I have been recording a guitarist, who used to be very capable, that just isn't able to get the job done. His timing is all over the place as well as his dynamics and there is string buzz on every other note. It's been taking upwards of 16 hours just to track three guitar parts from each song. I've tried being motivational, releiving pressure by walking out of the room and showing him how to track his own parts and letting me know when he thinks he's got a keeper and being sensitive but honest. He blames everything on "tone and feel" but the only time I've heard him say something has good tone and feel is when he actually plays a part cleanly. The only tracks that I've been able to keep required some editing on my part to make them work. I understand that some editing my need to be done from time to time but it's on practically every riff and there is an emense amount of punching in. He's in severe denial that any of the current complications are coming from him. So far he's argued everything off as either being a factor to "feel and tone" or the recording equipment and has evening gone as far as indirectly insulting his own drummer who is lightyears ahead of him.

What can you suggest I try? I thought about bringing up getting lessons but I didn't want to come off as insulting. I'm running out of pactience and out of time before this band self destructs.

I am not sure how I feel about this one, musician ego can be harsh, especially ones who used to be good but no longer are.

I would say one of two things.

IF you are getting paid, who cares if he takes that much time

BUT if it is a project deadline, or a studio musician of yours, tell him he needs to practice more, plain and simple. Give him a track and say "Work on this" or tell him to work harder!

After all, it is business, and you need to be blunt, yet honest. You need to just tell him, blatantly.

I would approach him in private and say something like "All good musicians never stop learning and never stop practicing. You used to be good, but I can tell you have not practiced too much as of late."

Excellent advise Rhone, thanks. I will run with that.

Yeah thats good advice.

I would define it a little more by saying something like "You are a very good musician when you are playing live, on stage. This is a studio and you are new to the concept. I have the experience, knowledge etc. Listen to me and we can make this project come out sounding like it does when you are on stage."

Maybe not the exact wording, might have to be a little nicer. I myself am very blunt when it comes to dealing with people and musicians especially.

If they are not performing at the level I want then they will usually be replaced with someone who can handle the job better.

But thats just me...

I've been in that particular situation, and the worst thing is when a musician has quite a high ego he doesn't except any critiqe. There are 2 situations:
1. if you are paid for project ( not on studio hours ) he is wasting your time and energy. It's worthless to send him home to practise, it's a longtime process, you need to solve the problem NOW. So, record EVERY thiny bit of his performance and be shure to have as manny usefull material to cut and paste from it. Afcorse, you will end up having guitar track without any emotion but, you wouldn't get any from that kind of musician anyway
2. If you are paid for hours.....who cares it will worth it

But, if he is friend of yours, record his worst take ( make shure to move a track in editor slightly to be OFF the time of playing) and let him hear him self. He will be down, but he'll get the message.

Make shure to cover his bad playing and NON-techniqe by any means neccessery ( sock around neck on solo for not buzzing, recording measure-by-measure cuting-pasting, or even acting like metronome infront of him

I really appreciate these advice and hope it will give us huge interest to become AE..!
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fullbleed wrote:

I have been recording a guitarist, who used to be very capable, that just isn't able to get the job done. His timing is all over the place as well as his dynamics and there is string buzz on every other note. It's been taking upwards of 16 hours just to track three guitar parts from each song. I've tried being motivational, releiving pressure by walking out of the room and showing him how to track his own parts and letting me know when he thinks he's got a keeper and being sensitive but honest. He blames everything on "tone and feel" but the only time I've heard him say something has good tone and feel is when he actually plays a part cleanly. The only tracks that I've been able to keep required some editing on my part to make them work. I understand that some editing my need to be done from time to time but it's on practically every riff and there is an emense amount of punching in. He's in severe denial that any of the current complications are coming from him. So far he's argued everything off as either being a factor to "feel and tone" or the recording equipment and has evening gone as far as indirectly insulting his own drummer who is lightyears ahead of him. What can you suggest I try? I thought about bringing up getting lessons but I didn't want to come off as insulting. I'm running out of pactience and out of time before this band self destructs.

Hi, this is a tricky one. I don't have any answers for you as far as his attitude is concerned but I do have some tips for tidying up the recorded parts.

First off, you can use a de-esser on the guitar tracks. Listen to the de-esser in sidechain mode and dial in the frequency of the buzzing. Set the threshold and that should help sort that out.

If you are using Pro Tools 8 or have access to it, you can quite easily chop up the guitar parts in Beat Detective and re-quantize them. You can even take a groove template from say the drum track and quantize the guitar parts using that template.

I'll be posting a video tutorial on Pro Tools Beat Detective on my site: Record, Mix and Master very soon. In the meantime there are loads of useful hints and tips on the site at: http://www.recordmixandmaster.com Hope that helps ... even a little

Ps. Maybe deep down he's lacking confidence and maybe nervous ... sometimes that comes out in people as over confidence and denial.