Failure

[kml23956]

I failed to create a decent sound on a recording this year for the first time ever and I felt really bad about myself and my skills. That was until I found out that I was replaced on the project by....

Pete Townshend!

That took some of the sting away and now I don't feel as bad.

 

[MagnetoSound]

Please elaborate!

 

[kml23956]

That is pretty much the story. I was hired to clean up and mix some live tracks that were recorded by a guitarist who played for famous British band that is not the Who. The tracks are old and who ever recorded them forgot to record the bass. I tried everything that I can think of to mix it. I even spoke to Mike Stavrou and asked him what he would do. Nothing worked..so I gave up.

They replaced me with Pete. I will be interested to hear what he is able to do with it. My take on it is that you can either get me to fix it or you can ask Pete Townshend to do it. Your choice. 

 

[DaveP]

No Shame there KML, I don't see what good Pete is going to be mixing anything, last I heard he was practically deaf nowadays.
best
DaveP

 

[emrr]

Sometimes a deaf guy is the right man for the job.

 

[DaveP]

Not trying too hard you mean???
DaveP

 

[kml23956]

He also just mixed a Who cd with the same issue. I am really interested in finding out what they he does.

 

[pucho812]

IIRC his tinnitus is only in one ear so I suspect that it will be left or right heavy. Also not to be mean or a jerk but if it were me I would feel bad that not only was I replaced, I was replaced by a semi deaf guy who's main gig is to play guitar and not be an audio engineer or producer.

 

[kml23956]

Ouch

 

[sahib]

Sometimes a deaf guy is the right man for the job.

True.

Every music has quite passages.

 

[DaveP]

KML,
Pucho flunked the tact exam.
It may be that Townsend knew the original band and the kind of sound they were after.  In the 60's in the UK, the bass was much less prominent in recordings.  It was not until McCartney/Geoff Emerick that producers incorporated compression much more.  The problem was that they restricted the low bass to stop cutting across discs of course, I think they added more 200Hz (harmonics) to compensate for lack of fundamental.  With live bands it was a different story, The Who's bass rearranged my internal organs in the 60's!
best
DaveP

 

[Spiritworks]

I'm pretty sure Pete knows his way around the studio . KML, is there any way you can get to hang while they continue working on that project? Might be a great learning experience.

 

[okgb]

in your words , you gave up .  but how did you get the gig in the first place ?
they heard your work and liked it , you sold yourself into it ?
they're paying pete for his name or he's doing it free ?
what did you expect the thread to accomplish ?

If there's a budget and no bass , I'expect to retrack a bass , even if it got buried cause it
wasn't the original guy

 

[kml23956]

I suggested a re-track..that is one reason why they are doing it in the UK. I think the guitar player is going to track it if they can't pull the bass from the front mics. The record company was happy with what I did, I was not. It sounded like crap to me.

in your words , you gave up .  but how did you get the gig in he first place ?
they heard your work and liked it , you sold yourself into it ?
they're paying pete for his name or he's doing it free ?
what did you expect the thread to accomplish ?

To answer the questions:
I asked for the gig. It is a problem that you don't get to see every day and I thought that it would be interesting to mess with. I enjoy cleaning up a mess for some unknown reason.

I don't know if they are paying Pete, he may be doing it as a favor for the guitarist.The record label is handling it all I did was send them my working files.  The internet has made this a small world.

Nothing. I just thought that it was funny to be replaced by Pete and his crew. He doesn't work alone but I do. I know that Pet has an Audient console as I do. Which is also interesting to me. If I wanted to draw attention to the post I would have put Pete's name in the subject.

 

[Andy Peters]

That is pretty much the story. I was hired to clean up and mix some live tracks that were recorded by a guitarist who played for famous British band that is not the Who. The tracks are old and who ever recorded them forgot to record the bass. I tried everything that I can think of to mix it. I even spoke to Mike Stavrou and asked him what he would do. Nothing worked..so I gave up.

They replaced me with Pete. I will be interested to hear what he is able to do with it. My take on it is that you can either get me to fix it or you can ask Pete Townshend to do it. Your choice. 

I'm pretty sure Pete always works with an engineer (I remember seeing the documentary on PBS a couple of years ago, which ended with Pete and Roger recording a new song with Zak on drums of course and Greg Lake on bass). So likely Pete's the producer, which is not too shabby at all.

-a

 

[kml23956]

It is done. I got to hear it. They added a ping pong delay,some reverb, and did not record a new bass track. They stuck with my original Wave plugin boosted Maxxbass or Rbass file I can't remember which plugin I used or they made their own. Either way it sounds the same to me, like a muddy wash of low end drowning out the kick.

It is what it is, holy crap. 

 

[DaveP]

There you go, confidence restored!
best
DaveP