A bit of fun really, but there seems to be a few things that connect all producers and engineers around the world - here are are my top 5 rants of things to test the patience of any engineer.
- Artists/Clients asking you what you are doing every time you reach for a knob, fader, plug-in, microphone, cable. Whilst we want to try and keep those we work for in the loop, trying to give a running commentary during a project is tiring. If they want a lesson on recording then they should join a college, live sessions are not the time for recording 101.
- Artists/Clients telling you they don’t like the sound of the drums/vocal/guitar/fill in the blank, about 5 seconds after you’ve finished tracking it. Again, having to explain you are yet to edit/mix/tune/hire a session playing to fix their cr*p/fill in the blanks is just as tiring as number 1.
- Artists/Clients telling you they have a copy of Garageband so think they can give you lessons on how to run a 48 channel Neve desk and HDX rig… bless em!
- Artists/Clients filling the control room with every man and his dog. In the music world, it’s normally friends, family, girls/boys they met in the pub or worst of all their bloody ‘manager’, they all talk constantly. In the post world it’s normally about 35 agency producers and art directors all on their Blackberries and complaining because the WIFI isn’t working.
- Need I say? The Pro Tools session crashing!
So there’s my 5, what are yours?