What's the *best* thing you've ever heard in a session?

[Jake Dempsey]

Who has been your favorite client/project thus far and why?

[juniorhifikit]

"why don't we knock off early today"

I THINK I may have heard it uttered once... maybe I'm just dreaming

[juniorhifikit]

"WHICH fairchild do you want me to patch into?"

[juniorhifikit]

Hey this is fun! How about:

"Who wants sushi?!"

[Birdi]

or:

'Cash up front ok with you?'


One of my the best things I ever heard was a few years ago , the first time I ever employed a professional musician to come in and play a chart. I had written some stuff for solo cello and had budget to hire a world class cellist. he tuned up, I positioned the mic, got a level then he sight read through my pieces.

It was indescribably amazing to hear what was in my head but better and real. He had a cello that was worth more than the deposit on a town house in the best part of town...and an amazing chocolate mousse tone. He stopped after the first play through and said 'how did ya feel about the way I phrased that, eh? all I could say was 'give me a moment to think about that', while I recovered . I still find it exciting to hear amazing musicians give voice to stuff I'v written. Conversly, its agony to hear your writing butchered.


B

[Barish]

"I think that's it, kid. Let's print it and go home."

...from a very good friend of ours, whom happens to be the former keyboard player and sound creator of a renowned British electronic band whom were famous with their attention to detail in production leading to them taking so long to produce albums, all of which naturally ended up being used as reference CDs in audiophile circles.

Pretty confidence boosting.

M.

[Sigma]

i'd like an arugala and goat cheese salad with walnut oil [it was 3am client was a total bitch i knew i could call the 4 seasons and they had a 24 hr chef who woulda been star stuck by the client but remained mum].."sorry 3am everthing except China town is closed

then how about a buddahs delight with no msg or cornstarch in the sauce ?
listen they barely speak english i can get no msg ..but i'm sure that for the 3am waitstaff, understanding the word "cornstarch" will be a stretch


fuuckokay how about a pint of double chocolate hagen das ice cream?
no problem there is a min mart 2 blocks away

[plexisys]

Famous girl act in the 70s-80s on their first album. The engineer to the producer: Have any of these girls ever played music before?

[Karloff70]

Originally Posted by Sigma

[B]i'd like an arugala and goat cheese salad with walnut oil was 3am clien was a total bitch i knew i could call the 4 seasons and they had a 24 hr chef who woulda been star stuck by the client but remained mum].."sorry 3am everthing except China town is closed

then how about a buddahs delight with no msg or cornstarch in the sauce ?
listen they barely speak english i can get no msg ..but i'm sure that the 3am waitstaff understanding teh word "cornstarch" will be a stretch


okay how about a pint of double chocolate hagen das ice cream?
no problem there is a min mart 2 blocks away

lol......any of which brings the risk of the thoughtpattern "how about a light slap across the face to normalise your unbalanced ego" ....

[bitman]

1. "The bass sounds perfect" - From the bass player upon hearing back their finished demo

2. "Here, This should cover further recording" - About 3/4 of the way through a marathon (over days) session with a singer as he handed me a check for 500.00 on the day the mortgage was due and my wife who pays it had been praying for just that amount.

3. "The drums sound killer!" - after the first listen after tracking.

[GearHunter]

A well-known, very experienced and respected drummer comes in to the control-room with the band to hear playback of a basics take and says: "That's the way my drums are supposed to sound! Thats the way they sound to me! Why can't I ever get that with other engineers?"

This guy had been recorded by some really big names in the business when his band was with a major label. I only worked with him the one time, and never again after that day, but right after that he started a new band that became huge, and I noticed that his drum-sounds changed to the sound that WE got that day.

In my mind I'm picturing him taking the tape of what we recorded to his next major-label session and saying, "Make me sound like this!"

[Sigma]

Originally Posted by Karloff70

lol......any of which brings the risk of the thoughtpattern "how about a light slap across the face to normalise your unbalanced ego" ....

twas the only session where i told the client that i think there was another staff person who would do a better job cutting her vocals..once she went back to LA ..i finished up the sweetening and mixing on the project

being comfortable and having fun in the studio is 60% of capturing a great performance

musicians happy..they play well

musicians play well ...producer /artist happy

producer/ artist happy --engineer looks good

it's the trickle down effect..i have been very fortunate in over 30 years i can count the shumcks on just 1 hand..but i think part of it too is that i am pretty easy going understanding and open mined [as an eng ya gotta be]..er except with my assistants

her bodygaurd BS'ing with me during a break said "you know who wears the pants in her mariage" lol

[Karloff70]

Originally Posted by Sigma

twas the only session where i told the client that i think there was another staff person who would do a better job cutting her vocals..once she went back to LA ..i finished up the sweetening and mixing on the project

being comfortable and having fun in the studio is 60% of capturing a great performance

musicians happy..they play well

musicain play well ...producer /artist happy

producer/ artist happy --engineer looks good

it's the trickle down effect..i have been very fortunate in over 30 years i can count the shumcks on just 1 hand..but i think part of it too is that i am pretty easy going understanding and open mined [as an eng ya gotta be]..er except with my assistants

her bodygaurd BS'ing with me during a break said "you know who wears the pants in her mariage" lol

Everyone happy, everyone wins indeed.......easygoing and understanding/accommodating being essentials to notch up 30 proud years of action I would think. Much respect. Some polarization between the outside doing the accommodating and the inside slipping onto a slightly different view (as long as joyful and not bitter) can't be helped now and again though I'd say....

