Young, inexperienced bands

foley · Post by **foley** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 4:48 pm

Do a good job, and put in some extra time for free if you need to. Work with their budget and definitely make the recording sound like the bands they adore. When they take the cd to their friends house and play it for the first time you want it to pop out of the speakers - you want their friends to be impressed.

Now, I realize people might flame me for this opinion, but young bands usually don't have experimentation in mind when they record. Don't try any fancy stuff unless it will really work for their sound.

I say this having recorded a few of these bands over the years. Five years ago they all wanted to sound like Good Charlotte, but I thought they should sound like Bad Religion, or the Pixies. They wanted Good Charlotte, and it took me a while to learn to give them what they want - it is their money.

And, it's good for the music community. If you become a solid studio where kids can do three songs for cheap, with excellent sound quality, you are doing all of us a favor (and you'll end up making some money as well).

Good luck!

workshed · Post by **workshed** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 11:08 pm

So the band came in and recorded today and it went pretty well. Nice kids, and while not the most amazing music or performances, they are doing great for 15-year-olds.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the sounds I managed to get. Those PDP drum kits are actually not bad sounding. He had a maple PDP kit and we didn't have to monkey with it too much to get usable sounds.

They were a little too quick to settle for performances that weren't completely error-free, but I warned them about commiting mistakes to permanent record and how much they might grow to regret it. Got a few retakes out of that advice, which was good.

I still have to mix it, which I'll do later this week, but I think I will definitely be able to get them that big rock sound they were looking for.

Thanks to everyone for the advice. I'm putting in a couple extra hours for them to make sure they have a pretty decent demo to hand around. They were very grateful and were talking about coming back in a few weeks to record more songs.

-Bret

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:05 pm

workshed wrote:They were very grateful and were talking about coming back in a few weeks to record more songs.

Congratulations! Sounds like a success all-around.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

ryanlikestorock · Post by **ryanlikestorock** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 5:21 am

I actually prefer working with younger bands. It's nice when they're really talented but the excitement of working with someone on their first recording is really a big part of it for me. I'm glad things went well. Eventually, one of these young bands is going to make a name for themselves and more established musicians will start getting in touch. That seems to be how it happens naturally.

workshed · Post by **workshed** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 4:31 pm

So I got this e-mail from the singer of the band today after sending them a rough mix of one song:

OMG. OMG OMG OMG OMG. haha i finally heard the song for the first time. dude you are God. i love this shit. i mean its so amazing sounding. If i was gay, youd be the one. haha im jp but thanks dude. this is so amazing. i could shit myself.

It's really rewarding to hear them so happy about it.

Thanks again to everyone for the advice.

-Bret

??????? · Post by **???????** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:25 pm

sounds like you got at least one repeat customer!

gauze · Post by **gauze** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 3:26 pm

workshed wrote:So I got this e-mail from the singer of the band today after sending them a rough mix of one song:

OMG. OMG OMG OMG OMG. haha i finally heard the song for the first time. dude you are God. i love this shit. i mean its so amazing sounding. If i was gay, youd be the one. haha im jp but thanks dude. this is so amazing. i could shit myself.

It's really rewarding to hear them so happy about it.

Thanks again to everyone for the advice.

-Bret

I recorded a band yesterday that is quite frankly, really terrible. (Based on the couple times I saw them live, none of them are very good musicians, equipment wasn't that great, etc) The session turned out really good and the band was really really excited about it. I dunno if it's my guiding hand, studio trickery or a lucky day but I was surprised it turned out so well and I was happy about the whole thing cause they are all nice dudes.

Rigsby · Post by **Rigsby** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 11:42 pm

workshed wrote:So I got this e-mail from the singer of the band today after sending them a rough mix of one song:

OMG. OMG OMG OMG OMG. haha i finally heard the song for the first time. dude you are God. i love this shit. i mean its so amazing sounding. If i was gay, youd be the one. haha im jp but thanks dude. this is so amazing. i could shit myself.

It's really rewarding to hear them so happy about it.

Thanks again to everyone for the advice.

-Bret

Haha.. excellent. Congrats dude, it's awesome to be able to make someone's day and get paid for it.

I'm Painting Again · Post by **I'm Painting Again** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 10:27 am

I'm always surprised with the gap between the way older people and younger people think..you have to KNOW them..know what they want what they like, etc.

in the last 30 years the brain has changed drastically in the way it's wired due to exposure to high speed media..

it's really a crazy world right now..

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