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Suggestions For When Someone Totally Mangles Your Work?


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I did a live recording for a friend the other day. Two room mics, plus a direct from his acoustic guitar and a direct from his vocal. 4 simple tracks. It was at a nice club with a nice warm room sound.

 

I did a quick mix the next day. Got a nice warmth to it and a really good balance between the performer and the room. As I sat and listened to my mix, I felt like I was right there in the club again. He asked me if he could have the original files so he could poke around with mixing it himself. No problem.

 

Well, he totally killed my mix and ruined it with his own mixing. Put heavy compression AND heavy limiting on the vocals, totally removed the roo mics and replaced them with some cheapo VST reverb plugin on the DI tracks, and posted it on the web. Fortunately he didn't credit me with doing the recording, as I really wouldn't want people to think that I did this.

 

So what do you think...should I say something about how horrible it is to the guy (with whom I'm going to be recording his upcoming studio album), or just let it slide?

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Ask him which he thinks is the better mix. If he says he thinks his is better, ask him why he thinks that.

 

At least you'll have more of an insight into what kind of sounds he prefers. If he prefers shitty ones, maybe you shouldn't work with him?

"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." - Banky Edwards.
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Originally posted by gmstudio99:

I did a live recording for a friend the other day. Two room mics, plus a direct from his acoustic guitar and a direct from his vocal. 4 simple tracks. It was at a nice club with a nice warm room sound.

 

I did a quick mix the next day. Got a nice warmth to it and a really good balance between the performer and the room. As I sat and listened to my mix, I felt like I was right there in the club again. He asked me if he could have the original files so he could poke around with mixing it himself. No problem.

 

Well, he totally killed my mix and ruined it with his own mixing. Put heavy compression AND heavy limiting on the vocals, totally removed the roo mics and replaced them with some cheapo VST reverb plugin on the DI tracks, and posted it on the web. Fortunately he didn't credit me with doing the recording, as I really wouldn't want people to think that I did this.

 

So what do you think...should I say something about how horrible it is to the guy (with whom I'm going to be recording his upcoming studio album), or just let it slide?

If it were me, I would say it doesn't sound good and list the reasons why. I would pull his mix up and then pull yours up and show him. After that I would tell him he's too talented to have that really bad mix out there of him. If he's got ego problems and he simply thinks he knows better, just shrug it off, smile, record his CD, make the cash and move on...What else can you do?? You need to be truthfull to the Guy because after all, you have the expertise in this and he clearly does not.
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Did your friend pay you to do the live recording? If he did, then he can take the tracks and do what he wants, (assuming his bill is paid in full). If you did it as a favor, then you can pretty much give your opinion. Like Rog and Sean said, sit down and listen to both mixes, and explain why he should pay you to record and mix his CD.

 

Sly :cool:

Whasineva ehaiz, ehissgot ta be Funky!
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It's afine line when a cliet takes your hard work and eithe themselves or though a thrid party produces a less than top nothc end result. On the one hadn, you don't want to twart potential future business by being too bold in your criticism, but on the other hand, you want to grab him by the throat and ask him what the f*ck were they tinking.

 

If the situation arises, present him with an A/B comparison, and ask him to bring you some examples of stuff he would like to emulate mixwise. the bottom line is he is the cleint, he's the one footing the bill, so it's his call.

 

One thing I have always stipulated in my contracts with clients is I have the option to not have my name credited with the work if I so choose. I've had this scenario happen more than once myself, and there's nothing worse than your name all over someone elses bad mix/mastering.

Hope this is helpful.

 

NP Recording Studios

Analog approach to digital recording.

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Unfortunately ( :) ) we are not always able to superimpose our experience and learning on others.

 

If the guy did this and posted it, it may mean that he's predisposed towards liking what he's done.

 

Your efforts (for today, anyways) at trying to set this straight might be better expended telling trees to stop growing.

 

NYC Drew

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Whoa, whoa, whoa.

 

Perspective here. It's HIS performance. You just recorded it. Regardless of how woefully unappreciative of your skills the artist may be, the artist (or his management :rolleyes: ) are the final arbiters of how the recording should sound.

 

He asked you for the original tracks, telling you he intended to remix it. You said OK.

 

It's OK not to like what he did with it, but you really don't have any reason to lodge any complaints about it. Sounds like this was a pretty informal arrangement, and you gave him permission to do what he liked with the recordings. You're not "credited," so how's it affecting YOU?

 

From his perspective, maybe he felt your mix mangled HIS work.

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There ya go! Problem solved .
ah! hold on there.

 

He still has to come back with a mix the artist likes. If the artist had liked the first mix he would have said so - but he didn't and tried himself.

 

I'd look at what he was trying to do. He obviously didn't want the natural sound of a club because he compressed the vox to bring it forward and removed the ambience mikes to get rid of the club.

 

Have you asked him about this?

 

Maybe you should try to do what he was trying to do but do it better. ;)

 

cheers

john

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I was browsing a record store one day in the mid 80's and I saw an album by a SoCal punk band called Love Canal. I'd recorded them for a compilation record a few years before so I was glad to see they'd finally got it together and cut a whole album.

 

I flipped the album (vinyl) to see where they cut it and I was amazed to see myself listed as engineer/producer on 4 or 5 tracks.

 

Suddenly, I remembered we cut a few extra tracks since they were friends of the label owner. We'd done a quick mix the night of the tracking and run it onto a crappy cassette the guitarist had in his backpack.

 

The rest of the album had been recorded in a decent 24-track studio (unlike the rat-hole 8 track studio we were stuck in) and properly mixed and mastered, so you can imagine how "my" tracks sounded in comparison.

 

A few years later I ran into Eric, the leader of the band and he was so eager to have me thank him for making sure I got credit for my work I just had to smile, shake his hand and say thanks.

 

He offered to send me a copy but I actually bought it that day I stumbled onto it. Just for old time's sake.

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