A very tricky situation; lessons already learned

[southsider]

Hey everyone, this is what you might call "part 1" of a 2 part discussion. The 2nd part I'll post later down the road.

Anyway, I've gotten myself into a tricky situation. Here goes:

A band came to me a while ago interested in recording about 10 songs. I checked out their existing demo (very briefly) online, and agreed to do the project.

So a couple months down the road, I went to their practice space to record them on my mobile recorder, just to get an idea of the songs they'd be coming to record. After a few minutes, I was already turned off by the whole thing. The playing was just that bad. The drummer had never played to a click before. (turns out the existing demo had programmed drums). The singing, (which will be the main issue here if you read on) was unlike anything I've ever heard (not in a good way)

However, I'm not in the financial situation to be able to turn away big projects, so I tried to listen to the tapes (but had to stop) and waited for the day to come for the recording. So we start the process. I'm not going to go into the instrumentals, except to say that the sessions took a while, and the performances were poor, although I feel like I got the best I could out of them.

Along comes the time for vocal recording. This is where a large problem silently starts to grow. The singing is so bad, that I just want to get it over with. My goal was (and I succeeded in this) to get the best takes from the singer so he and the band were happy. After listening, they were. I suppose I wasn't thinking too much about the future because this has put me into the position I'm in now.

The time has come to edit/tune/etc the vocals. Some of these parts are totally in a different key, and I can't even tell what he may be trying to do. For the most part, he sings 1/2 step sharp. He has a very bad singing voice and delivery. I've never heard a worse vocal sound/performance.

Some of you may be asking, "why didnt you take the time to coach him and get it right". In short, I tried once, realizing it was impossible. I knew I wouldn't be able to reverse years of singing like this and total lack of ability to get something acceptable. At one point, he had to sing a verse acapella, because when he had the music (EVEN DRUMS ONLY) in the
headphones, he couldn't do it. Like I said, I just wanted to get these sessions over with. You may also be asking "why did you take on the project after hearing the demo". As it turns out, the vocals on the demo were heavily tuned, but on key(you can hear the pitch shifter working really hard), and his delivery was much better than my sessions. It's almost like his ability degraded over time. Lesson learned about a "brief listen."

Anyway, after talking to some people, I've thought it best to call them, and explain that the vocals aren't working. I'd say that I should have caught this during the recording process, and possibly offer them the option to re-record vocals free of charge. It needs to be kept in mind though, that I personally don't think he could re-record the vocals and fix these problems. I thought it may be smart to try to re-record one song, and see how that goes. If no success, I'd be forced to go with the final option I describe in the upcoming text.

Another option would be trying as hard as I can to use all the modern technology to "fix" them as much as possible. Keep in mind it's still going to sound horrible even if I was the best vocal editor in the world.

Final option would be the "nuclear option", in which I would give them the pro tools sessions, and recommend they go elsewhere to finish up the project. This would include asking to have my name taken off the project, including their website.

Whatever ends up happening, I don't want my name on this project. I know this would end my working relationship with the band (which is ok with me), however, one of the members is a regular on a local, popular musicians forum, and I'm worried he might put me in a bad light if he were to become upset by how things may or may not work out.

All in all, I've learned some serious lessons from this session, and I'm interested in seeing where this goes.

I wanted to see what all you fellow tape-oppers had to say.

[Justin Foley]

Do they like the way the singer sounds? Seems like that's what's important here, not really whether or not you do.

= Justin

[Tragabigzanda]

You're overthinking a very simple situation. They hired you to set up microphones and turn knobs, and you did just that.

You shouldn't feel bad that their musicianship isn't up to par with your skills. Those major headache sessions are worth it early on, because you learn a lot in the process.

Tune the shit out of his vocals, take your name off the project, move on, don't repeat these mistakes in the future.

[Nick Sevilla]

After reading your post, all I could think of is that your ego is in the way.

Here's why:

1.- You are getting paid to ENGINEER.

2.- Your complaints are something a PRODUCER deals with, not an engineer.

3.- Offering to rerecord ANYTHING for free, vocals in your case, is nothing but your ego trying to make their music "better" so it conforms to YOUR idea of what "better" is.

4.- You stated that the band is happy with what they have. that is what you should be focusing on. Not on what you think is wrong.

