Part II
We sent the tracks to the producer/audio engineer. He asked for some references and I linked a bunch of them for him, along with some general ideas about the sound. He then spent a work day with the tracks and we came to listen to it in the afternoon, when the work was almost finished. I think he did a great job with vocals, and the drums did sound bigger than before. We asked for some changes in the guitars and backing vocals and then left him to finish it. Later, a mix was sent to us and we listened, commented and a few days later listed some changes for the audio engineer to consider.
We were so far used to the system that changes made to the mix are included in the negotiated price. After sending that list it occurred to me, that this might not be the case this time, so I called the studio to make sure we weren't exceeding the budget. They assured us that we weren't, although the audio engineer had worked some overtime making the changes we suggested. The song was now ready and they would send it to us. I talked to the promoter-guy on the phone and he said they still wanted the publishing deal with us. Then he pondered aloud, that the producer wouldn't get any share of the copyrights, since he didn't arrange anything, only mixed. That kind of confirmed my initial thoughts about their business strategy, which I mentioned in the previous part.
Money issues were settled then. But when we listened to the song, we were a little disappointed, to be frank. The changes we asked for had not been made, at least to the point we hoped for, and the general sound and balance was still not something we'd hoped for. We knew and understood that the man had done his best, but at the same time it wasn't the result we wanted. But we didn't have the resources to pay for another workday at the studio. So this is where we needed to tread carefully.
Our suggestion to the studio was, that we hoped to make one more final mix of the song where we could unite the best part of each mixes, theirs and ours. We would then send this mix for them to listen and if they would like it, we could then talk about a publishing deal. We tried to be very polite about this and be careful not to offend in anyway, because we knew this might be a touchy issue. I suspect some hurt happened because we had to wait for a week to get a response to this suggestion. In the end, they agreed, and sent us the vocals and drum tracks.
We, or rather our guitarist, set to work, expecting to finish the song quite soon. After each period of work we would listen to the results together, and this was when I noticed something odd, namely something wrong with the backing vocals. We had been promised, that no auto tune or anything like that had been used on the vocal tracks, because we wanted to keep it natural and not do what they do in metal and every other scene nowadays. But we noticed that in one cadence, before second chorus, where I specifically wanted a major chord, the backing vocals had been changed to a minor chord. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but it sure made me furious.
We took these altered backing vocals out and put the original ones we had back in. After this I sent the resulting mix for a listen to that studio and basically told them this was the one we were going to publish, adding "if it's ok for you" in the end. You know what? They never answered! This tells me they either didn't care anymore and didn't want to work with us, which is fine by us! Or, they realized we had seen through what ever the hell they were thinking.
I'm not going to name any names. It's useless and I don't really want to take that burden of directly accusing someone without any veritable evidence. This is just what happened and I can only tell how I interpret it. Maybe there were really good reasons for this "producing" without asking. Maybe this is the way it's done in the big business. I don't know. What ever the reasons, I sure would have liked to know them. You know, we did ask, if it was ok for them to have the song re-mixed by us. And they sent the tracks for us to do just that.
Anyway, this whole episode has made a slight dint in my trust towards record companies and producers. Being independent has it's downsides, but at least you know what you get. I know that producers are needed, and many people might think our songs could use one too. Maybe they could, and if a good one comes along, who's good to work with, I'll accept it. But there's a difference between working together with a band and trying to sneak in alterations without asking.
However, the story of this song is not over yet. It's All Right went through much, very much mixing and mastering back and forth. Every time we thought "This is it!", the moment we listened to the result through home stereo or any other device, we were brought back to the drawing table. It was our perfectionism and the need to make it sound better than what we received from the studio that kept us going. All thanks for enduring this goes to our guitarist and producer. At times he was very frustrated and tired at listening to the song all over again and starting over, over and over, but he endured. He's great!
One final change that was made to the song, was new bass tracks. Since the original bassist had left us when the song was still being recorded and mixed, we thought we might just as well record them with the new guy. And besides, like a pro, he had mastered the song very fast. He played it with attitude! At the final rounds of mixing the song started to sound like ready, and we still had to decide between mastering it ourselves or trust the instincts of another pro. So, at the moment It's All Right is being mastered by the same person who did the previous songs. When we receive the master, we will be able to announce the release date! So, keep your eyes peeled for that!!!
Hypnosis
We, or rather our guitarist, set to work, expecting to finish the song quite soon. After each period of work we would listen to the results together, and this was when I noticed something odd, namely something wrong with the backing vocals. We had been promised, that no auto tune or anything like that had been used on the vocal tracks, because we wanted to keep it natural and not do what they do in metal and every other scene nowadays. But we noticed that in one cadence, before second chorus, where I specifically wanted a major chord, the backing vocals had been changed to a minor chord. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but it sure made me furious.
We took these altered backing vocals out and put the original ones we had back in. After this I sent the resulting mix for a listen to that studio and basically told them this was the one we were going to publish, adding "if it's ok for you" in the end. You know what? They never answered! This tells me they either didn't care anymore and didn't want to work with us, which is fine by us! Or, they realized we had seen through what ever the hell they were thinking.
I'm not going to name any names. It's useless and I don't really want to take that burden of directly accusing someone without any veritable evidence. This is just what happened and I can only tell how I interpret it. Maybe there were really good reasons for this "producing" without asking. Maybe this is the way it's done in the big business. I don't know. What ever the reasons, I sure would have liked to know them. You know, we did ask, if it was ok for them to have the song re-mixed by us. And they sent the tracks for us to do just that.
Anyway, this whole episode has made a slight dint in my trust towards record companies and producers. Being independent has it's downsides, but at least you know what you get. I know that producers are needed, and many people might think our songs could use one too. Maybe they could, and if a good one comes along, who's good to work with, I'll accept it. But there's a difference between working together with a band and trying to sneak in alterations without asking.
However, the story of this song is not over yet. It's All Right went through much, very much mixing and mastering back and forth. Every time we thought "This is it!", the moment we listened to the result through home stereo or any other device, we were brought back to the drawing table. It was our perfectionism and the need to make it sound better than what we received from the studio that kept us going. All thanks for enduring this goes to our guitarist and producer. At times he was very frustrated and tired at listening to the song all over again and starting over, over and over, but he endured. He's great!
One final change that was made to the song, was new bass tracks. Since the original bassist had left us when the song was still being recorded and mixed, we thought we might just as well record them with the new guy. And besides, like a pro, he had mastered the song very fast. He played it with attitude! At the final rounds of mixing the song started to sound like ready, and we still had to decide between mastering it ourselves or trust the instincts of another pro. So, at the moment It's All Right is being mastered by the same person who did the previous songs. When we receive the master, we will be able to announce the release date! So, keep your eyes peeled for that!!!
Hypnosis
No comments:
Post a Comment