Tom Or Chris Lord-Alge?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ntnguitarist3
  • Start date Start date

Tom Or Chris Lord-Alge who's better.

  • Tom Lord-Alge

    Votes: 1 10.0%

  • Chris Lord-Alge

    Votes: 8 80.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 1 10.0%
  • Total voters
    10
Kind of a nice change of pace from the usual "what's the difference between a 57 / 58" threads we're used to seeing around here.

:D
 
Ironklad Audio said:
^while a lot of what you said was true...how many albums/tunes mixed by andy wallace didn't end up as hits?
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Remember "hits" are created by the artist, not the engineers. Of course years ago they were created by payolla:p
 
jmorris said:
Remember "hits" are created by the artist, not the engineers. Of course years ago they were created by payolla:p
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Hits are created by great marketing, longevity is created by great art.

Engineers are just grease in the wheels ...
 
masteringhouse said:
A great article from David Byrne on strategies for emerging artists:

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/magazine/16-01/ff_byrne
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Wow, that really is good stuff.

To the OP, congrats on the deal. I'd read up as much as you can about the financial end of the biz and get all the help you can. It's pretty tough to make serious money on record sales even if you have decent sales numbers. Understand which colors of money are recoupable by the label and which are not. My guess is that hiring the most expensive mixer in the world is not optimum, but OTOH you may just decide to kiss off the idea of making money on sales and make that once in a lifetime record. Your income could be from touring and merchandise instead.

Best of luck.
 
For a lot of brand name engineers having credit on "hits", the question is which came first, the hit or the engineer. Some tracks are destined to be hits long before the Big Red Button is pushed.

Brand name engineers are cherry-picked for projects destined to be gold or platinum records. Brand name engineers also tend to cherry-pick their projects as well; they are in greater demand than they have time for, so they only pick what they are interested in putting their names on. They are not interested in putting their name on a turd.

So, when one looks at how many hits Joe Famous Faderjocky has been associated with, one has to ask if they were hits because Joe worked on them or if Joe worked on them because they were hits.

masteringhouse said:
Hits are created by great marketing, longevity is created by great art.

Engineers are just grease in the wheels ...
Click to expand...
Ooooh, is that yours, Tom? I want to quote that one!

G.
 
ntnguitarist3 said:
Ok so I play in a band called "Our Last Night" we recently signed to epitaph records. We were recently granted a huge budget for our epitaph debut. So with that came the talk of mixing and of course two names that came up were the lord alge brothers, so I am basicaly just wondering which one do you think is better, and are they worth the price, is there anyone else out there who is better for less. Its a scary thought to owe a huge recoup fee to a record label. So we just wanna make sure we do what's best... just becuase our budget is big enough for Tom or Chris doesn't mean we wanna owe that back to the label, any help would be great...
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Now, not to be a jerk but I've been thinking about this. First what is a "huge budget"? There isnt really anyone these days that gets a huge budget to record let lone a new first signed bands first CD deal. How much studio $ we talking? I doubt the figure is enough to have a guy like Lord Alge work on the project..course I may very well be wrong. I'm just perplexed at this "huge budget" thing for a first time band. Is it just me? I'm not saying its not real and Im not trying to be a jerk but...is it just me? Does this sound off? A very good and long term friend of mine works in LA. He is a composer and a great jazz guitar player. He tells me top engineers there get from 5-10 grand a day. A big investment for a record company on a new band. Tell us please about your band as your web site link does not work.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Ooooh, is that yours, Tom? I want to quote that one!

G.
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Feel free G. after all I've grabbed your quotes in the past!

I'm curious about "the deal". Most signed acts I've been talking to lately say that the label wants a percentage of merch, live gigs, and your next crap. Add that a top engineer is going to want points on your record. Could you give us more info on what your deal is like? Hopefully it doesn't fall into this category.
 
jmorris said:
Now, not to be a jerk but I've been thinking about this. First what is a "huge budget"? There isnt really anyone these days that gets a huge budget to record let lone a new first signed bands first CD deal. How much studio $ we talking? I doubt the figure is enough to have a guy like Lord Alge work on the project..course I may very well be wrong. I'm just perplexed at this "huge budget" thing for a first time band. Is it just me? I'm not saying its not real and Im not trying to be a jerk but...is it just me? Does this sound off? A very good and long term friend of mine works in LA. He is a composer and a great jazz guitar player. He tells me top engineers there get from 5-10 grand a day. A big investment for a record company on a new band. Tell us please about your band as your web site link does not work.
Click to expand...

