Compendium of ways to deal with certain studio situations!

[GarethSE]

So I figured it's about high time that we added to the collection of vst amp sims, drum processing, vocal processing, cab micing and everything else tutorials.

So I had an idea earlier while dealing with some shit from a client that maybe a topic where we all post a situation and a good way of dealing with it to get added to a bigass compendium of sorts.

This could be really useful to all of us, etiquette in dealing with clients and the situations that arise from... Ahem... "Working" with them isn't something you can learn in a big book written by Bob Katz with lots of neat little diagrams and numbers and paragraphs about pushing shiny red buttons. It's something that you have to usually learn through a lot of time and effort. Sure that applies to everything else audio, but learning how to deal with clients early on will clearly save you a ton of problems and make your time as an audio engineer that much less of a hassle, enabling you to spend more time engineering and less time arguing with musicians.

Format:

[Situation]
[Solution]
[Hard and fast rule]

So here's a nice simple one to get us started:
[Situation]
Band wants you to do about 20 mix revisions (Which you for some reason are not getting paid for,) you do 3 and realise you're going in circles.
[Solution]
Tell them if they want more mix revisions, you want more money. They will, 9 times out of 10, back off.
[Simple Rule]
Clients don't seem to like paying more than they have to.


Now you <3

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Great thread!

[Situation]
The band demands absolutely no sample replacement on the drums whatsoever, but you know it would help in the situation.
[Solution]
Explain them that you know perfectly how they feel, but offer to do them a quick clip with and without sample replacement. Do it with style, don't try to make it sound robotic but to complement the mix. If it does sound better, the band will most probably agree.
[Simple Rule]
Bands often have an idea of how they want things to be done, but they might not know how the end result will sound like. In the end, they want their music to sound good, and it's your job to know how to do it.

 

[shred101]

Situation: One of your clients/band members is trying to advise you on how much low end/mid range you need in your guitar tone and says something different each time he hears the same mix/tone.

Solution: Make some radical looking adjustments on a totally empty channel and ask him "if thats better". He will say "Yes that is better". Inform him that no changes have taken place (true story). He will have learned something.

Simple Rule: Many people dont understand things like ear fatigue, subjectiveness, the fact that some thigns that sound great in a mix sound shit solo'd, mix positions, etc, etc. If they are your client then attempt to work around them/with them. If they are a band member then either politely edu-macate them or don't mix around them.

 

[Morgan C]

Great thread!

[Situation]
The band demands absolutely no sample replacement on the drums whatsoever, but you know it would help in the situation.
[Solution]
Explain them that you know perfectly how they feel, but offer to do them a quick clip with and without sample replacement. Do it with style, don't try to make it sound robotic but to complement the mix. If it does sound better, the band will most probably agree.
[Simple Rule]
Bands often have an idea of how they want things to be done, but they might not know how the end result will sound like. In the end, they want their music to sound good, and it's your job to know how to do it.

Either this or ask them for some reference drum sounds. Then explain that they are completely sample replaced.

 

[Line666]

Now you <3

[Situation]
College lecturers want a ten minute video presentation on what you haven't learnt on their course.
[Solution]
Bullshit of maximum viscosity.
[Simple Rule]
Big Words > Dumb Scotsmen

 

[shred101]

 

[Ermz]

[Situation]
The band, or a certain member are intent on doing things a certain way, despite your outright protest and inherent feeling that it won't work as well as what you propose.

[Solution]
Show physical proof. If you are dealing with poor DI tracks and advocating a re-track, simply track the parts yourself and let them hear the song. If you are dealing with a 'I want to use MY amp for MY sound' member, give them a blind A/B of a few different amps. Chances are, if you know what you're talking about, they'll pick yours and the matter will be settled.

[Hard and fast rule]
Band members need to be proven wrong, objectively. The world they live in is entirely subjective and many get so caught up in their own personal experiences that their opinions become like gospel to them. Reality will always be your bitch, so use it.

 

[Brady k]

Situation: One of your clients/band members is trying to advise you on how much low end/mid range you need in your guitar tone and says something different each time he hears the same mix/tone.

