General Music Chat

Dear Abby,

I know this guy who's been working in a studio.

Long story short, he's been working with this woman artist and as his last project, he spent 10 hours fixing/polishing her last tune.

Last Friday they worked into the wee hours and thought it was all but over.
So they both went home for the weekend and thought "all was well".

GUESS AGAIN.

When they met back up in the studio on Monday AM, it became evident that the studio manager was "bored" over the weekend and decided to take it upon himself to finish the project they had been working on.

The guy was noticeably upset considering he just spend some real time and effort debugging the tune in question. To make matters worse, the finished project was considered "unsatisfactory" to both original parties.

The guy had quit smoking but in a moment of stress he went outside to "cut a butt". While he was outside, the female artist came outside and joined him. They started to talk and agreed that the finished product wasn't pleasing to either of them.

The guy goes back into the studio and closes the door to the office, seeking a tete a tete.
The manager and the guy have a calm chat about the pro's and con's of the "finished work".

The guy leaves the office and the female artist gets called in. The manger has a short chat with her and she indicates a similar feeling.

Ultimately the manger allows the pair to roll back the product to the end point of Friday's session and they continue where they left off.

Another 4 or 5 hours later, the product is finished. People around the studio like the product and assume that the manager finished it himself.

The guy says nothing. The female artist says nothing.
Compliments are passed around and the artist departs with finished copy.

The manger calls in the guy later after everyone else has left the building.
The manager complains that he feels as if the guy has undercut his position and solicited negative feedback about the product.

The guy claims that this is a falsehood and the product was not only wrong but honestly incomplete, since the manager didn't bother to speak to the female artist thus not retaining continuity and input crucial to the correct execution of the said product.

The manager's eyes bulge and he makes a comment about the guy being "a typical musician; full of piss and vinegar, lazy, lackadaisical and cocksure to the point of fault.

The guy looks at the manager and tries to remain calm, but let's the manager know in no uncertain terms that he flubbed that mixing/mastering and that he had only a snowball's chance in hell of finishing that tune well considering he basically finished it while no one else was in attendance and never consulted the artist as to what she ultimately wanted as a finished product.

So now the guy states he feels as if he's walking on eggshells and the manager eyes him up like a big deer through a 50mm sight.

No one seems to know anything but the atmosphere is cold and the guy is a bit on the distracted side for fear that retribution is in the wind.

Dear Abby, do you have any advice for my friend ?

Hey, something about the story is eating me.. is the "manager" the producer?? Or engineer? Or just a plain old studio manager (who shouldn't be messing with recordings!)?

Since manager is such a vague term, it makes it hard to wrap my head around the issues

The aritst wasnt happy, the studio started over on what was done, in the end it seemed all were happy, so whats the beef at this point?

Capt you got a big ole chip on your shoulder dont you?

As long as the studio didnt charge extra to fix it, then what is the issue?

Are you happy with the end result? Im not talking about what the guy did when you werent there, Im talking about the end result the artist liked? Was it ok?

If its fixed, then its fixed, time to walk away

I'm with Kramer - was it a producer or a manager? Big difference. Doesn't sound like a good working relationship, regardless.

And quit smoking! It screws up your voice, will eventually kill you and for the price of a pack of smokes you can buy a new set of strings for one of your guitars!

The only person whose opinion matters is the one paying the bill.


The manager is going to find himself out of business if he keeps that up.


.

What is a studio manager anyway? Seriously, I've been recording in pro studios for 25+ years, never heard of one.

Are you familiar with the term, 'Bitch slap?'

talbot

What is a studio manager anyway? Seriously, I've been recording in pro studios for 25+ years, never heard of one.

I've heard of them, but never actually met one. I never got a clear answer on what they do, but I get the feeling that they are basically the corporate version of a micro-manager set in place to maximize profits, minimize costs, and cut employee benefits and salaries until we end up nothing but completely unqualified retirement-aged minimum wage workers in the studio, or remote workers from india who have no idea WTF they are even there to support. I assume the studio owner(s) ultimately end up getting rich in the short term, then sell it off to an investment firm to see if they can bleed anything else from it before sending it into chapter 7.

Every studio Ive ever been in had a manager, someone who just runs the day to day business of a studio, I actually was a REM major in college, and we did these little things where we went in to some studio in Memphis and helped out, sort of an apprenticeship.

Of course in smaller studios the manager might be the owner or the engineer.

But someone is looking after the business of the studio whether we as musicians ever meet them or not.

Hmmm, I guess that makes sense John, the owners of the studios I have recorded in are also the engineers. Maybe if I ever record at Electric Lady I'll meet a studio manager! Or not!

I did an swept up in Ardent, John Fry was the owner manager and then they had staff engineers.

Cotton Row, Niko Lyras owned back in that time frame, not sure if hes still there, but he owned managed and did the A list sessions, if locals came in for demos he would employ someone, unless he really liked them.

Kiva had a studio manager, and engineers.

I also did some short stints in these backyard type studios, where someone put up a studio in thier back yard and just did it for side money, kinda funny now, some of those guys spent close to half a million dollars on these studios back in the early 80s, and when I think about it, most were 16 or 24 track tape machines, hell I bought my little Roland VS 1880 back in 2000, and its got 32 tracks, plus virtual tracks and more effects and plug ins that the studio I studied in at Memphis State had.

Why didn't you write in to Dear Cracky? <cough>

You know you guys crack me up.

