Stupid things we've done so others don't have to do them

by **Luke Garfield** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 2:03 pm

A few years back Rick wrote an article for AT with a title along the lines of the one I've just typed, although it was stupid things he'd done. I laughed very hard at some of the unfortunate events and learnt a few things in the process. I thought it might be nice for us to have a group therapy session, swallowing our pride and make light of some unfortunate situations that we've got ourselves into.

I'll start. This is more of a "pain in the ass" type of unfortunate event. And I only just got back from Fedexing the piece of gear in question away to be fixed. It was a long weekend, the perfect time to get a few hours of guide guitars in on a project I'm working on on the last day of the long weekend. I'd been waiting all weekend to do this. As my equipment and setup has been in flux because of moving so I proceeded to plug my firewire AD/DA in whilst thinking about something other than what I should have been doing. I thought it was a bit stiff fitting into the connection (I can see people nodding/shaking their heads). Much to my horror I realised I'd connected my unit in upside down successfully killing my poor little Firepod.

To add insult to injury I thought I'd open up the box, knowing full well there was nothing that could be done on the inside, but shear stupidity got the best of me. I carefully slip the covering off the unit and to my suprise the units capacitors proceeded to arc on the chassis! SH*T. I quickly put the unit back together and hoped that those capacitors didn't mess with the very sensitive processors onboard.

Dumb thing number 1.

The other that I can think of off-hand was a project I was working on that was on a budget and tight for time as we were hiring some gear. I was in the studio after a day of tracking the band and was getting ready for overdubs. I thought I'd be industrious whilst I was waiting for the bad to arrive and tidy up the takes from the day before. I thought "I know what I'm doing and I'll just make a little more space on the HD and the files wont be so bulky". Needless to say I messed up and deleted all of the bands take except for about 10 bars at the start. We had another take and thankfully the band liked the quickly spliced together take that I did before they got there. Which take was better ? We'll never know.

Now I'm sure my two examples are childs play compared to some of "crackers" that the more seasoned frequenters of this forum may have experienced.

Don't leave me out all alone looking stupid - jump in, the waters ... eh forget it, just tell us some funny stories.

by **Mark Bassett** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 3:22 pm

I plugged the wrong power supply into Rick's custom made Parkside Sound mastering matrix box and literally blew it (and very nearly myself) apart.

I stayed back after assisting on a session with paul mckercher and the hoodoo gurus and decided i needed to repatch the pro tools rig (even though the band had a lock out for a month) to do my own thing and didn't patch it back the way it was. Shit hit the fan the next day, not happy paul.

The first time i used templates in tools i was recording 6 tracks for a band in the very first studio i worked in. I hadn't set the sessions up correctly, so after each song was recorded, i saved the session, closed it, opened what i thought was a new session and recorded the next song, and repeated the process. Except that each time i recorded, i was recording over the previous song. So after a day of recording 6 songs, we ended up with one, the last one.

I left a roll of leader tape on top of a reel of 2 inch that was being used to record. When the tape machine started up, the leader tape unwound and got caught in the 2 inch tape, the tension went weird and the machine started getting faster, making a mixed up ball of leader tape and 2 inch tape gathering on the right hand reel. The 2 inch had several finished songs recorded on it. Luckily there was no damage to the audio. That was with paul mckercher also, same session as the other one.

I recorded an EP in tools clocking off an external a/d that was at a different sample rate to the session so when I played it back in another studio the whole thing was slow and had dropped in pitch. Easily fixed, but embarrassing all the same.

I have recorded a song without the kick drum.

I've drunk an isopropyl screwdriver.

I played guitar in a christian band on channel V.

by **heathen** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 5:09 pm

Jeezus, Mark you do have some stuff to get off your chest! Heh. Man I would not have wanted to be in the same building when you told Rick what you had done, ooops.

I've embarrassed myself anytime anyone ever gets to see any soldering I've done. In a session onetime with a big female country singer the studio owner says "can you go make me some patch leads" no worries I say, anyway 2 hours none worked out of 8 worked and my fingers were burned & blistered from the shitty soldering iron he had, was a miserable afternoon that one.

