Home Studio

Home Studio
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Sunday, March 28, 2010

Living the dream that sometimes is a nightmare!

We have discussed the many advantages to having a home studio.  The fame that is laced with envy that moves through our own personal social groups and networks--after all, it is pretty cool.  The countless hours that we can invest in what every home recording artist and/or engineer wish were his/her full-time job.  The freedom to create and produce what we want, when we want it, and how we want it. The fairytale is over,  now enters the nightmare.

A friend, from out of state, that wants to record her own album.  Yikes!  Well, it sounds fun [not really] but my studio, fourteen years ago, was not portable.  Turns out that did not stop her from coming because she could leave her family for two weeks and stay with me, in my house.  After all, what kind of friend would I be if I did not give her a place to stay? Being a crafty individual, I thought "quick on my feet" and said "It would be expensive" and come up with a ridiculous amount of money to pay a "friend" to do a recording in a new [then it was new] setup, with little experience.  Imagine my surprise when she said she'd be down in two weeks.

As I considered my dilemma, I decided I would make the best of it.  I reminded myself that I was going to get paid to learn more about what I love to do--play music and record.  My friend did not play any instruments so I became the "studio-musicians" -- for an additional small fee.  Don't judge me, everyone has to eat and I took two weeks off my regular job to do this project for her.
  
You're probably wondering what is the "nightmare" part of this story, it started when she arrived.  She walked through the door, I showed her to her room, offered her some food/drink [which she didn't want] and then she said, "let's get started."  It's evening, I worked all day, I was exhausted.  This lady drives six hours walks into my house and wants to go to work NOW!  You guessed it, this was going to be a long two weeks.

I'm not a complete shrewd, I got that she was excited. So we "got started" in the most basic of terms.  I showed her the recording studio, we discussed her song choices, review copy right laws, and any new developments that I might need to know about, such as backup vocal selections--on one song she wanted a choir, YIKES!  I took some notes and entertained my guest. 

Next morning, I woke up, grabed a Diet Coke -- don't drink coffee  -- and went into the studio.  I had a rough cassette demo of the artist singing her songs "acapella" [without music].  Please remember that I never said she was a good singer.  Although sometimes torturous, I had to listen to this tape, to determine: the key the song was sung in, the structure of the song (like intro, vs, chorus, vs, chorus, tag), what instruments I should suggest for the song.  Since I was playing all the instrument (except lead guitar--I hired that out) I had a lot of advice I needed to be prepared to give.  Now, I had the WOW factor on my side, in that seemingly everything was, "that's so good" type response.  I take pride in doing my best and that works for me.  I chose a country drum, some songs had a stand-up bass other electric, rhythm guitar on most, some orchestra on one.  The artist was a Southern Gospel singer. 

I got started laying the drum tracks.  These tracks are tedious to lay if you want to do them right.  You have to listen, stop, go back and listen again.  More caution had to be given because it's not my songs, so I had to record the music the way the vocalist sung, not the way I thought it should be done.  But, honestly, for me that's all still the "fun" part...then enters Jar Jar Binks [the good natured Star Wars character that is always getting into trouble]. 

My friend cooked me breakfast and serves it to me.  Nice, right?  Then she stood behind me for hours watching every move I made and talked constantly.  How was I suppose to do a good job like this?   I distracted her with errands..."Would you mind to go to Wal-Mart and get _____?"  Thank God for Wal-Mart.  That worked for a day maybe two days.  Everyday was the same.  She drove me crazy and I just didn't want to be the butt-hole friend that couldn't handle the situation.   

I worked all day and most nights.  I wanted to get this project done ahead of time.  I was about to loose it.  As soon as the basic tracks were laid, I set up the vocal chamber for her to belt out some tunes.  After all I didn't want to record all the music tracks just in case I had made a mistake; I would have so much time invested in the tracks to have to start over.  Again, more WOW factor here.  She was like a kid on Christmas morning with every song she heard. Yes I admit, that made me feel great.  All the music tracks were good--no errors--thankfully.  She recorded her lead vocals (singing through the pantyhose pop-filter) and loved every minute of it.  At least until I sat her down and calmly discussed with her that I had to have some space to work on the final mix.  She was not excited then for sure.  I suggested sight seeing or visiting other friends in the area but instead I got resentment.  The "How dare you" reaction.  All I wanted was time to finish recording the additional instruments, back up vocals, and work on the final mix.  She would be consulted on every aspect just not "breathing down my neck" while I'm trying to work. 

The rest of the project was created with resentment and attitude from my friend towards me and guilt and attempted resolve from me towards my friend.  I felt so bad, I called in several vocalist friends and got them to perform the choir she wanted for the one song, which was crazy in a little home recording studio.

The job was finished in ten days.  In ten days, I WOW'd my friend, recorded some cool jams, recorded my first small choir, made a few bucks and lost a friend forever.  Before you ask, yes of course I've tried to contact her via phone/mail and she want return my calls or letter to date.  The funny part of this story is that I enjoyed the project itself. 

This was  dream turned nightmare, when I woke I knew never to let a "client" (regardless if friend or foe) stay in my home when working on their recording project--hotel and business hours--definite must haves.
   



 

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