Thanks to Ken for this one...
Power down
It was my one of my first major label tracking dates, I was assisting an
engineer who had never worked that particular room, and we had a room
full of players being paid double scale. Realizing that it would be a
pretty high pressure gig, I made absolutely certain that the
top-of-the-line auto-aligning 2" machine was in as perfect alignment as
possible on the night before.
The session, which was on the hottest day in August, started slowly.
The newly installed multi-channel headphone system was being
problematic. Upon getting that taken care of we started. Once the
players had worked up the first song we cut a couple of versions. The
second version was great! We invited the players into the control room
for a listen. The mix sounded really strange. The bass player asked us
to turn up the bass. The engineer pushed the fader and looked at the
meter. There was no bass coming back from tape. Turns out four
channels didn't record anything.
At that point, I turned to the producer and said "I think you should
call an early lunch". One of the toughest things I've ever done.
I then called a local rental company, we got a new 2" machine in there
and were up and running within an hour.
I found out the next day that there had been no problem with the
auto-aligning 2" machine. The power grid voltage had ducked to brownout
levels in the middle of the session due to drain from A/C units in the
area. Due to the brownout, the logic circuits in the tape machines
freaked.
The Moral? Regulate the heck out of your power, it will save your butt.
Contents
Thanks to Wayne for this one...
Rappin Like Crazy
This happened several years ago when rap was just becoming popular (yeah
-- I'm an OLD dude). I had only been operating my studio for a year or
so and thought I'd run a promotion to drum up business. So I offered
folks a sweet deal. I don't remember the exact details, but it came out
to be something like "a day in the studio for $500." I thought this
might get some bands interested in recording who otherwise might not
come in our doors. And it worked pretty well... until this rap group
took me up on the offer--LITERALLY.
Now my idea of a "day in the studio" and THEIR idea of a day in the
studio were 2 altogether different things. I considered a day somewhere
in the range of 8 hours -- the typical work day. But since this IS the
music business, I recorded several bands and spent a good 12 to 16 hours
by the time all was said and done. By not having to watch the clock, I
reasoned that the musicians could enjoy the studio "event" a little
more. And most did. I CERTAINLY did!
FAST FORWARD
Back to the rap group... I knew I was in trouble when they brought in
their toy of a drum machine (with gosh-awful sounds), but kept an upper
lip and offered to re-sequence their stuff using my equipment. No go.
OK. I can deal with it. After all, I'm a professional and the client
is always right. Yeah -- RIGHT!
LET'S MAKE A TAPE
Well, sir. The leader of this band wanted his 24 hours in the studio --
that's a day. Uh oh. A smart alec! I tried to explain, in a nice way,
that they weren't being offered 24 hours... just a session, a mixdown,
and some duplication time. No. They wanted 24 hours of session time.
OK. I advertised it that way -- we'll deal with it. BUT -- I told them
any needs beyond the 24 hours (like mixing or dupping) would have to be
charged at my normal hourly rate. Deal. We have a verbal
understanding.
THE SESSION
It took more time than the group had figured just to lay down their
basic instrumental tracks. Before they could start their rap, they had
to have something to rap to. And I was determined to make their project
sound as good as I could. I don't like for the client to wait for me,
but I don't mind waiting for them. And that's mostly what was
happening. They couldn't get their act together. So it took us some 4
to 6 hours to get their equipment set up and sounding reasonably good
and onto the multi-track tape.
OH YEAH
I mentioned this happened in the first couple of years of my opening my
studio. At this point, I had a partner, but he worked shift work at a
local refinery and was unavailable for this weekend project. I had not
yet hired any independent (or otherwise) engineers -- so I had it all to
myself. I reminded the band that they weren't going to get the greatest
of results if they persisted in this quest to use all 24 hours. "No
problem, man." OK. But we're going to take regular breaks and I'm
going to get out of the room from time to time.