Ok mixing a gig a few years back with Craig Calhoun on bass, was a last minute call by a terrified mate who had never mixed a live show, anyway Craig patched in his DI and he's bangin away on his bass and theres no sound, we check cables and everything, at which point I'm standing in front of the mixer trying too look mellow while scratching my head in a thoughtful and professional way while turning up the gain to see a signal when after 5 minutes Craig yells out "have you got the phantom power on". Without any thought for the gain I just turned on the phantom, anyway no equipment died but I'm sure there were some people who must have near crapped themselves or had a heart attack, a few drinks were lost and I was not popular at that time.

Anyway I redeemed myself as halfway through the set people were high fiving me saying "best mix ever".

So don't ever ask me to do any soldering if I'm ever working with anyone here, just a heads up.

by **chris p** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 5:39 pm

My biggest mistake?

I listened to the Beatles when I was very young. The first ever LP I owned was "Help". I was 7 years old at the time.

I fell in love with music, learned to play guitar, then messed around with keyboards, and finally have sunk so low as to think I can hear the sound of different preamps. All the while listening to pop, rock, jazz, classical, new wave (I came late to punk, just as I'm late coming to hip hop), country and western, new age, ambient, house .....

I'd be a rich man today with lots of time on my hands if it weren't for the Beatles ....

by **Stephen C** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 7:20 pm

I've made some dangerous mistakes, hopefully I've learnt from them.

1) looking for the cause of latency "crackles" in a recording session, with new gear, increased buffer sizes, which stopped 70% of the crackles, spent hours tweaking settings, but some of the crackles were still there, getting hotter and hotter under the collar, until I told everyone "the session is f@%$#d time to go home." Then after they left, I discovered the (faulty) tube mic was the culprit of the remaining crackles. :oops: Lesson learned... don't assume anything! (actually had to learn that one a few times till it sunk in!) Incidently Craig Calhoun was there too! (it was at Tafe)

2) this was a live sound incident which was too annoying to ever talk about again. Lesson learned: don't skimp on the effort you put into a production just because you are getting paid bugger all for it.

3) I had a portable tone generator (Beh$^%&% CT100 which puts out a horrible square sounding 1k tone) going into an old Ta@#$% 12 channel mixer. Had all the levels up but could hear no sound in the headphones. You guessed it, I then found the mute button and you know the rest. I put it down to my inexperience, and not following logic. But I'm much more careful when I de-mute things now!

4) Decided to pull the lid off a working Crown MA series amplifier (which I had just fixed) to compare waveforms in the fan control circuit to a faulty unit. In my haste, I started probing around with the cro lead without connecting the earth strap to the chassis of the amp. Yep, the earth strap shorted to the mains via part of the circuitry and I now had two broken amps. I was also blinded by the 'amateur arc welding' flash for about 5 seconds. Lessons learned: Respect electricity, don't do things in haste, especially when working with live equipment, and I hate to admit it but don't be lazy. I've also learnt to relax while fault finding since then, it makes it so much easier :)

Hope someone got a laugh out of this.

Steve. :)

by **JulienG** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 8:06 pm

My two ones come from the same event that had two groups recording it.

One guy thought you could record "both sides" of a tape in a four track.

Another (stupidly) assumed the recording console was set up for PFL soloing even though I (the operator at the time) warned against he just reached over, hit solo and watched us go "s^%t" as the meters on the two track and multitracks went dead.

by **jkhuri44** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 9:16 pm

hmmm...

rocking up to turtlerock with a mix that started off with some synthy thing that i whipped up in Absynth....the mastering session starts and its all dandy......then Rick's running off to the speaker, and informing me, "there was too much 4Hz in your mix, the speaker's blown"......and me going.."where the F*&K did that come from"....then remembering i didnt check ANY of my synths parameters....DEEEEEER! Please, dont blacklist me guys..... :(

i cant remember anything as good as that! hahahaha

by **Damien** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 12:32 am

I recorded an EP in tools clocking off an external a/d that was at a different sample rate to the session so when I played it back in another studio the whole thing was slow and had dropped in pitch. Easily fixed, but embarrassing all the same.

