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

[hello people]

Sammy Davis Jr once walked out of my studio after I refused to let him bang my wife on my Amek Classic professional mixing console.

Those were the days

[Coyoteous]

A trio of instru-metal meth-heads come to the CD/DVD plant where my mastering studio was located for an ASAP attended after-hours mastering session... actually interesting, yet very frenetic music, but a mediocre recording at best.

They don't like the way their music sounds in my studio, or how I'm attempting to make it a little better (all that was really possible). Guitar God takes me aside and says that if I can't fix it, the psycho drummer is going to "mess me up." Later, Psycho Drummer takes me aside, not knowing what Guitar God had said, and tells me, if they have to pay for the session, Guitar God is, I kid you not... going to "mess me up!"

Break time came, and I directed them to the nearest late-night fast-food. I had them take their mixes, since they were already loaded in. I left after they did, but put a note on the door saying that I decided not to work with them. I imagined that they tried to use the same tactics to get some free tacos.

The bass dude, who vegetated on the couch during the session, called a few days later for an explanation... which I gave as above. He said it was okay because the band had broken up due to "artistic differences" and the fact that the drummer stabbed the guitar player... "messed him up," I guess!

[henryrobinett]

OMG -- these last two. Are you serious about the Sammie Davis story? And that mess you up story is classic!

[Jeff Goodman]

Seriously, one or two of those jackasses should've had a black eye the next day.

Originally Posted by Brainchild

I was helping some "friends" of a friend lay down some tracks as a favor. They never even pretended to be happy with the experience. They were tossing little trinkets I had on shelves around, mocking me when I would ask them if they were ready for a take, stepping all over my toes on almost every decision I was making, wanting to re-take everything until I was finally just out of time/patience. It was obvious they didn't even want the recordings, and I wasn't inclined to give them to them anyway given how unimpressed they were. I helped them carry a bass amp out to their car and they basically just split. When I went back in to shut everything down, I found that one of them (the singer or drummer, never found out which) had taken a dump on the floor and rolled my chair around in it.

[Tone Laborer]

Here's my story about what brown can do for you, but it was at a live gig. Sorry for the OT.

Ted ******(rhymes with Puggent) was playing at the Armadillo World Headquarters, way back in the day. So, two local hippies had the gig for providing food for the band and backstage crew. They would lay out this nice spread of all kinds of homemade dishes on a big table. All really tasty, but all vegetarian. Being the great white hunter that he is, it turned out the Nuugge was not down with that.

First, they insisted everyone leave the tent while him and his band ate. They were real dheads about it. We returned to find they hadn't touched the food, but there was a big steaming turd in the large bowl of guacamole.

It's only rock n roll.

[Chrislpp]

Watered down budweiser?

As if it isn't watery enough, you gotta get the good stuff over here, companies don't rip you off as much with the watering down for profit.

[audiobob]

Working in radio about 20 years ago, the Beastie Boys came in to be on the air and in my production room to read some liners. They were standing opposite of me behind the mic and I was turned around taking to the program director. I hear this sound and turn around to see one of the BB chiseling out chunks of wood from the beautiful studio furniture with a screwdriver that was laying there. I was like "What the f--- are you doing?" He just looked at me and shrugged his shoulders with a "what the f--- is wrong with you?" look on his face.

a-hole.

[trevoire520]

Originally Posted by Tone Laborer

Here's my story about what brown can do for you, but it was at a live gig. Sorry for the OT.

Ted ******(rhymes with Puggent) was playing at the Armadillo World Headquarters, way back in the day. So, two local hippies had the gig for providing food for the band and backstage crew. They would lay out this nice spread of all kinds of homemade dishes on a big table. All really tasty, but all vegetarian. Being the great white hunter that he is, it turned out the Nuugge was not down with that.

First, they insisted everyone leave the tent while him and his band ate. They were real dheads about it. We returned to find they hadn't touched the food, but there was a big steaming turd in the large bowl of guacamole.

It's only rock n roll.

To be fair, why the hell would you lay out vegetarian food for ted nugent? honestly?

[Bubbakron]

These stories are amazing!! I cant believe what pieces of shit people can be, especially the famous ones who should be humble by how much the world has blessed their lives. Its crazy!!!!

[kafka]

Originally Posted by trevoire520

To be fair, why the hell would you lay out vegetarian food for ted nugent? honestly?

I was kind of wondering about this one. I mean, we're talking about AWHQ here, in Texas. In Texas. And some hippies ... now, let's repeat that carefully to ourselves again, hippies ... in ... Texas, lay out a vegetarian spread for Ted Nugent.