THE RAP
Finally -- the guys are ready to rap. Tracks are cued up, headphones
and mics are in place -- and off we go after a short break from the
instrumental recording fun. Uh oh! These guys have NO sense of timing
in their body AT ALL. This is earning my money the hard way. Why is
nothing ever simple???
After a good 8 hours of practicing -- that's what it was-- I was trying
everything I could to help them... visual cues, turning up the drums,
giving them a loud click, all to my frustration. With my hind-sight
20-20 vision, they probably didn't even know they were off to the
music. We're talking amateurs here!
GLAD THE HOSPITAL IS CLOSE!!!
Bet you didn't see this one coming. After 8 hours of rapping, one of
the guys starts having real problems with his breathing. I thought, "oh
this is just perfect." By this time we were well into the wee small
hours of the morning. Ever go into an emergency room at 3 a.m.??? It's
not the most fun I've ever had. Turns out the guy hadn't had much rest
before coming to the studio, and then hadn't taken the time to eat
before his turn at the mic.
THE FINAL MIX
Since this was the "lead" rapper, this party was over. I offered to
give the guys another "day", but on my terms, in which to finish their
project. They agreed. I got paid. But they never followed up. And
no, I didn't get sued. Like I said, this was a number of years ago.
Thankfully!
Ain't RAP "dead" yet??????
Contents
Thanks to Michael for this one...
Who Is The Producer?
Once upon a time I was casually involved in a goofy little project fronted
by a college professor. He was pulling in solid money, but was a little
unstable in other repects (plus weed...). We cooked up a few tunes on my
little 4-track cassette which were well received by friends, etc. He
decided one day that despite our having never played in front of people,
that we should do a CD.
Since my monetary commitment to this thing was to consist mostly of two 2
inch tape reels, I went along, despite some reservations about marketing
and such. I booked time at a nice 24-track studio across town and we
scheduled extra practices to get into shape. At some point, I foolishly
asked who would be producing the project. Being the only one with studio
experience and having kept up my reading, I was hoping the prof would say
"why don't you handle it?" or at least make it a group effort. Instead, he
immediately said "me--I'm putting up the money!" Mistaking the role of a
music producer for that of a film producer (who puts together the
financing), he proceded to be a complete dick-tator through the entire
first session. After awhile, it just got painful to watch, as he went off
in various directions (@$50/hr) and got increasingly frustrated as we ran
out of session time. I mostly hung out in the studio's TV lounge. Oddly, he
got mad at me for somehow not saving the day -- when he himself had brushed
aside everyone else's ideas all night! A later all-night session went no
better (I never played a note!).
Short of ready cash, the Prof allowed me to oversee my own keyboard and
guitar overdubs (at my expense), which I achieved in about two hours. Of
course, I had PLANNED what I was going to do ahead of time, and simply
followed that plan.
He got 1,000 CDs pressed, and still has the bulk of them. His production
credit on the insert only cost him $5,000!
Contents
Thanks to Anon for this one...
The Christians
A while back in 96' I was asked to work as an
assistant on "album mix for some band" as I was told it would be. I put
myself up for the job and soon found out that we were actually mixing a
live Christian rock gig. Recorded on no less than 56+ tracks of DA-88, This
guy would have miked amoebae on the church floor if he could have.
First
of all the studio I was working at had been totally rebuilt which was great
exept it wasn't finished!! What looked to be a fully operational studio was
actually a patching nightmare. The patchbay wasn't labeled so I had to go
off a sheet some tech had written up in hieroglyphics. All the machine in's
and out's weren't plugged up so I had to run mic leads everywhere.
About
2days into the session It became plainly obvious that the Christian
audiophiles stockpiled with technology and the love of god didn't have a
clue in hell about working a recording studio. It was on the third day and
still on the first track that I wondered if we were ever going to put down
a mix at all !!!
The most painful part was the Producer who insisted
(instead of using a timecoded dat and running it through 1/2" later) that
we put all the mixes on 1/4" and print the code to the Centre track for
synching to the footage of the ghastly concert. Also after he had replaced
all the live gtr parts with his own godly chops, different artists who had
sung on the tracks would come in and hang around saying things like"I m so
glad I found god".