ive just done this again.... what is your easy way to fix this.... mine took ages... i used sound hack to change the sample rate, then import the file.... time consuming...

by **Mark Bassett** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 4:39 pm

I imported the wav files into a new pro tools session without converting them to the new sample rate.

by **rick** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 12:01 am

after years of "umming"
i have just agreed to put a book out
AND to appear as a "industry" talking head on a regular TV show .
neither of which were ever in my life plan .

there are somethings you know are dumb ideas but you think "hell most people would kill for this situation"
"why not give it a go "

my "dumb things i have done so you dont have to" meter is way into the red at the moment and it lookslike it will stay that way for a while .

by **Luke Garfield** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 5:45 am

It's about bloody time Rick :P.

Seeing as how i couldn't bring my AT mags with me I would love to see some of your articles or reworks of your articles in the book. Can you elaborate on the details of the book and the TV show?

Mark how the heck to you make an isopropyl screwdriver. And why aren't you blind.

I also remember finding that I hadn't recorded one of the kick drum mics the just before I took the track to be mastered (i don't know why it took me that long to figure it out). I only had a very toppy 200Hz batter head kick mic in the mix. So I used Logic's sub harmonic generator to put the "boot" back in to compensate the missing mic. In all it wasn't too bad a save.

Heathen, I have had the displeasure of forgetting the phantom on a DI and the reaction is always the same when you realise, the sound of a fully extended speaker cone trying to break loose.

by **Kris** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:22 am

Idol.... Rick????

by **heathen** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:45 am

[quote="Luke Garfield"]

Heathen, I have had the displeasure of forgetting the phantom on a DI and the reaction is always the same when you realise, the sound of a fully extended speaker cone trying to break loose.[/quote]

Oh yeah, I'm sooooo glad I'm not alone on that one.

by **Luke Garfield** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 11:01 am

Idol! LMAO - that is gold.

by **rick** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 1:12 pm

idol ?
no dont start that rumour ,
but it is a kind of band search / exposure show if chn 7 picks it up
if not , well who knows what it will turn into

book - pretty coffe table book , lots of ( most ) articles and some pretty pictures

by **astrovic** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 2:15 pm

rick wrote:book - pretty coffe table book , lots of ( most ) articles and some pretty pictures

hmmm, so who will own up to being caught George Costanza-style with that book? :lol:

the only tale I can recall to add to this thread is a playing live one...battery in the wireless went dead, I assumed (there's that word again) something else was to blame, so I cranked the gain on my bass amp to see if I could hear anything...nup. Between songs, whacked a new battery in, still nothing...until half way through the next song (which had started without me) I remembered I'd rolled off the volume on the bass while changing batteries, turned it back up with the gain on the bass amp still at flat out...

The soundie described the wall of low frequency sound as "phyical" - kinda like that scene from Raiders, where they opened the Ark. Amazingly, nothing was damaged - they made Trace Elliot gear bloody well back then :D

by **jmedigital** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 9:52 am

astrovic wrote:...., so I cranked the gain on my bass amp to see if I could hear anything...nup. Between songs, whacked a new battery in, still nothing...until half way through the next song (which had started without me) I remembered I'd rolled off the volume on the bass while changing batteries, turned it back up with the gain on the bass amp still at flat out...

The soundie described the wall of low frequency sound as "phyical" - kinda like that scene from Raiders, where they opened the Ark. Amazingly, nothing was damaged - they made Trace Elliot gear bloody well back then :D

Needed to get a bit more kick out of a bass cab one night so I bridged my amp at setup but couldn't sound check so I foolishly guessed "about there should be ok". First note was a low B of course. The terrifyingly loud fart noise was followed by bits of aluminium dust cap hitting the back of my leg. Amazingly the speaker actually survived and I was able to play the gig minus dustcap. It was a peavey 18" Black widow BTW. Mucho respect now.

by **Kris** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 10:05 am

oh man... bridging amps.... I did it once without knowing. I was recording some guitar and was thinking how good the tone was and that it never usually sounded like that. 5 minutes later it was all farts and splatters. The speaker was screaming its final breath.

