"That Mic was On?!"...Major Label Mistakes

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Noplasticrobots

New member
After posting in another thread about hearing snare rattle in a Jimi Hendrix song and listening to my less than average home recordings, I feel the need to put others down to feel good, so...are there any major label recordings that have major screw ups in them?

For example the above mentioned snare rattle, or the other Hendrix song where you can hear a piece of paper being flipped on a music stand (song title escapes me now)?

If you've noticed something peculiar on a major CD release (excepting your opinion of bad mic placement and a mix you don't like..that's a whole other topic), post it here. Things like background chatter, squeaky drum kits, etc. I hope this gets interesting...
 
I don't know if this qualifies, but....

....the whole first recording session for the digital re-release of Fantasia had to be abandoned and redone due to chair squeaks......
 
Yeah it qualifies! This is the stuff I wanna hear about. It's these things that make newcomers like myself feel better about our home recordings. :)
 
Noplasticrobots said:
Yeah it qualifies! This is the stuff I wanna hear about. It's these things that make newcomers like myself feel better about our home recordings. :)
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It should! A world-class orchestra of studio musicians (many at double scale), one of the biggest and best recording studios in the industry, and it's staff, a room full of highly paid studio execs.....and there's this intermittent squeaking that they can't track down as the clock is ticking away....
:rolleyes:
 
Noplasticrobots said:
or the other Hendrix song where you can hear a piece of paper being flipped on a music stand (song title escapes me now)?
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i don't know if that qualifies as a MAJOR screw up by the record label. A page being flipped is all part of the performance. and in a day before digital recordings, if the performance was good and you doubted you could duplicate that again, i doubt you'd retrack just because you heard a page flip. i'm sure the engineer, hendrix, and all other people heard it but decided to live with it.


there is a Soulive song that has this high frequency ringing several times when the drums come in. I can't remember the name. It sounds kinda like a high pitched computer noise or other electronic sound...which is weird 'cause it only happens when the drums kick in. Bugs the hell out of me everytime I hear it.
 
Of course there's the famous story of Buddy Holly and the Crickets. His band got their name from the actual crickets whose chirping had made it to tape on many of Buddy's early recordings.

The other one that comes to my mind was a mistake that was purposely left in on the Mamas and Papas' "I Saw Her Again Last Night". Towards the end of the bridge, John Phillips mistakenly tries coming back in with his vocal a bar or two too early. He lets a couple of syllables out and then stops himself. They knew it had happened, but upon playing back the tape they decided they liked the way it sounded for some reason and decided to leave the mistake in there.

G.
 
I love this stuff.

I think the Hendrix tune being reffered to is "The Wind Cries Mary". If I'm not mistaken, I think you hear some throat clearing during the solo too.

I've never known whether this was deliberate or a mistake that was left in because it sounded cool. In T. Rex's "Bang a Gong", there is a part where the Chorus is repeating, then it stops to go back into the intro. One female voice does an extra "Get it on"...Very possibly not a mistake, but I always thought it sounded like one.
 
Lots of Beatles recordings have chatter and stuff. John Lennon apparently yells 'fuck' at about the 4 min mark of Hey Jude
 
Well there is a Mia X song on her cd released by no limit records where she totally chews up her verse and they let it fly.
 
Here's something obscure that may or may not qualify: On the Dream Syndicate's "That's What you Always Say," (Days of Wine and Roses, 1982) you can here Dennis Duck's snare rattle during Kendra Smith's bass intro.
 
The worst one I've ever heard is on "Since I've Been Loving You" from Led Zeppelin's album "3". If you listen, you can hear the squeak of Bonham's kick pedal throughout the song, if you focus on it it becomes *really* annoying. All I can say is thank god for the How The West Was Won version :D
 
Check out the digital distrotion on the vocal mic on No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom album. Gwen's mic flips out at 3:10 on "Sunday Morning" really badly. Kinda suprised thay let it go.
 
Check out the Seldom Scene's Live At The Cellardoor.

The banjo player drops a pick in the middle of the tune

John Duffy "I'll get it!............ Damn that was almost another 50-cents shot!"

Then "That's what you get for doin' all that fancy pickin'."

At the end of the tune John Starling steps up and says "That's all folks Ben's through for the night."
 
I listened to that section of sunday morning probably 50 times and I'm not hearing it at all. Sure you aren't hearing just guitar distortion or something? Take that back I hear something but I'm not sure that isn't just her voice distorting its more like at 3:08. Sorry and another edit, that kick pedal need some wd-40 real bad.
 
Squeaky chair in one of Bowie's songs after a guitarsolo.

Not sure at the moment which song, but it is one from "Hunky Dory" or "The Spiders From Mars" album.

I think on Hunky there are a few of these things, but they must have left them there as it made the recording sound more "intimate"

What about the numerous times you hear "How is that" at the end of a song.

Before I came here this morning I was listening the the Velvet Underground's first album [You know the one with the VU meter on the cover]. Now at some stage at the end of a particular song there is "Was that awful?" again they must have left it there just for the feel.

Do we think the older albums have more of these things, as these days we can control and "correct" almost anything?

What I have a lot myself on my recordings is a little squeak when I press on a button to switch amps or a pedal or something of that kind. No one really hears this appart from me [and of course some of you, as we are all focused on HOW it was recorded rather than listening to the song and the vibe :D ]
 
Ill tell yous a mistake; the whole mastering job on "Californication" by "Red hot chili peppers". The mixing doesnt sound that great also im sure. The EQ just sounds wrong. Certain guitar parts that come in sound horrible. The master is compressed and limited loads.
 
jonnyc said:
I listened to that section of sunday morning probably 50 times and I'm not hearing it at all. Sure you aren't hearing just guitar distortion or something? Take that back I hear something but I'm not sure that isn't just her voice distorting its more like at 3:08. Sorry and another edit, that kick pedal need some wd-40 real bad.
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No, it's definately in the voice.

It's when she sings "Now you're lookin' like I used to"

actually it starts at 3:08.075 ish and continues to 3:11.
 
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