What do you du when gear fail on you when you need it the most?

[blackcom]

You have payed big bucks for high-end gear...and when you finally get a break with a big client, your gear dies the day before and service will of corse take several weeks.

What's the point of getting expensive stuff when you can't use it?

I'm ****ed...I had API, now I have to use Focusrite Platinum and the client is upset. What the hell in the point in investing in expensive gear anyway....screw this....

[adam_w]

Yeah, this has happened to me too. Everything breaks in life..your car, heating (usually at Christmas ), mouse finger..usually at the most inconvenient point possible. You just have to get on with it & stay cool. The API people are good at service, so at least it's something that's still made that can, & will be fixed. A 5 year warranty or something insane, isn't it ?
That's a good reason to buy quality gear that you don't get with most things these days...

[H-Rezz]

Originally Posted by blackcom

You have payed big bucks for high-end gear...and when you finally get a break with a big client, your gear dies the day before and service will of corse take several weeks.

What's the point of getting expensive stuff when you can't use it?

I'm ****ed...wanna quit the business....I had API, now I have to use Focusrite Platinum and the client is upset. What the hell in the point in investing in expensive gear anyway....screw this....

First, you have to maintain a level head , and go rent one for the big session for 50 bucks if you have too , i do not see your dilema what so ever !

Sorry not to feed your emotional state , but i used to hire Al Smart C1 comps,API's , Neve's whatever i need to finish a job .

If you do not have a hire facility close by, you pick the phone up and call any studio that you feel might be able to help you ......

[blackcom]

I woulden't mind renting...but no-one rents out API in Norway..and no store has it on stock....

But there is plenty of Platimun, SM Pro Audio and other shit here.......
People are severly anoyed when I call'em about renting stuff here.....stike

[Fletcher]

Originally Posted by blackcom

I'm ****ed...wanna quit the business....I had API, now I have to use Focusrite Platinum and the client is upset.

You should definitely quit the buisiness.

A real professional will work around any kind of setback being it a dead piece of equipment to a small fire shutting down the session for a couple of hours. The client will always feel good about what's going down because they'll be pleased with what they hear coming from the speakers.

If the client knows you're having some kind of problem they'll take that information and have it weigh on their mind which will fvck with their performance which will turn into a downward spiral that eventually ends up with the session being pretty much a disaster.

Get the API stuff repaired, buy or rent a replacement module if you really feel you can't get along without it. You can rent them out of the UK if you can't find one in your country... you can buy them from any of the EU or US dealers and have one in a day or two [worst case scenario]. You can call Bo over at Golden Age and work out a rental/demo of the "Vintage Design" hardware which is a different texture than the API stuff but damn cool sounding none the less.

My point is that you have options. You can either excercize those options and get the tools you think you need without panicing the client or you can throw up your hands and run in circles while you scream and shout.

The difference between a professional and a hack [besides the outcome of the product] is that nothing phases a professional. If you're thrown a curve ball you figure out how to turn it into a hit without anyone knowing you don't like curve balls. The key to the whole thing is to never let the client know there is a technical struggle and fvck with the performer's head. You capture the performances, you capture them to the best of your ability with the tools at hand.

Once again I will repeat that there ain't no motherfvcker ever walked down the street humming the mic-pre... but if the musical performances are compelling people will often walk down the street humming the music.

The tools we employ are really just there so we can get the most from the audio in an effort to support the musical performance. So we can gain separation and depth with the audio that compliments the song(s). What we do does not "make or break" a record [for the most part... if anything I'm sure what we do has broken a few but made fewer]. On the best of days the equipment we employ will cause the performer to perform to a higher level than that which they are usually capable of attaining. On the best day the sound they hear in their headphones will inspire them to reach goals and heights of emotion they would not normally have hit because the audio which they're hearing is just so damn cool it inspires them. That is the best it gets, and it gets that good on an exceptionally rare basis.

Work with what you have and keep the performer focused on their task at hand [performing]. Don't make excuses as to why you aren't able to perform your job to perfection. Lost a mic pre? Shit happens, work around it until you make some arrangements to get a replacement tool in it's place. If you let it fvck up the flow of the session then you can pretty well be guaranteed that the session will indeed be fvcked.

Best of luck with it.

[joelpatterson]

What he said!

Ontop of that... it's a neurotic customer indeed who's world falls apart when the *promised* API is unavailable and he'll have to *gasp* contend with a Focusrite Platinum.

