Production/Mixing horror stories

[Nathan KayeParticipant]

Inspired by @Warren Huart's suggestion in the live Q & A.

Let's share production, recording and/or mixing horror stories & how we either overcame those challenges or failed facing those challenges.

I think it could be hugely useful for many of us to learn from each other's experiences.

WHAT'S YOUR HORROR STORY?

WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM IT?

• This topic was modified 8 years ago by Nathan Kaye.
• This topic was modified 8 years ago by Nathan Kaye.

[Nathan KayeParticipant]

A story of a production FAIL.
One of my horror stories was that I had flown to the other side of the country (Australia is huge!) to record an artist.
I gave the lead singer some advice to nail the emotion (as she was struggling to give the vocal lines real juice) plus some practical things I needed her to do as far as her position to the mic, specifically because her vocal tone is really piercing at certain frequencies (mostly around 2kHz, but a couple of others) & I know the tonal response of my large diaphragm mic (A Rode NT-1 modified to the specs of a U87 by Michael Joly, which is normally beautiful on vocals), so I wanted to avoid fixing it in the mix.
However, I found that she was more interested in doing Instagram and Facebook updates than actually focus on laying down something special with her vocals on her own songs (she literally would sing a line whilst holding her phone, then look down and scroll).
It was an uninspiring and draining session for me because, personally, whenever I've gone into the studio to record my music I am always excited and feel a deep sense of honour that I have the privilege to record my songs, but with her I had to use my energy to pep her up for hours with inspiring tales of how her songs will affect people, especially if she lays them down at peak performance level..

What I ended up with was a bit of a nightmare to bring her vocal takes to life, but also to carve out the many screechy notches that overwhelmed the mix without sacrificing her tone. She was just too close to the mic for the louder vocal lines, despite gently encouraging her to stand back for them.

Well, it was a struggle that I don't feel I quite fully fixed, if I'm honest & it wasn't as simple as just getting her in to re-sing the lines because of the vast distance travelled, (which, I might add, was the rather impractical advice I received from one of the other prominent online mixing coaches out there).

Then, of course, she complained about her vocal tone in the mixes. All I could do was be diplomatic and take responsibility (without casting any blame to her - she's the paying client, after all, and I always want the whole experience to be a positive one for my clients) and try my best to fix it by hiding her vocal blemishes with some kind of sonic foundation make-up. Lol!

It wasn't entirely a FAIL, because the end result was quite amazing, if I may say so, considering the sonic battle I had.

ONE THING I LEARNED:
• Don't allow smart phones in recording sessions!!!

HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH CLIENTS THAT WON'T TAKE ANY DIRECTION?

HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH RECORDINGS THAT AREN'T NEARLY AS GREAT AS (WARREN'S ARE!) YOU'D LIKE THEM TO BE?

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Nathan Kaye.

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