What's the rudest anyones ever been about your studio?

[Labs]

I once offered a band to record a track for free. I liked the band, wanted to see if we would get along, maybe do more. Its always nice to get your name on some stuff you actually like when you are trying to build some credits.

They asked if they could rehearse a little in the studio for a show in town the day before we were starting. I said ok, didnt have anything booked, was soldering some stuff, so just thought theyd be set up to record the next day that way.

The next day their friend showed up. They wanted to record one of his songs. Id heard the friends band, and if I had liked his band and not disliked him for being a pathetic Jeff Buckley wannabe, I wouldve made the offer of recording a track for free to him. Turned out the friend had more of a song-idea than an actual song..

I thought about just calling it quits, but I completed the tracking. Then I wrote the session to a DVD and said goodbye.

I have no idea how anyone could piss on an offer like that. Free rehearsal space booking and bringing in the friend for the track.

This was a christian band too, which made it even weirder to me.

Gustav

[frans]

Well, some people just don't get it. In my experience as a FOH guy I'd say the more talented and professional people are the more easygoing they are.

So one day this jazz band called to have me mix one of their shows and record it. I talked to him for one hour that I don't recommend it, because of the circumstances. They wouldn't listen, bring in an Adat (it was the early 90s), tape not even formatted, no cables for the direct outs and so on. I did make it work and all - the show didn't go well (their fault) and the singer was bitching and complaining all the way. After the end of the show he leaned his guitar on his amp (fretboard up, what a pro...) and of course it slipped, fell and feedbacked, because he didn't turn the amp or his guitar down. He screamed that it was all my fault. Yeah, whatever.

Give them enough rope.

I'd say I've been lucky ... so far nobody dumped at my floor. It helps to thoroughly sort my clients. It helps that I earn enough money anyway.

[Gulliver]

Originally Posted by frans

Well, some people just don't get it. In my experience... ...I'd say the more talented and professional people are the more easygoing they are.

This has been my experience as well. It's the "wanna-be's" and the "think-they already-are's" that are the problem.

Also, I've had better luck charging at least something, even on quick short stuff I wanted to be involved in gratis. It sets up a whole different/better attitude among artists/bands, even if they're paying peanuts. It's the freebies that kill...

Lastly, on Gustav's point..
I could make a whole thread about "Christian" bands, artists and labels and their in-studio and on the road lifestyles, obscenity, shenanigans and non-payment. In my experience, these have traditionally been my worst clients. I don't want to open a can of worms about anyone's religion, and surely not all CCM artists are like this, but what gives?!

[MilesSmiles]

no one is rude at my studio because I have a lot of guns. I'll let the clients decide if any of them are loaded. (they aren't).

I also weigh 280lbs, and can easily disable people by sitting on them, so that helps as well.

[AstralPStudios]

I don't have any personal stories, but I went to school
at Arlyn studios in Austin and we were told not to sniff
the seats on the couch. We asked why and were told that
when sublime was recording there, they were severely coked up
and took a shit all over the seats and stuff.

We were also told about dimebag and phil pissing all over copy
machines and stuff.

Whenever I own a studio, there will be ground rules and if you don't
follow them, you'll be kicked out, simple as that, you will also pay
for the time spent and not allowed to record again.

Then again, there's a reason I prefer mixing to tracking.

[henryrobinett]

I had a bright idea a couple of years ago to get my band to put a co-op studio together. I had all the gear and mics and we split the $600 a month rent for the space. Five piece band is pretty good split - $120. Then every one can have access, schedule their time and work together or separately on their own projects.

Musicians being musicians, this was a little too much for some of the guys, particularly the sax player. So I pay all the rent, guys (some) contribute what they can and the deal, otherwise, is much the same.

So when it comes time for the sax player to record his demo he goes to my ex-drummers studio -- pays for it.

And clearly it's not because the other studio is better . . .

[Purple]

Originally Posted by Gulliver

This has been my experience as well. It's the "wanna-be's" and the "think-they already-are's" that are the problem.

