Biggest Pet Peeve clients do in the studio...

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Re: Biggest Pet Peeve clients do in the studio...

Post by thecongostudio » Mon Jan 19, 2004 7:49 pm

people who bring a "posse" to record, to videotape, photograph or whatever. These people never end up doing thing and waste time, and the band complains when they dont think anything is getting done since they are spending their time talking with their people.

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Re: Biggest Pet Peeve clients do in the studio...

Post by @?,*???&? » Mon Jan 19, 2004 7:57 pm

Talk when I'm mixing. Constant chatter when doing a master fade is annoying as hell.

I had one session with an artist who had this Casio keyboard that sampled. He sat on the couch in the back of the studio for the entire mix sampling his voice, his eructations, his flatulence, blah, blah, blah playing it back and then laughing at it every time as if it were his first time hearing it. After 2 days, I was ready to shoot him. He didn't get why I was so bugged by it, but I could have understood it so much more if he was a potsmoker.

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Re: Biggest Pet Peeve clients do in the studio...

Post by wayne kerr » Mon Jan 19, 2004 9:32 pm

Basically my bitch is this. I hate when clients tell me how to do my job before I have even begun to do my job.
Tell 'em sure no problem, you'd be happy to make a rough for them to take home. Send 'em out for coffee or something. Get the mix where you want it and then take a strip of console tape and label a bunch of unused faders - 'bass,' 'vox,' 'snare,' etc... When they come back and all want to hear more of THEMSELVES, adjust one of those false faders and turn to them and say 'how's that?' They'll nod and then you can print their mix. Don't forget to mute the fake channels first - or pull them out of the 2 bus.

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Re: Biggest Pet Peeve clients do in the studio...

Post by wayne kerr » Mon Jan 19, 2004 9:34 pm

Talk when I'm mixing.
I can't believe an engineer of your stature would actually allow the band in the control room while you're mixing, but maybe you should tell 'em it's thirty five bucks if they wanna stick around for the mix.

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Re: Biggest Pet Peeve clients do in the studio...

Post by beezleborf » Mon Jan 19, 2004 10:11 pm

Cool thread. How about a bass player who is done with his parts but hangs around real close to me making grunting throat-clearing sounds for hours on end during intense over-dubs and mixing? Or the same bass player who had a horrible 5 string bass with flopping buzzing strings last year and comes back this year with the same sounding bass and wonders why it sounds like a horrible buzzing flapping bass when I told him last year it needs to be set up by a guitar tech?

Other than that, people have been pretty cool.

Or wait, how about a guy who comes in and plays all out of time on acoustic and then wants to over-dub drums and have me mix the drums in when it's in time and then turn the drums down when they get off beat on a nine minute folk song? Oops, I forgot about that. You'd want to forget that too. Other than that, I'm as guilty as anyone else.

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Re: Biggest Pet Peeve clients do in the studio...

Post by JGriffin » Mon Jan 19, 2004 10:54 pm

chocolatechickenpotpie wrote: Get the mix where you want it and then take a strip of console tape and label a bunch of unused faders - 'bass,' 'vox,' 'snare,' etc... When they come back and all want to hear more of THEMSELVES, adjust one of those false faders and turn to them and say 'how's that?' They'll nod and then you can print their mix. Don't forget to mute the fake channels first - or pull them out of the 2 bus.
I don't want to totally hijack this thread, but I've been wanting to ask this for awhile, and this seems like a good time--how many of us have done the dummy fader trick, the "producer" knobs gimmick, or the "touch a knob and smile" fakeout?

Come on, 'fess up!
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Re: Biggest Pet Peeve clients do in the studio...

Post by soundguy » Mon Jan 19, 2004 11:00 pm

I usually charge someone $35 when they want to touch a knob, that usually keeps 'em at bay.

dave

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Re: Biggest Pet Peeve clients do in the studio...

Post by JGriffin » Mon Jan 19, 2004 11:08 pm

Man. I usually won't let anyone touch my knob for less than $75.
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Re: Biggest Pet Peeve clients do in the studio...

Post by psychicoctopus » Mon Jan 19, 2004 11:15 pm

dwlb wrote: I don't want to totally hijack this thread, but I've been wanting to ask this for awhile, and this seems like a good time--how many of us have done the dummy fader trick, the "producer" knobs gimmick, or the "touch a knob and smile" fakeout?
and who has been BUSTED doing it?

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Re: Biggest Pet Peeve clients do in the studio...

Post by cgarges » Mon Jan 19, 2004 11:59 pm

GREAT THREAD! Great posts, too, guys!
dwlb wrote:how many of us have done the dummy fader trick, the "producer" knobs gimmick, or the "touch a knob and smile" fakeout?

Come on, 'fess up!
I refuse to do this because I'm convinced that some guys did this to me early on. When someone else is paying for the session, I'll give them what they want. If I feel the need to explain why they might want to reconsider their suggestion, I will. But it's their album and I want them to be happy with it so they'll come back and work with me again. Its not worth the headache of them complaining that they asked for something and STILL didn't get it.

