Coaching musicians to not suck

[Executioner213]

I'm going through this right now...trying to get my drummer prepared to record to a click and he's avoiding it like the plague. He's just afraid to try something new, regardless of how much I tell him that if we were in a big studio he'd have to use it there too. Fucker is gonna do it though, I'm not about to be ok with editing his drums for a month because he didn't want to play to a click.

 

[@tombomb]

the fricktard of a guitarist is going to take some serious work though. he couldn't even play to a click. I can kind of understand a drummer having a hard time with a click

Because A Drummer and a guitarist that suck don't deserve to be in a band together. That's almost HALF THE BAND!!!

EDIT: If they can't play to a click, imagine how they would sound live. You should tell them to get better at playing their own instruments or they face being booed off stage playing live. Even the standards for live playing are pretty high compared in the garage. Usually my stance is, if you can't play steadily to a click at 140bpm, you shouldn't play at all. And 140 is slow. I mean if they suck that bad you should just use a drum engine, play their guitar parts and make them pay extra for the recording their whole album by yourself.

 

[ForefrontStudio]

Make sure you have a wound third for drop c. Or you'll have terrible sounding octaves, root fifth + octave fifth chords, and leads

I'll keep that in mind. I have run into some tuning issues in the past, but only in certain spots. normally I'll just tune the string to be in tune on the fretted note and just punch in as needed. using a wound 3rd string never crossed my mind though. just out of curiosity, what gauges do you normally use? My band plays in C and I use EB 10-52 (skinny top, heavy bottom). I'm normally very aggressive on the lower strings, and softer on the top end.

 

[joeymusicguy]

there's no way to do it.

if they suck, they suck.

 

[muckypup1]

When I have my guitar in standard tuning, I have 52-10 strings, when I go any lower, I like to have 58-13's! My playing still is very aggressive, I pick very hard when i'm doing heavy palm muting ala Hatebreed, Meshuggah. I have been practising at picking less hard though recently, because I was wearing my picks down. Now I still play aggressive but have calmed down

A drummer that is going out of time is fucking awful, the main foundation of the song is the drums, it keeps everything together, so this drummer better get his shit together! But, the drums going out slightly is still more acceptable than the guitarist doing, because when the drums do it slightly, everything does it slightly to keep in the groove with them, but if the guitarist is going of time, the mix will surely sound like shit.

 

[ForefrontStudio]

When I have my guitar in standard tuning, I have 52-10 strings, when I go any lower, I like to have 58-13's! My playing still is very aggressive, I pick very hard when i'm doing heavy palm muting ala Hatebreed, Meshuggah. I have been practising at picking less hard though recently, because I was wearing my picks down. Now I still play aggressive but have calmed down

A drummer that is going out of time is fucking awful, the main foundation of the song is the drums, it keeps everything together, so this drummer better get his shit together! But, the drums going out slightly is still more acceptable than the guitarist doing, because when the drums do it slightly, everything does it slightly to keep in the groove with them, but if the guitarist is going of time, the mix will surely sound like shit.

I just bought a set of EB strings that are 14-58 with a wound 3rd string. I bought them planning to tune to B with them, but maybe they'll be perfect for recording in C as well. I will soon find out. I play in standard tuning with 10-52's all the time too. I think if I were to ONLY play in C, I'd go as heavy as my sperzels could fit

the drums will be fine after I'm done quantizing them. hopefully that will help the guitarist when he goes to record. maybe he'll be better at playing with tempo perfect drums than he was with a click track. maybe he'll feel more "at home" with a perfect drum track instead of beeping, and fit right into "the groove". we'll see. I'll post a before and after track on this thread when I'm finished with the songs. The band is scheduled to come back Dec. 19th