HangDawg
bUnGhOlIo
I have a story to share but be forewarned, there is no useful information in here. Proceed at your own risk.
WARNING
LONG THREAD AHEAD
So, I started this album project for a local band about 10 months ago. It was my first paying job and was kind of pumped. I'd spent the last 2 years converting my garage into a small home studio. It's a better use of the space because it was just filled with junk anyway. I spent thousands of dollars and countless hours reading this site and some of the other well know resources to make the rooms as transparent as possible. This project was going to kick ass no matter what it took.
Where I live, there aren't a lot of choices when it comes to choosing a studio. There is the one dude who has been in it for 30 years and has a very well equipped studio. It's in an old barn with high ceilings and lots of open space. He has a large live room, a few isolation rooms and even a diffuse room with mountain-stone walls. I won't lie, I'm jealous. But, there's very few of us who wouldn't be. Now, the problem with this studio lies with the engineer. He's very capable and has loads of experience but his heart is not into it anymore. At least not for the type of music this band wants to record. They have done other project there and were not satisfied with the results. Here's where I come into the picture.
A mutual friend of the drummer and mine played him my bands demo. He inquired as to where it was recorded at so my friend gave him my number. After speaking with the drummer, I decided to go listen to the band at rehearsal and see if I was interested in taking the project. That's the advantage of having a real job, I can decide if I want to take the work or not. This, in my opinion is the difference between the guy down the road and myself. While he needs the work to pay the bills I am more concerned about putting out a good sounding recording. It is after all my reputation at stake. At this point for the band, it was a no brainer. I was closer, cheaper and I was really into the bands music. The quality of the recording was certainly comparable and maybe even better than the other dude. I got the gig.
Tracking commenced with the drums first. He of course wanted to use his own kit, which was fine because I had already heard them. It was a 6-piece DW kit with all top of the line brass. Not only did he have good taste in drums but he could also tune them. Hooray for me. We had previously talked about using a click track and he was already practiced up and ready to go. We did the drum tracks for 9 songs in about 10 hours. That's just over an hour a song for you math declined. He was also dead nuts on to the click track. Boy this is too easy I thought. Not only did we get the drums finished but half of the scratch bass tracks were also keepers. Finishing those up only took another 4 hours or so and it was on to the guitars. I knew this would go pretty smooth because there is only 1 guy he's a pretty good player. No endless bitching back and forth between two big headed guitar players who must out do each other. He also let me pretty much dictate what the guitar tracks would sound like as long as they were the typical "HUGE" guitar sound. Needless to say after the first track he was a happy camper and pointed out that no matter how hard they tried, they just couldn't get a good heavy guitar sound at "The other place". I attribute my success in this area to this place and all the knowledgeable people here. Other than having a hard time getting this guy into the studio everything went rather nicely.
Everybody is happy. I have them over for a listen to a rough mix of instrumentals and they are floored. I even impressed myself on some of the nice drum tracks I achieved in a pretty small (16' x 14' x 8') room. I guess all the fiberglass really did help. Whelp, I guess it's time for the showstopper. Vocals!
Fucking Singers!!!!!
They had initially asked if it would be possible for them to record the vocals at, you guessed it, the other place. It turns out that dude fucked them out of some money some how and owed them about 20 hours of studio time. I told them that would be ok however if they didn't get everything done there, we may end up with an inconsistent vocal sound across the 9 songs. The other dude does have some very high-end mic pres and some vintage mics. If that was ok with them then fine, save some money if you can. Well, they decided to do the vocals with me instead.
Day 1, song 1
The singer decides to start off easy. He chose to do a song that was written years ago and performed many times over. Sounds like a good way to get acclimated to the studio environment. Start with something familiar. Well, you’d think he wrote the damn lyrics right there on the spot. It wasn’t the typical sharp or flat here and there. There were notes the just didn’t belong. Every line sounded like it was in a different key or belonged in another song all together. I couldn’t see the sense of going any further and the drummer who was sitting in the control room with me couldn’t either. This is where I decided to help him find the melody that was in his head but not coming out. I grabbed the guitar and started picking out the melody and playing it for him. After 30 minutes of screwing around he had it close. It took about another 2 hours but he got a half decent take and couple of others I could use to comp a good track from. Whew, and I thought this was the easy one. We only managed to squeeze one more track out that day and it pretty much went like the first one. Wow 7 more to go!
