Post embarrasing rookie mistakes you made

LazarusLong · Post by **LazarusLong** » Thu Jul 15, 2010 12:14 pm

Ron's Brother wrote:
kingmetal wrote:I make rookie mistakes all the damn time but the worst so far was doing an entire vocal take with the vocal mic backwards.

My Oktavamod NT1A doesn't really have a front to it (it does now, I drew a smiley face on a piece of tape) and I flipped it. It was a new mic and I was in a rush to get a vocal take. Stupid.

I stopped a take before the song finished last week (they were overdub takes so it wasn't a big deal) and although I'm MUCH better than I was last year, I still let musicians wander off mic if I get distracted.
With my oktava i always have to think.. what side is the front. After I look at it and say "this side looks right" I use the other side. those things look backwards!

In Soviet Russia, you are backwards to mic.

Gregg Juke · Post by **Gregg Juke** » Thu Jul 15, 2010 12:46 pm

Read Milosz' "The Captive Mind." If they tell you that the front of the microphone is on the side, well, it is. If you must stand on your head to record a vocal take, then that is because "Socialist History" has pre-ordained it...

GJ

monty marc · Post by **monty marc** » Thu Jul 15, 2010 7:43 pm

hi! rookie tape-op forum member, but unfortunately still making mistakes well past my rookie years. helping a band set up to play live on-air at the radio station where i work. the guitar player asks "where can i plug in my amp?". it's february, so i say "let's just unplug the air conditioner so you can plug in here". i unplugged the cord to the main power conditioner for the console and rack equipment. there was this "fooom..." sound of everything powering down, and then silence...

at a session not too long ago i was setting up an ldc as an overhead, and dropped it right onto the floor from high up. while thinking "that can't be good" i just picked it up and made as if it was an everyday occurrence. it still worked!

CurtZHP · Post by **CurtZHP** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 7:40 am

Welcome, Monty, from a fellow radio engineer. What station?

Your power conditioner story reminds me of a similar situation back when I was working as a board operator. The janitor came in to do his usual thing and needed to plug in the vacuum cleaner. I pointed to an outlet on the other side of the wall from the control room (but, as we found out, on the same circuit). He kicked the 'on' button, and WHAM! The whole control room shut down!

And I'm sure you know how long it takes for the automation system to reboot. I swear, I could get a steam engine going in less time!

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 9:46 am

Upon consideration, my worst rookie move was bring a alky girlfriend to the studio with the band.

She got bombed, and dropped a 12 pack which, of course, shattered on the studio floor.

I think we were on E'nuffz-E'nuff's dime ...

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:00 am

haha that is definitely a rookie move!

so tell how exactly enuff z'nuff were paying for your studio time??????

suppositron · Post by **suppositron** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:05 am

I have plenty more mistakes to make but:

Fixing mic cables instead of throwing them away. I have a few that work fine but I was using one to record a casual band practice and the damn thing cut my guitar mic out pretty much as soon as I walked away to start playing.

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 8:38 am

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:haha that is definitely a rookie move!

so tell how exactly enuff z'nuff were paying for your studio time??????

My singer at the time (1995?) was dealing a item(s) of clandestine but consumable nature for person(s) somehow affiliated thereto.

We weren't actually recording, just using the studio for arranging and auditions and, eh, consuming.

woodhenge · Post by **woodhenge** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 2:14 pm

This is a great thread... sparks a ton of memories of stupid things I've done! Most of mine are along the same lines of wrong assignments, punching in on the wrong track, missing the punch out, etc...

One of the most traumatic ones for me was back in '94 when I was mixing a record for a hippie-metal band... All the band members and producer suggested that I smoke up with them, otherwise the vibe would be all wrong for the mix and I'd never be able to understand what they were going for...

Well, they brought some rather potent goodies and pretty-much completely wrecked me from the ground up. I was completely unable to function, and virtually forgot how all the gear worked at that point! They didn't really notice because they were much more stoned than I was, and insisted that the mix was "awesome, duuuuude!" But when I heard the mixes the next day, I swore I would never let a client talk me into smoking up ever again... what a mess.

monty marc · Post by **monty marc** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 11:09 pm

CurtZHP wrote:Welcome, Monty, from a fellow radio engineer. What station?

Your power conditioner story reminds me of a similar situation back when I was working as a board operator. The janitor came in to do his usual thing and needed to plug in the vacuum cleaner. I pointed to an outlet on the other side of the wall from the control room (but, as we found out, on the same circuit). He kicked the 'on' button, and WHAM! The whole control room shut down!

And I'm sure you know how long it takes for the automation system to reboot. I swear, I could get a steam engine going in less time!

thanks and happy to be here, great information resource that makes the internet seem like a cool invention. last thing i want to do is get outed by station listeners as the guy who gets paid to be a moron.
also, i just learned a lesson from a rookie-esque misatke a few nights ago. never do a patch bay repair job on top of a rack that's covered in disco-felt. all the little wire-braid pieces get really stuck in there, can't be vacuumed off. had to be all hand-picked out.

cjogo · Post by **cjogo** » Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:04 pm

After 35 years == Not collecting the deposit """ and a payment at the end of each days session ~! Key to staying business ...

knobtwirler · Post by **knobtwirler** » Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:14 pm

I remember once striping SMPTE to a slave reel that was at 30fps while the synchronizers were online somehow, making the playback of that SMPTE somehow at 31-32 fps, ruining a good couple of hours in the studio. A Motionworker was involved. I dunno. What made it weird was I had been striping tape for years before that happened, but a distripalizer don't lie!
But, the real rookie mistake was probably graduating from high school instead of getting a GED at the end of Junior Year and getting a job as a night-time janitor and toilet washer in one of the most popular recording studios in 1989. Had I done that, I'd be six years ahead of the game like all the engineers I had to assist in the 90s before everything went to hell after 2000.

GussyLoveridge · Post by **GussyLoveridge** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 9:21 am

Patching a DI directly into an A/D converter and wondering why the signal was so low.

Anybody else take these things to heart? I feel like such a knucklehead sometimes when messing up really simple things and it can take me a long time to get over them.

wayne kerr · Post by **wayne kerr** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 9:36 am

drumsound wrote:Going into the music business.

Post of the year.

wayne kerr · Post by **wayne kerr** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 9:39 am

I once hit on the producer's girlfriend for hours only to find out, during a dinner break, that the producer had some unusual appetites and the "girlfriend" was really a dude. Won't share exactly how I discovered that, however. But man was *I* embarassed!

Message Board

Post embarrasing rookie mistakes you made

Re: Post embarrasing rookie mistakes you made

Who is online