#letsplayball

Why We Don’t Cut Rhythm Tracks Without Qualified & Designated Producers (Anymore), Part I

When designing RedBird Studio, we infused the ability to cut ensembles (ie. drums, bass, guitar, keys w/guide vocal) to both amplify our ability to complete productions in-house, while creating an affordable situation for Indie artists/bands to track live with qualified personnel in Midtown.

Abdicating to market forces, we can say this has backfired in some ways. While we have the ability to produce tracks soup-to-nuts in-house, often this is squandered by inefficient, under-planned and mismanaged sessions. 

Getting an ensemble of musicians together to record is a complex affair, to be respected with due diligence in preparation, and attentiveness to immediate priorities during the sessions. Nobody wants to waste time, and that includes the studio staff.  An experienced production team can transform a stressful workload into a joyful process, avoiding frustration and exhaustion by accepting it as a constant pitfall. In headless situations with aspiring producers, our (seasoned) engineering staff is nevertheless asked to follow (unseasoned) orders in sequence, all while professional results are demanded at the end of the day (and days following...). 

Thus, we feel it is appropriate to explain our management decision to turn down unqualified sessions at MusicNetwork facilities, by recounting the last three dates we aimed to please:

I. Syrupy Track for Relative’s Birthday - Yeah we can do that (#HeadlessSituation). Knocked of $50- for the amateurism and comp’d the house kit + 2 hrs setup. Purchased NEW stereo volume pedal so we can “you know, do the organ/ballad thing”.. Comes back that the session ruff isn’t good enough to be called done, and we owe them a punchlist of free mix tweaks. while they had talked over the last hour of session time (O/D’s + Mixdown..) That was time when we should have been mixing & listening; not expecting A1 will tweak to client satisfaction indefinitely (The actual 2nd ruff in question was printed gratis during overtime because “it could be better”, as judged by A1 & A2 who were listening during breakdown) while comping use of studio for such. Meanwhile, clients are spending real coin at a downtown studio on the “aahhhht” project, and backpocketing our Midtown resource for the syrupy tracks that don’t really matter. If it doesn’t matter to the artist, well... 

II. Diva Demo w/Amateur Producer at the helm (#DoubleWhammyBar )  The “we don’t need a producer”-producer doesn't know the keys or tempos or arrangements, but somehow as friend of the artist is calling the shots (or missing most of them actually) and half-coordinating the date.. No tempos/keys notated (”can i get a click on that? and the next 4 songs too?”)..We luckily land in a good tracking vibe for the band, but that can’t work because of click bleed in the guide vocal mic??? Who F-ing cares, the keys are all too low for Diva voice anyway.  Diva questions/comments/concerns: “There isn’t another booth?” (Layout) “Is this a dot-matrix printer?” (it’s B&W, like notation and lyics); “I heard distortion on my scratch vocals that time, i swear” (like we are tryina bag you?); “The guitar levels were unusable on that take” (for 1/2 bar, after recovering from Diva bumping the guitar mic on amp that shoulda been in live room anyway); “Its a shame you don’t have private Q at this studio” - it’s a shame alright. A shame not one “producer” was keeping take notes, or keeping track of which roughs needed to be printed or which edits to make. “You aren’t going to charge us for printing more session roughs are you?”

III. Off-Broadway Cast Album Recording (#CheapoQuality)- Beyond a show demo, this show was already running in Midtown with professional personnel. The producer(s)? Well, never really produced before.. Holdups on the rhythm date: “You don’t have private Q here? I want my own mix”; while setting up mics: “Can you stop what you’re doing and appropriate the recording rig as my guitar tuner?”; “I want more reverb on my scratch vocal.. more.. more.. moreeeeee..” “i want my scratch vocals louder.. louder.. louderrrrr” “you mean i can overdub the acoustic after?” -- and of course days after the date: “hey can you send me an instrumental of song 1 gratis?” “is there a safety of our files somewhere?” “hey can you send us two instrumentals for the singers to hear tracks 2 & 3? we need them today, and we don’t even wanna pay $35 for that.”

So yeah, we (used to) do that. Now, we’ll be asking the standard questions when booking in: Client:  Project: Producer: A1 Engineer: 

On rhythm dates, the Producer and A1 fields will need to be populated by qualified personnel, going forward. 

Thank you for your kind understanding,