Not to speak down to them it just seemed like they where
quite fake. So day 7 came and we had mixed about 4 of the 12 tracks
intended so they had to just run the rest off on the fly with no
automation. In typical fashion the engineer had to go home early so they
made me mix the rest of the album. I felt my inflated invoice at the end
justified my time in hell !!
Contents
Thanks to Aaron for this one...
More Christians
I ran a session for some amatuers who cloaked themselves in *God's word* a couple of years back. Originally I began recording them at a different location ( I had two studio locations then) and under different circumstances. The second location was existant out of *political* things out of my control at the time, and the studio had to share space with several businesses under one structure. The people for which I worked for at that time had not a CLUE about sound and isolation for the purity of recording (especially DIGITAL recording using capsule electret mics). Within those first sessions we had interuptions that included people chanting about * the snake, the snake (refering to satan), women crying to/for/about each others misfortunes( the divorce group), people wanting to find the bathroom via our vocal booth, unkempt children that thought my dual 31 band pink noised room EQ was a toy.....well, you get the picture.
I obviously had to leave that facility, but felt badly for the artists and offered to keep them on at my first location at a cheaper rate then offered to any other clients to complete the project. They continued work with me and we did some incredibly technically challenging things for their benefit...........such as, i would punch in HALFWAY through a word trying to save a livable perfomance ( which for these folks was hard to come by). I did free vocal compositing for them on my personal time. I was also gigging 200 miles + away on weekends in a band and would drive back to do a 5 hour session with them on Saturdays. Basically, it sucked to be me at that point. I did this for them for 5 months before they ended up not finishing the project and stiffing me to the tune of 60 hours
Contents
Thanks to Stan & Jacqui for this one...
The Percussionist
There was an "name withheld" R&B percussionist who hounded me to re-mix
his solo project. After months of his hounding, I finally booked time in
my local room (24 trk), figuring on about 4 /5 hours. Soooo the day
arrives and I'm at the studio early (4am as agreed). 5am - no artist.
6am - no artist - 7am no artist - 7:30 AHHH he arrives..... with a 2/trk
cassette that he calls "the original recording"..... Needless to say, I
took a sabatical from the bizz after this clown..... Now I do what I
want - when I want - in my Project Studio.
Contents
Thanks to Bob Ketchumof Cedar Crest Studios for this one...
The Anniversary
Here's another "one of those days":
So I get a call from a woman who books an hour of studio time.
She shows up on the appointed day with her husband of 25 years.
They're both in their mid-50's and she tells me that they are going to
re-do their marriage vows.
He wants to sing a song to her during the ceremony but he's afraid he
might not be able to pull it off as he might be overcome with the feeling
of the moment.
So they talk about it and decide he should record the song then play the
tape at the appropriate moment in the ceremony.
It makes sense to me, so I prepare to bounce the music track they've
brought to the multitrack so he can do his vocal track.
I place the cassette in the drive and wait for the music to start so I can
set levels to tape and LO you guess what the song is......?
Well, I won't keep you in suspense...... it's "The Wind Beneath My Wings".
Now we ALL know how difficult that song is to sing for several reasons,
not the least of which is that it was designed for a woman's voice, plus
there are NO drum cues in the entire first half of the tune.
As I dub the track over I am starting to get a cold chill up my spine when
she casually mentions that her husband has never done this sort of thing
before. Oops!
Well, I won't bore you with the gory details of how the session progressed.
Suffice to say that my wife took the boys out somewhere in the car, the
dog howled at the door until I let him escape as well, and the cat threw
up a hairball right on my desktop.
To this day I will never hear that song again without breaking out in a
cold sweat.
I hope the ceremony survived the playing of that tape. I plan to be on
vacation on their 50th.
Contents
Thanks to Geoff for this tale!
