Erax Sound

You'd be surprised @Lozz196. There's plenty of genres I won't touch just because I know someone will do them better. Pop or EDM for example. However, I have grown to like lots of material that I wouldn't have 15 years ago. There was a band I produced a couple of years ago who I ended up writing loads of synth and the outro bass parts for one particular song. The band's guitarist decided he didn't like some of his own parts and scrapped the best song. I had a joke that they did it to screw me out of mechanical royalties, but it really was an amazing song and such a pity they junked it. Much like @cheddatom, I'll offer advice and suggestions if a band/artist wants them. If not, I won't, but I'll always ask which they prefer. Some bands want a collaborative experience, some just want you to press record and make sure they sound good. Neither approach is right or wrong.

I must admit, I've made the mistake of taking things just for money. Never again. Nowadays I'm quite picky with whom I work with. For example, people who can't make up their minds about stuff are mental health kryptonite for me. They generally don't realise how toxic they are. They ask for stuff, you do it and yet they won't like it and not be able to tell you why either. Plus, it's your fault for having done what they asked despite pointing out any pitfalls which might ensue. For the most part, I tend to only work with bands or artists I like or would like to work with. Anybody that twinges the old spidey sense is a no. This has saved me masses of stress over the years and there's no getting away from the fact you'll have a bad session every so often. What one can do is minimise the risk of getting one though.

Hi peeps, I appreciate that this isn't an instrument building, tuition, famous person clinic thread, so interest may be minimal. However, for those of you who take your music seriously, I'm offering you all a quick bargain. For the whole duration of January, if you have a song you want mixed and mastered, I'll do it for £120. Examples of my work are on my website, Facebook and Instagram. www.eraxsound.com Facebook & Instagram - @eraxsound This one's in the affiliate forum as well.

So definitely not "once more - with feeling" then?

I've done that plenty of times. As long as the polar pattern of the mic isn't going to get much bleed (I tend to use an SM7b as well), you're basically laughing. It does tend to be screamers I've found who have this issue, but it's whatever gets the best performance out of someone.

That should have been done weeks beforehand and is essential prep I insist people follow. If they haven't and it becomes a problem with various members of the band saying whatever "isn't right," I'm stopping the session as I really have no patience for it. I will always do the best I can for anyone and I'll have prepped thoroughly beforehand, but if they don't care enough about what they do to prepare properly, then I'm afraid that there is always going to be problems.

I'm fairly relaxed about this stuff. However, there are red lines. Dont put drinks on my desk. Vaping is a no. Go outside. Drugs? I'm kicking you all out. Energy drinks do smell, but it's not that often that folk have them at mine. Seemingly water, cola or fruit juice is the main thing for my clients.

As someone who played brass instruments when I was younger, I love recording brass. It's just fantastic.

Oh dear. I think you'll find that not all of us are the same. I'm pretty sure both myself and @cheddatom are not one of the engineers/producers you refer to. Pile through my website and none of the songs there were quantised. Just punch ins and maybe some small edits. However, things are all relative to the material. I don't do pop at all, but I appreciate what's expected of different genres. However, to quote myself. I recorded a band and the singer said that he wanted the vocals to sound "perfect." After clarification, he suggested basically quantising and tuning the life out of them. I always say "You can have perfection or personality. You can't have both, so choose." Virtually everyone always chooses the latter option.

That's exactly how I look at it. I make a point of leaving people's performances as alone as I can. I've done a lot of metal and it's more often been the case that I've managed to at least let the band discuss how the drums sound before replacing all the shells with samples. In most occasions I can show them how it'll make them different. That being said, I've done metal bands where the drummer has been left out of the material entirely in favour of me using Superior Drummer. Not my choice I hasten to say!

I think people are confusing constant tempo and relative time. Record in free time and it doesn't matter too much as long as the whole band is in time and it's not meant to be a massive change. Playing to a click, that's where a bad drum performance has to be sorted out. I do drum editing for a few producer mates who live in Canada. The sort of stuff they do is metalcore/thrash, so it has to be exceptionally tight. They favour absolute on the line positioning. Even when someone has played really, really well. Some genres get away without it. Most modern metal (especially if it's djent) will have been quantised within an inch of it's life. As with all things, it's how you use the tools at your disposal, not what they are that makes them fundamentally right or wrong. Loads of musicians can't play to a click. Sometimes that's a problem, sometimes not. It depends who it is in the band that can't do it and what order you choose to record in.

My personal favourite is when bands haven't listened to what each other are doing. So, they send me a guide guitar track which sounds fine. Has the drummer practiced or listened to it? Of course not. This then ends up in a conversation of the band arguing about what structurally is right or wrong. Naturally, the drummer can't play the song properly. I always give a band info that they should be prepared and not just try to "wing it." Very few bands actually do that though. Guess they haven't read that properly either. I inform them they've got 30 minutes to agree between each other or I halt the session and throw them out. Naturally, they can't agree, so they've just paid me for nothing as they're not getting their deposit back and will have to pay to rebook. They came back 6 weeks later prepped and it was all good. Just they'd wasted several hundred quid. As for instruments, anyone can use what I have in the studio. Quite often this becomes a necessity when a guitar or bass doesn't want to work properly. Rare, but it happens. Anyone who thinks quantising is the work of Satan is presumably still recording to tape? I generally favour light touch edits as much as possible. Which is to say, full takes if possible, but with punch ins for any part that might have been flubbed. If a drum track is so bad that I've had to quantise the whole lot then the band have the wrong drummer for their material. It's that simple. For the most part, being relatively picky in who I work with, bad sessions are in the minority by a long way. Sometimes, folk have a bad day or don't prep (despite saying they have) and it's rare, but happens.

Happy to help you out squire. Have PM'd you.

Depends on what you want really @SteveXFR. I've done live recordings which are completely down to the proficiency of the players how it turns out. There is a middle ground which I tend to prefer which is to play live, but the guitarist and bass player go straight in via software or pedals. This allows you to keep drum room sound and as you have the DI's, you can reamp them afterwards to get the sounds you want without unnecessary bleed. Plus you have the ability to correct mistakes. If you're interested, I've done a few doom bands and if you're in or near London/Kent, I'm happy to help you out. Boot me a PM if you want.

From experience, autotune (I use variaudio in Cubase) is great for the small fixes. Whilst some clients say not to use it, they usually don't need it to be fair. The thing is, you can make a performance sound perfect in terms of tuning, but what you can't do is give a performance the authority of being performed confidently. Nothing will fix that. When I did a solo album I autotuned all of it. Mainly because I'm not a great singer despite having perfect pitch. It sounds fine, but someone better at singing than me wouldn't have needed it. Most modern stuff has been nipped and tucked here and there. I tend to try and do things as light touch as possible.