"Mike" skrev i en meddelelse
m...
Okay. Here's the delimma. I contracted to do this live recording. I
had quoted the guy 250 bucks which is dirt cheap itself.
Live Jazz/RB ensemble. One guy playing alto and soprano sax, as well
as flute and congas. Trombone player who does a bit of percussion.
Guitar, one vocalist and drums.
So the guy calls me up and says his grant came in low and would I do
it for 150.00. Well this guy recorded a whole CD with a friend of mine
and paid the hourly rate and so on so I assume he knows what he will
get for this and I say yes.
I haul tons of equipment there to be at a sound check 3 hours before
the show and do the recording. I tell him what I will do is
essentially dial a mix for each song, in order to simply adjust levels
and make a CD. Then I will give it to him if there are some minor
adjustments to be made, then I can fix that.
Well, I give him a mix, and he calls and leaves a message. He wants
the horns adjusted on 2 tracks and says everything else is fine. I do
that and before I can give it to him and get my dough he leaves
another message saying the last four tracks need the horns adjusted.
So, I call him, and tell him I will do that and I do and then when I
call him he says, well what I think I am going to do is make notes on
each song. Well I see where this is going. I didn't have him in the
studio for the mix because the whole idea is for 150 bucks you get a
live recording captured with just leval adjustments and broad mix
touch up.
The thing is, the trombone player was losing his lip as the show went
on. I went out and moved his mic closer 3 times but by the last
several tunes in a lot of passages he is playing no louder than the
ambient bleed. So a lot of it can't be fixed with gating or expansion.
The horn player came to me and said they didn't give him enough lead
time to get his lip ready for the show.
Ever been in this situation? What do you think? Should have got the
bread up front I think. I will have to tell him that a lot of the
problems with the horn player can't be fixed but how to do so without
him feeling I am saying the performance sucked is the trick.
150 can't be for both recording and mastering !!
Never insult the performers . . . as a producer you are also a doctor.
Don't insult your patient . . specially not if it's cancer !
Get it overwith and charge more next time . . . things always happens.
Mike http://www.mmeproductions.com