Five hunderd bucks for this???

I think that we should not be looking at the mix as a problem rather the band, take a look at the third sample, nothing shorter than nasty, even though the recording I think is actually pretty good.
 
thegatekeeper said:
I think that we should not be looking at the mix as a problem rather the band, take a look at the third sample, nothing shorter than nasty, even though the recording I think is actually pretty good.
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Granted the band are not to my taste, obviously yours either. However, the dynamic range in this recording is pants, the guitars are wall of sound and mushy, the drums are all over the place and the vocals are not even in the mix. Now thats the engineers job. If the Engineer is also the producer of this project maybe he could of tried getting the "product" out of them or told them that they were not ready to record. That reflects bad on your studio if you put something out which a band are not happy with.
 
but think about it, how many times have people got up to you and said well that doesn't sound like the radio. I think it has a radio sound to it, with wide guitars, and clicky bass drums, but sure it still needs some polishing. I see it this way. If you were a driver and you were given a job to drive someone to a crack house, without knowing, that it was a crack house, wouldn't you take them there, so how can an engineer know if the band is good or not without first tracking them. Another thing, this is also a business. Regardless of what the performance is how good or bad they are, they came to you to record, so I say record. A business is a business, would I show this as a sample of my work to others nope, but I will make it sound as commercial as possible regardless it sucking or not.
 
even so, why would someone say no to business. That's what I see that alot of engineers keep forgetting. Like what happened to drummers a while back, the drum machine came along everyone got scared, the digital age hit the studios, and so many closed, instead of trying to be so different, try going with the flow, don't worry the trend will eventually change again, so if that means compressing the snot out of a track do it, especially if that means it will bring in more clients. The reason a band goes to you the majority of the time is because they know you can help them get "that sound." So give em the sound, which is what I think this engineer has done. He saw business and he did his best. Obviously there a few points here or there that need to be adjusted but I think it sounds pretty damn good, on a recording stand point.
 
I think they payed too much but honestly $100 a song isn't a bad deal. They probbably didn't give it their best shot cause they weren't really making that much money. Just try to get the tracks from them and mix it yourselves. Everything but that guitar sounded like you could use it in some way. And you should be able to record a half decent guitar track by yourself. I wouldn't be complaining too much. Your not going to get money back so why bother. Just remember next time to listen to something the engineer did before you record.

my .02
 
thegatekeeper said:
even so, why would someone say no to business. That's what I see that alot of engineers keep forgetting. Like what happened to drummers a while back, the drum machine came along everyone got scared, the digital age hit the studios, and so many closed, instead of trying to be so different, try going with the flow, don't worry the trend will eventually change again, so if that means compressing the snot out of a track do it, especially if that means it will bring in more clients. The reason a band goes to you the majority of the time is because they know you can help them get "that sound." So give em the sound, which is what I think this engineer has done. He saw business and he did his best. Obviously there a few points here or there that need to be adjusted but I think it sounds pretty damn good, on a recording stand point.
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If this engineer has given them the sound then thats even worse in my opinion. Granted the studio needs to make money and survive but if you put out shite after shite, suddenly your reputation is well, shite. Like i said before the fundamental problem with this is the Vocal, not that the guy is a great singer but they dont sit in the mix at all...ie the song is unacessible..end of story. now if this was done in a bedroom and was an attempt at recording i would say "fair enough, very good attempt" and then point out the problems. However these guys charged good money, put their reputation on the line and then put out something that is not finished. Substandard. They would have been better telling the lads to go away and learn to play.
 
I'm guessing what happened here is that these guys came in and told them they had $500 to spend. So the studio puts the lowest engineer on the pole on it and gives them 4 songs. So yeah... I think it was a little dishonest but didn't they hear it when they were recording it? I mean did they just think it would magically sound better when they half-assedly mastered it? I think the blame is 50/50 in this case.

I need a TV court show about music cases... I'll cream Judge Judy. It'd be like Joe Brown of music. :D
 
Umm hate to say it but, there is nothing wrong with what happened...

500 bucks is equal to probably an 8 hour day studio time....depending on what the studio charges per hour...

What the hell do you expect for 500 bucks?? More so only 8 hours???

Just to get a good drum sound and mic'd takes at least 1-2 hours and that is going at it easy... On top of which, you add in a few takes of each song and some punches etc... Then you want the guy to come out with a polished MIX on 4 Tunes all in 8 hours???? nobody can do that.... It's possible the mix couldda been better, with a better engineer, but you only spent 500 bucks...

I'd say that is par for the course IMO, and they probably did better than the average...tracking and mixing are two totally different balls of wax, each takes time and paitents to get it right....

I don't think you have any grounds to get mad... I betcha if ya gave him another 500 just to mix it all you'd have something much better...

Or better yet, get the tracks and mix it yourself, that way you all can take all the time you need and do it for free. :)
 
I thought it sounded like shit.

Not just the mix, but the playing, singing, and also the guitar tones were just shit. Not trying to be mean, but you could try to get it remixed or take it as a hint that you're not quite ready to go to a studio yet.
 
