Thejohnny7band wrote:Kramer,
If the studios you guys work out of are not responsive to your needs, you are using the wrong studio. Choose a different one who "gets it". The good ones around here charge by the hour and the will spend as long as it takes til you are completely satisfied. That is how they make their living and feed their kids. What we may be talking about here is a cheapie demo studio that charges a fixed (way too low) rate to record songs quickly and people come in thinking they are recording "Dark Side of the Moon" for $500. Not gonna happen. Choose a cookie cutter package, get a cookie cutter result.
A friend just had his album release party last night. It was recorded in a pro setting with all pro session players and lots of attention to detail. It turned out pretty good:
http://www.amazon.com/Grey-Other-Colors/dp/B00BJEV7DU
I will try to check out the link later.
I want to revisit this- What I've wrote is most certainly about my bad experiences in the studio. Not all my experiences are bad, so you are getting one side of my take on things.
I too have done extensive work in studios, from doing coverband demos, to being a hired gun for original work, to being an original artist cutting my own demos. There's a strong reason I have no music posted on my profile, as my last attempt to record original music turned into a fiasco, and in the end, I wasn't just disappointed in the final product, I was utterly disgusted with it.
Most of my ranting is based on that last experience, as the type of studio (one big enough to have management) that Scotty referenced reminded me the most of that experience. I will not name the producer or studio simply because this is an international studio that has a solid reputation and I'm not going to get into the slander game and legalities involved with it.
I will say this much-
These "pro" studio guys work with breaking bands, and some successful ones as well. They book out entire months at a time to do albums. They don't make huge or quick profits off these deals because of the amount of time involved and that they generally don't charge by the hour for these types of projects, they charge flat rates. Hourly rates are something I've seen mostly in local and regional studios that have no major artists recording there. The deal I had with this particular studio involved a flat rate for an EP.
The problem I found was that for an unknown like myself, who was more or less recording there, they see me as a wannabe, and as a cash cow. They don't make any investment in the music itself, other than the sales pitch on how much they love what I'm doing. They are looking for a quick and easy recording session to fill that 2-3 blank spot in their schedule. Not that they would tell me that. The amount of money they make has a much higher profit margin in those few days than a multi-week recording contract for a national act. They know they are going to take a fly-by-night approach and deliver something that is "not their best", and they honestly don't care. Why would they? When an album or EP fails, it always comes back to the artist, no matter how much you spin it otherwise.
Unfortunately for me, I was not doing this alone- I was in an arrangement with other artists who didn't have any experience or comprehension of the difference between radio quality and garbage. Pretty much, anything that isn't radio quality is garbage, unless you never plan to release it or are making demos/scratch tracks. But expect that demo would never see airplay.
Anyways... I had a few issues with the instrumentation, with the mixing and with the editing. The producer would play to the more ignorant artists, talk down the concerns, and ultimately sold them on what was inferior work. The producer would do the editing, mixing, and ultimately the mastering with us not there, always saying he worked better late nights alone.. I rarely listen back to those mastered tracks simply because all I hear is
Instrument mistake in song 1 at 2:09.15
Dissonance in song 2 at 0:53.12
Mixing issue, background vocals, song 3 at 1:32.73
etc..
Except there was a LOT more. Tones were off, EQ was not acceptable in some songs, stereo separation issues, headroom issues.. it all stuck out like a sore thumb to me.
All but 3 issues would have been acceptable or at least understandable if this was a local $35/hour studio. But it wasn't. Just because my mates were too weak in the ear to hear these blinding issues doesn't mean they don't exist. ANY professional producer should normally be embarrassed to release such an abortion, but you would be shocked at how many actual professionals do this to unknown artists.
In the end, I had my name removed from the copyright. I was ultimately embarrassed to be associated with the final product. Few months later, the rest of the artists involved all agreed, it sucked. Too bad none of them could hear it on the pre-mastering at the time.