The Stoned Drummer
Well sometimes it does happen. I got into this business to find enjoyment
in my work. But every now and then you just have to scratch your head. It
was a session about two years ago. A band was in to do some demos and a
track for entry into a Vancouver, BC radio station contest. We were
running a click track to tape from a synth and as the session went on the
drummer's tempo was deviating more and more from the click. He wasn't
drinking, he seemed to be in a good mood, except for the occasional "I'll
kill ya turn it on!" hollered into the assembled mics. It wasn't long
before things became a little tense; the band was paying and the studio
clock was a-ticking. Well to make a long track (story) shorter the band
ended up firing their drummer from the session and bringing in a new one who
just buried the click; session saved... The moral of the story keep an eye
on those drummers cause sometimes when you're not looking they might be
walking off into the woods and smoking a whole baggie of the wild wood weed
between takes. Which we later found out had been the case in the story of
the errant drummer. But that's life at Lakeside and we love it, cheers
from BC!
Contents
Thanks to Andy for this tale!
Bad Attitude
I fell victim to "Rock-Star Attitude" a few years back. A band
approached me with the idea of doing a full-release CD, which would've
been a first for me. They gave me the whole pitch that they were a huge
band with major label interest and I should feel honored to record them.
Excited, I agreed to cut their rate in half. They also mentioned that
there would be a producer, a guy who does sound for Smashing Pumpkins.
I said "Sure!" Wow....maybe I could learn pro chops from one of the big
boys. They were flying him in, even. That's another reason they wanted a
lower rate. And, the drummer had a $3000 kit on order. Another
justification for a lower rate.
So, we finally record, and disaster strikes. The band was seriously out
of control. Heavy drug use, bad takes, and a producer who told me it was
my job to contain the band. After about 25 hours of studio time spanning
5 days, we had nothing worth keeping on tape, and I was booked the next
2 weeks. I finally reached the end of my rope when the singer stripped
nude, spit on my Neumann, took bites out of my Sonex wall foam
treatments, and peed in the studio.
I threw them out and told them we'd meet the next day to discuss the
future of the project. The following day they arrive and tell me I'm a
shitty studio and that I'm finished in this town. I told them to pay up
or I'd burn the reels. They paid about 10 hrs studio time, or about what
I was worth, they said. So, I gave them back their reels: one of theirs
and 2 super old ones in the nice box. Never heard about that again. And,
it turns out the producer was their high-school buddy and DROVE 2000
miles in a '82 Honda Civic. Also, he's just a gofer-roadie who never
touches the big stuff. The drummer complained about the music store who
screwed up his order; it turned out he never did order drums. Once I
pieced this together, I realized I had been taken by a band who tried
everything to get a lower rate.
The band broke up soon after, then resurfaced briefly. I received a
phone call about 2 years after these sessions from the drummer, wanting
to know if I want to come out and see the band play live at a club! He
spoke like nothing ever happened between us. Many lessons were learned
from this experience...
Oh yeah... I recorded their friends' band the next week. They were cool
and focused. FInished their project in 20 hours and they put out a
CD
Contents
Thanks to Sol for this tale!
The Rock-a-hill-billy band
Well, I work on the ground level directly for independent artists. As
you can imagine I deal with some real characters that you just don't
find in the "regular" industry. About a year ago while visiting
Arkansas (I reside in Seattle) I worked with a rock-a-hill-billy band
that only had TWO LITTLE REQUIREMENTS.
1) The band wanted the sound quality to be the best it could be with no
shortcuts.
2)The band wanted to play exactly how they always played with amps all
facing each other in a 10x10 room with the amp settings the way they
always are and the vocals sung live with the vocal mic in the middle of
these 100watt cranked amps.
What a delema. No matter what tactic I tried they would not allow me to
alter their set-up. They quite seriously wanted to know why I could not
wave my wand and make it sound perfect. Hmmmmm.
The guitar mics were getting more bass than guitar and the vocal mic was
full of the most repulsive combination of muddy-phase-trash I have heard
to date. To make a painfull story short I droped the project after two
days and got the heck out of Mr. Bill's state.
Contents
Thanks to Tony for this tale!