[thiagoabreu]

Originally Posted by kafka

I was kind of wondering about this one. I mean, we're talking about AWHQ here, in Texas. In Texas. And some hippies ... now, let's repeat that carefully to ourselves again, hippies ... in ... Texas, lay out a vegetarian spread for Ted Nugent.

lsd
the really strong one

[Tone Laborer]

Honestly? I didn't , read again. Honestly? What a effin moron. The forest, buddy, not the trees.

They put out the same spread of food (more or less) for every act that came through. It certainly wasn't custom made for each artistee. No one else grumpied in the guacamole.

At the time the guy was just breaking, nobody knew what kind of food he liked, nobody knew he hunted or anything else about the guy other than his music. He wasn't the posterchild for long-haired, gun toting, animal killin republicans that he is today. Your monday morning quaterback skills are astounding.


Sorry to disappoint your Texas Stereotypes ..... no hippies in Austin...wrong. Who else would have cooked the food. Sorry we couldn't get ol'Scruffy in off the cattle drive to russell up some vittles for ya, partdner.

[themixtape]

No one's particularly been rude about my modest home studio, but... I must bitch about a small studio in Sayreville/South Amboy, NJ (I'm not going to say the name but it's run by a guy whose first name starts with "D")

I tracked some drums in late 2007 for a friend, who recorded her guitars to a click track... I came in a few weeks later, with my Tama Starclassic Performer kit ($3000 kit with great cymbals, too)... tuned fantastically, I might add.

As the guy was setting the mics up for the drums in the live room (which was packed and horribly-laid out... too much gear, and cramped)... he had like, 5 condenser mics in front of the kit (close, and further away), almost like a cluster of mics... one overhead, one on snare, and one near the ride and floor tom (sort of like the Glyn Johns' Technique but... what's with the cluster?)

Basically, the guy made my drums sound like cardboard boxes. No joke.

Also, and this was great.... my Zildjian 14" New Beat HHs (industry-standard, as many drummers or drum engineers know)... I was playing some random stuff so he could sound check and the guy was saying "yeah your hi-hats are like, too bright or something... I'd like you to try a different pair"... so he gives me these cracked Sabians to work with... old, dull, lifeless broken Sabians... and as I'm testing them out he's like "yeah, those are so much better."

As I was tracking the drums, the click feed he has giving me was the quietest, and NOISIEST (hiss/hum) click feed EVER... it barely sounded like a click... it was like a soft wet fart every time it pulsed.. I was asking him if he could turn it up or change the click sound or clean up the signal or something and he was making me feel like an idiot for asking, like his click was absolutely flawless and I was speaking an alien language. I could hear him and my friend at the time talking crap about me (he must have had the talkback mic on very quietly, but I heard a lot of it).

After this, I knew this guy was a total idiot and tool. He ran Pro Tools but didn't know how to mix/engineer at all, in my humble opinion. He also had a good amount of rack gear... lots of mic-pres, some of which looked quite expensive. My theory is, he probably got lucky (an inheritance of some sort), knew a guy who had a space to rent for a business.... and started his own studio... guy was in his early 20s from my recollection. He bragged about the studio being his "main job... between this and playing in bands, this is how I make my living." Good for you, Sparky. Now learn how to use all that gear, or sell it to those of us who do.

The worst studio experience of my life. The EP that was released by the girl was just horribly-recorded and produced.... again, my drums sound like a cardboard box. No life at all.

I've heard other stuff the guy has recorded... and to be fair, those recordings are not god-awful... but I've heard a lot better.

I hate the ignorant "since I have Pro Tools, I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING" mentality so many d-bag studio owners and "engineers" have. I used Pro Tools HD in 1999, before anyone cared about it... and at the time, I hated it. It's ok these days, but to me, all DAWs are the same. I've heard KILLER records made on Reaper, Cubase, and Adobe Audition (rock records with live drums). Just goes to show yet again that it's not the gear... it's the know-how.

[Rob Coates]

This experience made me quit selling studio time to anybody: In my last house, I had a tiny studio in the basement. This guy wanted to book time for his daughter to record vocals to some prerecorded backing tracks. I explained that the studio was tiny, so just him and his daughter could attend. He shows up with his daughter, wife, and two friends. All wanted to smoke cigarettes in the studio. I told them no, and as soon as I was busy with something, they lit up anyway. When I called them on it, they all bitched and moaned and complained etc. saying they should have went to a real studio, stuff like that. Then the 12 year old daughter who was a really, really terrible singer sang a country song about losing her virginity (Cherry Wine something). In the meantime, the father, mother, and two hangers on kept coming in and out of the house, tossing cigarette butts everywhere outside my door. Went through this for about 4 hours or so. Then, at the end of the session I got..."Oh, you mean we have to pay for this today?...will you take a post dated check?"