by **rick** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 1:41 pm

without a doubt the best sound out of a guitar amp happens just as, or seconds before the voice coils of the speaker evaporate.
i recording a high profile guitarist once and the absolute plan was to "capture that tone" so we started with a really loud MARSHALL 1974 jmp 100 super lead amp and he pulled the usual 25 watt celestians out of the quad box and loaded it with new 15 watt celestians.
over two days we burned out 11 speakers ! but what a tone !
yeah ok, so file this under dumbs things i have done so you dont have to as well

by **jmedigital** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 3:18 pm

Any chance of finding out what recording that was on to have a listen? Recording at Sony once we had a Marshall head driving a Mesa Boogie Quad. Great combination. Cranked all the way could not stand in the same room. No speakers blown (although the guitarist was sweating) but it was a killer tone.

by **heathen** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 5:25 pm

All I can say is I'm glad this is just confined to audio dumb things we've done.

This is turning into something akin to a confessional.

Heh

by **Luke Garfield** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 11:25 am

Not to dredge up this thread but I wanted to put a happy ending to my fried interface story.

I sent the unit back to the service center which cost me a measley $14US including the packaging I bought (fedex is actually very cheap within the US). I waited and waited and no word. My wife IM'd me at work saying that the unit had arrived back?

The fixed if for free! Well close enough. I bought the unit over a year before 2nd hand from the US and they said it was still under warranty - do they have warranties for thoughtlessness? I think back now and realise that the units 1st firewire port must have suffered the same fate as the 2nd did at my hands because it never worked. So I got it back fully working. Very pleased indeed and wiser for the experience.

Now does this mean that this wasn't a stupid thing I did that you shouldn't do? It actually worked out for the good...

by **Martin** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 11:03 am

I think as a ratio my number of P.A Set ups to Number of P.A Stuff ups is pretty good, but i've been responsible for the odd spilt drink

its usually the mute buttons that do it, although recently the phantom button got me too, it always seems to happen when you're in a rush, or on desks without mute button lights (my pet hate!)

the other stupid thing i've done is to use a mackie d8b with a slightly scratchy digital volume pot... combine this with an open talkback mic and holy jeezuz i've never heard feedback that loud in my life

why? the pot decides that instead of a nice gradual volume increase it would go full volume at the slightest touch

something thats obviously not possible with an analog control, and it made me instantly hate the thing

worst part is it makes you look like an absolute tool in front of talent/client/peers/whoever

a new volume pot is probably worth more than the unit itself, its quite a large headphone mixer

by **Howard Jones** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 5:47 pm

a new volume pot is probably worth more than the unit itself, its quite a large headphone mixer

I have replaced the volume pots in these things before. It's one of those jobs that is simple but takes a long time. Therefore, does cost a bit.

by **Martin** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 7:43 pm

howard the funny end to that story was that rather than replace the pot our other studio is just going to send up the spare d8b they've got in storage!

sign of the times that is, still at least its getting used...

by **Howard Jones** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 8:32 pm

Ah-ha. Why was it in storage? Quite a few people didn't think much of the D8Bs and yet others like them well enough. I imagine they're not worth very much now.

by **Martin** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 8:42 pm

i'm brand blinded by the fact it says 'apogee' written across the back and the 002 doesn't....

it was just in among other bits and pieces, replaced by a fairlight i believe!

by **peat** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 7:51 pm

threaded a 1/2" 16 track tape on the outside of the pinch roller (plus tape needed baking, afterwards there was about 5mm of gunk collected on it)

live room input no.1 comes up on channel 17 of the console, took me a few hours to figure out why i wasnt getting any signal from the line output of channel 1

created many nasty feedback loops while tracking and mixing (mixing i often forget to mute the 2track return in tools and i feed the mix buss back to channels 1 and 2...yuck)

by **Stephen C** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 2:59 pm

Don't overtighten things when putting mics back together. :oops: (too embarrased to elaborate on that) :oops:

by **Mark Bassett** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 3:13 pm

Turned up late to a Radiohead gig and missed the first song, my favorite. There ,there......

Stupid things we've done so others don't have to do them

Stupid things we've done so others don't have to do them

sample rate fix

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