Also, I've had better luck charging at least something, even on quick short stuff I wanted to be involved in gratis. It sets up a whole different/better attitude among artists/bands, even if they're paying peanuts. It's the freebies that kill...

Two points that I couldn't agree more with. Even if you use beer as a currency it at least sets up a working relationship where the artists will not take you for granted anymore. And you get beer at the end of it!

[MilesSmiles]

Originally Posted by bighp

Two points that I couldn't agree more with. Even if you use beer as a currency it at least sets up a working relationship where the artists will not take you for granted anymore. And you get beer at the end of it!

but it has to be good beer. Not un-drinkable garbage like budweiser. how in the world do people drink that crap????


just sayin....

[Purple]

Originally Posted by MilesSmiles

but it has to be good beer. Not un-drinkable garbage like budweiser. how in the world do people drink that crap????


just sayin....

The trick I found whenever I am in America is to drink Bud Light. Tastes like Budweiser but more watered down and therefore LESS crap.

Or stay classy and stick to the PBRs.

However, neither of these would qualify as payment for a session because it would just be disrespectful.

[labra44]

I accept only Heineken as payment...

I cannot believe these stories. If someone shlt on my floor they wouldn't make it out the door without that shlt being punched into their mouth and a tripod mic stand shoved up their ass, tripod end first...

I am just getting into the idea of charging to record other people and I thank you guys for letting me know that I need to worry about where people shlt, even though I have a very nice bathroom.

[area51recording]

Originally Posted by ImmortalGropher

I don't have any personal stories, but I went to school
at Arlyn studios in Austin and we were told not to sniff
the seats on the couch. We asked why and were told that
when sublime was recording there, they were severely coked up
and took a shit all over the seats and stuff.

We were also told about dimebag and phil pissing all over copy
machines and stuff.

Whenever I own a studio, there will be ground rules and if you don't
follow them, you'll be kicked out, simple as that, you will also pay
for the time spent and not allowed to record again.

Then again, there's a reason I prefer mixing to tracking.

....I would NEVER NEVER EVER record at a studio that would not let me sniff the couch cushions

[trubadoor]

I put up a U87 for a singer. On play back he said he'd never heard such a tinny, thin and all together shitty sounding microphone in his entire life. He left the studio and told me that I should buy something like a Shure 57 for vocals. I didn't tell him that I had 5 of them.

[TRA]

Originally Posted by chrislago

When I used to play shows with my former band, most sound guys were pricks when they were setting up, but then were nice after they heard our set.

They were thankful it was over with.

[donsolo]

Originally Posted by TRA

They were thankful it was over with.

hahahahaha

God I don't miss live sound. I can at least FIX it in the studio.

[MMski]

The really only RUDE experience I have was doing live sound for a band that will remain unnamed that played on Warped Tour in 2009.

The show was supposed to start at 8, and the drummer shows up at 7:55. He was late because he was literally... in the bathtub. No time for a proper sound check, I tell them to just run through part of a song, and I'll get levels from there. Everything is fine, until the show actually starts, and the guitarists both crank their amps to 11, and singer decides to swap the 58 out for her own SM86, RIGHT before they start the set. Instantly when the band starts, everything starts feeding back like crazy, due to her using her own mic... DURING the song, she COMPLAINS TO THE AUDIENCE how bad of a sound guy I am, that the guitars are too loud (they weren't even up in the house OR the monitors, that's how loud they were). After the first song, I run up and tell her to switch back to the 58, and she tells me I don't know what I'm doing, but she decides to listen.

Throughout the set she keeps bitching and bitching to the audience about how she can't hear herself (only thing in her monitor is herself...) and that the guitars are still too loud...

By about 3/4ths through the set, the only thing I had in the monitors was the snare drum BLARING at them fuuckfuuck

[T_R_S]

" Our band is going to be the next Def Lepard and your' holding us back"
That band broke up 2 years later and the guy (the singer) who told me that never went on to anything in music.
But I did get to work in Mutt's studio in Switzerland
"Revenge is best served cold"

[GearBit]

Originally Posted by T_R_S

" Our band is going to be the next Def Lepard and your' holding us back"

Why? Because you had two arms?