1st) You know I WAS trying to lead this gently away from me.
Instead, I got a tap on the shoulder at 4pm and I got to read your replies over his shoulder. <ouch>

2) He's the studio manager, just like Keith was talking about. (I'm guessing)
He's not supposed to be performing "engineer" duties and yet, well you know..

"I never got a clear answer on what they do, but I get the feeling that they are basically the corporate version of a micro-manager set in place to maximize profits, minimize costs, and cut employee benefits and salaries until we end up nothing but completely unqualified retirement-aged minimum wage workers in the studio, or remote workers from india who have no idea WTF they are even there to support.". - Kramer
BING the man wins a prize!!!

3) I had quit smoking, but I might start again after the lecture I just got.
Ever get the feeling that too many people read this forum? All of sudden, it feels crowded in here.

4) Chip on my shoulder? Geeze thanks JW, next time just shoot me.

I am completion oriented, meaning that if I start something I like to finish it. I wasn't going to mix or master it, but since WE did work on it very hard together and she basically was raiding my "pandora's box" for anything she could glean, I would have liked to just finish the task at hand strongly and without interruption. The song wasn't finished and not ready to be mixed or mastered.

If the chap had done a good job to begin with, I would have nothing to say at all. I never care too much unless someone f**k up the project.

The point is the piece was the consistency of scrambled eggs and it wasn't even breakfast time. (move over bacon, time for sizzle lean)

I did walk away at the conclusion, I told no one what occurred.
I coached the woman to "keep quiet" as well.

Everyone is in a rush to get their hands in the pudding until it starts to burn and then I have to finish the job? COME ON, GIMME A BREAK.

So I got an hour long lecture after this.

I told him that when I am finished with a tune, he can do whatever he wants but don't jump the gun. His retort was, "eh sounded finished to me" BURP/FWAAAAH lol

I countered with "if you don't let me finish what I start, you won't get my best work". He said something like "that remains to be seen".

I slammed my hand on his desk and told him not to hamstring me and that his conduct wasn't professional. He asked me if I was in the habit of slamming my paw on on people's desks that hire and fire.

I told him flat out that I am not going to be productive in this type of atmosphere if he can't let me do the job at hand without interference of this type.

Then it really got ugly. His boss came in from behind proverbial door #1.
The guy was actually very nice in comparison but he wasn't realistic.
He had been monitoring the conversation from the other room.

He claimed that my immediate supervisor has the right to do as he sees fit as long as the artist is satisfied. I countered with the idea of exactly that. The artist wasn't satisfied and it was akin to a shanghai.

It started to get a little more heated and I almost lost my cool.
I started to point my finger and I am not sure what I was going to say when the phone rang.

It was the artist. Long story short, they put her on speaker phone and we had a low technology conference call. She eluded to the fact that she was overjoyed with the current product, which I think pissed them off.

They tried to lead her down the path and talked around the subject trying to probe for info. She finished by saying that she wasn't very happy when she initially found out that SMELLY BELLY had taken the initiative to finish something we weren't really done with as of yet, but relieved when it got rectified at the conclusion.

Then they quickly got rid of her in a practiced manner, like going the other direction when one smells something decaying in the wilderness.

I, stupidly, thought I was going to get an apology. I didn't.

I ended up having to apologize to SMELLY BELLY and begged off considering I have to fight the traffic all the way home.

I finished with a smile and told them to call me if I could be of further use (rather dryly).
On the inside, it was late in the final rounds and I just kept envisioning punching that big gut until it popped. I even started to laugh in embarrassment on the way out.

I am just confused at this point. I do a good job when you don't get in my way and hinder my efforts. I don't make any real $ to speak of and I nervous about putting my best efforts into a scenario such as this for similar reasoning.

I was going to stay late tonight and lay tracks for 2 tunes that I have 90% completed, but that made me so mad my face turned beet red and instead I got my vehicle and left like my ass was on fire.

I am unsure whether or not I'll get a call again from these folks but if every interaction is going to be like that, I won't lose any sleep over it.

I do the absolute very best I can do because I firmly believe that every path leads somewhere and anything worth doing is hard work, but I'll be damned if I let management bulldoze me into a state of complacency just because someone wants to get their hands in the mix.

If they are so intent on doing something, then by all means, take up the reigns from the beginning and show me what you got, fellas.

Otherwise back the hell off and let me do my job unless you are just trying to screw things from the get go to prove a point that only you seem to believe.

WTF??

I don't get any of this and it smells like fish. I did some session work back in the 80s and found I really wasn't cut out for it. Heavy deadlines and time constraints that were difficult for me to work under. I went in, gave them what I thought they wanted and clocked out. Some of it saw radio and TV airplay and some didn't. No politics, no drama, and no influence at all in the end result.

I was a session player for hire, not a paying client, recording engineer or studio owner. None of this story sounds like any pro studio I ever saw. Generally in order to have creative control you need to be the one writing the big checks. I guess they do things differently in Jersey.

That's part of the problem(s), NON PRO STUDIO et al.

No one is your buddy. If you buddy up, you are more trouble than you are worth. If you exert any influence, you are a liability and not a cash cow.

I DON'T MOO AND IF I THINK IT SUCKS, I SAY SO. (Too fing bad, better me than the client.)

If you don't think so, then you are welcome to get in the trenches and fix it.
If not, shut the f**k up because if you aren't part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

I don't care too much about if it's fixed or broken, just be clear about what my responsibilities are and then leave me to do what I have to do with a minimum of bullshit or find a new jackass to whip.

The coffee machine is the other direction. Go get some and leave me to it. I know you have a heavy day of scheduling that may or may not take all of your mental acumen to complete. Go do what you have to do, so I can do the same.