[chrysb93065]

"My vocals sound great, and I'm not getting the popping like I was at that other studio". From a locally famous act here to do one song for a quick deadline. The other studio was a pretty famous LA place. The artists' assistant asked "how did you get those comps to blend so well?" Take it while you can get it.

[edvdr76]

"I'm glad we came to record with you" was the best thing I've ever heard......

[DGrimmett]

Band: "Hey dude nice to finally meet you, We've been in wilmington all weekend"

Me: "Sweet, the beach, what were you doing down there?"

Band: "We were shooting people... Its cool we get payed to do it"





........Shit

[Keire]

when a girls said "do you guys mind if i track my vocals with my top off?"...that was one of my favorites.

[mdjice]

Platinum Artist:
I love that mic it sounds so crisp and clear... ( I always put a bright eq on a bus track when he comes to record

[heyman]

How about...

"Get out of my studio you No Talent Ass Clown."

God, so many times I wanted to say that..

[Soldier777c]

Last year in mid-October on a Sunday morning:

Artist: "Hey man, I know we're under the gun but would it be cool if we started a few hours later today. I'm in a photo shoot is going to run longer than expected."

I was dreading calling him to tell him I wanted to start later in order to catch the Bears/Vikings game, so this saved me from having to look like the bad guy. I was all smiles from that point on . . . that is until the Bears lost a heartbreaker in the final seconds at Soldier Field.

[strewnshank]

"I spent ten times this much with [hotshot producer] and it didn't sound this good" - from a NYC singer songwriter who is decently well known, and my biggest gig to date.

[seaneldon]

I did NOT hear this, but I believe the guy that told me it happened:

"Hey! I'm an engineer, too! Here's what I want: A lotta lows, lotta mids, lotta highs. Okay?"

[Karloff70]

Originally Posted by seaneldon

I did NOT hear this, but I believe the guy that told me it happened:

"Hey! I'm an engineer, too! Here's what I want: A lotta lows, lotta mids, lotta highs. Okay?"

LOL....classy!

[Lee Knight]

Best thing I ever heard in my little project studio.

I'm producing a Oingo-Boingo like project. I have an idea that one of the tunes should be re-done as an album closing reprise, but done acoustic and in a very different style. The band recommends their friend, and band leader of my previous production clients. They say, "He should do it on banjo!"

"He plays banjo?", says I.

Next day he shows up with a nice looking Deering, listens to the tune for the first time. Twice through I think. I hand him a lyric sheet and say, do it in that old man voice you used to fool around with...

...he goes out into my big room an 18 foot tall living room with hard floor. I only take a Blumlien pair about 8 feet away from him...

And out of his mouth comes some other guy I'd never heard before. Some old man in Alabama playing on his front porch, singing the song, but a different song. The words were right, the melody was shifted slightly into a bluesy thing, and an articulate yet totally relaxed 5 sting banjo peformance... comes out of my mains.

"Like that?" Yeah... like that.

[cajonezzz]

"Would it be ok if we just pay cash in advance?"

[Jay Kahrs]

After burning way too much time importing, dealing with Rice Krispie audio & figuring out why nothing was lining up at an overdub session...

"Screw this computer stuff. Next record we're keeping it all on tape. The first record was all tape and it was great. Just go in, play your part until it's good and it's done! This sucks."

Several weeks earlier during pre-pro and even right after basics were cut I tried persuading them to keep it all on tape... it's not like they couldn't play.

[Karloff70]

Originally Posted by mdjice

Platinum Artist:
I love that mic it sounds so crisp and clear... ( I always put a bright eq on a bus track when he comes to record

Like your sly french style lol

[GearHunter]

A litte off-topic, but when I first got in to selling Pro Audio in the late 90's we'd get phone calls from clients saying, "I'm going to wire $400,000 in to your account today. Then let's figure out what I need to spend it on."

Yeah, those were good times!

A typical call by 2006 was, "Listen, in about six months I'm going to be buying $200,000 worth of studio gear, which I'm going to only pay you $100,000 for, and I may not do the deal at all. But I want you to start jumping through hoops today and every day for the next few months in the hopes of getting my business. Then here's what will happen. I will take all the work and info and proposals and quotes that you made for me and shop them to the lowest bidder. If I DO end up buying from you, you will have to chase me for the payment and at the end of the day the profit will be so low that for all the time you put in to my project, you would have made more money per hour flipping burgers at McDonalds."