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Recording session nightmare

#61
I'll +1 what people said about not realizing how different your own voice sounds when recorded.

I don't sing, but I do voiceover work as a side gig, and my voiceover coach told me that old-school voiceover artists would practice by cupping their hands around the back of their ears and pushing them forward to more closely approximate what their voices would sound like recorded.

See, when we talk, the little bones in our ears (the "hammer," "anvil," and "stirrup") vibrate, making our voices sound richer to us than they really are. That's why it's such a revelation hearing your own voice recorded. It always sound thinner or perhaps "tinnier" than you realize and you start to think, "Whoa, is THAT what I really sound like to other people? Yikes!"
 
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#62
My worst session ever was "mixing" this turdnugget. Mizar, if you are reading talkbass, I'm sorry... but... no I'm not sorry.

https://www.amazon.com/Mizar-King-Stars/dp/B07JJG9JR1

Yes, it's weird and bad, and the audio source was a cassette tape with weird keyboard on the left side and weird vocals on the right. I started by asking him if he wanted me to put them both in the center and got a weird shrug that I couldn't interpret. The rest of the session was more of the same.

The real problem was he smelled really bad. Like awful...

An hour or so in, the power went out. All across the eastern seaboard (this was August 2003). The entire city of New York had no power. But for me it was a blessing even though I had to walk home 8 miles to Brooklyn, cuz I got to finish the session the next week unattended!
 
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#63
LBS-bass said:
You don't live in California, do you? Water metering here is only now becoming a thing. We've had free water as long as I've lived here. I'm told meters are coming to my area, but they haven't yet installed one.
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i've had water meters in the los angeles area all my life - that means since the late '50s. maybe it's just your area.

Dincrest said:
I'll +1 what people said about not realizing how different your own voice sounds when recorded.

I don't sing, but I do voiceover work as a side gig, and my voiceover coach told me that old-school voiceover artists would practice by cupping their hands around the back of their ears and pushing them forward to more closely approximate what their voices would sound like recorded.

See, when we talk, the little bones in our ears (the "hammer," "anvil," and "stirrup") vibrate, making our voices sound richer to us than they really are. That's why it's such a revelation hearing your own voice recorded. It always sound thinner or perhaps "tinnier" than you realize and you start to think, "Whoa, is THAT what I really sound like to other people? Yikes!"
Click to expand...

don't forget your sinuses contribute to your voice when you hear it, too.

And I said:
My worst session ever was "mixing" this turdnugget. Mizar, if you are reading talkbass, I'm sorry... but... no I'm not sorry.

https://www.amazon.com/Mizar-King-Stars/dp/B07JJG9JR1

Yes, it's weird and bad, and the audio source was a cassette tape with weird keyboard on the left side and weird vocals on the right. I started by asking him if he wanted me to put them both in the center and got a weird shrug that I couldn't interpret. The rest of the session was more of the same.

The real problem was he smelled really bad. Like awful...

An hour or so in, the power went out. All across the eastern seaboard (this was August 2003). The entire city of New York had no power. But for me it was a blessing even though I had to walk home 8 miles to Brooklyn, cuz I got to finish the session the next week unattended!
Click to expand...

here it is. omg :eek:

 
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#64
The sad part about most musicians I meet is their inability to be honest with themselves about their limitations. Few get better and even fewer care.
I did an album last year with an artist whom I'd played all year with. My friend was recording the album- it was a freshman experience for him. He needed the experience. The drummer she used was a terrible player; It wasn't a secret that he was bad. I told my friend who was recording that this guy wasn't good enough to record. He ignored me and said he could make him sound good. In the end, the drums were awful; even after retakes of all the songs, they were still terrible. My friend aged a lot through the process and spent 90% of his time doctoring the drums. I can't even listen to the album because it's so bad.
The worst part is that this drummer thinks he's great. That whole experience was very upsetting to me because of how good it could have been with the right players. The songs were good.
 
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#67
The "I can't hear myself" vocalists really get on my nerves. I've played with people who literally want stage monitors as loud as the house mix. Same with recording, I've had to give vocalists isolation headphones normally used for drums just to control bleed because they need things SO loud. I don't get it.
 
