Demo/Project Studio Blues

[johnnyproaol.com]

Hello,

I'm the owner of a 16 track demo/project studio and I do mostly songwriter demos, (along with a few indie CD projects). Some of the stuff that I work on is very good and it's real rewarding to work with a songwriter and turn their "ideas" into a finished demo. But with the wheat comes the chaff. I have several songwriters that I work for who write mediocre songs,(at best) and are very defensive about doing the demos exactly the way they have written them. They won't take suggestions and usually have written the melodies so that no human can do them as written. Obviously this kind of work is not fun or rewarding to any extent and in the past, too much of this type of work has made me close down the studio for a length of time until I got back into it. Any thoughts on balencing out the work, or at least getting a better attitude towards it? Of course I'm too broke to turn the "Mediocre" work down, and those songwriters seem to pay better anyway. Whattya think?

[Anderton]

Originally posted by johnnypro@aol.com:

Hello,

I'm the owner of a 16 track demo/project studio and I do mostly songwriter demos, (along with a few indie CD projects). Some of the stuff that I work on is very good and it's real rewarding to work with a songwriter and turn their "ideas" into a finished demo. But with the wheat comes the chaff. I have several songwriters that I work for who write mediocre songs,(at best) and are very defensive about doing the demos exactly the way they have written them. They won't take suggestions and usually have written the melodies so that no human can do them as written. Obviously this kind of work is not fun or rewarding to any extent and in the past, too much of this type of work has made me close down the studio for a length of time until I got back into it. Any thoughts on balencing out the work, or at least getting a better attitude towards it? Of course I'm too broke to turn the "Mediocre" work down, and those songwriters seem to pay better anyway. Whattya think?

 

I really think that all gigs have their low points. I consider my life successful if half of what I do is fun and half is stuff I'd rather not do -- that's a pretty good ratio! It sounds like maybe you're not hitting quite that high a ratio.

 

All I can say is if you're in the business of recording people, you're in the business of recording people. Do your best to make them sound good, but if they object to something, *they're paying the bills.* Give the people what they want, because you are there solely to help them realize their artistic vision, good, bad, or indifferent. You can always try saying "Do you mind if I try a different (effect, EQ setting, whatever)?" so they at least have the choice. But if you end up with a dud, that's how it goes. That's one of the reasons I stopped doing studio work -- when it was fun, it was fun. But when you're playing on some alcoholic country and western singer's comeback album, well, let's just say that you start looking for other options. If it drives you nuts, you either need to find a different line of work, or modify YOUR attitude so it doesn't get to you. By that, I don't mean you have an attitude problem -- just that if people are jerks, do the best you can, collect the bucks, and hope that one of the good ones becomes a big-time star so they'll block out months at a time in your studio .

[alphajerk]

sounds like youre burnt out. if you got a studio, get someone who wants to learn recording, do some sessions with them and throw the jobs onto them, they are fresh and dont care what they work on. take the good jobs for yourself.