placebo tweaks

[3dot...]

glad I'm not the only one....

actually yeah that reminds me of years ago when I was in the bio box with the sound engineer for this young band and they asked for a little more treble in the monitors. There was no direct line of sight and the engineer just stood there with his arms crossed and said "how's this?"
the guy said "a little more"
he still stood there arms crossed and said "what about now?"
"little more"
"how about now?"
and he said "yeah that's perfect"

^^^^^
I do this all the time man.. it's just a regular thing...(I believe for anyone working with bands/PA)
I usually give them what they (think) they need for monitors..
but not for the PA...
and not for the recordings..
I just make a gesture over the mixing board as if I'm adjusting eq.. then ask "is this good now?"
90% of the time it works... they're happy..
the other 10% is people that really know what they're talking about..
they know how their stuff is supposed to sound..
I usually end up respecting those people..

[housemusiclover]

^^ Yeah, no shit. This is why I love Live's design. All the devices look more or less the same, so there's no danger of having
the sound "coloured" (literally) by lots of fancy colours and bells and whistles.

i don't think these are your plugs...http://www.kvraudio.com/get/4284.html

[UKRuss]

Good grief. First thing I look for when working with other guitarists is them taking the time to tune their guitar properly using a tuner. If I don't see that I know we're having a stayover that night in amateur city and...it's going to be a long one.

Conversely, Love when you walk in to a room and the other guy is sitting there quietly, yes quietly (een better on headphones), tuning his guitar. Puts a smile on my face and I know I can say, 'this one is in Eb' and I'm not going to get fiddly blank looks of non-understanding but just a nod and let's get on with it.

[djgroovy]

Related to this, i think this is the funniest thread ever in any forum, ever!

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much- ... ssion.html

And yes, i read the whole thing. Took me a while though.

[3dot...]

^^^ FUNNY STUFF !

on the same note...
I believe Psychology is a very important aspect of this profession...
for instance.. telling the band/singer the balance sounds great ...
boosting their egos before the show..
will have them playing a great show 99% of the time (even when the venue is kindof empty..)
same for recording sessions

it's a double edged sword though.. because if they have a bad performance.. usually it's because of the "sound"..
easy to blame the crooked floor I guess..

getting to a

[beats me]

Not related or maybe it is. I have never met a drummer who can STFU with his banging away between songs…..sooooo annoying. It's like a voice in their head is saying "I see you're trying to have a discussion there. I'll just hit all my drums as loud as possible until you're done." A-holes, the lot of them.

[Tone Deft]

forge - you need to read the Mixerman Diaries. the Soar knob.

http://www.mixerman.net/diaries1.php

"Hey now. I never manipulated the muffin count. I manipulated start times to get my assistant there early and the drummer there late. I manipulated the A&R man by giving him a knob that was connected to nothing and then used the power of suggestion to help him personally achieve his sonic goals. I manipulated the bass player by telling him that the 2-buss compression was the reason his bass sounded so much better, when in actuality his parts had been replayed by the resident assistant. I manipulated"

[H20nly]

^ @ mixerman diaries...

nice one Tone.

Lovin it! I'm only through day one and had to take a break to do some actual work*... so after this post I'll continue


*yes, typing counts as work

[alex.the.forge]

forge - you need to read the Mixerman Diaries. the Soar knob.

http://www.mixerman.net/diaries1.php

"Hey now. I never manipulated the muffin count. I manipulated start times to get my assistant there early and the drummer there late. I manipulated the A&R man by giving him a knob that was connected to nothing and then used the power of suggestion to help him personally achieve his sonic goals. I manipulated the bass player by telling him that the 2-buss compression was the reason his bass sounded so much better, when in actuality his parts had been replayed by the resident assistant. I manipulated"

he he yeah - I have seen that before - forgot about it!

[fishmonkey]

heheh, reminds me of a super sloppy bass player i worked with who was raving to everybody about how great his playing was on a tune with a driving quarter note bass line, i think he surprised even himself with how solid and clean his playing was.

what we didn't tell him was i had spent hours rebuilding the whole bass line using the only half-decent 4 bars he played in the whole tune...

[3phase]

i once had to do a few clips for an advertizing agency.. they allways wanted me to change the stuff around.. i was really pissed off..
next time the guy came to the studio i played him just an unrelated quick take instead the track i made for the spot...

he..oh no.. i had something more spansih atmossphere..flamenco like in mind..you understand?.."wild gesticulating as beeing the great impressario"...
i just said yes.. i think so.. moved a few knobs on the desk.. acted a bit like listening to the headphones..

like this?

played my work,. and he..yeah..thats it..exactly what i had in mind...

of cause there was not the slightest trace of flamenco or a spanish atmosphere in side.. 8-/

Was the last time i did anything for adds... dont like the psychology of theese pseude creativ agency people

[3dot...]

^^^ na ... the thing you don't like is trying to communicate with douches ..
the Psychological aspect is great !!..
think about it.. you only moved a couple of knobs and sold the guy
..would you rather have made a 'flamenco mood'?

[alex.the.forge]

forge - you need to read the Mixerman Diaries.
http://www.mixerman.net/diaries1.php

thanks for the reminder on this - I'd never got around to reading all of it and I've been hooked the last couple of days

case in point: http://www.mixerman.net/diaries5.php
day 23, "Audio Placebo"

[Tone Deft]

right on.

I got sucked into reading them again, for the third time. I need to buy the book FFS.

"when I opened the other six tracks, the drums sounded much stronger, which they did, because they were louder."
my response to
http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php? ... 2#p1123622

which people don't seem to get.
oh well.

I was contemplating his advice:
"when you hit the wall, there are only two cures. Time and fatties. "
needs more research.

[3dot...]

I can totally relate to them "mixerman diaries" ...