#68
pcake said:
i've had water meters in the los angeles area all my life - that means since the late '50s. maybe it's just your area.
Click to expand...

Yep, up here in Northern California things are very different. I've never been to LA, only been in California for about 12 years, so I don't know much about what goes on down there. Metered water has been the norm everywhere else I've ever lived, so when I came out here I thought this was very odd. I'm not one to waste water but it seems like free water would sort of encourage that. I know that a lot of the neighborhoods here now have meters but they have not hit us yet. The neighborhood I am in is still on a well. They just drilled a new one last year.
 
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#70
LBS-bass said:
Yep, up here in Northern California things are very different. I've never been to LA, only been in California for about 12 years, so I don't know much about what goes on down there. Metered water has been the norm everywhere else I've ever lived, so when I came out here I thought this was very odd. I'm not one to waste water but it seems like free water would sort of encourage that. I know that a lot of the neighborhoods here now have meters but they have not hit us yet. The neighborhood I am in is still on a well. They just drilled a new one last year.
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my sister lives on a farm in northern california that has their own well on the property. that being the case, there was no reason for meters, however next year the state is going to start taxing the water, so i guess that's why they're adding meters now.
 
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#72
Slinger said:
This.

Many people haven't actually heard themselves perform properly, and don't realise how much they've been making their friends suffer. I can be an eye-opener alright. :laugh:
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A guitar player i worked with always recorded our rehearsals on a cheap little cassette deck. He said record every time you play and you will either get better or accept the futility of continuing.
 
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#74
fhm555 said:
A guitar player i worked with always recorded our rehearsals on a cheap little cassette deck. He said record every time you play and you will either get better or accept the futility of continuing.
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It's a good method for hearing where you need to tighten up.

I have a small mobile recording operation, but only take on projects I want to. That still causes a lot of headaches. I can only imagine what it's like having a studio that books anyone.
 
#76
40Hz said:
We can hope. But I'm not holding my breath. You've got one person feeding the anxieties and ego of another. Usually somethings got to break before it gets better.

In a way I feel for singers. They're stuck with what they've got. It's not like they can go out and buy a really good amp or axe, or just put more time into practice and better lessons and it'll yield great things. They're kinda like racehorses. And they're skittish, like all thoroughbreds.

Singers can make the best of what they've got and train up to be better than what they currently are. But there's very real limits that hard work and commitment won't necessarily overcome if you're a vocalist.

You can work to become a better racehorse. But there's no way that's going to make you a major stakes winner or set new records unless what it took was present all along. Same goes for singers.

Instrumentalists mostly work to learn new skills.

Vocalists mostly work towards discovering where their true limitations lie - and then learn how to work around and work towards making the most of what they do have once they know where those limits are.
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+1 on the blind leading the blind.

However, a couple voice teachers who have been friends of mine for many years would disagree with "They're stuck with what they've got" and "...mostly work towards discovering where their true limitations lie..." Lacking at least a measure of underlying talent, well, yeah, I guess it's a fun hobby. But provided there's discernible talent in that voice sans teaching then some teaching can take a voice at least as far as teaching will take a player who's got comparable talent. Their voices may never fill the seats of a stadium but they can get awfully good if there's something there for a teacher to work with and they're willing to woodshed.
 
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#78
pcake said:
my sister lives on a farm in northern california that has their own well on the property. that being the case, there was no reason for meters, however next year the state is going to start taxing the water, so i guess that's why they're adding meters now.
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I think we pay a monthly hookup charge to access the water; they have to pay for maintenance somehow. It's very odd here; there are multiple little community water companies.
 
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#80
brianrost said:
Running a studio is no fun.

As he was dialing in the mikes as the track played they started singing those low guttural sounds and he began laughing. They stopped singing, stared at him through the glass and walked out of the studio and never came back, nor did they ever pay him!
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I'm curious why he laughed? That is exactly what kind of vocals go in a death metal song. That's a very unprofessional engineer.
 

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