Day 2
The drummer had stopped in a few hours before the singer got there because he wanted to talk about the vocals. He and I have a similar outlook on music and we could talk to each other about problems they were having without someone getting pissy. He wasn’t sure why the singer was having so many problems but we had to figure something out. I thought some vocal lessons might help but it was a little late for that. I think the problem he was having was me. I guess when some one asks how does it sound, you are supposed to lie and stroke their ego. I forgot to mention that before taking the project, I asked them to make a choice. I could either keep my mouth shut and let them blow through the tunes with obvious (or not so) mistakes or I can let them know when something rubs me the wrong way. They opted for #2. So when asked, I spoke the truth. I told him it was horrible. We decided I would quit being so forward and ummmmm lie. Needless to say it didn’t get any better but he managed to shit out 2 more songs.
Now here’s where it gets interesting. The drummer calls me up after weeks of silence and says singer man is going to go down to the other place. They are running short of cash and would like to take advantage of the free time. Hey no problem, I’ll get some rough mixes together and put them on a disk. I’m easy to get along with. I did suggest that if time permits they should think about tracking all the vocals over. Ya know, just for consistency. I get a call a week later. It’s the drummer. He says everything is going good. The guy is ripping right through the vocal tracks in no time and is sounding great. They’ll have enough time to do all the lead and backing vocals there. Cool.
So he brings me the CDs with the vocal tracks on them. After he leaves I can’t wait to have a listen. The one thing I will give the other dude credit for is he usually ends up with some nice vocal tracks and I was anxious to compare them to mine. I pick one of the tunes I already had vocals tracks for and fire it up. Clean and present. Nice sound…but…umm what, what the hell was that. Oh no. Fucking AutoTune! Ahhhhhhhh not just in spots either. It’s all over the place. Son of a bitch must have the hardware unit and tracks with it inline and prints it that way. I haven’t had a chance to listen to all of it yet but my guess is it’s all the same. No wonder drummer boy thought it went so well. My guess is he has no idea it’s on there either. And you know, this goes right along with this engineers attitude. Whatever he needs to do to get them in and out as fast as he can with no regard as to how it sounds. I imagine it was twice as bad in this case because he wasn't getting paid.
Now if you were me, would tell them that all the vocal tracks are AutoTuned and that’s why it went so smoothly? It’s not my fault the guy can barely sing. Or is it a case of whatever gets the job done? We were making progress at my place. I just think it was more work than the singer was willing to put into it. But when it comes time to mix this thing, they are going to be surprised when I put the non AutoTuned tracks that he did well on up against the ones stomped on by Antares. I guess we shall see next week.
I told you there was nothing of use in this thread.
WARNING
LONG THREAD AHEAD
So, I started this album project for a local band about 10 months ago. It was my first paying job and was kind of pumped. I'd spent the last 2 years converting my garage into a small home studio. It's a better use of the space because it was just filled with junk anyway. I spent thousands of dollars and countless hours reading this site and some of the other well know resources to make the rooms as transparent as possible. This project was going to kick ass no matter what it took.
Where I live, there aren't a lot of choices when it comes to choosing a studio. There is the one dude who has been in it for 30 years and has a very well equipped studio. It's in an old barn with high ceilings and lots of open space. He has a large live room, a few isolation rooms and even a diffuse room with mountain-stone walls. I won't lie, I'm jealous. But, there's very few of us who wouldn't be. Now, the problem with this studio lies with the engineer. He's very capable and has loads of experience but his heart is not into it anymore. At least not for the type of music this band wants to record. They have done other project there and were not satisfied with the results. Here's where I come into the picture.
A mutual friend of the drummer and mine played him my bands demo. He inquired as to where it was recorded at so my friend gave him my number. After speaking with the drummer, I decided to go listen to the band at rehearsal and see if I was interested in taking the project. That's the advantage of having a real job, I can decide if I want to take the work or not. This, in my opinion is the difference between the guy down the road and myself. While he needs the work to pay the bills I am more concerned about putting out a good sounding recording. It is after all my reputation at stake. At this point for the band, it was a no brainer. I was closer, cheaper and I was really into the bands music. The quality of the recording was certainly comparable and maybe even better than the other dude. I got the gig.
Tracking commenced with the drums first. He of course wanted to use his own kit, which was fine because I had already heard them. It was a 6-piece DW kit with all top of the line brass. Not only did he have good taste in drums but he could also tune them. Hooray for me. We had previously talked about using a click track and he was already practiced up and ready to go. We did the drum tracks for 9 songs in about 10 hours. That's just over an hour a song for you math declined. He was also dead nuts on to the click track. Boy this is too easy I thought. Not only did we get the drums finished but half of the scratch bass tracks were also keepers. Finishing those up only took another 4 hours or so and it was on to the guitars. I knew this would go pretty smooth because there is only 1 guy he's a pretty good player. No endless bitching back and forth between two big headed guitar players who must out do each other. He also let me pretty much dictate what the guitar tracks would sound like as long as they were the typical "HUGE" guitar sound. Needless to say after the first track he was a happy camper and pointed out that no matter how hard they tried, they just couldn't get a good heavy guitar sound at "The other place". I attribute my success in this area to this place and all the knowledgeable people here. Other than having a hard time getting this guy into the studio everything went rather nicely.