[Storyville]

My band has a cellist in it. She's known reasonably well, and for a cellist that's pretty telling. Excellent player.

Every time we do a show, on our rider's additional info section we have as #1. Please allow the cello to sound natural, and like a cello.

Apparently your average sound guy thinks a cello is a substitute for a guitar, or something. I don't know what.

Anyway, sound guy puts a pick up on the cello, then eq's away all of it's low mids, as if the pick up didn't already do that a little. I gracefully asked him to warm it up, in various ways, to not sound like I was being controlling. Never really settled in. I probably should have been more assertive, but that's really not my thing.

Eventually during the show, the pickup slips off the cello. The sound guy, rather than fixing the problem by muting the cello channel and fixing it during a break, or right away - leaves the channel on, and fixes it....When you ask? During A CELLO SOLO.
---------------------

Did another show at a little Williamsburg club (already a bad start), where I was teching for the band. So I set everything up, band comes on for sound check. Keyboard player says he's having difficulty hearing himself in the monitor. Sound guy says, and we should have booted him after this one, "That's because your keyboard is in the way of the monitor." Uh oh. I kindly ask him to turn it up anyway, which he rolls his eyes at. Meanwhile, the guitar player is playing on a massive mesa stack, and the sound guy is feeding him the mic'd amp signal back into his monitor - and doesn't see why this is a problem.

But bottom line, he gets the sound working, it sounds decent. Show starts, settings have changed on the board because another band went on previously - sound guy has no recall sheet. Fine. By mid way through the third song he hits upon a decent sound. I run back to the booth and tell him "hey man, that sounds great - right where you've got it sounds perfect. You can take the rest of the set off, have a beer, great job." This is my clever rouse. Next song goes great, song after that great, song after that, still going, song after that - something sounds weird. The vocals are thinning out and the guitar sounds strangely bright, and the bass is getting louder and softer in weird places. I look back.... OH NO! Dickface is back on the boards screwing around with shit.


-----------

In both cases, I murdered the sound guys. Making me extremely rude.

[maxpidge]

Originally Posted by MMski

By about 3/4ths through the set, the only thing I had in the monitors was the snare drum BLARING at them fuuckfuuck

piss me off when i run foh, it's nothin but hi-hats in the monitors fuuck

[teo]

Originally Posted by maxpidge

piss me off when i run foh, it's nothin but hi-hats in the monitors fuuck

Unless you have some kind of pitch shifting/harmonizing multieffect unit...then the real fun starts!

[wayne_irie]

most digital boards have delays on the aux outs these days my personal favorite...fuuck

[odeon]

most digital boards have delays on the aux outs these days my personal favorite...

i very much prefer a t.c. 2290 for this. after several tests we found out that this unit confuses bitchy singers the most.

a good start point would be .4sec delay, set feedback to 0.

[odeon]

oh,

since we are off topic already:

once a guitar player threw his guitar stand after me.
the band was very late and their engineer insisted on doing a souncheck and then do a changeover again (supportband had already checked).
so we did but the guitarist hated the fact that there was a microphone cable disorderly lying in front of him.
i was on the way back to f.o.h. when the guitar stand missed my head by a few inches.
i grabbed the stand, ran to the stage and jumped on it, looked very angry at the guitar player and said with the most polite voice:" sir, i think you lost something."


some years back a (again) guitar player told me to:" only speak when i was asked to do so." but that`s another story...

[Bubbakron]

Originally Posted by Gulliver

This has been my experience as well. It's the "wanna-be's" and the "think-they already-are's" that are the problem.

Also, I've had better luck charging at least something, even on quick short stuff I wanted to be involved in gratis. It sets up a whole different/better attitude among artists/bands, even if they're paying peanuts. It's the freebies that kill...

Sooo True!!! I had one of my best friends in the world, this chick- walk away from my Neve set up (which I offered for free) and acoustically treated wharehouse to go work with $30 an hr m-audio bedroom studio because he had made printed out some fake record plaques for his walls. She dropped $900 on churchy sounding shit till she decided to stop and never mention those recordings again!!!! She now kisses my ass- wanting the "old" arangrmnet back!!

