Recording TERRIBLE bands

[darthjujuu]

just to clarify, what i was saying is that is totally me too, and i feel your pain. i realized that could've been taken as me sarcastically making fun...haha. but no it's good too, i constantly have little kids throwing money at me so i can't complain. then i see these other studios charging $1300 an album that are GARBAGE in comparison to what we're doing and it makes my skin crawl. so whatever, whatever gets my name out there. i just like having a sick portfolio and charging WAY less than the dipshits that think cause they went to fullsail and have an LA610 that they're worth a shit.

 

[MEGA DAVE]

no offense taken jujuu, and yeah there may be tons of guys out there with degrees and what not but in this business we've all seen that it doesn't take a degree to become successful, look at some of the top producers out there who have never seen a day of schooling for their art. it's all about what you know and how you learn, and me personally i feel limited when some teacher is showing me the 'right way' to do things because when it comes down to it there's no real rules when it comes to recording, just general guidelines. Recording is an art, and one needs to find their niche in their work

 

[darthjujuu]

gahaha gareth i was with you for a minute based on the name "rose funeral" alone, i was envisioning the worst... deathcore with choir boy autotuned vox, but then i went to their page and the first thing i see is a giant inverted cross and the first two songs are "sodomizer" and "god demise". maybe give 'em a chance, ey?! haha

 

[MEGA DAVE]

gahaha gareth i was with you for a minute based on the name "rose funeral" alone, i was envisioning the worst... deathcore with choir boy autotuned vox, but then i went to their page and the first thing i see is a giant inverted cross and the first two songs are "sodomizer" and "god demise". maybe give 'em a chance, ey?! haha

hahaha

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I've yet to meet a single one that is good enough to play to a click and they all have these super huge ego's and refuse to let me program them.

I squash that shit real quick by showing them something I did that was 100% programmed drums.

I also reference Joey Sturgis.


Seriously though I have no idea if it's due to how I approach it or what, but I get my fucking way.

 

[MEGA DAVE]

haha yeah, I remedied the situation real fast and took some advice of charging by hour for real drums and a few opinions have changed really fast

 

[gabriel g.]

unfortunately we all gotta deal with terrible bands, especially in the beginning, but they'll keep popping up even when you start advancing in your career. The trick to rising above all the other home "studios" these days is turning out a product that kicks ass no matter who or how good the band is. It takes a lot of work sometimes, but that's part of the job. Just stick with it and don't settle for anything mediocre and you'll be charging double soon enough. It doesn't feel as bad when you're finally getting compensated fairly.
You need to build a consistent portfolio so that bands and labels feel they can trust you to give them a good final product regardless of what you're working with. Labels don't care if the guitarist sucks... make him sound good so they can make money!!

+1000000000
Great post!!!!

Its the engineers Job to do a good job and NOT to complain about how shitty the musicians are. In the end the CD with your name is the only thing that matters!!!!

UM-forum is the place were we can laugh about all the damn drummers

And Gareth:
Come on dude, you totaly act like a dick!!!
I think you are a nice kid but please dont play the BIG BOSS, it is just pathetic....

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

drum rack from bamboo and pvc pipe!

I would have laughed and said "get the fuck out with that shit!"


Anyhow, you in Rose Funeral man? I fucking love your shit!

 

[MEGA DAVE]

oh and by the way, those of you who did listen to the rose funeral stuff, what are your opinions on the guitar tones? They were re-amped using a Shure SM7 to mic the cab. I personally am not a huge fan of the tone it produced but it did give them a dark feel

 

[MEGA DAVE]

i was in RF littlejohn, i toured with them for a while and helped write and record the resting sonata with them, but thanks for the kudos!

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Yeah the guitar tones are not my favorite but that record kills. What amp did you use?

Not to go to off topic here.

 

[darthjujuu]

it's tough to judge the re-amp just cause it's tuned down to negative Q and i don't know what it's supposed to sound like...haha... but in god demise when it's by itself it sounds pretty solid. my instinct in that situation would've been stick with the 57 to focus on mids as opposed to the sm7 that i'd think would "open things up" a bit, but it works at any rate. sounds like a krank, amirite?!

 

[MEGA DAVE]

nope, left channel was an engl powerball and right was a 6506+

 

[MEGA DAVE]

and both just single tracked and tuned unfortunately to G sharp, I hated that decision but in a band it is a democracy

 

[Glenn Fricker]

But the net result of this is that they will simply go somewhere else and money will be lost.

.

And if you're recording metal to make money, you're in the wrong business.


In my experience, it's better to be firm & have a shitty client go elsewhere than waste your life fixing a pile of dogshit.

 

[beyond dead]

glen. dude your totally right. I just realized that i would rather have fun recording, then take shitty musicians petty money and trick them into thinking that they are professional musicians. I would rather just record/mix something properly myself than record a sloppy annoying ensemble of hobbyists.

and I will never support a movement that allows talentless hacks to fill the entertainment industry. I think it is horrible that people with absolutely no talent what so ever are able to have a shitty metalcore / br00talz band that actually makes money selling music they could never really perform. before long, no one will really be able to slam out a perfect drum performance or lay down a tight vocal.

 

[jangoux]

Well, i am in this exact situation - when i record rock or anything heavier, 90% of the time i record terrible bands just because the place i live in has mostly terrible bands. I usually help bands, but after some years doing this, i became very unexcited of doing this kind of thing. I have no problem editing things to death to sound good and I made my name here doing so, but in the end it is a very depressive thing for me to work this way. However, I earn the money to pay my bills this way, so i gotta do no matter what.

On the pro studio i work on, most of the time i record ´pro´ musicians. But even then are starting to not wanting playing 100% leaving the perfectness to me, by using me editing skills. This is even worse. But as i said before, if i want work, i gotta do this, hoping one day i can move to somewhere else with better musicians/bands.

But if I had another job to earn my leaving, i wouldnt even think once before only recording the bands i wanted. One day, one day..

 

[PhilR]

In my experience, it's better to be firm & have a shitty client go elsewhere than waste your life fixing a pile of dogshit.

In my experience, once you've decided which alley you want to live in it's better to be the guy living in the dumpster than the guy living in the rotting cardboard pile under the drainpipe.

And frankly I don't want to make money recording METAL because frankly the vast majority of metal is fucking boring shit! I want to record GOOD MUSIC! Not that it matters to me personally anyway. My day job keeps me away from virtually every recording project at the studio I built.

 

[GarethSE]

in reply to that earlier post, id rather make something with some sort of artistic integrity and have no more than 30 people appreciate it for what it is than make boring-ass deathcore and have my name attached.