THE R&B ARTIST
Once we had a major R&B Artist, who will remain nameless, in our facility
with an entourage of friends.
They were doing vocals and decided to put a smoke bomb in a garbage can in
the vocal booth. They then decided to put out the smokebomb with one of our
fire extinguishers. Unfortunately they decided to put out the acoustic
piano, tube mic, and a DX-7 keyboard. They must have thought a fire had
spread to the lounge as well because they proceeded to extinguish that
entire area as well. Long story short we charged the record company over a
thousand dollars for cleaning which they promptly paid.
Contents
Thanks to Steve for this tale!
THE CHURCH PEOPLE
I once worked for a large Gospel music lable and ended up doing
three days at a large multi room venue convention - the place couldn't
provide us with any security so someone had to stay with the gear at all
times. Since the door to the room we used as our mobile control room
didn't even have a latch on it people kept wandering in while we were
trying to work. That night it was decided that someone else would stay
with the gear untill about 2 AM then I would spend the night there. I
went off down the street to see War playing a couple of blocks away and
it was quite a party. When I returned at 2, i was warned that peple kept
wandering in and I had better put a note on the door. Not only did I
put a note on the door, but I duct taped it shut since I didn't want to
be disturbed. Different acts were rehearsing in the auditorium next
door until about 4:30 AM (many of which weren't very talented). At the
crack of 6:00 AM I was trying to sleep off the previous nights
festivities, when someone peeled open the taped door labled "Stay away-
sound crew only! you don't belong in here", wandered up to where I was
slepping and said rather loudly (about 2 inches from my sleeping face),
WAKE UP MISTER SOUNDYMAN, IT'S TIMEYTOYPRAISE JESUS! I carefully
considered how much I liked my job before deciding to ignore the nagging
desire to punch the moron. Later that same day the reverend who was
heading up the convention came into our room and picked up a sheet of
bubble wrap (which we would need to transport parts of the $60,000
recorder home) and started rapidly popping it while we were trying to
monitor a live recording!!
Contents
Thanks to Bob for mailing us these next three tales!
THE PRODUCER
Back in the early 70's I was working as a 2nd Engineer on a session doing an album
project for a band who's "producer" was also the band's "Daddy Warbucks". He was
paying for the session. This guy was a 50-year old local businessman who knew as
much about producing a session as I know about wrestling alligators. However, he
intended on keeping control of everything so naturally he sat at the console throughout
the entire session barking out orders and shaking his head evry time either the 1st or I
touched a knob. It was indeed pure hell and we were wondering what to do when it
came time to mix. Well, this old console has a channel strip at one end that used to be
hooked up to a tape transport but was no longer active. It had 4 big square buttons and
two knobs on it. When it came time to mix, the 1st Engineer sat the "Producer" down in
front of that strip and told him "Whenever you hear something you don't like or would
like to change, just adjust the sound using these two "Producer's knobs" and it will "fix"
the mix one way of the other. No matter WHAT we do, these two knobs will override the
final mix." So, everytime the guy wasn't satisfied or needed to "earn his money" he just
leaned over the console and tweaked one of those knobs, then leaned back in his chair
and crossed his arms with a satisfied smile on his face. At one point he even had us
stop tape so he could push one of the dissconnected buttons and said, "Okay, go
ahead. I got it". It took ALL of our composure for the rest of the session not to let the cat
out of the bag. We never told him.
Contents
"OH BABY, REVERB ME!"