Everybody is happy. I have them over for a listen to a rough mix of instrumentals and they are floored. I even impressed myself on some of the nice drum tracks I achieved in a pretty small (16' x 14' x 8') room. I guess all the fiberglass really did help. Whelp, I guess it's time for the showstopper. Vocals!
Fucking Singers!!!!!
They had initially asked if it would be possible for them to record the vocals at, you guessed it, the other place. It turns out that dude fucked them out of some money some how and owed them about 20 hours of studio time. I told them that would be ok however if they didn't get everything done there, we may end up with an inconsistent vocal sound across the 9 songs. The other dude does have some very high-end mic pres and some vintage mics. If that was ok with them then fine, save some money if you can. Well, they decided to do the vocals with me instead.
Day 1, song 1
The singer decides to start off easy. He chose to do a song that was written years ago and performed many times over. Sounds like a good way to get acclimated to the studio environment. Start with something familiar. Well, you’d think he wrote the damn lyrics right there on the spot. It wasn’t the typical sharp or flat here and there. There were notes the just didn’t belong. Every line sounded like it was in a different key or belonged in another song all together. I couldn’t see the sense of going any further and the drummer who was sitting in the control room with me couldn’t either. This is where I decided to help him find the melody that was in his head but not coming out. I grabbed the guitar and started picking out the melody and playing it for him. After 30 minutes of screwing around he had it close. It took about another 2 hours but he got a half decent take and couple of others I could use to comp a good track from. Whew, and I thought this was the easy one. We only managed to squeeze one more track out that day and it pretty much went like the first one. Wow 7 more to go!
Day 2
The drummer had stopped in a few hours before the singer got there because he wanted to talk about the vocals. He and I have a similar outlook on music and we could talk to each other about problems they were having without someone getting pissy. He wasn’t sure why the singer was having so many problems but we had to figure something out. I thought some vocal lessons might help but it was a little late for that. I think the problem he was having was me. I guess when some one asks how does it sound, you are supposed to lie and stroke their ego. I forgot to mention that before taking the project, I asked them to make a choice. I could either keep my mouth shut and let them blow through the tunes with obvious (or not so) mistakes or I can let them know when something rubs me the wrong way. They opted for #2. So when asked, I spoke the truth. I told him it was horrible. We decided I would quit being so forward and ummmmm lie. Needless to say it didn’t get any better but he managed to shit out 2 more songs.
Now here’s where it gets interesting. The drummer calls me up after weeks of silence and says singer man is going to go down to the other place. They are running short of cash and would like to take advantage of the free time. Hey no problem, I’ll get some rough mixes together and put them on a disk. I’m easy to get along with. I did suggest that if time permits they should think about tracking all the vocals over. Ya know, just for consistency. I get a call a week later. It’s the drummer. He says everything is going good. The guy is ripping right through the vocal tracks in no time and is sounding great. They’ll have enough time to do all the lead and backing vocals there. Cool.
So he brings me the CDs with the vocal tracks on them. After he leaves I can’t wait to have a listen. The one thing I will give the other dude credit for is he usually ends up with some nice vocal tracks and I was anxious to compare them to mine. I pick one of the tunes I already had vocals tracks for and fire it up. Clean and present. Nice sound…but…umm what, what the hell was that. Oh no. Fucking AutoTune! Ahhhhhhhh not just in spots either. It’s all over the place. Son of a bitch must have the hardware unit and tracks with it inline and prints it that way. I haven’t had a chance to listen to all of it yet but my guess is it’s all the same. No wonder drummer boy thought it went so well. My guess is he has no idea it’s on there either. And you know, this goes right along with this engineers attitude. Whatever he needs to do to get them in and out as fast as he can with no regard as to how it sounds. I imagine it was twice as bad in this case because he wasn't getting paid.
Now if you were me, would tell them that all the vocal tracks are AutoTuned and that’s why it went so smoothly? It’s not my fault the guy can barely sing. Or is it a case of whatever gets the job done? We were making progress at my place. I just think it was more work than the singer was willing to put into it. But when it comes time to mix this thing, they are going to be surprised when I put the non AutoTuned tracks that he did well on up against the ones stomped on by Antares. I guess we shall see next week.
I told you there was nothing of use in this thread.
