Recalls with outboard- solutions?

[if6was9]

I've been delving more and more into the realm of outboard recently and one of those nightmare scenarios is happening. I used a couple of outboard compressors on a mix, had the band come in and we finished it. I bounced out a mix for them to use and another in 24bit with no master chain incase they wanted to get it mastered elsewhere.

Couple of weeks later and they want to make some changes, and I have no idea what settings I used on the compressors. They are adamant about making some minor volume changes and I'm pretty worried that I'm gonna end up changing the sound alot in the process of re setting up the outboard.

So what do you guys do to get around this? Pictures? Sheets for drawing in the settings? I suppose I could print everything but if you're doing full albums is this not a hugely time consuming process since it HAS to be done in realtime.

I think in future I'm going to let bands know how much trouble a recall for some minor changes is going to be. I plan on using even more outboard in future mixes and can only imagine that it's impossible to get things exactly the same once a session is finished.

 

[crillemannen]

I take pictures and save them in the session folder. If i had tons of outbord then i would probably give the band a deadline where they could make changes, say a week or so then I would simply deny them the chance to make changes.

 

[exoslime]

first i started with sheets, but it ended up with a mess of sheets flying all around and then if someday you will look after on, perhaps you will never find it again
so now i write all settings into textfiles and save them in the project folder, or keep them as tracknotes in the DAW.
once you have written your "template", its just a matter of seconds to change the values in it and save it into the project folder, and then you will always know which and what you have used

 

[mva801]

Also if you're using outboard, it's a good idea to print stems if you've got the time. Then coming back and doing minor volume changes will be very simple (as long as it's a whole stem that needs changing).

Printing stems has saved me more than once from having to re-set a 40 channel board with eq's, reverb sends, and 15 compressors....

 

[Mikaël-ange]

Pics, recall sheet and PT comment section on corresponding track work great for me.

 

[ForHerDeadEyes]

I was bored and decided to make templates for my outboard stuff, not all of it though, in paint..
So.. really simple.. no fancy stuff..
It's easy to just save a template in the folder you're working in..

 

[colonel kurtz]

cell phone pics!

can't even count how many pics of amp knobs occupy my phone...

 

[amarshism]

^this must be true of so many engineers. I know mine is full of mic placements and outboard settings.

 

[RedDog]

^God bless, I thought I was a complete nutcase for doing this.

 

[Trevoire520]

Personally I always print my outboard onto seperate tracks before the final mix.

 

[RedDog]

In all honesty, A few pics and detailed notes in the project folder are always a great reminder even for posterity alone, but sometimes you just have a breakthrough and the documentation is warranted.