At about the same time (at the same studio) we had a typical rock n' roll group come in
to do some tracks. We spent most of the day doing basic tracks. By mid afternoon we
had started working on guitar overdubs and the singer was getting restless doing
nothing hanging around in the control room. His girlfriend showed up and they spent the
next half-hour huddled up on the couch that was situated in front of the console looking
through the glass into the studio. After a while the guy gets up off the couch and comes
up to me and whispers "Hey man, is there a place we can go around here that's
private?" I informed him that the only room around here with a door on it was the
Reverb room. The 1st says "Yeah, NOBODY'S ever in there and it's completely
soundproof." Well, for the uninitiated, the reverb room is a 12 X 20 empty room with the
walls covered in foil, a 12" speaker at one end up at the ceiling, and a microphone on
the floor at the other. This was long before the age of digital reverbs. Well, the two of
them go into that room and shut the door. While still doing the overdub session, the 1st
directs me to load up a reel of tape on the mono machine and routes the reverb room
mic send to the R-T-R and we continue on with the session. About 30 minutes later the
two of them come back out into the control room looking disheveled and pulling at their
clothes. The guitarist leans down by me as they exit and whispers "Wow! Man, that was
a WILD EXPERIENCE!" Now I ask you, how could you NOT go back after the session
and listen to that tape?
Contents
GUITAR GOD
This incident happened to me a couple of years ago here at my studio. I had just
earned a couple of Gold Records working with Krokus on Arista and got some album
credits as well. A guitarist in LA had somehow heard about my studio and wanted to
come here to Arkansas to cut some demo's for a prospective record company. To make
a long story short, this guitarist had an ENORMOUS ego and upon arriving at the studio
INSISTED that he be allowed to engineer the session as well as produce it. In such
cases like this I simply back off and let the client do what they want. After all, it IS what
the studio business is all about, making money. Well, this control freak blew his entire
budget fooling around before he even had all the basic tracks done, much less
overdubs. It was painfully obvious to the rest of the band that he didn't know the signal
flow of my setup but he refused any suggestions on my part. I finally shrugged my
shoulders and went back to the kitchen where I spent the rest of the session hanging
with the rest of the band. Every once in a while one of the guys would show up in the
kitchen with a real scared look on their face and telling some horrific new tale of Mr.
Ego's ill-fated journey into engineering. I wandered into the control room during
mixdown and couldn't believe my ears. I had NEVER heard something SOUND SO
BAD coming out of my facility. This guy had EQ'd all the guitars way off the scale! There
was not ONE channel strip that did not have the EQ cranked all the way up in some
fashion. After the mixes were done I informed the guy that I would prefer the studio's
name not be included anywhere on the tape box, citing that it was "his project", not
mine. But I felt so sorry for the rest of the band that I actually sat down after they left and
remixed the entire project (4 songs). I sent those mixes to the other guys in the band
with instructions that this was on me and not to tell Mr. Ego. I received several grateful
letters of thanks from California about a week later. Needless to say, Mr. Ego did NOT
get the record deal.
Contents
ONE ARMED MIX
Thanks to yet another anonymous for sending this in...
I've produced many top 40 hits, and while most sessions have been
professional and friendly, one incident sticks out in my mind as the
most peculiar of them all.
The vocalist arrived scantily clad on the night before the mix was due
and asked me if she could listen in on the session. I agreed
promptly, but it seemed a bit peculiar for her to stop in by herself
without her manager. She was also stinking of alcohol.
We headed for the console, sat down, and she commenced to stroke my
leg. "Will you tweak my knob?" she laughed, as she guided my
trembling hand to her thigh. I felt a bit uncomfortable, so I told
her to leave. She wouldn't.
Instead of trying to drag her out, I ended up running the console with
one hand while fending the artist off with the other! What a
nightmare.
The song became a chart topper for 3 weeks nonetheless!
Contents
BAD WEATHER BLUES
Thanks to anonymous for sending this in...
A lot of times when you're in a session, you don't think to see if the
weather has changed in the last 48 hours you've spent in the dungeon.
Just when your putting the hottest guitar lick known to man on tape, from
the session player you finally persuaded to record at your studio,
lightning strikes, and the surge protectors, voltage regulators, and that
power strip toast. Along with 5 ADATs, HIS Korg a3 and all the data on
the 5 tapes. (deep breath) Too bad the bass player,drummer, and
keyboard player just flew back to Nashville. Too bad the artist and
backer are coming tomorrow to check out the tracks. REMEMBER!!! If the
weather looks bad, unplug EVERYTHING!!
