ever record anyone with hi-end hearing loss?

[giraffe]

that didn't know they had it???

i'm dooing this now, he's a nice guy but he likes things bright enough to hurt.
he's REALLY attached to his git tone.
and the compression he insits on useing off of his multi-effects pedal is probably crtiminal, but he can hear that, and won't let me take it off.

any one ever go through this?

 

[gtrman_66]

When it comes to tone, especially guitar tone, there seems to be no accounting for taste. I have played in bands with guys like that. It might not be so much a high end loss, it might be that he just thinks it sounds really cool.

Hey, if he's paying you to do it and he likes how it sounds on the recording, you have done your job so to speak by making a client happy. I don't suppose a lot of the big time mastering guys really like squashing perfectly good mixes into oblivion, but it's putting food on the table.

 

[Zed10R]

When it comes to tone, especially guitar tone, there seems to be no accounting for taste. I have played in bands with guys like that. It might not be so much a high end loss, it might be that he just thinks it sounds really cool......QUOTE]

That's been one my most common issues. I have worked with dozens of guitar players with the thinnest, tinniest, brightest, most literally painful tones imaginable. I cannot explain why they like it, but those who like it that way are indeed passionate about it and really WANT that sound. Some have even gone so far as to tune HIGHER so that can sound even BRIGHTER... But then there's the guys who want such a fat, thick, bass heavy sound that there is no longer any room for actual bass....

If a guy shows up with either of those lousy tones I no longer record them. I have a day job so I don't need to put up with that silliness.

 

[Chris Shaeffer]

I was teaching a mixing seminar with some high school students a while back and one of their tunes came up with 2 AWEFUL guitars. One was thin, bright, and noisey the other was all bass and highs. Both were overly distorted. The kids, who thought everything sounded great while they were recording it live couldn't figure out why it sounded like crap in the mix.

A quick look at a spectral meter made it pretty obvious. The mud guitar had like a +20 dB hump from 80 - 200 and the bright guitar had most of its energy above 5K.

Stupid, but with high school kids I expect that kind of thing. We EQ'd the crap out of them just to get the sound within a reasonable range- which was kind of fun. Then we talked about pre-production.

Most of the time the guitarist is going for a sound that they hear in their heads as the "guitar sound" and have no idea that it COMES from within the mix. So they set up their amps and whatnot to sound like what they hear in a finished mix and expect it to work.

The process of pre-production with these folks is convincing them that you KNOW what you're doing and how to get them the heavy or bright sound they are going for BUT IT WON'T SOUND LIKE THAT UNTIL ITS DONE! You sometimes have to demonstrate. If they don't get it and want to do it their way, as long as they pay the bills that's their right. Just get all your thoughts in writing (I use email) so you can point it out to them when they complain that their songs sound like crap.

The important thing is to be clear, not to make them wrong, and to be professional about it, eh?

This is why producers exist. I sometimes think I should charge more if a project has no producer because I invariably have more work to do without them.

Take care,
Chris

 

[giraffe]

A quick look at a spectral meter made it pretty obvious. The mud guitar had like a +20 dB hump from 80 - 200

dam.....


he is, by the way, starting to come a round a little.
yesterday he cane back in and re-tracked a perticulary bright lead of his own volition. It made me very happy.

The important thing is to be clear, not to make them wrong, and to be professional about it, eh?

oh, you want professionalism with that
i'm trying to be good, but thare's times when you just want to say (but you don't)
how the HELL do you not hear that??????

but after a 3 day brake, he came back an started moderateing his viewes twards my own a little, and i feel better about it.

prob still not gonna be a part of my demo reel though.

 

[HapiCmpur]

When it comes to tone, especially guitar tone, there seems to be no accounting for taste.

True, but it's often much more than taste that accounts for this phenomenon. Individuals actually hear things differently than other individuals, even when everyone's ears are working perfectly. We tend to accept this about our other senses, but when it comes to hearing we like to think that:

a) there is one obectively "correct" way to perceive a given sound, and
b) anyone who doesn't hear it that way suffers from a hearing deficiency.

Wine experts argue over whether a vintage presents more caramel or vanilla, suggests new-mown grass or hints at musty minerals. Needless to say, none of those things are ingredients of wine. Nonetheless, we perceive them -- and more to the point, we perceive them quite differently.

When my wife says she can distinguish between 18 different shades of white, I no longer argue. In fact, I'm starting to notice the differences myself. But even if I couldn't, I know they probably exist. Other people and animals seem able to detect things that I cannot, and sensitive machines can even measure them.

I think the approach among disagreeing musicians ought to be to say "I don't hear that they way you apparently do," instead of "Hey, man, you must have a hearing loss or something." And the only way to settle such disputes if you still can't reach agreement is to go with what's "normal" instead of what you think is "right." In other words, bring in other ears to help you determine how most people are peceiving the sound that's under consideration.