Our myspace is... www.myspace.com/ourlastnight, let me explain the situation, oldest member of the band is 19, youngest is 15 he is the lead "screamer" if you will. I play guitar and do "clean singing" epitaph is planning to use our age as a marketing tool... MTV and our label reached an agreement where we will be debuting our video with them exclusivly. We did not bring up the Alge brothers the label did. It was later agreed on that we would be working with Steve Evetts. I'm not at liberty to discuss our budgets, but what I can tell you is that we had bids coming at us from solid state records and epitpah and we didn't just go where the most money was we went to the label we felt could help us fully reach our potential.

You can read our press release @ www.epitaph.com
 
Maybe I'm a bit jaded, but rather than being concerned about the engineer at this point I would be more concerned with picking a good entertainment lawyer. I've seen so many great artists from the Philly area get signed, re-arranged, chewed up, and spit out. It's an exciting time for you, try not to let it cloud your judgement and learn from others with similar experiences if you haven't already. Speak to other artists on the label as well as those who may have been dropped from the label for things to watch out for.

Again it sounds like a great opportunty and I wish you the very best.

- Tom
 
masteringhouse said:
Maybe I'm a bit jaded, but rather than being concerned about the engineer at this point I would be more concerned with picking a good entertainment lawyer. I've seen so many great artists from the Philly area get signed, re-arranged, chewed up, and spit out. It's an exciting time for you, try not to let it cloud your judgement and learn from others with similar experiences if you haven't already. Speak to other artists on the label as well as those who may have been dropped from the label for things to watch out for.

Again it sounds like a great opportunty and I wish you the very best.

- Tom
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+1 on this. Try to think ahead to the next step which is figuring out how you're going to make this last and where the money is coming from. These days you'll need to be creative about selling your wares. Licensing to tv/film can be a nice source of income.

Remember that this is just the beginning. Some of your labelmates may be able to point out some pitfalls. In a perfect world artists like yourself would only need to focus on the art, but it's just not reality. Most successful bands are savvy on the biz.

Definitely pay attention to things like rate structures with attorneys, managers, and other people that charge you money. Something like a $2,000.00 retainer will be gone in a couple days for example. Trust no one, they all want a piece.

Maybe you have all this stuff under control, but we're just throwing out the cautions because we know the odds are tough and you guys are very young (a good thing!).

Anyway, your producer may have a mixer or two he likes to work with. Ultimately you can listen to examples of the mixer's work and make a judgment yourself. Also try to get a feeling for the mixer's personality from other artists who have used him. Just like any other group of people, some of these guys are a nightmare to work with, others are great.

Best of luck and congrats again.
 
jmorris said:
Now, not to be a jerk but I've been thinking about this. First what is a "huge budget"? There isnt really anyone these days that gets a huge budget to record let lone a new first signed bands first CD deal. How much studio $ we talking? I doubt the figure is enough to have a guy like Lord Alge work on the project..course I may very well be wrong. I'm just perplexed at this "huge budget" thing for a first time band. Is it just me? I'm not saying its not real and Im not trying to be a jerk but...is it just me? Does this sound off? A very good and long term friend of mine works in LA. He is a composer and a great jazz guitar player. He tells me top engineers there get from 5-10 grand a day. A big investment for a record company on a new band. Tell us please about your band as your web site link does not work.
Click to expand...

Its not uncommon now to see parents pay more for marketing their kids' bands than entire album budgets of yesterday. People don't seem to realize they are spending WAY more trying to "get a record deal" than the record company will ever spend on them.

Some DO realize it and are actually making some return on their investment
 
ntnguitarist3 said:
Our myspace is... www.myspace.com/ourlastnight, let me explain the situation, oldest member of the band is 19, youngest is 15 he is the lead "screamer" if you will. I play guitar and do "clean singing" epitaph is planning to use our age as a marketing tool... MTV and our label reached an agreement where we will be debuting our video with them exclusivly. We did not bring up the Alge brothers the label did. It was later agreed on that we would be working with Steve Evetts. I'm not at liberty to discuss our budgets, but what I can tell you is that we had bids coming at us from solid state records and epitpah and we didn't just go where the most money was we went to the label we felt could help us fully reach our potential.

You can read our press release @ www.epitaph.com
Click to expand...

Congratulations. Some success must feel really good! I wish you all of luck in teh future with your band man.
 
ntnguitarist3 said:
Ok so I play in a band called "Our Last Night" we recently signed to epitaph records. We were recently granted a huge budget for our epitaph debut. So with that came the talk of mixing and of course two names that came up were the lord alge brothers, so I am basicaly just wondering which one do you think is better, and are they worth the price, is there anyone else out there who is better for less. Its a scary thought to owe a huge recoup fee to a record label. So we just wanna make sure we do what's best... just becuase our budget is big enough for Tom or Chris doesn't mean we wanna owe that back to the label, any help would be great...
Click to expand...

they have a third lesser known brother called Shemp Lord Algae, he's the one you want.
 
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