Contents
THE SEVENTEEN YEAR OLD CASSETTE
A friend of mine told me this story...
This guy Mike came to do some sessions at New Breed Studio (NYC). He
brought with him a 17 year old cassette that he wanted remixed! So
they put the stereo cassette up on two faders and re-eq'd it! Mike
didn't like the way the EQ sounded, so he grabbed the console, but he
was turning the knobs on the wrong channels! After a few adjustments
he threw his hands in the air and yelled "I'm a genius!". (This guy
was about 70 years old at the time and had also brought his own assistant!) As my friend just basically transfered his cassette to DAT (at
$60 an hour no less!), he wanted to fuck with him a bit, so he told him
to watch the levels going to DAT, they were very important! So this old
guy is yelling at his assistant to write this down "-3, 2 ...1
.. -2 -3, etc". Then to top it off, they put the DAT mix back on the
same 17 year old cassette!
This was put out independently by some fool and the credits read " mixed with
mike's Magic"
From: greggy@ix.netcom.com (Greg Montano )
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HORSES IN MY PIANO
I opened up the piano mikes on a session once and was getting RF
interference; I was sure I could hear the races being broadcast.
Suspecting a dodgy mike lead I headed into the studio to find Milton
Saunders, a veteran Sydney session muso, sitting at the piano with his
chart beside a form guide on the music stand! When I looked at him he
had one headphone on and an earpiece connected to a portable transistor
in the other ear picking up Randwick Races while playing the session.
This was 15 years ago. You don't get sessions like that, or like anything
really , here anymore.
From: David Cafe deecee@ozemail.com.au
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PREGNANT
I hired a famous dance songtress for a session who was 9
months pregnant when she came in for the session! ( Much to my surprise as I
hired her through her agent...who failed to mention this to me....) I
initially wanted to cancel the session as I was not comfortable...but she
insisted she was up for it...(as she stood there in 3" heels, no kidding).
So we went forward, and pulled it off, though had the baby arrived 2 days
later...
From "Lancelot"
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911 STUDIO
I once had to call 911 for an overdose in the bathroom. They lived.
I won't name the band, but in the liner notes there are thanks to 911 and
Harborview Hospital.
From "Benson"
Contents
HOLOCAUST
Some years ago I was engineering some spoken interviews for an art
installation project about the Holocaust. The artist had found an
elderly survivor of Dachau and had persuaded her to tell her story for
the microphone. Early on, it became obvious that this was the first
time in decades that this woman had even talked about her experiences
and as she began, at first hesitantly, she became more and more involved
as the memories, long suppressed, bubbled to the surface. This was fine
except for the fact that I had only one reel to reel machine available
and, after and hour, I was running out of tape!
What to do?! You just can't stop someone telling the tale of the most
horrible experience of their lives because of "technical difficulties".
All I could hope to do was to have another reel ready and change them as
quickly as possible and hope that not too much would be missed.
I'll never forget the "hell" of that confrontation of Humanity and
Technology.
Frank Lockwood
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THE PROGRAM DIRECTOR
From auralwiz@netcom.com (Michael Andre)
I was working with a vocalist who had a top forty hit single and was in
need of more material for an album. His manager was a
famous radio promoter. We produced this song and gave it to the manager
who sent out copies to a few program directors at the local radio stations.
One PD said it was a hit and would go with it when it came out, another
said it was "pretty good, maybe a hit" and yet another said it would be a
hit if HE produced it. They asked me to let him produce it and I agreed.
In the session I was asked to do things like add a ton of hall reverb to
the bass, vocals, snare and kick. The mix sounded extremely muffled
and lost it's clarity. I soon realized the PD had never produced before
and was trying to get credits on a single. We mixed the song and it sounded
like crap. I made copies for them to take back to the manager to review.
What I gave them was copies of the exact same mix they had heard the first
time. They all sat around the office and congratulated the PD on a great
improvement in the production. He beamed with pride at his "mix".
I only shared my little secret with the artist, who was the only one, I
think, who noticed it was the original production.
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