singer can't sing

[Dpower]

I can't believe everyone missed out on such a salient point as statutory licensing...

If the songs are good enough, wait until the album is finished and published, then re-record the songs with the singer/band of your choice, pay the man who wrote it his due, and get rich and famous.

If the songs are that good.

And there's a market to hear them.





And money to buy it.







And the songs are that good.

[Gregg Juke]

Nobody "missed" it, even as a joke. The facetious statutory licensing scenario in-question does not answer the spirit or the letter of the OP's original question, which was not "How do I (semi-secretly) generate additional profit from my client's songs," but was more like "How do I make these particular recordings better with a song-writer that can't sing, or find a way to tactfully tell him in the process?"



Two different things.




Even if they are that good. (A big "if")...

GJ

[James Anderson]

if he loves the sound of his out-of-tune singing then he's king and you have to decided to drop the project or not.

if he's not comfortable with it but can't do better than tactfully show him the issues and coach him through a good vocal take. if you can't coach vocals then maybe suggest bringing in a close friend that he's comfortable with or suggest hiring a vocal coach.

i think vocal coaching is as much as part of engineering a good vocal as any piece of equipment.

[smtimecharlie]

It feels like there's an additional wrinkle to this where there's a friendship that might also blur the lines between a friend's advice and an Engineer or Producer advice, maybe?

[Grinder]

what do you do in the situation where the singer should not be singing?

Never took lessons, smokes cigarettes, is over weight and unhealthy..but wrote the songs and doesn't want anyone else to sing them.
thanks

When I read the reasons you list for "not singing", I am thinking you might just have a different aesthetic from this person. I wouldn't take any of those as a reason for someone not to sing..

Gustav