Bands not prepared in the studio

[if6was9]

Most of the time bands have their shit together but the band I've been recording for the last week haven't even finished their songs yet- spent the whole day recording the singer trying rough vocals, he wants to get his ideas down and then write the lyrics and then record the proper vocals. literally been doing this ALL day and we're drawing blanks on it.
Is this common ?
How do you guys deal with this? I kinda want to tell him to go home and write it but we had a few days off where he was suppose to do it and didn't

 

[::XeS::]

They have to do it in the preproduction stage.
You have to ask them if they have all the songs finished. If they wanna finish the album in the recording process say them that they have to finish it before. Don't accept only because you need money.
Another possibility could be to let them finish the album during the recording process....but charge by hour!

 

[kramer1309]

hope you charge by hour

 

[Damian B]

yeah, if you are going to be a producer, charge by the hour!

 

[Styvo]

Sounds like a bitch.The situation i mean,
I've had this vocalist in over the last 2 weekends who just hasn't got his head screwed on.I've given him guide music tracks to take home and prepare himself vocally and well honestly he just isn't cutting it.It's an E.P I'm working on but i tell ya I'm going to need all the help Melodyne and Auto Tune can offer.
I know it's not always like this and I'm sure the same would apply in your situation,but I'm equally agitated as you are.
Lay down the law or charge by the hour.

 

[if6was9]

Nope not charging by the hour but I'm gonna pull a late one , i charge by the day and am usually generous with my time but only when they're prepared, i'm not gonna waste time if they didn't put in the effort

 

[crazykarl]

is the studio time contracted? if not, contract it with an hourly rate so at least you get something while they putz around. be careful though, you don't want to lose such a brilliant client..? or not

 

[musickey]

Track the instruments first, and as you complete a song, mix the ruff down and give it to the singer so he can write his shit, and then you can move on to the next song.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I can't fucking stand that shit.

God damn singers and their inability to have their shit together is just amazing.

It's about 80% of the time in my experience that the singer doesn't even show up with rough vocals.

 

[PhilR]

One of our most recent bands have a singer who openly admits he doesn't write any real lyrics until he goes into the studio. Live he just improvises and just goes with rhythmic patterns (they are a pretty heavy band so he gets away with a lot). On the weekend of their session he left one song completly undone because he didn't have anything for it.

It worked out better in the end though, they ended up booking another day and almost completely redid or added to the vocal parts and the end result was 100% improved.

Can't wait to put the tracks out there actually, they sound fucking brutal.

 

[::XeS::]

No problem with these situations....but I definitelly charge by hour the time I lost

 

[if6was9]

Track the instruments first, and as you complete a song, mix the ruff down and give it to the singer so he can write his shit, and then you can move on to the next song.

Ya see I already did this, plus they've been playing the songs live for over a year! The singer basically turned up and said, He'd no preparations for this song and just got pretty hammered and sat around all day trying the odd thing here and there for the tune. We eventually finished the song and by the end of a 12 hour day we'd tracked about 2 minutes of finished vocals.

 

[Via Noctis]

$$$

 

[lolzgreg]

No problem with these situations....but I definitelly charge by hour the time I lost

YES YES YES YES YESSSSSSSS!

 

[dcb]

One of our most recent bands have a singer who openly admits he doesn't write any real lyrics until he goes into the studio. Live he just improvises and just goes with rhythmic patterns (they are a pretty heavy band so he gets away with a lot).

is there any grindcore band outthere that actually DOES have real lyrics ?

 

[Djabthrash]

is there any grindcore band outthere that actually DOES have real lyrics ?

most of them actually...

A lot of Grindcore bands are into politics/social stuff lyrics-wise so they got lyrics and for some of them they put a lot of effort into it.

Napalm Death / Misery Index dude !

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

$$$ indeed

 

[Fox Mulder]

$$$$