Studio Etiquette

[WinterMute]

1 hour ago, cheddatom said:

A wonderful session of lead vocals yesterday. This singer hates headphones and asked if there was a way to record without. Some engineers would refuse, others would try to set up a super accurate out of phase monitor system, I just handed him the SM7b, put my earplugs in, and turned the monitors up loud. He was nervous that it wouldn't work as he's never seen it done like this, but I know the guy, and he's LOUD, so when I played it back with the vocal solo'd, you can hardly hear the track at all, just his screaming voice! Ditching the headphones really loosened him up and we got some very "live" performances

 

If it worked for Freddie... etc.

 

Can't do it with a U47 however...😆

[Jonge McLengo]

On 13/12/2023 at 15:04, zrbass said:

And ..'that's why he's messing it up cause you look like you could'nt care less. It was always the case tho not nessecarily easy to sit there..head up and taking an interest in what the other band members were doing....Absolutely nothing worse in a control room than a band member demonstrating little interest in what everyones doing as they either read or mess about doing something else.

What was I meant to do, give him a round of applause every time he made a mistake? We all knew he could do the part, we’d heard him do it in practice. It was just a case of red light fever, which happens to everyone and is nothing to do with the rest of the bands attentiveness. Best to let him get on with it without feeling like he’s being scrutinised.

[nilorius]

10 minutes ago, Jonge McLengo said:

What was I meant to do, give him a round of applause every time he made a mistake?

Who will dance on the floor in the round?

[Erax Sound]

9 hours ago, cheddatom said:

A wonderful session of lead vocals yesterday. This singer hates headphones and asked if there was a way to record without. Some engineers would refuse, others would try to set up a super accurate out of phase monitor system, I just handed him the SM7b, put my earplugs in, and turned the monitors up loud. He was nervous that it wouldn't work as he's never seen it done like this, but I know the guy, and he's LOUD, so when I played it back with the vocal solo'd, you can hardly hear the track at all, just his screaming voice! Ditching the headphones really loosened him up and we got some very "live" performances

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.

[tauzero]

On 13/12/2023 at 14:44, Jonge McLengo said:

I don’t know, it’s quite nice to have something to do while listening to the guitar player balls up the same overdub in the same place over and over and over…

 

Ah, you too, eh? Plink plink plink plink "f*ck". Plink plink plink plink "f*ck".

[tauzero]

On 13/12/2023 at 15:04, zrbass said:

And ..'that's why he's messing it up cause you look like you could'nt care less. It was always the case tho not nessecarily easy to sit there..head up and taking an interest in what the other band members were doing....Absolutely nothing worse in a control room than a band member demonstrating little interest in what everyones doing as they either read or mess about doing something else.

 

We sat in the kitchen so as not to put any pressure on him.

[Leonard Smalls]

On 14/12/2023 at 19:37, Erax Sound said:

It does tend to be screamers I've found who have this issue, but it's whatever gets the best performance out of someone.

I'm not sure that's the case... 

I lived in a shared house once where one guy's girlfriend was a screamer. While the performance may have been great for those in the room, the rest of us in the house trying to sleep wished for, at the very least, a full isolation booth for the pair of 'em! 

[Dan Dare]

1 hour ago, Leonard Smalls said:

I'm not sure that's the case... 

I lived in a shared house once where one guy's girlfriend was a screamer. While the performance may have been great for those in the room, the rest of us in the house trying to sleep wished for, at the very least, a full isolation booth for the pair of 'em! 

 

Now that's one occasion where a round of applause when they'd finished would have been in order...

[Erax Sound]

2 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

I'm not sure that's the case... 

I lived in a shared house once where one guy's girlfriend was a screamer. While the performance may have been great for those in the room, the rest of us in the house trying to sleep wished for, at the very least, a full isolation booth for the pair of 'em! 

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

[Leonard Smalls]

1 hour ago, Dan Dare said:

Now that's one occasion where a round of applause when they'd finished would have been in order

I think we did the first couple of times, in much the same way as a whole pub cheers when someone drops a glass.

We kind of hoped they'd feel a bit self-conscious and STFU just a bit. But they didn't, and after 2 or 3 weeks of this we started dropping hints about ball gags and the like.

[JottoSW1]

51 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

I think we did the first couple of times, in much the same way as a whole pub cheers when someone drops a glass.

We kind of hoped they'd feel a bit self-conscious and STFU just a bit. But they didn't, and after 2 or 3 weeks of this we started dropping hints about ball gags and the like.

Gaffa Tape and a Titanium Chastity Belt.

[Rib13Bass]

its only normal for people that dont have any ethics. Not their fault: blame the parents

[MacDaddy]

On 05/12/2023 at 23:15, Dad3353 said:

 

Oh, I dunno; where does this gobelet land..? 

 

 

 

One would hope a thrown plastic glass at a gig did not contain liquid other than alcohol...

[TimR]

8 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

 

Now that's one occasion where a round of applause when they'd finished would have been in order...

 Don't encourage them. It'd be like one of those pub bands who come back on for an encore when the audience was actually just clapping politely. 

[cheddatom]

The band from the first post were in again this weekend. The "boss" told me that they were only doing a couple of straightforward rock 'n' roll numbers and it should be easy to get them done in the day. I breathed a massive sigh of relief. It turns out his definition of "a couple" is actually 4 songs, and once again, they rushed, and didn't get everything done. 

