How often have you said...

[bigtoe]

if it's that bad i leave the project far before the credits and i figure it's not my record anyway...i do not like being credited as producing something either...paritcularly if i was along for the ride.

Mike

[coniferouspine]

I like Chris Garges' fake name idea. I had a girlfriend once who was an artist, and she designed a lot of album covers for really lame bands to make extra cash, and she used to use the name Eberhard Faber on the shitty covers and her own name on the good ones. Eberhard Faber is of course a brand of pencil, but it sounds more like some intense German designer dude.

You'd be surprised, too. Some people are so gullible they will actually get into the idea of you using a fake name if you tell them the exact opposite of the truth. "Oh, Rocko McFarlane, this is the name I use only on the really slamming stuff that I produce" etc. LOL

[phait]

This could get interesting if you have a portfolio and say some of your clients are big-names, but for some reason it didn't turn out that great. You either list that, yes you worked with ________, 10 time Grammy winner, though the album sounds like grating poo - or you bypass it altogether.

[cgarges]

Funny, I just had to do this today. Mixed a really good project recently and I really like the stuff, but someone else tracked it and intimidated the singer and some of the performances feel a little uncomfortable. On top of that, the guy who tracked it did almost everything the opposite of what the band wanted, so there were a lot of "adjustments" made in the mix. The band just sent me the artwork today (just to show it to me-- I don't have any stake in it) and I saw that they had creditied me as "producer." Overall, it sounds good and feels pretty good and I like the songs, but it's not how I would have liked for it to be done had I actually produced the thing. I pretty much explained that to them (and they're REALLY nice people) and they're taking off the producer credit. The band said they gave me that credit because what I did in the mix really got the record going in the direction they wanted. I do appreciate that, but it doesn't deserve a producer credit.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[midiot]

When was the last time you heard something bad and looked to see who recorded it?

Usually if it's that bad, you know the band recorded it themselves in the basement.

[Brett Siler]

I recorded this horrible teenage numetal band and they wanted a copy of it befor it was mixed at all, not even a rough mix. They posted those songs all over this local music forum with the topic "SCREAMS GO SILENT RECORDED BY BRETT SILER"(thats my real name....) and the people would respond like "That sounds like shit!" yeah... It sucked but it didn't really stop people from coming in or anything.

My fake engineer name will be Butt Salamander

[vvv]

I did a funny little demo with a guy where I flat-out threw down some guitar, bass and tambo on top of his sampled drums and vocal and I mixed it in like an hour or so as a demo, and he first put it on a CD (fully crediting me and my "Chicago sound") and then on an internet radio station where it is, eh, "accepted for play."

I mean, it is very rough, but he liked it, and I guess others do, too.

What the hell, prepare to laugh:
You Could Have Told Me

Anyway, I recommend as aliases "Rollo Tomasei" (although there is a Chicago band with that name) or "Kaiser Sosa."

[joel hamilton]

...Please don't put my name on this project.

I know there are times I want to, but don't because I don't want to hurt any feelings.

When I get hired to mix something that has really bad guitar sounds (also out of tune guitars) with no way (time\money) to fix them, I'm always afraid I'll be blamed by anyone who hears it.
People these days seem to think mixing is a magical process that can fix anything no matter how badly it was played or put together.

I know we've all had sessions where the playing or singing is so bad that you just don't know where to start.

What do you do in this situation?

Make it work. I will do ANYTHING to make it work. Some of it would be construed as "cheating" including just having someone (maybe me) play an IN tune guitar part and de-emphasize the out of tune parts, or sit around editing drums, or autotune, or INSIST that the guitarist re-track.

I only do this so the band sounds good when they leave. I would never advance my own agenda on a project, but I certainly will guide someone towards a better product.(this is all IF i am the producer on the project).

If I am the producer, I will do ANYTHING in my power to make the record kick ass, without apology.

If I am just engineering, I will get the best recorded out of tune guitar ever, and leave it at that. I like my job.

In my experience, a simple 10 minute meeting with the band before saying you will do something keeps any of this from happening. I like to hear examples of things people have done before, or even a simple recording at their practice space ya know?

I always say: "lets make sure we will flatter each others efforts" before I say "yes" right off the bat. It sure feels better at the end of the week when you turn around and everyone is happy with the collaborative efforts.

