Biggest pet peeves as a sound engineer/ producer

[jackfiltraition]

I hope this is the correct place to post this. Feel free to move it

So the "Biggest guitarist habit pet peeves" thread sparked some interesting discussion. http://http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/music-theory-lessons-techniques/172184-what-your-biggest-guitarist-habit-pet-peeve.html

I was thinking a similar thread but directed towards sound engineers/ producers would spark some really interesting discussion and be a great opportunity for the audiophiles to vent some frustration that comes with recording musicians and bands.

From the bands that bring in 10 friends and their girlfriends during sessions to the horrible musicians that come in ill-prepared and constantly ask "can you just fix it?". What are some of your biggest pet peeves when it comes to recording and dealing with bands?




http://http//www.sevenstring.org/fo...t-your-biggest-guitarist-habit-pet-peeve.html

 

[Metalus]

Guitar/bass players that come in thinking that theyre gonna finish all their tracks in an hour

"Yeah bro our shit is easy. We'll finish tracking 45 min tops"

 

[Chris Finster]

Lack of funds.

 

[DivusPennae]

currently, being in school to learn to be an engineer, I find forgetting equipment in the studio when recording three floors down in the recital hall to be quite irritating.

 

[jackfiltraition]

Guitar/bass players that come in thinking that theyre gonna finish all their tracks in an hour

"Yeah bro our shit is easy. We'll finish tracking 45 min tops"

I've had that one a few times

It's especially annoying when it comes from someone you know is going to struggle. "yeah man we are only going to book one day 'cause we know the songs really well and our stuff isn't really that technical"

One thing that really gets to me is when bands come in and argue about the arrangement of something once the song has already been tracked and edited.
SINGER: " Hey man, isn't the 2nd chorus only supposed to repeat once!"
DRUMMER: "No way dude I've been playing it with 2 repeats in practice for weeks!"
GUITARIST: "I thought it repeated 3 times"

This applies for guitarist's arguing over how a riff goes etc.

FFS Do you ppl know how to play your own damn songs!!!!! haha

 

[KingAenarion]

Guitarists who don't want to retune their guitars...

"Didnt I tune like a minute ago?"

Anyone, but particularly Drummers who think they can play perfectly In time to a click without having ever practiced to a metronome before.

Guitarists who refuse to turn the gain Down.

Bands who want 808 bass drops in every fucking song.

Guitarists live who refuse to turn down. No one gives a flying shit about your boutique amp's power stage saturation.

Vocalists live who cup the mic...


I'll think of more sooner or later

 

[Oxidation_Shed]

Vocalists live who cup the mic...

There is nothing on this Earth more irritating than the horrible, muffled, feedback inducing sound of a lack-luster harsh vocalist cupping the mic. "It just makes it sound more brutal." No it doesn't. Sit down.

 

[Metalhead77479]

Bands that come in and have thousands of dollars worth of gear, thinking that they will play amazing and saying things like "I really like the tone of this $3000 Music Man" yet they refuse to put on new strings, tune or even remotely try to track a serious take.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Not enough pre-production.

Not enough advanced rehearsal.
Not knowing in advance what overdubs, fills will be implemented.
No schedule of which parts to lay down first,
No documentation of tempo/meter starts/stops & changes. (This is especially important if playing with a click in a DAW)
Drastic band gear tweaking mid-recording without being directed by engineer or producer.

The list goes on.

My old band once did a 7 song recording in 3 10 hr days including mix down and the only way we remotely accomplished that is because we were prepared in every way when we went in.

We had documented our primary parts, secondary parts, overdubs, individualized voices for synths rather than recording in multitimbral mode in order to take full advantage of individual treatment of each synth part, etc...

It all matters and the more prepared you are, the better you will sound for less money.

 

[KingAenarion]

Bands that come in and have thousands of dollars worth of gear, thinking that they will play amazing and saying things like "I really like the tone of this $3000 Music Man" yet they refuse to put on new strings, tune or even remotely try to track a serious take.

Oh God yes!

Restring your fucking guitars.

Reskin and learn how to tune your drums or pay for someone to do it for you.

Restring you bass! I will get out my bass regulalarly which I restring once every 3 months or so. It's a cheapish Yamaha, and not amazing. If my bass sounds better than your $3000 music man then you need to restring it!

 

[KingAenarion]

Double post... Half an hour apart... I don't even know how...

Pls delete

 

[fassaction]

There is nothing on this Earth more irritating than the horrible, muffled, feedback inducing sound of a lack-luster harsh vocalist cupping the mic. "It just makes it sound more brutal." No it doesn't. Sit down.

As someone who was a metal vocalist for many years......I am ashamed to say that this was me. I didnt "cup the mic" completely, but I definitely found that a holding it higher up, and wrapping a couple fingers around the filter definitely gave my harsh vocals a much needed clip.

