Dealing with difficult clients

[coldthrn]

What do you do when you have spent many late nights and fussing over mixes, burned countless cd's for listening sessions in different environments, think you have something that is tastefully done, then you present it to the client and they say "I cant hear (fill in the instrument) ?

I guess its my fault for not having the clients around to listen to the mix and get their input and explain why I made certain decisions to leave some things out and bring them in later in the song for dynamics. However, they are paying clients and if they want a certain instrument more prominent, do I oblige or stay firm? Even if it compromises the mix and reflects on me?

Everyone in the band has an idea of what they want to hear. For a better analogy, Its like making an extravagant meal using exotic spices, weeks in the kitchen and thousands of dollars of expensive cooking equipment. You present the course but one guy wants to add pepper to it the other wants more salt and and all of them have romin noodle diet. This is ok for that one person however with music the change would have to made to the "entire dish" and these guys are not the only ones "eating" it. It is everyone.

I just have to vent this out, I'm sure this has happened to all of us. Ill know better next time to have everyone in the room agree on a mix before I master the songs... lesson learned.

 

[LydonB]

Maybe they should be there during the mixing process and you can explain why you did things. And hopefully you can demonstrate why something may sound bad. Hopefully they will take your advice after you show them that what they want may potentially sound like utter crap.

 

[Sloan]

Get paid and then if they're not happy with it, tell them to take their raw tracks to someone else and quit wasting your time?

 

[abyssofdreams]

Get paid and then if they're not happy with it, tell them to take their raw tracks to someone else and quit wasting your time?

+1

 

[The spark]

You could ask them to appoint a single member of the band as a representative. One voice for the band instead of 3/4/5/whatever. That way they can hash it out amongst themselves who gets to be the loudest.

 

[Black neon bob]

In the beginning i ask every member for their input on a early pre-mix.. after that i invite 1-2 members while im in the mixing process, so that there will be no suprises at the end of the process, and if you are emailing and stuff, try to get every conversation through the entire band, otherwise the drummer will need his snare and kick to be loud as fuck, the guitarist thinks his solos are too soft, and the drums are too loud, then the singer emails you that his voice is too low in the mix while the drummer is on the phone wanting the vocals too be softer in the mix and asking why his drums are too low in volume again... lol.

I have had almost nothing but great experiences though, be lenient at all times but do not let separate members do the talking is my tip for today... haha.

 

[greyskull]

best way i find, is to kick the band out while you are actually mixing, and then invite them in once you have already bounced all the tracks down, and play the songs back, and see what they say.

Having the band over your shoulder when mixing is fucking annoying

 

[everybody's x]

first establish that they are working with you because they like your mix decisions, then tell them to leave you the fuck alone and let you do your thing. Burn mixes for everybody, get their feedback, adjust accordingly. I will do up to three mixes total and then you are welcome to take your hard drive somewhere else. Or pay me extra

 

[broken81]

Having the band over your shoulder when mixing is fucking annoying

Yes it is...

Ive tried to mix with a band here and the problem was my room is smaller and the sound varies when you move around. So basically i spent all this time doing a mix to there standards, then they leave and play in there car and hate it and I end up redoing everything again. Big waste of fucking time! So To me It's much easier to just send the band mixes when i get were I'm happy first.

 

[punkrockacademyfightsong]

You could ask them to appoint a single member of the band as a representative. One voice for the band instead of 3/4/5/whatever. That way they can hash it out amongst themselves who gets to be the loudest.

+1 on that!

I always tell them to listen to my mixes and discuss their opinions with each other before coming back to me with comments. saves a lot of discussions if the band has them without you being involved. so if everybody's made up their mind what needs to be changed I'm changing it (and even then you sometimes need to compromise between your opinion and the opinion the band has formed)

 

[colonel kurtz]

Maybe they should be there during the mixing process

NO.

 

[LydonB]

NO.

 

[006]

I'm with kurtz. So far it's been nothing but a pain in the ass every time everyone is involved with the mix process. And being in different areas of the room and not understanding how the acoustics in a square room work without traps...they can't give appropriate feedback, but if you try to explain any of that they argue with you. At which point I feel like saying "oh, well since you know so fucking much, why did you come to me?"...

~006

 

[colonel kurtz]

i'm just saying...that shit always ends up being more of a hassle than it's worth

of course it's one thing to get input from them, but in my experience, having all of them there during mixing just isn't worth it

 

[LydonB]

I can see it being a pain in the ass to have everyone in the room at once. When I first made that suggestion, I never really thought of how annoying that would be to have a bunch of guys in a small space. But I think having one of them would be a good thing if they weren't an annoying jackass.

 

[colonel kurtz]

yea...i don't mind having one person there to sound off here and there, but yea...when you have 4-5 guys all demanding their shit to be turned up louder, you end up with something like death magnetic

 

[LydonB]

yea...i don't mind having one person there to sound off here and there, but yea...when you have 4-5 guys all demanding their shit to be turned up louder, you end up with something like death magnetic

rofl. At least we know Lars would like that sound.

 

[coldthrn]

Thanks for the input guys, I can only imagine what working with a label would be like. At that point you are forced to do whatever the fuck they say. And yes you do end up with death magnetic or bass drops everywhere. ugggg.

 

[seditz740novaprospect]

i try to mix by myself unless its deemed mandatory for someone to be there though the process.. i always have problems with clients being in the room and making suggestions on the mix when they can clearly here in working on a completely different element of the mix like the snare needs to come up when i haven't made it past the kick yet....... annoying and sets things back to explain what i am doing..ideally i like to have a good balance and basic levels set, as well as comp/eq and all my edits finished before the band is in the room... most of the time i see one of 2 members paying attention but the other 3 or 4 talking to each other or playing air band to the music then making me play things back 8 times...............uggggggggggggggg

 

[greyskull]

if they are in ther.. i shout..
A lot
SHUT THE FUCK UP