Recording someone who is on drugs.

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dreib

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Guitar player on speed, well Adderall same thing pretty much.

Cant get a good take while sitting, ok play standing up then, BUT you cant jump around , stomp your feet or fucking sing along since we are in the same room as the amp with 2 mics on it .

I finally say fuck it stomp and sing all you want I just want to end this misery .


Have you ever tried to get a guitar player on speed to double a rhythm part......IMPOSSIBLE!

Ive got, lets see, I think 5 guitar parts that are essentially different in some way.

It sounds like a mess to me but since I am so frustrated maybe it is impossible for me to hear anything that makes sense?. ....maybe I'll post an MP3?
 
I hate recording musicians on drugs or alcohol. They all suck. Potheads suck, junkies suck, drunks suck. And don't give me that "it relaxes me" garbage. Being fucked up does not make anyone better at anything. If you can't get your shit together enough to at least record sober, then you have problems.
 
dreib said:
Guitar player on speed, well Adderall same thing pretty much.
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Lay it out for him.
The options are to clean up for recording and aim for quality, or carry on but be prepared for the final product to suffer.

Without saying something, you can guarantee the same lad is going to complain when there are discrepancies in the final mix.
 
If the problem is the noise in the environment because stomps, singing and such, why not just forget about the mics and record it directly? Oh, the sound won't be as good as if it was miced? Well this is the price that the band has to pay for having a junkie guitarist. I don't think that the studio technican has the obligation of fix such kind of problem so just do what you have to do with what you have. Period.

:cool:

I don't want to enter in the 'philosophical' realm of this subject but if I had a record studio I simply would refuse to deal with this kind of thing. Beside all the hassle of nany a desequilibrated person you still have the risk of this one vomit, crap, piss your environment, break your stuff, gets violent and do crazy things. Ouch.

In the past when I worked as a graphic designer full time every now and then I had to have some people seated by my side while I did things. Believe me, I already had to deal with all sort of idiots. But if I had the lesser suspicion that the person was drunked, drugged, out of mind or if was just some kind of crazy/lunatic guy he even won't step into my studio. Some kind of situations simply doesn't worthes the money.

:facepalm:
 
Solution - turn the amp up. If you can hear foot stomps and singing being picked up with the amp, it's not fucking loud enough.
 
This is a friend/band mate that I have been trying to help.

It is what it is , Im sick of stressing about it. Ill post something when/if we get farther along .
 
Greg_L said:
I hate recording musicians on drugs or alcohol. They all suck. Potheads suck, junkies suck, drunks suck. And don't give me that "it relaxes me" garbage. Being fucked up does not make anyone better at anything. If you can't get your shit together enough to at least record sober, then you have problems.
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I'll usually let them have no more than a beer (or two depending on how long the session is). For a couple guys I've recorded, they actually could play a little better and loosen up if they are super tense which seems to be an automatic reaction when they know that the blinking red light is on, no matter how experienced they are at recording. But the whole "let's get stoned and record an album/song" thing is just ridiculous. Guys listen to Dark Side of the Moon and think "oh they must have been so high when they made this". And it's like "Really? With all that went into this album, carefully crafted, well mixed and recorded, well thought out parts and structures, do you really think they'd be able to pull it off?!!" That goes for the people who think the mix engineers were stoned too. Yeah, they were able to get obliterated, make precise cuts on the tape machines and properly calibrate everything and not be hearing anything incorrectly and cut it to a master tape all in the same day. :rolleyes:
 
dreib said:
This is a friend/band mate that I have been trying to help.

It is what it is , Im sick of stressing about it. Ill post something when/if we get farther along .
Click to expand...

By the way though dude, Adderall is a medication for people with ADHD. It's to correct the chemical imbalanace in one's brain that causes them not to be able to focus or act too quickly on impulse without thinking. If he is abusing it however (and actually getting high from it), that's a different story. But one thing to note is that someone with ADHD cannot abuse these drugs and actually get high. The only time it would work as an intoxicant is if the individual doesn't have the chemical imabalance to begin with.
 
I totally agree with Greg,
"substances" do not improve performance. IF (big if) you are the sort of person* who can stick to about one pint of medium strength beer per hour all night, maybe ok but few, in truth can do that.

*I certainly am not! Doc told me about 10 years ago "Give up the booze dave or die." I am still here, dry all that time.

Dave.
 
I hope you are getting paid to record them that's all I can say :thumbs up:
 
I take Zantac twice a day - including when I record and it hasn't affected me so far. I heard it's a gateway drug but I don't believe them.
 
Not true about Adderall and actually having ADHD. It helped with focus but it made me jumpy as all getout. It can totally get screwing up your timing. Especially if you're on prescription Adderal and then supplement a heavy caffeine addiction on top... there are other meds that can work with ADHD that aren't stimulants, and controlled release versions of the stimulant class meds.
 
dreib said:
Recording someone who is on drugs.

Cant get a good take while sitting, ok play standing up then, BUT you cant jump around , stomp your feet or fucking sing along since we are in the same room as the amp with 2 mics on it.
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Next time record him with a video camera....
 
Actually the right amount of dextroamphetamine(Adderall) would help someone's concentration. Speed(amphetamines) helped Pete Rose get more hits than anyone else in the history of baseball. Football players take speed for the same reason. As do Air Force pilots. As do thousands of college students. It's a known fact that speed helps with concentration(in the right amounts). Perhaps that guy took too much, or too little! LOL!:laughings:
 
RecordingMaster said:
By the way though dude, Adderall is a medication for people with ADHD. It's to correct the chemical imbalanace in one's brain that causes them not to be able to focus or act too quickly on impulse without thinking. If he is abusing it however (and actually getting high from it), that's a different story. But one thing to note is that someone with ADHD cannot abuse these drugs and actually get high. The only time it would work as an intoxicant is if the individual doesn't have the chemical imabalance to begin with.
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Yea he is abusing it and on top of that he didn't need it in the first place.
 
Having had an accidental overdose of caffeine + epinephrin as a youngster (self medicating a bad asthma attack).... I remember laying there with my heart racing thinking... "People do this to themselves for FUN?!?!?" I get why people might use euphoria inducing drugs recreationally. I can get people using stimulants for some other purpose (cramming for finals). But that didn't fit any definition of "fun" that I know of.
 
Ask anyone who recorded/produced Metallica before 2002? There might be a difference in musicianship there though I'm sure some people would argue that. :p
 
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There was an interesting study a few years back, that basically said you can develop skills while stoned, and the skill sets are somewhat separated. It explains the habitual drunks who can do ok on the sobriety tests. Theoretically, you could learn to play guitar left handed while sober and right handed while drunk, and not be able play right handed sober.
 
RecordingMaster said:
I'll usually let them have no more than a beer (or two depending on how long the session is). For a couple guys I've recorded, they actually could play a little better and loosen up if they are super tense which seems to be an automatic reaction when they know that the blinking red light is on, no matter how experienced they are at recording. But the whole "let's get stoned and record an album/song" thing is just ridiculous. Guys listen to Dark Side of the Moon and think "oh they must have been so high when they made this". And it's like "Really? With all that went into this album, carefully crafted, well mixed and recorded, well thought out parts and structures, do you really think they'd be able to pull it off?!!" That goes for the people who think the mix engineers were stoned too. Yeah, they were able to get obliterated, make precise cuts on the tape machines and properly calibrate everything and not be hearing anything incorrectly and cut it to a master tape all in the same day. :rolleyes:
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Welllllll ... I don't know about Floyd for sure, but I don't think there was any question that the Beatles were under the influence during much of the recording of Sgt. Peppers. I highly doubt the engineers were, though.
 
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