Stupidest things WE'VE ever done durring a session

[The_Controllers]

While recording a voice over artist in the other end of my studio, i had put the gain up to compensate for his really 'embarrased voice'. He starts talking and i get hungry. The nearest thing to me...A platter full of crisps. Too hungry to think straight i started scoffing them down, 3 by 3. While going over the recording I could have sworn I could hear crunching. He asked me what that sound was and I replied with a serious face

'You fidgeting...do you want to do it again without mucking about this time? I have commitments you know'

He apologizes, puts his hands in his pocket and starts again

Pheww.....

[songyo]

I have no choice

[DonnyBrookson]

Originally Posted by The_Controllers

While recording a voice over artist in the other end of my studio, i had put the gain up to compensate for his really 'embarrased voice'. He starts talking and i get hungry. The nearest thing to me...A platter full of crisps. Too hungry to think straight i started scoffing them down, 3 by 3. While going over the recording I could have sworn I could hear crunching. He asked me what that sound was and I replied with a serious face

'You fidgeting...do you want to do it again without mucking about this time? I have commitments you know'

He apologizes, puts his hands in his pocket and starts again

Pheww.....

That is f88kn hilarious.

Never laughed so hard reading this thread!!

[John Willett]

Originally Posted by DonnyBrookson

That is f88kn hilarious.

Never laughed so hard reading this thread!!

The best story I *ever* heard was posted on the (now deleted) Sound On Sound Off Topic Forum and concerned a piano recording, sex in a broom cupboard, the engineer reading the performers score through binoculars and VD - so funny I almost wet myself.

[lord_bunny]

Great. After reading these I'm terrified to go into work this afternoon.

I had a really great freelance producer in to my studio this winter. I picked up a lot of tricks from him. I'm still stunned that I was lucky enough to have him there. He monitors loud. I have my speakers at 5, he insists on having them at 10. He wasn't used to the mouse and the way I have my UAD plugs set-up. While solo'ing the kick drum at stadium volumes he accidentally gooses the output of the 1176 to full blast... and takes a couple seconds to get it back down again.

Ten seconds earlier he had promised "not to blow my speakers." Which he didn't. Roland DS-90's can take some abuse apparently. Other than that he was A really laid-back, fun guy to work with.

[ssl_ambition]

I was recording that singer. After hours of mediocre performance she came up with a killer take singing the hole song in one take. Well, I was pretty sure I hit the recording button but eh... there was that bug in Cubase SX3 when hitting the recording button fast it started and stopped immediatey afterwards. Not to mention I was checking some gear with one eye and looked on the screen with the other one but didn't saw nothing was going on. She was so happy and proud after her take because the session was frustrating her since hours.... well, she was at least frustrated... before she got angry

[Soldier777c]

Backed the backup session onto the audio drive after 4 hours of guitar tracking, thus replacing the latest session with the one prior to when the tracking begun.

[LimeMusic]

I live and work in my studio/apt...

One night I got COMPLETELY hammered, came home, and somehow thought it was a good idea to work on the mix for a song on an album I was recording for a popular and promising local band. Then I went to bed...
The next morning, when the bass player, singer, and keyboard player (drummer wasn't coming) arrived to do overdubs, I noticed that the kick and snare tracks had been completely erased! I realized that I couldn't get them back, and for some reason hoped the band wouldn't notice that day until I could figure something out. After a few seconds of playback, the bass player asked why the drums sounded so weak, and I (extremely embarrassed and hungover) told him that the drummer's takes were shite, and that I started working on replacing the kick and snare last night, but couldn't finish in time. He told me that they all thought the drummer sucked, and that they were thinking of firing him, and that they would pay me extra for having to edit his drum parts!
I didn't charge them extra.

Living and working in the same space has it's benefits, but also has it's risks!

[drundall]

Originally Posted by Jules

As an intern.... I 'cleaned' a U87.....yep opened it up with a jewlers screwdriver all by myself & got all the rust looking stuff off the capsule with a Q-Tip... er hang on.. this Q-Tip er.. looks kinda GOLD colored now...er...(looks out side maintanence room door to see if any one is coming..) er.. I think I will just put this back on the maintenance room "to be fixed" shelf and mark it "no signal"..and er..take out the trash and see if anyone wants me to go to the store for something.....

Announced to the band in the control room that every one should go out to the live area & "check out the female piano tuners great legs".... while she was standing right behind me..

Belived a Swedish band (Trance Dance) who said they could "light" my ciggarette (back when I smoked) without matches, simply by dragging it fast enough along the floor.... (2 hours laughing afterwards at just how stupid me an the producer were for beliving them)

One morning after a producer said I was clumsy and wondered how much $$ worth of gear I could trash NEXT on his session, he had the pleaseure of seing me accidentally trip and drag a whole stack of AMS and other gear, total worth £14,000 crashing to the floor...right on cue

I once lent a 'chemically challenged" rock star £30 on a session, I was the lowly assistant, the whole session was behind them waving furiously at me through the glass and waiving "NO!!!! DONT DO IT JULES"... that was dumb.. but I amazed everyone the next day by actually getting it back....