 

Everything I suggested, he repeated as though it was his idea, but everyone could hear us both

 

Every time he played or sang, he told us all "that was pretty much perfect". Every time he said it, I said "even if you do say so yourself". The other band members giggled, but it didn't phase him a bit

 

Working on drum tracks, I would stop the drummer and start talking to him over the talkback mic, but we'd be unable to hear each other because "the boss" was loudly exclaiming how perfect the drumming was. I had to wait until he'd finished complimenting the drummer, before I could explain what was wrong with the drums, which felt very awkward indeed

 

They brought a non-band member to the session. He just sat in the control room the whole time and said nothing

[cheddatom]

Something common to loads of bands/sessions - people in the control room start singing or playing along the to the song, which I'm inevitably going to stop before it gets to the end, giving those awkward moments when people carry on playing or singing for a couple of beats after I've hit stop. I get that you're excited to hear your songs, but think of the poor red-faced engineer!

[WinterMute]

Just out of interest, and I expect the answer is "turnover", but why would you accept a booking from a band that ill-disciplined a second time?

 

I will completely accept, and support, the wildest changes in direction and planning provided there are sound creative reasons for doing so, simply adding more and more rubbish to an already overloaded arrangement "to give it a try" is not a good reason to over-run a session by 5 hours...

 

I had one band heading into the mix on an album that'd taken 3 weeks to track come in and demand that the entire drum recording were to be replaced because the drummer had a new drum kit. This was on 24 track analogue and there was no room to lay the new kit in parallel, I would be literally erasing the old drum tracks as the new ones were captured. They insisted that the new kit was better and the drummer was capable of tracking the whole album in a "reasonable" amount of time, but that it would have to come out of the mix time budget. This simply became a matter of 'Just do it" as far as the band were concerned. I did point out that if he wasn't, the whole album was at risk. I fully expected to have to rush the mix.

 

I set it up, mic'ed the new kit (which was an absolute belter as it happened) and kept my fingers crossed that the poor drummer could keep going for what I thought would be at least 2 days... Pressing play and record on that first track was one of the hardest things I've ever done in a recording studio.

 

He nailed 7 tracks in 4 hours, 2 in one take and 3 with drop-ins into break downs, he had a pizza and an hour break and cleared the last 5 before midnight. I had him drop an intro the next morning and started mixing. We finished the album 2 days early. Sometimes it works out. Good musicians are worth their weight in gold, good drummers doubly so.

[cheddatom]

2 minutes ago, WinterMute said:

Just out of interest, and I expect the answer is "turnover", but why would you accept a booking from a band that ill-disciplined a second time?

 

Yep, I needed the money!

[cheddatom]

2 hours ago, WinterMute said:

...Good musicians are worth their weight in gold, good drummers doubly so.

 

Absolutely! The worst session of my career so far was down to a drummer. It was pretty straight forward rock music. The guy only knew how to play a sort of bouncy indie beat, which worked for one track, but none of the others. I tried to get him to play appropriate beats. I'd sort of beat-box the beat to him on the talk back, he'd say he got it, then when I hit record he'd play the same beat as before. I'd say "no, that's not it" and go show him the beat on the kit. He'd say he got it, and then do the same again. Over and over we went until I gave up and accepted the one beat he could play. Unfortunately, as the guide tracks were to a click, and the guy started drinking white lightening at 9AM, to get him anywhere near in time took a hell of a lot of editing. The band sacked him that night and I played the drum tracks for them the next morning - 6 songs in an hour.

 

Obviously when he turned up with literally no gear (no sticks even) I should have cancelled the session, but again, I needed the money!

Edited April 2 by cheddatom

[WinterMute]

The things we do for money eh? 

 

I'm glad that phase of my career only lasted about a year, I moved to a excellent studio after that and nearly all the sessions were of good quality, and then I went freelance and I could chose the sessions I worked on after that.

 

Now I work purely for the fun of it, and it's a great hobby to have.

Edited April 2 by WinterMute

[PaulThePlug]

18 minutes ago, WinterMute said:

Good musicians are worth their weight in gold, good drummers doubly so.

Are you saying Drummers are fat?.. 😉

[Dad3353]

1 minute ago, PaulThePlug said:

Are you saying Drummers are fat?.. 😉

 

Some are. 

[WinterMute]

1 minute ago, PaulThePlug said:

Are you saying Drummers are fat?.. 😉

 

well, if the XXXXL joggers fit...

[Franticsmurf]

1 hour ago, WinterMute said:

Good musicians are worth their weight in gold, good drummers doubly so.

My mate Simon, the drummer in the first few bands I was in, was an excellent drummer. He had the technique for our music (prog/rock/heavy/indie) and in the studio he was able to focus to nail the drum tracks every time. He didn't play to a click and wasn't metronome perfect but he had the feel of the songs (maybe because he wrote or co-wrote many of them) and it was rare for him to be more than a few seconds over or under the time for each take. It was a rare day that he wouldn't get his drum parts done within two play-throughs and they never had to drop in to correct him. I would offer to play a guide guitar part with him and more often than not I'd be making mistakes while he carried on with the correct part despite my distractions.

 

Later I started recording the band myself and I think I was spoilt with him as a drummer as I assumed that was how all drummers were. The reality was that with the few other bands I went on to record, the drummers never matched up to his standard. They were pretty loose and hard to work with, often didn't know how to tune their kit (I didn't either but I knew that they usually needed to be tuned), relied heavily on their bandmates to play along so they knew where they were in the song and inevitably they'd take the longest to get their parts right.     

[StingRayBoy42]

Do exactly what the client/producer asks you to and tune up before every take.