Never Recorded This style please help

[brandondrury]

the over the top was the complete over distortion that the band is using, that was the first question - if you go to the myspace page you can hear they are what sounds like a Triple XXX with a distortion box, I have never had any luck with that much distortion in recording.

Oh. To me "over the top" is used to describe vocal performances and things of that sort. I've never heard anyond describe "fizz" as "over the top". It's usually just fizz.

I have to do this because the guitartist I was recording refused to remove all his delay compression and chorus as we recorded - too many effects going in and then try to get a good sound afterwards - maybe you have some advice for that - I tried to tell him to just go dry at first - add effects later.

There are times when dry is best. There are times when you want all kinds of effects and junk on the recorded track. If the track requires weird, spacey stuff I almost always require that we get it right while tracking the guitars. I don't want to have to monkey with going for an "outer space" sound (whatever that is) when I'm mixing. I want to pull up the faders and be happy.

The question here is whether the tracks you recorded sound good with the effects on them. If the effects don't sound good I wouldn't record them. EQ will not solve problems caused by misused or bad sounding effects. It just doesn't work that way. Of course, it sounds like the guitar player liked the effects but you didn't. This brings up a whole new issue. If the tracks are so bad that you can't put your name on the project, don't. Give them their money back and move on. If the tracks aren't really that bad, finish the project as is. Bring up the faders and do your best. Move on.

Well if the guitarist will not allow you to help get a good sound then what else do you do to get that good sound?

Nothing. If you aren't allowed to do any tweaking, you go into "capture mode". You do your best. If the sound is really bad, a) you learn something new and change your mind or b) you follow my advice from above.

So musicians refuse to budge about certain things even though they may not cater to standards of what is "socially acceptable". These are either idiots or innovators. It's hard to say, but much of it the middle of subjectivity land. Some engineers are too aggressive about their views. So I don't know. It's your call.

It's best to develop some chrisma and do enough shitty recordings that you eventually make a few good ones so that the bands will trust your judgement.

Brandon