Bringing In Other Ears

[cntlr]

I am in the process of recording my band and have been playing with the idea of bringing in some other ears to help. Just wondering if any of you folks have tried this and what the ramifications happened to be. Thanks for any input I can get

 

[darnold]

Just make sure that whoever you bring in is someone you trust. When you have any lack of trust of someone in the process it will easily fall apart. And with this trust means you have to be open minded. Open minded to let other people do THEIR thing and trust they are doing it right. There is no room for pride basically. Let everyone do what they are good at and it turns out well. It makes things much more interesting and much more original. Thats not saying you cant disagree with someone or have you say in it. If it plain out doesnt work then you should say something. But ultimately you will know your system better so you should trust yourself too.

Keep in mind that someone might have a better perspective on what they are doing. I think everythig is based on perspective. They might start doing things that sound awful or weird at first, but their perspective or "ear" on how that is sounding is something you havnt learned yet. And it plain out might work better. So everyone kind of shares information here.

I wouldnt over do it who you bring it at once. Maybe one other person at a time. And if your doing this. I highly recommend getting someone else to mix for you too. You can oversee the mixing of course, but let someone with a completely fresh ear do the meat of the mixing.

I just did a big project similiar to this. Its difficult because i would love to be the one working with everything and be the main person in every aspect. But what matters most is whats best for the project, and the potentual of learning from it. And its turning out much better than if i would have done it all myself. But you dont have to go all out. Just depends on how much control you want over it.

Its kind of what the mix contests are about. Getting other peoples perspective on what they are doing with the same material helps you gain the same perspective. You look at things in a little different ways than you normally would.

Danny

 

[Cloneboy Studio]

In many cases DON'T LISTEN TO THE BAND (much). The people you are recording can lead you down many dark and twisted roads of pure suck if they don't know what they want, but think they do OR don't know how to adequetely explain it.

This is one of those areas where experience comes in handy. You can safely ignore the band's bad suggestions (not all suggestions are bad, but knowing which are and aren't is important) and explaining that recording is the first step of a process that includes mixing and mastering to make things "just right."

 

[darnold]

Good point Cloneboy. Thanks for bringing that up.

Its true. Dont let them push you around much. But dont let them think your not doing what they say. Because you know them personally, they arnt going to treat you like a professional. They think they are, but the plain out dont. I have completely stopped recording personal relations because of this problem. They dont put very much trust in you.

If you do record people you know personally, record them for free and let them do most of the work. Then they have nothing to say. As soon as you start charging money they totally change it around. It doesnt matter if you charge $50 an hour or $5 an hour. Since they are paying they are going to expect it to be perfect. So you might as well charge $50 . All or nothing.

Danny

 

[lpdeluxe]

Good points from both. I have recorded people who were insecure about their music and they wanted someone they respected to listen to it: it's almost always a disaster. I have had, several times, to gently tell a client that I was NOT working for the critic he/she brought in, but for the person right there in front of me. I have had people call me in a panic about a "problem" that some third party found in a mix. I usually wait a few days to cool off, frankly. There aren't many people whose taste (let alone, ears) I trust more than my own. Then there are the bass players who want the bass louder than everything else, and the guitar players who don't care how loud they are, as long as they are louder than the bass, and the drummers, who complain if you can hear anything but the drums. That said, there have been some really useful comments that I have gotten over the years, and I won't say it can't happen. Just be careful about the protocol. Don't say, "this really sucks: what does it need?" You are asking your friend to parade his or her knowledge as well as whatever he or she can make up on the spot. Instead, work to get your recording as good as you can, and then be open to comments.