[Devlars]

i'm recording a band right now and I was considering the alias option or just having my name left off completely cos what I'm getting at the moment is not that great performance wise. Although I do not want a producer credit I will insit that they re-track parts (especially the drums just not happy with them and the performance is really shakey). If they refuse or it is "impossible" then it will have to progress (as it's a favour for their guitarists efforts on my behalf). Honestly though I shouldn't be too concerned about it cos the point was made earlier...the "normal" folks don't give a toss about that sort of thing.

[nacho459]

The first "big" album I did (shipped 10,000 copies) I thought I would get a lot of people wanting me to record them. I got a couple emails and that's it. I still get most of my work from local bands who know other bands who I have worked with, etc. I do get the "OH Schnaps! you worked on that album!" when they see it hanging on my wall but that's it. I realized word of mouth is what gets you clients and not the CD credits. I usually work on a project from start to finish so when I work with a band that just sucks I usually end up with the "I can't believe you got them to sound so good" response. I always put my name on everything I work on no matter how... uh... unique it is.

[twitchmonitor]

My trouble seems to be that I get miscredited. On a record that I did some overdubs for and mixed, I got "engineered by so and so, additional engineering by David Lander." Additional engineering? Are you kidding? And that was on a total salvage job.

I've also got "recorded by" on records I recorded AND mixed. And for a session that I recorded I once got "assisted by David Lander."

I never even say anything to the bands. Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn what they say on the liner notes.

I am about to record a pretty hot band soon for an EP that will appear here and in Europe and Japan, and I'm going to be VERY clear with them about the credit.

[Slider]

...Please don't put my name on this project.

I know there are times I want to, but don't because I don't want to hurt any feelings.

When I get hired to mix something that has really bad guitar sounds (also out of tune guitars) with no way (time\money) to fix them, I'm always afraid I'll be blamed by anyone who hears it.
People these days seem to think mixing is a magical process that can fix anything no matter how badly it was played or put together.

I know we've all had sessions where the playing or singing is so bad that you just don't know where to start.

What do you do in this situation?

Make it work. I will do ANYTHING to make it work. Some of it would be construed as "cheating" including just having someone (maybe me) play an IN tune guitar part and de-emphasize the out of tune parts, or sit around editing drums, or autotune, or INSIST that the guitarist re-track.

I only do this so the band sounds good when they leave. I would never advance my own agenda on a project, but I certainly will guide someone towards a better product.(this is all IF i am the producer on the project).

If I am the producer, I will do ANYTHING in my power to make the record kick ass, without apology.

If I am just engineering, I will get the best recorded out of tune guitar ever, and leave it at that. I like my job.

In my experience, a simple 10 minute meeting with the band before saying you will do something keeps any of this from happening. I like to hear examples of things people have done before, or even a simple recording at their practice space ya know?

I always say: "lets make sure we will flatter each others efforts" before I say "yes" right off the bat. It sure feels better at the end of the week when you turn around and everyone is happy with the collaborative efforts.

I'm talking about not being able to retrack anything (no money left for tracking at all projects)
If I have to I can trigger drum sounds and do all kinds of stuff to make it sound quite a bit better.
But really out of tune vocals that cause autotune to even wave the white flag, and even worse out of tune badly tracked guitars can not be fixed up with any mixing.
I get some low budget mixing jobs that would scare you!
I do my best with the budget I'm faced with, I just don't want people to think I created these sounds.

There probably aren't too many limp bizcuit wanna be 16 year olds coming into your neve room to record with their birthday money.
I'm sure others here can relate.

[Rhythm]

I have to agree with those who've said to put your name on everything. Im not saying you should get credit you don't deserve (producing) but who can predict what is going to be huge? Even if it sounds bad to you, it may not sound bad to "normal" people, as someone said. We all know that there have been plenty of poorly engineered records that have charted big!!

ListenThirdEar

David R. Pullin

[Rhythm]

*correction: I meant to say that there have been plenty of records that turned out badly because of playing, poor engineering (which we would of course never do), and engineering that cant "fix it". I try to do the best job I can but the fact is there is crap out there that makes it.
DP

[bigtoe]

"Some of it would be construed as "cheating" including just having someone (maybe me) play an IN tune guitar part and de-emphasize the out of tune parts"

retracking at the mixing stage...whoa.... do they know? lord knows i'd love to do this but feel funny enugh to not make it a part of the bag o tricks...my peeps i record are offended at drum samples...as am i to a certain extent i guess...

A friend of mine was in a band that had a well known single go to a big name mixer...he added a bunch of stuff...they were PISSED.

Mike