Charged a young band 'starving band rate" and then one of 'em turns up in a Porsche (computer programmer $$$ whiz kids)

Set fire to cloth covered recording area wall because I used a skinny cable between an Ampeg SVTII bass head going full blast into a 8 x 10 cab.. cable got so hot it set the wall it was touching on fire... studio owner was pissed off..

Damn Jules...

I also once charged a band "starving artist rate" only to find later that they had 4 or 5 records out.

[DontLetMeDrown]

Forgetting to reset the EQ when moving onto a new instrument.

1073 = NOT meant for noobs.


Well, everything is still useable in the end so "no harm, no foul"?

[Beastie]

Piano session with a foreign pianist who had to leave the country at midday....
The session began at 10am - upon play back of all the takes we had done at about 11-30am - nothing was playing back but white noise.... had recorded it all in the wrong format and sample rate! (was a hired rig)
Luckily the producer was on the phone and the engineer just said lets go again and again and again - before our man had to jet!
Lucky escape!

Was a sick feeling deep in my stomach when i played back those waveforms and all i heard was white noise!!!! :o

Orchestral session into logic :o
For a start - who does this???? who????
RPO through the glass and muggins sat behind a misbehaving logic/tools rig pressing record - one of the most stressful moment of my career so far!
Drop ins not happening, logic freaking out.....
Oh an the ssl had a power cut for some reason too - session from hell!!!

Oh well lived to tell the tale....

There are a few more - but some dark secrets should never see the light of day! lol

[unit7]

Originally Posted by Jules

Belived a Swedish band (Trance Dance) who said they could "light" my ciggarette (back when I smoked) without matches, simply by dragging it fast enough along the floor.... (2 hours laughing afterwards at just how stupid me an the producer were for beliving them)

Sounds just like Soren, the drummer, or possibly Ben. They never miss an opportunity

I remember that Soren once, hired for a seminar for sound engineers at the swedish radio about micing/setting drum sound, made all the guys change mic and cables 4 times before they found out he was playing with them. While sound checking, stopping the stick just above the snare now and then, and looking concerned out to the guys in the ctrl room. He even took the snare mic in his hand and spoke "Hey guys, seems to be something ____ ____ ____ (quiet, but lips moving) mic too! Could it __ ________ ____with the the console?".

[audioguynyc]

Originally Posted by Magnus

Once, I was gonna do a punch in on 1 of the 24 tracks but forgot to disarm the other 23 tracks that were being used previously to record the whole band live.

BIG gap across all 24 tracks!!!


After realizing my mistake I quickly said:

Me: - Hmm, I'm sure you guys can do a better take, don't you think?

Band: - Yeah, you're right. Let's do another one!


Got lucky, and the band never knew what happened since I was alone in the control room.

LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOnvrwuioshrvrvwuiflkrhiwgvyjfg

[ajv205]

Lost P Diddy's mute automation on a 4000G. He always did cuts live himself and somehow that got erased. Thankfully MTV was filming in there so I tracked down the camera guys at 4:30am and got the camera that had his mute automation pass on tape. I manually re-did every single mute. Some were fairly complex six fingered puzzles with different tracks coming in at different times and I had to listen very carefully to the audio of what he was doing from the built in speaker of the camera. Fun.

[superiorsound]

I was deleting unused files............but accidently selected all 12 hours into a session.........................Was okay because we retracked it and it came out better!

[SighBorg]

Left a talk back on while impersonating how the singer in the vocal booth looks like a bobble head when he sings. Note: He's a friend of mine but I couldn't ignore it since he was moving his head so much there was a tremolo effect.

[AnAverageJoe]

While tracking I accidently sent a reverb feed at full blast to everyones cue mixes and all they heard was vocal drenched in reverb! LOL The look on their faces was a site too see lol. Not the worst thing I've done, but definitely funny when I think about it.

Hey! Kelly664 Your signature is pretty funny!!! LOL

[fallforward]

Originally Posted by NorseHorse

Recording a recital live. Forgot to plug my laptop in and it crashes halfway through. I've done this twice. Let's not talk about it anymore...

I record a bunch of recitals. I have tried to train someone to use my rig in the hopes of making enough money to invest in a second one and do more business.

I was training a friend of mine and I had him do the cable runs. Most of these jobs are very minimal time for setup so I didn't double check all the cable runs. The mics worked. I Hit record. Everything is fine, right?

Well this was a piano/voice recital, and he didn't run all the cables around the piano to where the singer wouldn't have to step over them as she walked on and off after every song (why do they do that anyways?). She enters in her elegant dress, trips over the cable and falls face first.

I didn't charge her for the session...
Robby

[grantlandau]

Originally Posted by Knastratt

i went into a studio with a christian rock band. While tracking I use to wear cans and sort of "energize" the take by projecting my feelings into it and grooving along. The door to the womb was behind me.

The take was great and I was vivdly singing along and chair-dansing intensly. When the song ended I cried out "Yes, there it was. And farted. Loud. REALLY loud. The ventilation was good so I didn't expect any problems from that. While turning around to greet the band while coming in I stared into three immaculate looking teenager christian girls with terrified looks on their faces that had been sneaking in during the take.

