Don't ever engineer for your own band.

[Empathy]

This is the sort of shit I have to deal with;

Back story as brief as possible:

I am engineering, mixing, mastering and producing my current band's EP for free, at no cost to myself or the band.

Mid-way through vocal recordings, the vocalist decided that he did not think the results we were getting through a vintage TLA console were worth his time or effort, and decided that he wanted to track the rest of his vocals at home, through his setup. His 'setup' is an M-Audio FastTrack USB and an SM58 in his bedroom. I took this as a colossal insult to everything I stand for, spent about 24 hours trying to calm myself down before responding with a resounding "LOL NO" (more or less).

Long story short, after about three days of me trying to explain to the other 5 band members that no, it was NOT a good idea for our vocalist to record his parts in a place where he could "get a better vibe in the recordings" instead of driving to a high quality studio every monday night and using it FOR FREE, they still insisted that their option was better. The above is PART of the SHEER STUPIDITY I've been reading on facebook between them as they discuss how 'brutal' and 'epic' his recordings sound - never mind lifeless, stale, weak, flat, sloppy and SHIT.

My biggest issue with this? I refuse to release an EP with my name credited for engineering where the vocals sound so incredibly fucking abysmal after I've put in so much effort on every other part of it. They've already put two of the tracks with the studio-recorded vocals (unfinished mixes to boot) up on YouTube after I sent them to them as a sample.

/endrage

[avatar very much related to this post]

 

[joelplagues]

Shitty situation you are in but as for "Don't ever engineer for your own band" I wouldn't go that extreme. your situation is that your members disagree GREATLY. This is more of a people problem than anything and if you guys don't agree on this well I don't want to know how the rest of the band dynamic is most the time.

Engineering my band and mixing is great. as mentioned it costs a shitload lest but ultimately what I say goes. They trust me with it all and understand that I know my shit to an extent.

 

[Empathy]

Haha you are right man, there's plenty of bands out there that do their own engineering in house, but crhist it does NOT WORK in mine. Trying to put your foot down when there's 5 other egos as big as saturn arguing that because they know a guy that does live sound they are appendices on the mixing and engineering themselves. FUCK.

 

[RedDog]

Love engineering my own stuff. Only when I have the time to be serious though.

Naturally I'm the iron-fisted decision maker with the creative mind and alcohol problem. I'm the weakest and strongest link at once. If I didn't have control over tracking, I know I'd have killed my bassist by now. He makes beats in FL studio and sends them to me. I try and enjoy my craft.

Otherwise I make stuff like this in my bedroom http://dl.dropbox.com/u/35204107/Raining Porcelain DEMO four.mp3

 

[jarenare]

I had produced/recorded/mixed/mastered our band album, and went very well, mainly because I have all the control over the process, and the band had to do everything I say on the recording, and in my way.

One thing that I learned in the process of recording our first EP, is only send sample songs when they are almost finished. If not, they will start complaining about lots of things that aren't finished, and I am aware that they have to be fixed.

 

[Empathy]

Well, here's one of those mixes they uploaded with the studio-recorded vocals. I have no idea if you'd consider them to be any good in the first place, but christ the ones they are doing now are just BAD.

 

[tempe]

If you need some help yelling at them, I'm good at that!

 

[TheDriller]

Well, here's one of those mixes they uploaded with the studio-recorded vocals. I have no idea if you'd consider them to be any good in the first place, but christ the ones they are doing now are just BAD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufi8JzBbSDw

Wow,
That's pretty damn good.