StudioMxpx said:
(this is "Dying Serenity" by the way, i just change login names)

yeah they told me they recorded the guitars and bass through a Pod and the drums they used Drumagog on some parts.and as for vocals i guess the singer was sick at the time.
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I was wondering why the guitars sounded like crap. This explains it.

Honestly, it sounds like the band needs more work as a band, and the individual musicians need to work on their sound and how they mix it with the rest of the band.

Sure, the recording could have been better, but what exactly do you expect for $500? The studio obviously has the talent (listened to Halifax on their myspace), it's just a matter of paying for what you want to get in the end. Halifax has a much larger budget than your friend's band (I'm guessing) so obviously they're going to get a better sound.

Let me explain it this way. If a band pays the engineer $500 for 4 songs, do you think the engineer will do as good a job if another band pays much much more? No. The studio is a business and they're trying to make money. If a band can get quality results at a low price, why would they even think of paying more?
 
Wow $500 for 4 songs. For an entire CD, that would be about $2,000. For $2,000 you can buy all the gear you need to record your own CD, and you can record and mix it yourself which I'm sure would lead to much better results than this.
 
danny.guitar said:
Wow $500 for 4 songs. For an entire CD, that would be about $2,000. For $2,000 you can buy all the gear you need to record your own CD, and you can record and mix it yourself which I'm sure would lead to much better results than this.
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I seriously doubt it!!! That has been the mantra of the home recordist for the 8 years I have been on this BBS, and frankly, the quality of the average recording I hear from members here is STILL quite crap!

I think this is a well done production considering how fast it was done! I seriously doubt any of you could have done even this good in that short amount of time!

We also cannot hear from the engineer to ask about how the BAND contributed to some of the nastiness! These sound like drum samples, so that usually means the drummer had nasty sounding drums! Samples take a while to work in, and this guy probably had almost no time to deal with that. The bass player probably had NO CLUE about even picking, so the bass needed to be buried in the mix. The guitar players probably came in with the most horrendous guitar tones, and would change them no matter what the engineer said, thus, those horrible sounding tracks. The singer sounds like every other nasly under pitch asshole that does this genre. Not EVERYBODY is going to be competent for singing.

A recording like this can sound outstanding IF the band is outstanding. A recording like this is only going to sound as good as the band it. Frankly, this band is not very good. Not very tight, not very in tune (the intonation of the guitars if very suspect! how you gonna mix that?), and obviously lacking quality gear.

And you guys say they got ripped off? LOL Again, I seriously doubt most of you could have even approached this kind of quality in the same amount of time.

I would put my name on this. It would matter. A crap band like this is a fucking dime a dozen, and nobody important is going to hear this anyway. Good or bad reviews of this recording are not going to make or break this engineers career!

I think he did a great job at handling an impossible situation.
 
Ford Van said:
The guitar players probably came in with the most horrendous guitar tones, and would change them no matter what the engineer said, thus, those horrible sounding tracks.
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Exactly. The reason he probably ran it through a pod is because the guitarists probably turned up with eather 1) Really shit gear that isnt usable or 2) Good gear but diddnt have a clue how to use it and there for had a shit tone.
To make vocals like that sit in the mix is hard, especially when the singer is tone death.
He/that studio is obviously capable of very good results judjing by what is on there myspace.

Who would put all there effort into a recording if it was a band/songs like this? Im sure most people would go in half heartidly, at most.
 
danny.guitar said:
Wow $500 for 4 songs. For an entire CD, that would be about $2,000. For $2,000 you can buy all the gear you need to record your own CD, and you can record and mix it yourself which I'm sure would lead to much better results than this.
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What the hell are you talking about???? 2000 bucks barely gets you more than a pre-amp and one multi-effect, if you're lucky...If you're talking commercial studio quality...And that's besides the fact that you have to take into account the fact the QUALIFIED engineer's time is worth something. Come on, get real.
 
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RAMI said:
What the hell are you talking about???? 2000 bucks barely gets you more than a pre-amp and one multi-effect, if you're lucky...If you're talking commercial sutdio quality...And that's besides the fact that you have to take into account the fact the QUALIFIED engineer's time is worth something. Comeone, get real.
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Dont worry he's talking about a bedroom full of broken behringer gear off ebay, a lava lamp and a 12 year old kid doing the 'mixdown'
 
RAMI said:
What the hell are you talking about???? 2000 bucks barely gets you more than a pre-amp and one multi-effect, if you're lucky...If you're talking commercial sutdio quality...And that's besides the fact that you have to take into account the fact the QUALIFIED engineer's time is worth something. Comeone, get real.
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That's if you want to spend $2,000 on a preamp and a multi-effect.

I don't believe you need a $2,000 preamp, expensive monitors, and the highest end gear to get a good mix. I've heard great results with less.


Dont worry he's talking about a bedroom full of broken behringer gear off ebay, a lava lamp and a 12 year old kid doing the 'mixdown'
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I don't recall saying anything about Behringer.
 
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