This may come as a shock--Focusrite Platinum, used wisely in the right hands... is a damn fine pre.

[Midlandmorgan]

Originally Posted by joelpatterson

What he said!

Ontop of that... it's a neurotic customer indeed who's world falls apart when the *promised* API is unavailable and he'll have to *gasp* contend with a Focusrite Platinum.

This may come as a shock--Focusrite Platinum, used wisely in the right hands... is a damn fine pre.

Exactly...have an Octopre for just that...and in many cases, it still is the best choice, even with the ADesigns, OSA, and other goodies we have around here...

If I might add - having stuff poop out at the worst time is also a chance to prove your creativity, which can lead to your developing some pretty cool tricks of your own. Serendipidous discovery I think its called...

If you have the space and budget, you may consider keeping an entire spare system (although not nearly as powerful)...our jurassic era eMachines 1.67 loaded up with an older version of our main DAW can still hang with tracking 16 at a time, 24/48K...You can even go as far as having an old mixer laying around that can can be up and running in 30 min...

[Jim Williams]

Throw it on the bench and fix it. It's what "recording engineers" do.

Oh wait, I just woke up. I now realize it's not 1965 and job descriptions have changed...

Sorry, my bad.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

[True North]

Originally Posted by Jim Williams

Throw it on the bench and fix it. It's what "recording engineers" do.

Oh wait, I just woke up. I now realize it's not 1965 and job descriptions have changed...

Sorry, my bad.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

Hey Jim,

In all seriousness when did 'real engineers' stop fixing their own gear. By the time I hit the scene it was the 80's and the big studios had their own in house techs.

With a lot of the older gear I know it is possible to fix things but with the newer gear I am told (by my tech) it is almost for to fix on your own (i.e. surface mounted components).

Sorry if this hijacking the thread but I am just interested

[Jim Williams]

Sometime in the early 70's engineers were being hired for recording skills only, a lot of it had to do with the youth market, rock music. The old salts started retiring or moving to classical realms.

When the white coats came off is the best description of when things changed.

I still have one, I use it for Halloween. Very scary stuff.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

[blackcom]

Guyes, you are absoluttely right, I just got carried away in the moment and wrote some stupid stuff....of couse, I would never quit...and after doing some tests we all agreed that the platinum sounded just fine for the sources we needed. I still have some API channels left for the snare so....

Reason I got so upset was moore a result of the response I got from certain people I contacted...

Anyways, we just finished the tracks for the first song and by now everything is going smoothly....

Thans for the clarifying words by the way....you rock

[Jules]

Hire a replacement unit?

[David R.]

Originally Posted by Fletcher

Once again I will repeat that there ain't no motherfvcker ever walked down the street humming the mic-pre... but if the musical performances are compelling people will often walk down the street humming the music.

(to the tune of Oh Tannenbaum)

Oh Pendulum oh pendulum
You sound much sweeter than Folcrum
Your crispy highs, and mellow lows
I wonder how, your signal flows...



Great quote, Fletcher.

[dbbubba]

Originally Posted by Jim Williams

Throw it on the bench and fix it. It's what "recording engineers" do.

Oh wait, I just woke up. I now realize it's not 1965 and job descriptions have changed...

Sorry, my bad.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

If it's a mic pre and I own it... I'm gonna' fix it before I freak out.

Then again, if a client threw a fit over what mic pre was available I'd seriously consider if I'd WANT to work him. He'd better be paying some SERIOUS money and performing some SERIOUSLY GOOD music, too! Paul McCartney? Sting? The Stones? ehhhh.... maybe, but they'd be paying me enough money to RENT SOMETHING ELSE!

get serious!

Danny Brown

[laser]

Originally Posted by blackcom

Guyes, you are absoluttely right, I just got carried away in the moment and wrote some stupid stuff....of couse, I would never quit...and after doing some tests we all agreed that the platinum sounded just fine for the sources we needed. I still have some API channels left for the snare so....

Reason I got so upset was moore a result of the response I got from certain people I contacted...

Anyways, we just finished the tracks for the first song and by now everything is going smoothly....

Thans for the clarifying words by the way....you rock

It one of the few times where audio being "a game of inches" works in your favor.

By the way, your experience is a great excuse to go out and buy an API lunchbox full of goodies just because (gear slut rationalization taking over), you just never know when another emergency may crop up and you'll need that A-designs or Buzz Audio module.

Laser