[doose80]

I had someone bitch about me ripping them off....

When i was working for free

[Thomas W. Bethe]

I was providing live sound in a club at the local college back in the early 80's. The group came in to setup and their audio engineer comes over to see what equipment he was going to use for the show. We had sent back their tech rider with our listing of equipment and their management had approved the list. This club has a capacity about 150 to 200 people. He walks over to our Soundcraft 500 picks up one corner of the console about a foot and lets it drop onto the table. He says "I would not hit a dead dog in the a$$ with this console" and demands that we provide him with a Midas console like it says in the tech rider. I show him the letter from their management OKing our console. He says that their management blows and "would not know a good console from a piece of sh!t if it hit them in the face". He says that unless we give him his Midas console the band will not perform. The manager of the club comes over sensing that their is something wrong and tells the sound person that if the band doesn't play they don't get paid. So after talking to the band the sound man decides to do the show with the Soundcraft. All though the show he keeps hitting the board, slamming the faders, and cursing and the band tells the audience that if they don't do a good show that evening it is because "they were using inferior equipment provided by the college". The band packs up after the event and then leaves. The sound person again lifts up the console and says "this is a piece of sh!t" and "you are a ****!ng idiot" to me. When the band leaves they turn over all the garbage cans out side of the club and spread the contents all over the porch.

Another time I was working in my own mastering studio and the band shows up and all they do is fight the whole time we are trying to master their CD. It is pretty obvious that they all hate each others guts and I wonder what keeps them together. They all want "their instrument" to be front and center and keep fighting over who should be heard the most. I try and explain to them that this should have been dealt within the mix down session. One guy gets so emotional he goes outside and starts kicking my garage door. They finish up the session but no one is happy. Later I find out that they have broken up and the CD never got released. Lots anger and for what????

I did some mastering for some local high school kids. They had recorded themselves and wanted to have it mastered. They got dropped off by one of the mothers. They came in and started acting like they were rock stars. One takes out a cigarette and lights it. I point to the no smoking sign and he puts it out. Another guy takes out a flask and starts drinking it. He says it is vodka. I tell him he is under aged and I cannot allow him to drink in the studio. There are four of them and one of me. The start putting their feet on the equipment and I tell them to stop. They say they are only doing what they see rock stars doing in Mix Magizine but they will stop. Their material was not good and not well recorded or mixed. I tell them I can only do so much. They are not happy campers. We finally get done with the session and they pay me and have their mom come and pick them up. That night my lawn gets turfed and I have to imagine it was them.

[BillSimpkins]

Threatened me then did doughnuts with their truck in the front yard. They were arrested.

[rhizomeman]

Originally Posted by Brainchild

I was helping some "friends" of a friend lay down some tracks as a favor. They never even pretended to be happy with the experience. They were tossing little trinkets I had on shelves around, mocking me when I would ask them if they were ready for a take, stepping all over my toes on almost every decision I was making, wanting to re-take everything until I was finally just out of time/patience. It was obvious they didn't even want the recordings, and I wasn't inclined to give them to them anyway given how unimpressed they were. I helped them carry a bass amp out to their car and they basically just split. When I went back in to shut everything down, I found that one of them (the singer or drummer, never found out which) had taken a dump on the floor and rolled my chair around in it.

damn, I mean shit, ****, I mean...
This gets my vote for Post of the Month

[ivmike]

I once had a singer come in that was very eager to work with me; another "friend" that I knew tried to convince her that he'd be a better recordist than me. After she had lengthy discussions with him about price without consulting me (he undercut me and offered to record for "beer and food"....seriously; no money, just "beer and food") she looked around my studio and sniffed, "You only have a mixer and a laptop. This isn't a studio". So, she went off to work with the other guy that had an older laptop and an M-Box

And even better; this guy couldn't track drums (which she had hired me to play, even after shooting down my recoding offer) so he had to ask me to track the drums, in my studio and give him the wave files.

In the end, I got paid for my drumming, he didn't get paid for his "producing" and the entire project got shelved and was completely redone a few years later.

[rhizomeman]

Originally Posted by barefoot

Just take comfort knowing that in all likelyhood, IF they ever make it past age 40, they'll be toothless lowlifes unintentionally shitting on the floors of their own single occupancy hotel rooms.

yep

[The Real MC]

Originally Posted by rhizomeman

damn, I mean shit, ****, I mean...
This gets my vote for Post of the Month

Uh, that post is over two years old