A sad engineering story, any words of encouragement welcomed.

S

shortyc

New member
Hello All,

Back in 2000 I graduated with a degree in engineering. But, I could not afford to keep interning at places and when I couldn't find a real job in engineering I had to route to working a job that pays even if it had nothing to do with music.

Anyways, it's been years and no mixing done. Not a bit. Now all of a sudden this group that I support wants me to mix 18 songs in the next 2 weeks because their regular engineer is out of town working somewhere. And this group is important to me, they are part a great movement and something is big is about to happen for them.

I've always had these tannoy active monitors at my house so they just dropped off digi 002 and a G4 laptop and let me have at it.

At first I was excited, but now I'm depressed about it! #1, my ears always seemed clogged these days. #2, I'm not used to these monitors, I have no room to place them different ways except practically in my face on this tiny desk with the laptop on it. #3, It's pro tools with only the basic eq and compression, and d-verb.
#4, Most the songs were recorded hot, the instrumentals were not mixed well but are already consolidated, everything is crazy unorganized and is just a nightmare.

Advice, tips, encouragement, whatever. If you got it, please share! Although I don't consider myself an engineer anymore, I still have the heart and culture of one and I feel like I'm gonna die. help!
 
you could post them online and pretend its a MIX CONTEST! winner gets ........erm a pat on the back. or you could just post them and hope some kind chap who has some spare time might give them a go for you. Or if you wanna do it then keep posting you mixes in the mp3 mixing forum and im sure everyone will help you get the perfect mix bit by bit. i'd imagine it'd include mnay posts and uploads but if you really wnna help this band and you dont trust your ears do that. your mixing it. But your gettin some help along the way. btw sad story.i wanted to be a producer/sound enginneer (im 15 now) but ive been told by many people to stay well clear. i havent decided yet. anyway. GOOD LUCK MATE! :)
 
Outsource it?

If you've been away from it for a very long time, then maybe doing a critical project is not the best time to be re-learning!

Just a thought.....
 
thanks

Thanks for the ideas. Perhaps i will post a couple to see what kind of feedback I get.

As far as outsourcing, trust that I've asked for that option but I suppose we are on a budget and they'd rather risk using me for free than to pay someone to do it.

Oh well! I'm just going to ask them to make sure my name does not show up on the credits, at leat not as the engineer. haha.
 
shortyc said:
As far as outsourcing, trust that I've asked for that option but I suppose we are on a budget and they'd rather risk using me for free than to pay someone to do it.
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Wait! You are doing this for FREE, AND you are looking for words of encouragement?
:mad:

Dood, you broke the first rule about engineering work: DON'T do it for free!
 
Yea, that sounds great. :D

Working on a project that you dread . . . that you don't feel prepared for . . . that was tracked poorly, and that you don't even want credit for?

Shit, dude, I'd be asking for double my normal rate.

You got screwed.
 
well he did say it was sort of a Pro Bono thing for a group he supports. what you need to tell them is this. Give them these three options:

1) Cheap
2) Fast
3) Good

and tell them to choose 2. So if, for example, they choose cheap and fast, then it won't be good. If they choose Cheap and good, then you'll get around to it when you have the time. If they choose Good and Fast, then it won't be cheap. Two weeks to mix 18 songs is a hell of a lot time to put into it. And if you're still considering on doing it for them...then stop reading the damn posts on these forums and get mixing. :cool:
 
Not much you can do with the basic plug ins on pro tools. They aint very good. YOu could do with 3 to 6 band Q and compressors like comp sc etc.
 
Okay, so most of these people want you to give up. What if this is the thing that could give you a start in the business? You never know.

Once I had someone approach me from a major national corporation to write, record and produce 8 minutes of music for a film at their national conference. Had I done this before? No.

I took two weeks and got it done and it was great. How much can you grow in two weeks? Find out for yourself. You could jumpstart a whole new life.

You know there will be plenty of help on this board so get to posting. Let's hear some of this stuff!
 
I wouldn't give up. Actually, I still use the basic PT plugins for my mixing, and they may not be superb, they do a pretty good job.

I would first try to organize it all and then listen to a lot of reference Cd's of the genre, so you will get to know the monitors well.
 
A few years ago I did an entire album for free to get my name out there. I believed in the band and felt they were amazing. It took five months of time and a lot of borrowing equipment, renting gear (they paid for that)... but it got my name out enough on the local level to now be in the planning stages for opening my own studio because of all the work it generated.

Do it.

The people that are saying don't do it are already established OR have the wrong attitude and will *never* be established.

Go for it. The worst that can happen is that you get skilled at polishing turds.
 
No, I just think they're being practical. Just because you let everyone walk over you like a doormat as you handed out free work in order to get started doesn't mean everyone else should. :D :D
 
You can decide only based on how much you want it. You haven't mixed in quite a while. Now you are given more than any real pro would accept in that time span.
If you take it, and have to deliver within that time, your ears will be fried, and definitely the later mixes will suffer.
If the band is so strapped that they will go for whatever you can do, then spell these things out, that way there won"t be the 'you promised' thing at the end. As long as they understand the reality of what they are asking, and thus the reality of what you can deliver under those terms, then it is simply down to whether you say 'yes' or 'no.'

Best,

CC
 
if its any help, i heard a story from a friend tim (actually my audio instructor)... his band had just recorded their second record for RCA, (pretty sure...) anyway, it was a major lable CD and mixed 13 songs in 3 days i think... he said no sleep was his key... so... imagine doing that for a major release... the band was called "bo bud green"
...tim do you ever show your nose in these boards???
anyway... there is some hope for you... :)
 
You have been out of the game for a few years and now you are getting back in the game with a band your really enjoy, Aside from the having to mix in the box part, I am not sure what is sad about this.
 
Yeah it was such a waste of my time... in the year following myself doing the freebie album I made 15,000 bucks doing recording on the side, had fun doing it, and quit my day job to open my own studio up.

Life consists of minimizing and soldiering on thru bad situations, and making the most of the few good things that come your way.

That's the difference between people that get up off their butts and DO SOMETHING and people that sit around wondering when it's going to be "their turn"... as if things like recording careers are just given out.

The main rule in the arts is this:

The more you do, the more you GET to do.

So you start out with some crappy album or demo for free, then word gets out as you promote yourself, make contacts, and before you know it you have more people calling you than you know what to do with.

Or you can be sit around being elite, cynical and discouraged and end up doing nothing.

Everyone starts microscopic and have to work their way up to small, and so on.
 
Cloneboy Studio said:
That's the difference between people that get up off their butts and DO SOMETHING and people that sit around wondering when it's going to be "their turn"... as if things like recording careers are just given out.
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This can be said about any career and I wholeheartedly agree with you. The difference really comes down to entrepreneurial spirit.
 
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