Post embarrasing rookie mistakes you made

[Nick Sevilla]

EQ ing the wrong Snare track on a mix... spent 10 minutes EQing it, until I realized that adding +15 dB of 1K was not doing anything to the sound.

DUH!!!

[Pedal Boy]

sticking with ADATs. Well into the aughts...

[CurtZHP]

I once came dangerously close to heaving a perfectly good console out the window because I didn't realize the "mono" button was pressed, and I couldn't figure out why my surround mix wasn't -- well -- surrounding.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

some general rookie moves i used to make:

micing too close
printing too hot
worrying about bleed
spending too long mixing
hipassing everything but kick and bass
not being hip to proper room treatment

[Jay Reynolds]

I started out mixing like it was a line check on a live gig. Solo the kick. Get it sounding "nice". Un-solo the kick and solo the snare. Get it sounding "nice". Repeat for every channel.

[ott0bot]

some general rookie moves i used to make:

micing too close
printing too hot
worrying about bleed
spending too long mixing
hipassing everything but kick and bass
not being hip to proper room treatment

ditto.

although I still high pass alot of things at the moment, mostly due to recording in a rental house that I can't properly treat and getting alot of low hums and what not from traffic/ac noise/farting.

umm...yeah...

[gixxer11]

Well I'm still very much a rookie... as this shows.

I spent ages setting up to get a great drum sound for a live recording of a band, setting up screens/tunnel, moving mics about and also got a great bass sound etc etc...

Unfortunately I'd ran out of mic stands for the two guitars so I strapped mics to chair legs!?.... which then both mikes dropped down within the first minute of recording pointing directly at the floor......

The band were on one that day so I tracked one song after the other revelling in a great drum/bass sound onto tape..... not noticing the goddawful muddy guitar sounds from both guitars until 6 tracks in! DOH!

[Tims96]

The above post sounds painfully familiar...

I was recording a three-piece live, and was just returning from a lunch break. Before the break, I had turned off the power supplies for the tube mics I was using as overheads (looking back, this seems idiotic), and forgot to turn them back on before the next take.

Of course, this take was THE ONE, and everyone ran back into the control room, all excited to hear it back. While they're listening, the drums sound really distant to me, and I look at the waveforms on the OH tracks and they're pretty much flat lines. At this point I was sweating bullets. I had to tell the band that the mics weren't "working" properly, and that they should do it again. Luckily, they were understanding and the next take was equally killer, but for the rest of the session I was completely on edge. From now on, power supplies stay on forever!

[inasilentway]

One of my first studio experiences, as a bass player, the producer told us we couldn't record the songs live. The only way he would do it was by running the guitar and bass DI and then overdubbing. He was concerned about bleed, we were concerned about getting the songs done in the one weekend we had to do it. Of course, he was a rookie too, and it sounded like crap; a good deal of it ended up being rerecorded elsewhere.

For years I thought my mistake was in not putting my foot down harder and saying "excuse me, we are paying you and we would like to do it the way we are comfortable with doing it." But now I realize my mistake was twofold, because (as many other people have mentioned in this thread) I sulked around and complained the whole time. I did try and make the best of it, and some of my performances were good, but I had a horrible time and ended up leaving the band after the record was done. One of those times when being right and being stubborn about it got in the way of getting things done, which is definitely something I have struggled with. In the long run a much more embarrassing rookie mistake for me than any of the times I "forgot to plug it in".

[ashcat_lt]

The suction cup mics on the toms was pretty bad idea. Those drum tracks would be salvageable otherwise.

Not getting around to recording the vox for that album was even worse!

Oh, and not checking the basement to make sure all the vibrators had been stashed before my grandma had to walk through to the guest room...

Then there was the time when I (nobody) told Kramer (working on spec at the time) that he should remove the digital chorus from Alan Sparhawk's guitar tracks.

Then there's several albums I recorded to hard drives which went tits up without any backups.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

Then there was the time when I (nobody) told Kramer (working on spec at the time) that he should remove the digital chorus from Alan Sparhawk's guitar tracks.

this does not sound like a mistake.

[accordion squeezist]

For some reason I expected to see numerous emoticons in this thread.
But to come clean...

trying to expand my Akai S2000 library with long loop samples of a crackling, roaring fireplace, you know, for that drum circle "We Are All One Tribe" shit.

[vvv]

Trying to record my goth rock band's overdubs (only drums were already done) onna Tascam Porta 1, in my 5th floor (wooden floor) apartment.

Neighbors were not digging the vocal sounds, the jumping around, the arguing, or the drugs.

But it was 1995 ... <--- complimentary winky

[Gregg Juke]

1) I was punch-engineering for a friend's guitar solo at a big commercial studio, and armed the wrong track on the remote. Wiped a good bit of a "good take."

2) I unplugged some expensive pencil condensers to reposition the mics, without powering-down the phantom power. They were borrowed, and could have been toasted, but thankfully weren't.

The next two are from my old broadcasting days (80's):

3) I was doing my first on-air shift, after being a tech/board-op with very little in the way of major duties for several years. After the program I was hosting (which was a funny rookie experience in and of itself), I had to meet the network for a news program (this was an NPR affiliate). No one bothered to tell me what to do if there was a problem, which there was! I called the chief engineer, who "talked me through" the process of re-tuning and setting the demodulators to the proper channels on the satellite receiver. The switches "wouldn't go," and he said "What do you mean they won't go?" (they wouldn't budge). He says, "move the switches; it's the only way this will work." What he didn't tell me was that they were locking switches, and all I had to do was pull them straight up before moving them into position. Instead, I forced them and they sheared right off. Something like $200 each, plus repair time.

4) I was doing an on-air shift, and there was a phone interview. After the interview, I forgot to turn off the phone interface, until the news director called to tell me that my private conversation was being broadcast along with the next recorded selection. Of course, half of his phone call to tell me to turn off the interface was broadcast as well...

GJ

[Gregg Juke]

I was working in a music store, and my buddy Mike (a recording school student) and I got hired to record a concert of Indian classical music featuring the world-renowned Zakir Hussein on tabla drums! We were using an old Vestax four or six-track cassette recorder; I can't remember which (this was also in the mid to late 80's).

We set-up mics, get good sounds; we are hanging in the wings, just off stage, watching the one-and-only Zakir Hussein from like 6 feet away!!!!
The siar-player is rocking, and Zakir's fingers are flying, and it was very, very cool to be there. And we're getting paid!

Mike is monitoring the record-head through headphones... All is well, and everything sounds great.

Has anybody been to an Indian music concert? They go on for HOURS. Mike and I, pros that we were, forgot to bring extra cassettes. We ran out of tape, and, pro that Mike was (a recording school grad, mind you), without missing a beat FLIPS THE TAPE, so as not to miss any of the concert. He flips the tape, on a four track. Thus wiping out the last 45 minutes or so of music.

When the guy who hired us later says, "The tapes sound great; but isn't some of the music missing?", all we can do is lie like rugs. "Ah, no, no it isn't." "Yes, I think it is. There's a lot of the concert missing." "No, no there isn't." But I felt dumber than a bag of hammers.

GJ