I say finish the gig smiling because after all, you are getting paid to do it. Not every gig will be exactly what you envision in your dreams. In fact most will be like this. Suck it up. You wanted to engineer for the general public, and this is par for the course. If you quit the gig without finishing, it will reflect poorly on you, regardless of the reasons, which in this case are unacceptable, because it is your ego doing the talking.

[Tragabigzanda]

I say finish the gig smiling because after all, you are getting paid to do it. Not every gig will be exactly what you envision in your dreams. In fact most will be like this. Suck it up.

That's actually a more succinct and more correct answer than mine.

[southsider]

Thanks for the great responses so far.

[Tragabigzanda]

And another thing (slowly rises from easy chair and shuffles over)
Do they even want you to tune their vocals, or is that your idea? If they haven't asked for it, you shouldn't do it. At the very most, you could let them hear an example and see if that's what they want.

[kslight]

Gonna have to agree with what's been said. Not every project you do (for someone else) will be your cup of tea. In their own circle, they may be great, who knows? Maybe they just want to do A record, not THE record. Whatever. Unless you are producer, at this stage it is probably not in your best interest to tell them they suck.

I'd say, finish the project, to the best of your ability (and to what you promised in accepting the gig). Don't do any free overdubs. If they want tuning, tune it. If they don't, don't.

And just to save face professionally, I would probably invent an alias that you should tell them to use for your credited name, rather than just say you don't want credit. This way if despite the impression the band left on you, you left one on them, you might still get gigs from other bands they know (because you really don't know how far their connections/reach is, so better to not be a douche I think).

There are plenty of bands out there that I think suck and have to be way overcorrected that still sell records, and consequently they also buy studio time to make said records. You never know where these guys will (or won't) go really, don't burn any bridges.

[JGriffin]

1.- You are getting paid to ENGINEER.

2.- Your complaints are something a PRODUCER deals with, not an engineer.

This.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

Welcome to engineering. Sometimes a turd is a turd no matter how much you try to shine it up.

The band's job is to be a good band. The singer's job is to be a good singer. In short it's the musician's job to make good music and play it well. It's your job to record it well. A good recording of a shitty song played and sung badly will still sound like shit. You can tune it and put the drums on a grid but shit is shit even if it's shiny. It's hard to walk away from those sessions feeling like you've done a good job but reminding yourself what your job is and what the band's job is helps put things in perspective.

Does the recording sound better than the band sounded coming in? Did you get the most you could out of the players and the singer? Did you do everything in your power to capture what the band does as well as you possibly could? Did the band have a good time and do they like the end result? Yes? If so your job is done.
Heroic efforts to fix problems that only bug you will just make the process unpleasant for everyone involved. To put it another way it's not the photographer's fault if the model is ugly.

Finish the gig. Take the pay. Move on to the next gig.

And learn this mantra - " I can't make it good. I can only make it better."

[southsider]

Thanks again for the responses. After some thought and consideration I can honestly say I did all I could. After multiple listening, the band is happy too, so I suppose I'll just do the best I can and move on.

[Grinder]

You shouldn't feel bad that their musicianship isn't up to par with your skills. .

I wouldn't assume he is not recording a band that is on his engineering level.

And to the original poster - maybe you are trying to fix something that ain't broken? Maybe the band actually like the way the singer sings...

Gustav

[kayagum]

After multiple listening, the band is happy too

You did your job. If you got paid too, consider it a success and go to the next gig.

[Nick Sevilla]

Thanks again for the responses. After some thought and consideration I can honestly say I did all I could. After multiple listening, the band is happy too, so I suppose I'll just do the best I can and move on.

Kudos.

[Sean Sullivan]

You can't make a bad band goo.

I did a record last year and the producer, who is a drummer, came in the day before the band arrived and we set up the drums. I got some really great sounds with him playing. The next day, the drummer for the band sat down behind the kit and we started recording and it sounded like ass, because he played that way.

I had a similar conversation with David Z yesterday. He was talking about doing all these interviews on recording Prince's guitar and he's sick of it because he recorded them the same way he always does, with a SM57. It just sounds special because it's Prince! I always tell musicians when they ask "That sounds great. What gear are you using?" that's it's all them...I'm just throwing up microphones trying not the mess up what they are doing!