Ah, the iPhone

[floid]

Recorded basics on three tracks for a guy Saturday. At the end of the session I did some rough mixes and put them on a thumb drive.
Monday he texts me, "we gotta redo some stuff. It sounds terrible!"
"Okay, sure. Bear in mind those were some VERY rough mixes. Why don't you listen to the new mix i've got with all the proper edits and comps when you come by, and then decide."
We retracked tonight. 4 hours to get nowhere. At the end of the session I ask, "Did you bring that thumb drive so I can give you some updated roughs?"
"Oh, I could get them on my computer, but when I put them on my phone the file wouldn't play. So," puts iPhone in front of speaker, "just play them into Memos."
Yes. He decided to retrack because he'd spent three days listening to how things sounded coming out of his computer speakers, into his iPhone mic, out of his iPhone speaker.

[Drone]

I dunno, were people just always this dumb and the technology to do it has changed?

[Nick Sevilla]

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

[kslight]

This is how I measure all my rough mixes, I don't know how you guys have been doing it.

[vvv]

This kinda of thing happened to me, also, may have posted about it before ...

But again, inna band, the drummer is kind of a touchy guy, carries a gun (he's a cop ) and he can't stop bitchin' about how the kick isn't high enuff inthe mix. I literally EQ and jack it like 6dB and it's still not good enuff, until I think to ask him what he's listening on. I-phone, and a US$100 15w. bookshelf system with 4" two-way speakers.

I had spent hours trying to please him ...

Then had quite a few "discussions" to persuade him I knew what I was doing, and he didn't, etc.

We are now good friends, still work together, but those cuppla months ....

That said, floid, I hope you got paid twice!

[vvv]

OT and on topic at the same time, the below tracks have I-phone-recorded drums - heavily-edited:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_so ... D=13629977

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_so ... D=13629410

I think the first has the better EQ, etc., and I'll be re-doing the fecund (what was the first I mixt).

[Snarl 12/8]

Just in the interest of being factual, those drums were not recorded on an Apple iPhone. It's a Samsung something or other. Very old, POS phone. iPhone or even a newer Samsung prolly woulda sounded much better.

[vvv]

Oh! Still, I do like the lo-fi vibe ...

[Recycled_Brains]

This is one of the dumbest things I've ever read. At what point do we get to abandon our good nature and patience with people and just tell them that they are idiots who are wasting our time?

Nick is probably right though... You gotta just laugh at this stuff.

[vvv]

And charge more.

[Drone]

None of these threads make me want to consider losing my amateur status

[floid]

I had a few hints in advance - comments about a "great recording app" that turned out to be Memos, "how great the iPhone mic is."
The retracked session was supposed to be an overdub session. We never did overdubs, just used the third session to mix what was there. Ended up using about half and half of original and rework.
Perhaps the moral is, I need to be sure I deliver mixes in usable formats and have some of those usb to everything cables.

[Gregg Juke]

Yeah, floid, it's good to think "What can I take home out of this debacle?" And your thoughts for future idiot-proofing are good. But just be aware/wary-- You can never plan enough to eliminate all negative/self-inflicted contingencies.

A long time ago, one of my audio teachers told a story about how many years before that (!), he had been a stereo salesman. A guy came in looking for speakers. He wanted the best, no $$ issues whatsoever. He seemed to know what he was talking about. Steve sold him top o' the line Advents (or whatever the current de rigguer speaker flavor of the day was). The happy customer took them home...

Then the stereo shop got a call later. "These speakers are complete junk! I want my money back!! They fried immediately on the first use!!"

Come to find out, the guy had no amp/receiver, or turntable (and, this was years and years before integrated powered monitors or streaming wifi anything). He simply took them home, wired each speaker up with lamp cord and a two-prong plug, and plugged them directly into a wall outlet.

Which reminds me of the guy that earnestly wanted to know-- "But why can't we record my lead vocal through my Marshall head?!? It sounds great in my garage!" Again, he wasn't going for any particular effect; he just wanted an "industry standard vocal," and thought that surely the Marshall was the best and most efficient way of getting there...

GJ

[Drone]

I have the same story, except this time it was an electric guitar. The guy asked if he should just chop one of the 1/4" jacks off the cord we gave him, and fit a power plug to it.

Why shouldn't your record vocals thru a Marshall head tho' you some kind of tube hater?

[vvv]

I have the same story, except this time it was an electric guitar. The guy asked if he should just chop one of the 1/4" jacks off the cord we gave him, and fit a power plug to it.

Heavy-metal Darwinism, right there!