On Topic-
Extra people "hanging out."

This could be any pals talking in the control room during a mix or it could be a boyfriend/girlfriend when someone's trying to get a particularly diffcult take. The "significant other" thing has proved most detrimental so far in my experience.

The other would be the obvious, "Why doesn't my record sound like Diana Krall's?"

"Well, maybe because instead of recording it at the Hit Factory with Al Schmitt and a $50,000 budget, you chose to do it with me and only spend three hundred. It also might have helped if you'd ever done a gig before."

That sort of thing.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

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Re: Biggest Pet Peeve clients do in the studio...

Post by wayne kerr » Tue Jan 20, 2004 7:40 am

I usually charge someone $35 when they want to touch a knob, that usually keeps 'em at bay.
Whoah! Nice scam ya got goin there! I usually have to pay THEM $35 if I want them to touch a knob... :twisted:

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Re: Biggest Pet Peeve clients do in the studio...

Post by Slider » Tue Jan 20, 2004 8:30 am

I hate random noodling between takes.

shit guitars that aren't set up, and are out of tune all the time.

when musicians move my tracking mics :x
bastards!!

talking loud while i'm mixing, then when i turn it up, they yell louder.
this includes cell phones.

when they try and rush to get something finished saying "it's good enough"
then later saying "I wish we would've spent more time on that part". I always warn them.

singing bad then saying " can't you just autotune it."

"my guitar's out of tune, can the computer fix that?"

or playing the drums like shit and saying " you can just line all the hits up with the computer right?" not with no click and a $400 budget!!!!!!!!
just play it better you fuck.

I think punk rock musicians are turning into mandy moore
and britney spears. "can't you just do someting in the computer to make me sound better? that's what good charlotte do."

how's this one... "can we overdub all the guitars and bass at the same time to get it done faster?" can you all play it perfect together everytime? "ummmmm no." then probably not.

and... "so dude we want strings here and then everything goes to an AM radio sound here, and then the bass goes distorted on this bridge OK? That won't take long will it? we have $500 to record this demo"

"we want keyboards on this song" do you have someone who does that?
"no, can you do it for us?"

and the worst is....
taking a huge shit in the bathroom by the control room. and clogging it!!!

Music is stupid.

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Re: Biggest Pet Peeve clients do in the studio...

Post by Cellotron » Tue Jan 20, 2004 9:24 am

I just thought of my biggest pet peeve when mastering:
receiving mixes that the recording engineer put a ton of horrendous sounding peak limiting that's entirely distorted the mix. Seems like I am getting this with more and more frequency - and it's almost impossible to repair the damage. Guys - if the track is going to get mastered don't put anything on the 2 buss!!

Best regards,
Steve Berson

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Re: Biggest Pet Peeve clients do in the studio...

Post by @?,*???&? » Tue Jan 20, 2004 10:07 am

Cellotron wrote:I just thought of my biggest pet peeve when mastering:
receiving mixes that the recording engineer put a ton of horrendous sounding peak limiting that's entirely distorted the mix. Seems like I am getting this with more and more frequency - and it's almost impossible to repair the damage. Guys - if the track is going to get mastered don't put anything on the 2 buss!!

Best regards,
Steve Berson
Or send one with and one without buss compression, right?

By the way, I tend to let the mastering guys do their thing and only interject if something is going horribly wrong. How much input do you look for from the client? I had one mastering session where the engineer thought I was disinterested because I was just flipping through magazines back on the couch- but still listening to what he was doing up at the board. He was doing fine, but I guess I needed to articulate that more to him.

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Re: Biggest Pet Peeve clients do in the studio...

Post by Derrick » Tue Jan 20, 2004 10:17 am

cgarges wrote:
dwlb wrote:how many of us have done the dummy fader trick, the "producer" knobs gimmick, or the "touch a knob and smile" fakeout?

Come on, 'fess up!
I refuse to do this because I'm convinced that some guys did this to me early on. When someone else is paying for the session, I'll give them what they want. If I feel the need to explain why they might want to reconsider their suggestion, I will. But it's their album and I want them to be happy with it so they'll come back and work with me again. Its not worth the headache of them complaining that they asked for something and STILL didn't get it.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC
I'm with Chris exactly! There is bitching to be done on both sides. Some engineers seem to have the attitude that the recording is more about them. Yes, your reputation is on the table to some degree, but a good engineer is able to understand the musician's perspective, patient and able to communicate. They are paying, don't fake 'em out, just give them what they want. If they have a really bad idea, communicate effectively with them. Some musicians rudely scream for more of something like vocals or hi hat because they are reacting to an engineer's "my way or the highway" attitude. And yes... some musicians are just egotistical, rude bastards who grew up in a cave. Just remember, their money is just as green.
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