I was always told how nasty (good nasty) it sounded live.....and then I realized how fucking terrible I was when I had to track vocals for our recordings. I sounded like I was trying to strangle a cat.

Then I quit smoking, thinking i would get better....nerp, actually got worse. And then I decided i didnt like being a front man anymore and just stuck to guitar

 

[Konfyouzd]

Guitarists who don't want to retune their guitars...

"Didnt I tune like a minute ago?"

This is annoying no matter what the context. I jam with a guy like this and I want to smack him every time.

 

[fassaction]

This is slightly petty of me...but I get super annoyed when bands/people I know in bands post ridiculous bullshit on their facebook page such as: "hanging out in the recording studio today" or "tracking guitars in the STUDIO all day"

Tracking guitars on a POD plugged into your work issued laptop....in your basement.....does not exactly constitute spending time in the "studio".

 

[Konfyouzd]

^

 

[ArrowHead]

The self-taught recording expert. Every band has one, and they always know a "better" way to do things than the actual way you want to do things.

People that bring friends. Especially non-musician friends that want to eat, drink, and hang out around the gear.

Bands that run off to smoke dope during a session. AND DON'T EVEN BOTHER TO INVITE THE ENGINEER!

Lastly, and close to home, perfectionists in the studio tracking. I say close to home because not only do I know how annoying it is, but still I do it myself! I'll run 20, 30 takes and just keep going, never happy with any of them. Hugely unproductive, I hate recording other people that do it, but I do it too when I record myself. No amount of preparation seems to help, so I can't even blame them for being unprepared.

 

[Metalus]

I've had that one a few times

It's especially annoying when it comes from someone you know is going to struggle. "yeah man we are only going to book one day 'cause we know the songs really well and our stuff isn't really that technical"

One thing that really gets to me is when bands come in and argue about the arrangement of something once the song has already been tracked and edited.
SINGER: " Hey man, isn't the 2nd chorus only supposed to repeat once!"
DRUMMER: "No way dude I've been playing it with 2 repeats in practice for weeks!"
GUITARIST: "I thought it repeated 3 times"

This applies for guitarist's arguing over how a riff goes etc.

FFS Do you ppl know how to play your own damn songs!!!!! haha

That last one is too hilarious . I have yet to experience that one. Its so funny when they brag about how awesome they are and then seeing the expression in their face when they cant get the riff right lol.

Engineer: "Nah bro do it again"
Guitarist: "WHAAAATT?!?!? You kidding me?!?! That was SICK!!!"

 

[KingAenarion]

I think we just need to summarize this entire thread as "musicians in general, but particularly guitarists"




I've got a new live one. Bands who don't finish and play overtime, and so you have to be the bad guy and cut off their sound even though there are licensing curfews and sound curfews and you still have to pack up after they leave...

 

[Rational Gaze]

Unprepared vocalists that treat the session as warm up. Especially people that smoked a shit load, are dehydrated and tired, or have eaten a ton of really shitty food before hand, so they constantly have to stop when they push themselves too hard, and end up burping or belching during a sustained note. I've also gotten increasingly tired of singers in a matter of genres that are perfectly comfortable with doing a shit take, and then simply saying "you can pitch correct that later, right?".

Fuck no. Do another take, don't suck, and take care of your fucking song! I can't stand half-assed performance and especially of something that the pretentious dudes that walked in think is going to impress people. At least pretend like you give a shit. At that point, I take the money, mix the shitty song, and call it a day.

EDIT: I swear I only get this mad about things I reallllly care about.

 

[jackfiltraition]

The self-taught recording expert. Every band has one, and they always know a "better" way to do things than the actual way you want to do things.

People that bring friends. Especially non-musician friends that want to eat, drink, and hang out around the gear.

Bands that run off to smoke dope during a session. AND DON'T EVEN BOTHER TO INVITE THE ENGINEER!

Lastly, and close to home, perfectionists in the studio tracking. I say close to home because not only do I know how annoying it is, but still I do it myself! I'll run 20, 30 takes and just keep going, never happy with any of them. Hugely unproductive, I hate recording other people that do it, but I do it too when I record myself. No amount of preparation seems to help, so I can't even blame them for being unprepared.

The self taught recording expert is one that I find really hard to bite my tongue with... also the weed thing haha

What's even worse then tracking a perfectionist is tracking someone who isn't really too good at their instrument while another member of the band sits around and points out every tiny thing wrong with the performance in an attempt to encourage the person tracking to do better. There are times when i get musicians in and I know almost instantly how far they are capable of pushing their playing until they crumble and sometimes that's not very far at all. All you can do just live with it and get the best you can out of them and make a little mental check list of what needs fixing as you're going. It's hard do this when someone's pacing around behind you calling out every single little imperfection possible. There is a fine line between encouragement and stepping on the producers toes.