A really rude one was when I was back in my "I'm gonna produce some loyal artists and get them going and take a cut later" phase, I told my friends girlfriend we should do an album together and split it- shes tall gorgeous and seemed like a solid person. I made a sweet modern beat, recorded her on my VERY high end rig!!! The next day she calls wants to come back over, I said "sorry" - I gotta hard wire my rack so I dont have to jump behind it every 2 min-how bout tomorrow?- she gets frustrated but I did not think it was big deal. Next moring, wake up to this MASS emailed letter to all our friends on facebook how shes a "hot shit" singer and Im a flake- and if there are any "Producers" out there- she is now available. All this in 36 hrs!! She went to some bedroom ****** mbox recording pros who replied , and in whole shakira diva outfits to find out she sounds like crap, and my gear / EQ / comp/ reverb skills made her sound like magic. They get on one good mic and think its all "them". Now I see her at parties and she does'nt understand why I wont work with her again- its called LOYALTY!! PEOPLE MISTAKE KINDNESS FOR WEAKNESS!!!!!!

[rockstar_josh]

Hell, I think it's rude when people don't throw away their trash or drop my headphones on the floor. But honestly, the worst thing I've heard to my face is a bass player who played a home-made Frankenstein bass with a pick that he cut from a Tupperware lid. He told me the bass tone was sh*t. After he left the band leader recut all of his parts with one of my studio basses.

[soulstudios]

Originally Posted by Bubbakron

A really rude one was when I was back in my "I'm gonna produce some loyal artists and get them going and take a cut later" phase, I told my friends girlfriend we should do an album together and split it- shes tall gorgeous and seemed like a solid person. I made a sweet modern beat, recorded her on my VERY high end rig!!! The next day she calls wants to come back over, I said "sorry" - I gotta hard wire my rack so I dont have to jump behind it every 2 min-how bout tomorrow?- she gets frustrated but I did not think it was big deal. Next moring, wake up to this MASS emailed letter to all our friends on facebook how shes a "hot shit" singer and Im a flake- and if there are any "Producers" out there- she is now available. All this in 36 hrs!! She went to some bedroom ****** mbox recording pros who replied , and in whole shakira diva outfits to find out she sounds like crap, and my gear / EQ / comp/ reverb skills made her sound like magic. They get on one good mic and think its all "them". Now I see her at parties and she does'nt understand why I wont work with her again- its called LOYALTY!! PEOPLE MISTAKE KINDNESS FOR WEAKNESS!!!!!!

So true, but sad that people fall for that stuff. They've no idea how much goes into a recording..

[oscar gamble]

Back in the day I was interning with a friend of mine. One terrible band was in the studio and goofing around but everyone was in pretty good spirits.

The singer had a buzz on and stumbled up to the console and as he did, he spilled his drink on the Audient ASP-8024.

"oh, my bad...aw, sorry, brah" but not nearly as sincere as you would have hoped. He was still kind of and laughing.

That ended the session immediately, on the spot.

My friend asked the entire band to pack up and leave immediately. I'd never seen him talk to anyone that way.

I think the band wound up kicking his ass outside because when they came back in to apologize & pay for the session the singer looked a little 'dirty'.

[Stevil]

Originally Posted by bighp

The trick I found whenever I am in America is to drink Bud Light. Tastes like Budweiser but more watered down and therefore LESS crap.

Next time you're in the neighborhood keep an eye out for Fat Tire, good American Ale along the lines of Newcastle. Avoid the top 3.

[Purple]

Originally Posted by Stevil

Next time you're in the neighborhood keep an eye out for Fat Tire, good American Ale along the lines of Newcastle. Avoid the top 3.

The one I settled on was called Blue Moon (I think). The Gearslutz equivalent to an SM7b or distressor - not necessarily the most amazing all the time, but I can rely on it to get the job done.

Not that this has anything to do with douches crapping on control room floors...

[Stevil]

Originally Posted by bighp

Not that this has anything to do with douches crapping on control room floors...

i think we could draw a comparison to drinking Budweiser if we really tried.