OUCH!

hahahahahaha...ohh the overwhelming joy followed by a thunderous accidental fart. if I was there I probably would have pissed my pants.

[Zep Dude]

As a young lad working for an A list producer: just finished 2 weeks at Power Station and went back to studio A to pick up some tapes.

All the lights were off in the control room and live room but I heard one of the techs in the live room fiddling with the piano (tuning or checking for some problem?). I decided to give him a startle by kicking open the live room door.

As the door exploded open I see a fully mic'd grand piano and the eyes of some eccentric musician look up at me. The dimly lit control room was full of people.

The guy was some avant-garde French pianist doing 30 minute improvisations and I had burst in at about 28 minutes. It was his last one before having to catch a plane.

Luckily it happened during a pause and they were able to duck the bang of the door.

Actually the engineer later told me the more difficult thing to repair was the the door slamming behind me as I ran out of there in a panic!

[PheelTheMusic]

Originally Posted by fallforward

I record a bunch of recitals. I have tried to train someone to use my rig in the hopes of making enough money to invest in a second one and do more business.

I was training a friend of mine and I had him do the cable runs. Most of these jobs are very minimal time for setup so I didn't double check all the cable runs. The mics worked. I Hit record. Everything is fine, right?

Well this was a piano/voice recital, and he didn't run all the cables around the piano to where the singer wouldn't have to step over them as she walked on and off after every song (why do they do that anyways?). She enters in her elegant dress, trips over the cable and falls face first.

I didn't charge her for the session...
Robby

EPIC...

Originally Posted by Zep Dude

As a young lad working for an A list producer: just finished 2 weeks at Power Station and went back to studio A to pick up some tapes.

All the lights were off in the control room and live room but I heard one of the techs in the live room fiddling with the piano (tuning or checking for some problem?). I decided to give him a startle by kicking open the live room door.

As the door exploded open I see a fully mic'd grand piano and the eyes of some eccentric musician look up at me. The dimly lit control room was full of people.

The guy was some avant-garde French pianist doing 30 minute improvisations and I had burst in at about 28 minutes. It was his last one before having to catch a plane.

Luckily it happened during a pause and they were able to duck the bang of the door.

Actually the engineer later told me the more difficult thing to repair was the the door slamming behind me as I ran out of there in a panic!

... and EPIC

[LoSchifo]

copied an empty folder over the session file with the same name. are you sure ? YES.
No backup. A&R and Artist astounded.

[littlesicily]

1) years ago i got my first mic and was recording a singer... I used the back of the mic and couldn't figure out why it was so dark???

2) had a singer auditioning 2-3 mics. we picked one but i had the wrong input selected in pro tools, i kept telling the singer to "get closer" to the mic b/c it sounded distant. duh

Although I record EVERYTHING, sometimes after the band runs thru the tune for the 1st time and it just happens to be magical, they're all looking at each other thinking it could never be that good again... I'll get on the talkback and say, "Ok guys, wanna take one?" The look on their faces is priceless.

[Hardtoe]

Originally Posted by unit7

Sounds just like Soren, the drummer, or possibly Ben. They never miss an opportunity

I remember that Soren once, hired for a seminar for sound engineers at the swedish radio about micing/setting drum sound, made all the guys change mic and cables 4 times before they found out he was playing with them. While sound checking, stopping the stick just above the snare now and then, and looking concerned out to the guys in the ctrl room. He even took the snare mic in his hand and spoke "Hey guys, seems to be something ____ ____ ____ (quiet, but lips moving) mic too! Could it __ ________ ____with the the console?".

Does he get punched much?



(actually, he probably has big guns cause he drums...)

[mixkitchen]

C414 in cardioid pointing AWAY from a harp. Wondered why I was getting so much bleed!!

[ljona]

Not much but...
miked drums used omni capsules in X/Y on OH and later the mixer guy had some difficulties with the stereo image

[dope5050]

Originally Posted by Magnus

Once, I was gonna do a punch in on 1 of the 24 tracks but forgot to disarm the other 23 tracks that were being used previously to record the whole band live.

BIG gap across all 24 tracks!!!


After realizing my mistake I quickly said:

Me: - Hmm, I'm sure you guys can do a better take, don't you think?

Band: - Yeah, you're right. Let's do another one!


Got lucky, and the band never knew what happened since I was alone in the control room.

Haha same think happened to me had them grouped haha & used the same exscuse "alright lets do another take guys" they will never know mwahahaha

[techneek]

Had a mixing session one day and the guitarist from the band wanted to sit in to have some input. He got dropped off by a friend and was to be picked up later. So we're working and my wife stops by while running errands and thinks I'm the only person there because my car is the only one in the lot. The guitarist is leaning over a rack off to the left of the console and can't be seen from the tracking room if you are looking straight in. So my wife thinks she'll be funny and walks up to the control room window pulls up her shirt and bra and presses her boobs against the window. The guitarist can see her real well and his jaw hits the floor. He doesn't know that was my wife and all I could say was that she had a agreement with me to stop by once a week and do that until she has paid off her recording bill. He looks at me and said don't worry, you won't have that problem with me!