Getting unwanted input; How to deal with it

[Ron's Brother]

How do you deal with someone who has no clue how to record but has tons of input on what you should be doing.

[blackdiscoball]

Have you tried the Phil Spector approach and waved a gun in the air? But really, if its a client just listen to what they are trying to say. I always try to explain the reason I think I (we) should do something and why I (we) might not want to instead of telling them "no we can't do that". For example, I had a client that got it in there head that adding 2k of eq to everything would make it all sound better. I tried to explain why this wouldn't be all that beneficial and then explain what I was planning on doing and why. My theory is its there music and there money, Im just there to help them get the sound they want.

[suppositron]

You could say something like "That's a good suggestion and I've tried that in the past but I think it wouldn't be right for this situation" or something along those lines. If you wanted to be nice.

Otherwise you could be like "Where did you hear that from?" and "That sounds like rubbish." "Poppycock!"

[blackdiscoball]

Forget what I said. Tell them its

"Poppycock!"

[Ron's Brother]

Otherwise you could be like "Poppycock!"

Thank you!!!!! That is exactly what I need. . can we lock the thread now? no need to keep this thing going.

[suppositron]

Haha! I had an economics teacher in high school that said that all the time. God, I miss that guy.

[The Scum]

Are you billable hourly? Were you hired to just engineer, or are you the "buck-stops-here" decision maker, responsible for delivering results (ie: producer)?

Sit back and enjoy the ride.

[Nick Sevilla]

How do you deal with someone who has no clue how to record but has tons of input on what you should be doing.

Here's a few tips:

1. The yapper is the decision maker. Here you just do what the heck they want. Your opinion, experience and knowledge are useless in this scenario. Don't take anything they say personally. Always be courteous to this person. Never contradict them, or risk losing the gig.

2. Yapper is NOT the decision maker, but is the artist / part of the act. Here you can use democracy to shut the offender up, by putting everything the yapper says to a "team vote". You will have someone else in their act usually put this person in their place after realizing their ideas are "poppycock", thus saving you the duty. Also this can make for a more lucrative situation for you, if implemented properly.

3. The yapper is not a decision maker AND not a part of the act (include girl/boy friends, family members,groupies,hookers,dealers,thugz,hangers-on,etc...here). Here you may fire your mouth off at will, but always remember to keep it courteous. If you identify who the yapper is attached to within the act, you can talk to that person during a break to suggest they do not bring the yapper into the studio anymore, as it is "an expen$ive distraction for the band".

Cheers

[cgarges]

I think noeqplease summed this up nicely. Agreed on all points.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[MoreSpaceEcho]

i just give 'em the dubious eyebrow.

[Snarl 12/8]

Tell them you already are doing it.

bwhahaha.

The bass player in my last band used my bass rig at rehearsals and really liked the tone. But one day he decided to bring over his bass rig so I could help him dial in the tone. He said he bought it because it was voted "best bass rig of the year" by some magazine and it was on sale. The thing is a 1200 watt head (that was suspiciously light) a 18" speaker in one cab and a 4x10 with a piezo in the other. IMO, that thing was capable of producing every frequency except the really useful ones. My rig, by comparison was just 1x15 and 1x12 in separate cabs. Powered by a 2x110watt hafler fed by an ashly bass preamp.

Anyway, I tell him to start playing while I fuck with the knobs and switches. The first thing I do is "normal" everything. Unclick every switch, disengage the graphic, set the parametric to unity, set gain, volume and master all to 3 or whatever. The dude's giving me this dubious look. Oh, I disengage the compressor too. (all built into the head, I can see now why this thing was "bass rig of the year") Then I try, one by one reengaging these things, but they're all "suck knobs" in my opinion. So I leave him with everything basically flat and the volume turned up for more bass. I think I added like 3db of the "low" knob on one of the eq's. He's like "man, that sounds so much better, but it just needs a little something" he goes over and smileyfaces the graphic a little bit. I'm like, "mokay, whatever". After rehearsal, I looked at his rig again. He never hit the little button that engaged the graphic.

Sound is so psychological. That's why the ball track and ghost fader got invented. Toss the tosser a placebo and get on with it. You got anything that lights up and moves around, but does absolutely nothing? Patch that across the 2-buss. Or just turn up the volume a little bit on the monitors. Everyone likes volume. It's the ultimate eq, compressor and pat on the back, all in one.

[vvv]

I ran into this a cuppla weekends ago at my bedio.

I made him a cuppla doubles and sent him out back for a smoke - he came back semi-tranquilized and we moved on.

Of course, I did have to help him pack his stuff when he was leaving, and caution him not to say where he was drinking if he got inna accident when he left at 4:00PM.

[drumsound]

As noeqplease put into detail, it depends on who's making the suggestions.

[centurymantra]

A lot of folks will bring up the fact that the person paying you is the decision maker so, ultimately, you've just gotta do what they say. I do think this is true to a large degree, but not necessarily an absolute. If a plumber, drain cleaner, electrician, roofer, accountant, etc. just does what the person paying them tells them to do because "they are the one paying them", the results will likely not be good. When they guys roof is leaking in three months due to an insistence on making shortcuts or skipping on code requirements, you can be pretty certain the guy is going to be bitching at and blaming the roofer - not the ill-advised requests said homeowner made. Same thing can be applied to this situation to some degree. When the product (the mix) is not satisfying to them in the end, they will never assume it is due to their ill-advised requests and will blame you.

Making major artistic decisions which drastically alter content are one thing, but technical issues like adding 2k to everything are quite different. When faced with demands which are clearly detrimental to the end product and most likely based on something they (mis)-heard on the internet or are an offshoot of feeling some misguided need to exert control, I think one should do what they can to steer things in the right direction.

[Nick Sevilla]

A lot of folks will bring up the fact that the person paying you is the decision maker so, ultimately, you've just gotta do what they say. I do think this is true to a large degree, but not necessarily an absolute. If a plumber, drain cleaner, electrician, roofer, accountant, etc. just does what the person paying them tells them to do because "they are the one paying them", the results will likely not be good. When they guys roof is leaking in three months due to an insistence on making shortcuts or skipping on code requirements, you can be pretty certain the guy is going to be bitching at and blaming the roofer - not the ill-advised requests said homeowner made. Same thing can be applied to this situation to some degree. When the product (the mix) is not satisfying to them in the end, they will never assume it is due to their ill-advised requests and will blame you.

Making major artistic decisions which drastically alter content are one thing, but technical issues like adding 2k to everything are quite different. When faced with demands which are clearly detrimental to the end product and most likely based on something they (mis)-heard on the internet or are an offshoot of feeling some misguided need to exert control, I think one should do what they can to steer things in the right direction.

Hi,

That is why I write up a little thing wherein I am absolved of responsibility after the person calling the shots makes a really bad decision. Usually that person will not sign it, but also thinks twice about their decision... I do it as a sort of joke... but sit there until they sign it or change their minds.

Typical decisions might be a total song rearrangement, major sonic changes such as replacing the main melodic instrument or rhythm, or other major things which alter the song a lot... and if this is done without the consent of the artist.

And all of this cannot be undone. That is the principal consideration. Since I work in a computer, 99% of the time I can undo genius moves.
Cheers