What would you do?

What would you do...

  • cry

    Votes: 12 18.5%

  • laugh

    Votes: 15 23.1%

  • tell him to go home and practice

    Votes: 11 16.9%

  • tell him to leave your studio and never come back

    Votes: 5 7.7%

  • take his bass and record it yourself

    Votes: 22 33.8%

  • take his bass and smash it in his head

    Votes: 11 16.9%

  • get the guitar player to record it

    Votes: 23 35.4%

  • spontaneously combust

    Votes: 13 20.0%
  • Total voters
    65
I'd rather pay out of my pocket than have to deal with dead strings on a bass guitar again, so I made it abundantly clear that we won't start recording until we change strings. I changed them myself for both the guitar and the bass guitar which including some really necessary adjustments to the intonation and action took more than an hour and a half... for free. Still worth it when you think about the horror of recording an out of tune guitar that sounds like crap.
 
Oh man.. been there. Often. I'd even say that's better than a few performances I witnessed.
Seriously I am not a good guitarist but even I can play the bass better than that (and better than a few bassists I had in the studio). It's their only fucking job to play mostly VERY easy parts, why the fuck are some of them so ridiculously bad? If a monkey would play for 30 minutes a day for a week he could play the bass better than this.
 
jipchen said:
It's their only fucking job to play mostly VERY easy parts, why the fuck are some of them so ridiculously bad?
Click to expand...

Because they can hardly hear themselves during rehearsals, noone else hears them during rehearsals, bass is barely noticed during gigs, nobody gives a shit about it. Therefor nobody says anything about how bad the bassplaying is so the bassist doesn't feel the need to improve (or even practice or whatever).
 
I'm sure you're an awesome producer and engineer so just take a deep breath and tackle it. I recently finished up with a band who were all that bad but it turned out great. Just plan your workflow. Personally I would:

- Write down all the sections for each track, making notes for which sections you can copy paste
- Get decent takes of the bassist playing 2 or 4 notes together for every note he plays (hopefully its all T-shapes so there won't be too many). Transitions between notes are crucial so don't get him to change notes because he won't be able to manage it
- Edit these performances to a level you're happy with
- Copy and paste all of it. Not even just verses/choruses; do it every time he changes note.
- Keep referencing your notes on the structure and what's being played

There won't be a lot of vibe or feel but these are the extremes you have to go to sometimes. At least it will sound like someones played it... Just about.

Best of luck dude! :Smokedev:

EDIT: But if the guitarist can nail it and there won't be a big band conflict - just do that!
 
I would tell the guitarist to play the bass or I would play those shitty parts myself. I'm not the best guitar player on the planet, but I notice that very very often I play better than the 80% of the musicians I record. I mean, lot of guys come and don't know absolutely how to play the instrument and their own songs. It's pretty ridicolous and sad in my opinion.
So often I take the guitar after their n mistake and I play the song perfectly also if I've never heard the songs before...the most ridicolous part is that after they see I can play very well their songs, it's totally ok....I mean, if someone can play my songs after 2 or 3 listens and me, after months of reharseals, not...I would feel like shit, like an useless musician, but they don't. Moreover, they can't understand if what they have recorded is shit o not. It's always good.
 
In the same boat right now, but with a drummer. I'm in the midst of programming the drums. Does anyone round here to editing to make it sound more realistic?

I send you some sympathy mate. Shoddy playing there for sure.
 
AEL89 said:
I'm sure you're an awesome producer and engineer so just take a deep breath and tackle it. I recently finished up with a band who were all that bad but it turned out great. Just plan your workflow. Personally I would:

- Write down all the sections for each track, making notes for which sections you can copy paste
- Get decent takes of the bassist playing 2 or 4 notes together for every note he plays (hopefully its all T-shapes so there won't be too many). Transitions between notes are crucial so don't get him to change notes because he won't be able to manage it
- Edit these performances to a level you're happy with
- Copy and paste all of it. Not even just verses/choruses; do it every time he changes note.
- Keep referencing your notes on the structure and what's being played

There won't be a lot of vibe or feel but these are the extremes you have to go to sometimes. At least it will sound like someones played it... Just about.

Best of luck dude! :Smokedev:

EDIT: But if the guitarist can nail it and there won't be a big band conflict - just do that!
Click to expand...

Thanks man, I know these tricks and have applied them in the past (more often than I wish). With a song that easy and simple I think it just isn't right and I won't encourage this. They recorded 4 guitars for 5 songs in no more than 6 hours and that's roughly how it should be. If he plays like this than 1 lousy bass track will probably take roughly as much.

Just heard from the guitar player... apparently they decided that the bassist should rehearse and give it another go in a couple of weeks. Good thing I charge for tracking by the hour I guess....
 
Well, once I pointed out what's wrong he became aware of it. The issue is whether he'll be able to do something about it.
 
maybe try to "diplomate" the band into agreeing to let a guitarist do the bass part to speed things up (stuff like "its only those few songs, in every show and in every future recording it will be you playing but right now we have a time issue thus there is no other option blahblahblah")
 
If there's no time issue (or you actually like the guys) then the best thing you can do is help them out by trying to make the bass player aware of his shitty playing. It'll benefit the band and it'll very likely make them try harder for next time. I've just spent a day going through all the bass parts with another band I'm working with to make sure he's up to speed with all of his playing and pointed out bits that he needs to work on etc. We spent a bit of time making sure what he was playing worked in well and he picked it up. He's away practising with the backing track/click. Something like that might work. Just a one on one or you and one of the guitar players to help him out. Good luck :)
 
The point is....... is it possible that they don't understand they suck? If I play like shit, I know it, I hear it...why lot of guys play like shit and do nothing? I don't understand why a guy comes to the studio playing very bad his songs and after that he want a second chance because he needs more reharseal. Why they didn't train before?? They spend money and they don't try the song.... is totally insane in my opinion.
 
Two possible reasons:
1. They haven't heard what they are playing clearly recorded yet (just in a noisy muddy rehearsal room where they also play without a click to top it off) and they don't know how to record at home
2. They are short of musical talent and understanding and only notice a fault with their playing when specifically pointed out by someone.

Sadly, most often it's both...
 
you just dont understand him. He has ultimate sense for polyrhythmics we are not even near to understand :D.

tbh, you did a good job, in the mix it sounds good. But the cymbals are quite harsh, at least here on my pc speakers.
 
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