Lame, lame, lame!

[TBird1958]

In the late '80s and early '90s we had a locally produced comedy show called "Almost Live" that aired at 11:30 on Saturday night. One of several recurring skits featured local grunge musicians and was called the "Lame List" or "What's weak this week" .......

 

[gweimer]

I though they weren't recruited until after the record was done.

At any rate, they got a grammy so that proves it was fine quality music.  

It was my understanding that they did some background vocals on the record somewhere.

[Freuds_Cat]

Denis, if there was something fundamentally wrong with your mates basses then a diplomatic explanation could Maybe be understandable but in all honesty it just sounds like arrogance on the part of the engineer. Who was supposed to be producing the recording anyway? In my experience this call is down to the producer and the musician concerned. The engineer gets told what to do unless he is both engineer and producer (Rarely a good combination from what I've seen). If this was the case, their producer sucks.

[Dave W]

Denis, if there was something fundamentally wrong with your mates basses then a diplomatic explanation could Maybe be understandable but in all honesty it just sounds like arrogance on the part of the engineer. Who was supposed to be producing the recording anyway? In my experience this call is down to the producer and the musician concerned. The engineer gets told what to do unless he is both engineer and producer (Rarely a good combination from what I've seen). If this was the case, their producer sucks.

I could understand that if he only brought one bass that they felt was off in some way -- if they could explain why. Not with all five basses, including a Rick and a Jerry Jones. No way. Has to be their arrogance --  and incompetence.

[Freuds_Cat]

My favorite is when the engineer thinks that the only way to record a bass is DI from the instrument. This has happened more often than not to me when playing or recording with new engineers.   Best bass sounds I've ever had have been with good quality mics about 4 feet in front of my rig.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

My favorite is when the engineer thinks that the only way to record a bass is DI from the instrument.

Ease of use on the part of an engineer should not dictate how the bass performance is captured. There are times when a DI is realistically the best way to get bass into the mix, but it is not the ONLY way. That said, the Melungeons album I produced (which came in #3 in Knoxville's Best of 2010!) was 100% DI out of Brad's 200 watt Nemesis 4x10 combo, but that was for all the instrumental tracks being laid live and the amp didn't have a sound worth miking. The amp's output is significantly darker than the DI, and when pushed, it got snarly in a BAD way.

I also worked very hard to give the bass a tone unique to each song in mixing and think it worked out well. Most guys who use a DI also have a "bass tone preset" in their heads to go with it.We'll be doing some more recording in the somewhat near future and I'll report on how I decide to do it when it comes up.

[Freuds_Cat]

Dont get me wrong I'm not against DI at all. In fact I have rarely recorded anything without having a DI track available if needed.

"Melungeons' songs still incorporate some creepy moments, but are centralized around traditional gospel, blues, rock and punk - and, of course, there are twists."

Sounds pretty interesting.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Dont get me wrong I'm not against DI at all. In fact I have rarely recorded anything without having a DI track available if needed.

I agree completely. The big point I wanted to make was that engineers who are inflexible about pretty much anything usually don't care what the bass sounds like anyway; they're just lazy.

Here's the video for the most "rock" song off that Melungeons album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z_FGiYw528&feature=related