Solution: Make some radical looking adjustments on a totally empty channel and ask him "if thats better". He will say "Yes that is better". Inform him that no changes have taken place (true story). He will have learned something.

haha
i like this !!

+1

 

[ahjteam]

[Situation]
Any of the members says 'we can fix it in the mix' or something along those lines.

[Solution]
Emphasize that they most likely won't fix it in the mix, but you will. After that ask them would they rather get a 1 hour bill to fix it naturally with new takes now, or would they rather want a 10 hour bill so you can "fix it in the mix" with most likely worse end results?

[Hard and fast rule]
Work on hourly salary.

 

[SkybluestudiosBEN]

[Situation]
A band claims they will pay you after the session. Only to find out that they decide to wait until they have the money and then lag for a couple weeks

[Solution]
Hold something in collateral that they need! I actually kept this bands drum set in collateral for about 2 months! They eventually paid up.

[Hard fast rule]
NEVER EVER let a band get away with paying at end of session. I now always require a half up front deposit to hold dates and then I make them pay in full first day of session. Seems to work best.

 

[shred101]

bump

 

[Djabthrash]

cool thread

 

[GarethSE]

 

[dcb]

[Situation]
guitarist plays pinch harmonics (without actually knowing how to do it properly), generating inconsist sound because of 4 differently quad tracked phs.
you tell him to not play em, because it sounds ass. but he insists on using them anyway.

[Solution]
always have a huge library of pinch harmonics on your harddrive or better be a guitarplayer yourself and
retrack them when the band has left. Dont ever tell them you did, they will never notice. if someone says : this sounds great,
but didnt i play that one dfferently. you say : no. its exactly what we recorded. i only added reverb haha.

[Hard fast rule]
DONT EVER DISCUSS WITH GUITARPLAYERS WHILE TRACKING. let them have their ego and replace em in the end with without saying a word.
they will feel like stars, and happily comeagain next time.

this whole scenario brings me to a second situation :

[Situation]
band wants a rough mix after tracking. (Problem : if you hand out rough mixes, band will get used to the rough mix,
forcing you to do unecessary changes to the mix in the end. bands get used to the roughmixes and will say : ahm, can we have the guitars like you had them in the rough mix, they sounded great...)

[Solution]
Tell the band you will email them the rough mix. then forget... and forget ... and forget... send them links that dont work, haha. whatever.
just dont ever hand out rough mixes, this will always get you into trouble, believe me ;-)

[Hard fast rule]
Never ever hand out rough mixes. pleasedo your self a favor and dont. best way to deal with this : i tell clients directly that i dont hand out rough mixes,
because thats how i do it. if you dont wanna dissapoint them , do the above... but i prefer telling them from the start : NO ROUGHMIXES..

 

[MetalSound]

[Situation]
A band claims they will pay you after the session. Only to find out that they decide to wait until they have the money and then lag for a couple weeks

[Solution]
Hold something in collateral that they need! I actually kept this bands drum set in collateral for about 2 months! They eventually paid up.

[Hard fast rule]
NEVER EVER let a band get away with paying at end of session. I now always require a half up front deposit to hold dates and then I make them pay in full first day of session. Seems to work best.

[Solution2]
Tell them that you will delete the files one after the other if the money isn´t there.

 

[jipchen]

NO ROUGHMIXES..

So true

 

[drew_drummer]

[Hard and fast rule]
Band members need to be proven wrong, objectively. The world they live in is entirely subjective and many get so caught up in their own personal experiences that their opinions become like gospel to them. Reality will always be your bitch, so use it.

Just being in a band I can say this is truth.

 

[Mago]

NO ROUGHMIXES..

Hell yeah...you get used to how certain things sound VERY easily...

 

[greyskull]

No rough mixes.
Ever
No money=no cd.

 

[ronnan]

No rough mixes.
Ever
No money=no cd.

Massive +1,
got stung with the 'rough mix sounds better' a couple of times..pain in the ass..

Great thread