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OMG what a nightmare!

The guys in my own band are guilty of some of the things you guys have mentioned. It is annoying as hell. One good reason why you shouldnt record your own band.
 
Such idiots are totally unmusical dorks who just want to pose as someone having a clue or two, not knowing (in their absolute ignorance) that they make themselves as twice as stupid as they are actually.
If you already went through all the hell of endless recording, editing and vocal tuning it's best to listen to their demands, make a barely noticeable change and I'd bet my whole equipment that 90% of those know-it-alls would immediatelly go like "yeah, that's what I've been wanting to hear!" :lol:

I recorded two bands whose singers were awfully out of tune and one of those bands even had a solo guitarist who obviously thinks high of himself, but manages to play out of key regularly, of course... :D
 
DanLights said:
I thoroughly enjoyed this thread, more stories please
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I recorded a terrible band who wanted to mix the 2 tracks themselves. Fine by me, they stated from the word go that they wanted to mix it themselves.
So we were coming close to the end tracking so I started playing around with it during quiet time between doing guits and vocals, just to see how it would take to mixing and to see how it was coming along. I replaced the kick and blended a sample with the snare, eq'd/comped/ used verb... etc but just threw it together in about 10 minutes as the guys were getting ready.

So when it came for me to export the files the band striaght out asked me for the "mixed" individual files rather than the raw ones. Even wanted me to give them the sampled kick rather than the miced track. No thanks, if they wanted me to mix it and credit themselves for "mixing" just by setting the levels once they get it into a daw they were mistaken. Sure enough the end product was literally just the levels set differently of the raw tracks, practically no work done in post what so ever.
 
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