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Why I get mad at tracking "engineers"

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Tue, 24/01/2012 - 06:38
Joeyshoelace
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I'm in a bad mood today been mixing all night and I keep finding bad edits. Here is a such an edit.

I hate when bands send me a "pro" tracked song and it has rookie mistakes like this one. I want to strangle the guy that edited these tracks cause now I have 3 more hours of tracking down all his dumb mistakes and fixing them.

well that's the end of my rant. least until I go to England and murder the guy that tracked this then I'll be complaining how getting rammed in prison is not fun.

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Tue, 24/01/2012 - 07:47
#1
johnny shnizz
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what about a declicker? i sometimes use one and it helps. or is manual editing better?

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Tue, 24/01/2012 - 08:20
#2
Joeyshoelace
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manual sounds better if you ask me, but I'm more angry cause I'm suppose to be mixing not fixing the bad editing job. It kinda kills the mood you have going when you find these things.

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Tue, 24/01/2012 - 08:56
#3
johnny shnizz
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i know what you´re talking about. i mixed a song for some guy yesterday and the guitar tracks were killing me. the volume kept changing but not both guitars together, each one individually at different spots and also in a senseless way. had to adjust the volume all the time. plus he didn´t give me the whole guitar tracks from beginning to end but the raw material so i had to shift them around to make them sit in the beat. to top it all he had a bunch of speed changes in the song that i had to figure out as well.
actually i love to train my ears with those kind of things once in a while. but what´s bugging me is the killing of work flow when you just want to get the mix done.

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Tue, 24/01/2012 - 14:25
#4
HOKENSTYFE
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Practice makes perfect. Gives you reason to charge, a little more, every time Smile

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Tue, 24/01/2012 - 15:08
#5
Joeyshoelace
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Haha I wish I could charge more but I consider my self lucky to get 100 per song. until I have the rep to charge more I'm stuck working for 2-5$ an hour.

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Tue, 24/01/2012 - 18:24
#6
gunpointmetal
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is that supposed to a coninuous rise? whats a "tracking" engineer anyways? sounds like someone who presses record while a band plays.

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Tue, 24/01/2012 - 18:48
#7
Joeyshoelace
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its a bad edit they cut a take wrong and thus you get that sharp looking thing. this is also a really close up picture what you're seeing there is probably half a millisecond.

a tracking engineer is the guy who records the band but its more complex then just that they have to make sure things are in phase; the correct mic for the job; place mics in the proper place and edit all the best takes to make one good take; and so on. the editing part is probably the "hardest" thing to do as you have to be carful where you cut a track. there job is to make the mixing process easier. its not a hard job but same time it can be a hassle to deal with a band that thinks they know what they're doing rather then listening to you.

if I was to use a metaphor engineering a song is like making a pie. Tracking/Editing you get all the ingredients and make sure its good quality so no worms in the apples and so on. Mixing you put everything together not putting too much cinnamon or apples. Mastering is cooking the pie without it catching on fire. If all is done well you get an amazing pie!

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Tue, 24/01/2012 - 19:33
#8
johnny shnizz
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i just noticed, this wav looks so smooth. i record with a sample rate of 48000Hz with a 24bit bit rate but zooming in that much i can clearly see the quantization. do you record at 192kHz sample rate or what do you basically do?

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Wed, 25/01/2012 - 05:26
#9
Joeyshoelace
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I record 96k 24bit what this was recorded in I don't know. I'd have to check later today.

what I'd say makes the biggest difference is the pre used and the room it was recorded in; mic placement can do a lot too . This is also the bass track so it naturally has a smother wave form then a guitar would have.

EDIT: the song I took that from was recorded 48k 24bit

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Wed, 25/01/2012 - 07:20
#10
HOKENSTYFE
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So if this milisecond, is any indication of the total song, why continue with the aggravation? Especially, for almost no dough? I never could produce something, I wasn't part of recording, to!

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