Could be the worst project you ever done??

[doclegion]

Lets say a band heard your work and liked it, called you up and said hey " your shit is bad ass and we want you to record our CD" WELLP
I mean you had good intentions, but the band couldnt click track, the guitar players werent that tight and the singer expects you to make him sound like fuckin Phil anselmo!!
you do everything you needed to but at the end it just wasn't manageable so you hand them the CD and they go WTF?? Why dont this sound like that other shit you did??

And you say??

If this happened to you would you recommend a demo before you record a band next time??
No this didn't happen to me
im asking so i have an answer in case it does
Otherwise i would say EH you guys kinda suck hahahahaha

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

For some reason, the bands I record that suck know they suck. So when I hand them the final polished turd they walk away happy.

At least that's how it's been so far. No problem providing a reality check if the above scenario did happen though.

 

[AStacy2]

Just be honest with them every step of the way. If the drums/guitars/bass/vocals aren't as good performance wise as you'd like just tell them that they need to be better or there will be substantial loss of quality in the final product. If the actual insturments themselves are of poor quality or the band didn't use new strings or drum heads let them know that if they don't there will be a substantial loss of quality as well. Then at the end you can just say "Yeah, I know it doesn't sound as good, but I told you every time I thought we were going to make a mistake and because of either budget restrictions/time restrictions/ect... this isn't as good as it could have been."

 

[AudioGeekZine]

depends on if they're paying you to produce or not. As a producer, ALWAYS do a pre-production demo. Don't get into a serious recording situation until the band is ready.
As an engineer, keep them doing takes until it's right.


Bands have no idea how shitty they really sound.



I can show you my first paid recording gig, it's pretty fucking hilarious.

 

[RyanUsesThis]

I'm working with a band right now (friend's band which makes it harder to tell them off.) who's drummer was physically incapable of playing to a click. The guitarist was at the drum sessions to ensure that the tempos were all manageable...

I spent 2 straight weeks editing drums and when it came time to track guitars we got through 8 hours of tracking before the guitarist said he wanted to scrap everything cause the tempos were to far off and start over...

He wanted to re-record drums... 8 songs of 200BPM+ blast beats, and a dozen tempo changes per song...

...

I only do this in my spare time, so I'm not sure how you'd deal with this in a professional studio... the #1 virtue of a recording engineer has to be patience, but you need to know when to call BS, and put people in their place.

I really like the guys I'm working with, but I had to tell them tough shit... you either record to the drums we have, or you pay me to sequence the drums. I'm not sitting through another 12 hour session of drum recording when the drummer isn't able to record to a click...


This was a decent size rant.. but hopefully I got my point across

 

[PhilR]

We've just recorded a grunge band with a rhythm section from hell. Drummer that couldn't play four to the floor in any kind of time, bassist who had never changed his strings EVER. Just mix it to a wall of sound and let go of it, they probably sound like that at every practice anyway. They walk away happy.

Don't take things too personal. Bands that can't even hear when their own members can barely play are in no position to judge jack shit.

 

[nwright]

I think I'm like GuitarGod, most of the bands that are rough know they are rough. Also, any clients I've got purely off the sound of my own band's CD's I tell them that it was the result of much more tracking and mixing time than they could probably afford. Also, I'm upfront when people ask about "how good can we sound?" I tell them that if their drummer can't play to a click, they have cheap or crap sounding gear, and members that can't generally play in time, in tune, or even play their parts, it's not going to sound as good as it can.

I then offer them to record at an hourly rate (yeah, yeah, I charge per project) and tell them how much per hour and an estimate of what I'd think it'd take to get it sounding as best it can.

After that, most let it slide

 

[GarethSE]

any time ive mixed a track for someone whos playing/track sucks ive had no problem telling them so
me and any clients get along fine, always

 

[LydonB]

I think part of being an engineer/producer is being able to turn lemons into lemonade. I think the key is to be honest, but to make sure you are not being an asshat in the process. The band needs to understand that constructive criticism is meant to help them out and not hurt them. Some people may get upset at the truth, but if they are serious, I would think in the end they are more motivated and work hard to achieve a good result.

 

[GarethSE]

i must be very lucky then, because im a total dick to most of the people i mix tracks for, but ive never had a problem haha

 

[Erlend_]

I was helping out some friends the other day with drum recording.
I had more of a producer role this time.

This drummer is just beyond horrible. He is really a one-trick pony and he can only
play in a certain tempo (around 150bpm to be exact ).
So normally you would just get a new drummer right?
Well there is a problem. He isnt your average drummer who does nothing but
think he is god behind the drumkit and spends all his spare time drinking beer.
He works his ass off for the band on the promotional side. He got them a deal with a record label,
he gets them live gigs and has posters made ++. Basically he does all that kind of stuff.
So naturally they feel bad about kicking him out of the band and they cannot seem to work
up the nerve to do it (he is also good friends with them).

For one chorus there was some cymbal hits that didnt land on the first beat. To everyone in the studio
it felt like a very natural thing but he couldnt understand any of it and we had to record the beat first
and then the cymbal hits afterwards. We had to conduct him like an orchestra for him to get them right!

Sad thing is that everyone that hears the drums think they suck. Except the drummer of course.
He cant stop talking about how incredible he thinks they are

Since they didnt have the heart to fire the guy they cooked up a story about how it was best to record the bass, guitars and vocals
first to programmed drums and then record real drums afterwards. Their hope is to convince him that the programmed drums will be
better in the end

 

[John_C]

If the singer wants to sound like phil anselmo and isn't pretty damn close already, the only answer is "sorry, i can't do that for you and nor can anyone else"

 

[if6was9]

The worst band I've recorded so far were delighted with the end result. I didn't edit much since they tracked all the drums, bass and rhythm guitars live and then we over dubbed more guitars and vocals. We spent 7 hours including gear set up, take down and tracking to do 6 songs minus vocals which we did a later date. drummer was horrible, one of the guitarists was shocking- playing completely different things to the main guy without even realising it and insisted on using his marshall MG head instead of one of mine!
They were so happy with how it sounded they're coming back!

 

[::XeS::]

It happened to me in my last work. The singer didn't like how the vocals comes out and he said me that I have to "level" more the vocals to make it sounds more compact. The fact is that he sang like shit during the recording but he wanted I used many plugins. And he also said the problem is my michropone because it keep too many frequencies than the (shitty) live michropone
I didn't change nothing and they posted it on their myspace the same (and the respones were very good).
The next months I have to record their full lenght but the guitarist said me the singer wanna go in another studio to record the vocals (he doesn't know which one.....the important thing is that it have to be another studio )
Patethic....it should be way better if they admit the they suck, and try to improve....he has 19 years...wtf, you have to learn!

 

[Morgan C]

IAnd he also said the problem is my michropone because it keep too many frequencies than the (shitty) live michropone

Hah.. I've had a singer who swallowed her words 'mm' instead of 'I'm', 'uff' instead of 'of'.. she also blamed it on the microphone.

Damn microphones, screwing perfect takes up! ><