Guitar players who can't play

[ermsyc]

(ADDED Full Song at bottom of post)
Two weeks ago I recorded possibly the worst band i've ever recorded. The vocalist was really good, the guitarists were beyond terrible. One of the guitarists brought in their shitty Digitech multieffects pedal and wanted me to use it for their guitar distortion, delays, and various effects. Had to argue with the guy for half an hour explaining its just gonna sound like shit and i could emulate all those effects much better with pod farm. Anyways the guitarists also can't play for shit. Had to rerecord alot of stuff myself after they left. Check out the solo for the song. The first version is the one they actually played, minus the fast part at the end. (had to resort to extreme editing for that) the fast part does not even fit well.
The 2nd version is the version i did.

The band prefers their version of course, even their "manager" (who's really just a kid from the same area they are) prefers it.


[SOUNDCLOUD]http://soundcloud.com/prismsaudio/crap-solo/s-gE8Qt[/SOUNDCLOUD]



[SOUNDCLOUD]http://soundcloud.com/prismsaudio/good-solo/s-7xP87[/SOUNDCLOUD]



[SOUNDCLOUD]http://soundcloud.com/prismsaudio/lights-off/s-rKrCG[/SOUNDCLOUD]

 

[thefalloftheheretic]

Is it bad that I think this is catchy as shit? :hotjump:

Anywho, yeah, your version is better.
Went through a similar thing with a band I once recorded and am recording again.
The guitarist and the bassist were not tight players at all.

 

[oroinvictus]

To be quite honest, I don't hear a lot of differences between the two versions...

 

[ermsyc]

theres not really meant to be that much of a difference. i didnt want to rewrite his solo, I just played it cleaner. You'll notice in the crappy version there's a few notes bent out of tune and notes cut a little short. The main difference is the ending of it. I'll post the full version of the song later. It is pretty catchy and i think its a good song

 

[Brandon E.]

Dude you punched in almost every single note, it sounds terrible

 

[Spite]

I would dare say, that the writing is worse than the execution. I got no response from that solo. Its just a series of notes to me. No emotion and lacks vibrato IMO.

 

[ermsyc]

which one are you talking about Brandon E?
I had to punch in every note lmao they couldnt play their own solo.
And i agree the solo does sound like just a series of notes. Unfortunately they are one of those bands that do NOT want any producing involved. ZERO input/advice from me.

 

[BushmasterM4]

If they are paying money for your services, then do what they want. Who care if the guy cant play. Its their dime.

 

[userchanged1]

thats true, but I can imagine as an audio engineer, it gives no staisfaction whatsoever to work with a band like that for weeks...
It's always nice if you can be proud of the result, no matter what the job pays.

 

[Clark Kent]

IMO both solos are very "I just learned to play guitar 3 months ago". On topic: I know many good guitarists that can play fast etc. but they just can't play tight. They don't mute the strings when it has to be silent etc. IMO that is the most irritating thing. That's why I've offered to play a few riffs for bands that couldn't do it themselves. I just keep getting the angry eye because "I'm trying to change their sound" but in all seriousness if there is a good tight riff in a song and it's being ruined by untight playing... I feel like it's my responsibility to fix it.

 

[Manicompression]

i wouldnt fret this man, its their record. The solo doesnt matter to the average listener, as long as the vocals and drums are good sounding and well executed than your good. You have to pick and choose your battles with these types of people. Also I would never blame an engineer for a shit solo. Both mixes sound ok, guitars could be a bit thicker.

 

[RichS]

In my opinion if a band cannot play their own riffs tight and correctly, they have no business recording anything.

 

[nezvers]

I think solo, guitar tightness, vocal note tightness will give listeners judgment upon themselves and no to engineer. Only thing for what engineer can get bash is for sound quality - mostly drums and guitar tone and mix overall.
So I wouldn't give a single f#$k.

 

[Dave1978]

If it bothers me too much I usually re-record sloppy guitar-tracks.

It's not always the case that guitarists can't play - sometimes even great guitar-players have there issues recording some tight rythm-tracks. That's something you learn over the years when you record yourslf a lot. I am far from being a good guitarist regarding technique myself, but I always can nail down a tight pair of doubletracked guitars if needed. But I wouldn't re-record a solo actually. I feel it's none of my business to touch this kind of stuff.

 

[ermsyc]

I posted the full song in the original post. Rhythm guitars in the beginning were played very badly so i faded the song in. The guitarists had never heard of intonation before. They brought in shitty epiphones and cheapy brands i had never even heard of. I tried to intonate them the best I could but the necks were all warped and shit Idk wtf was wrong with those guitars. Just comment on how you think the mix sounds. Still have 4 more songs of these guys to edit
Also how do vocals sound? Vocalist texted me today saying they would prefer to not have any layers at all since they cant duplicate that live..(wtf!) He doesnt understand that layers make the vocals sound thicker. So i guess i'll have to delete all the layers we did. And I won't have to worry about matching up layers for the rest of the songs. Fuck i shouldnt even bother tuning that shit, since they don't "sound tuned live". dumbasses

 

[Dave1978]

Then do it for the money the way they want you to do it or don't do it at all.

 

[Brandon E.]

I mean that I'm pretty sure that your "good solo" is literally programmed with prominy, or horrendously punched in/edited horribly, and anybody who can't hear that is deaf. And I'm not sure what you're trying to pull on this forum with that... By the way, there is this thing called vibrato...

And to clarify, I am not just trying to be a dick, I've edited enough guitars, and played guitar for a long enough time to be able to hear what it sounds like when a pickstroke has been deleted, and what is an actual natural performance on the instrument and what isn't... And there isn't too much wrong with doing punch ins and all that but when you make a thread about how you're a better guitar player than some band's, and his version actually sounds like a guy playing a guitar, and your's sounds like a robot because you played it one note at a time, or because you edited it into oblivion... There isn't much merit in your talking shit on bad guitarists.

 

[Morgorroth]

Wow, the singer is awesome! Still hate the song, though. Chorus is cool, rest is really really boring

 

[LeSedna]

Your version doesn't sound like a real solo, wether it is real or not