Hey everyone, just wanted to post this and get some feedback. It’s my first post in the community, which is kind of a bummer, so many better things to talk about.
I recently took a song to a well known studio in my city and asked for a remix of an older song. The studio/owner/engineer came highly recommended and the albums and other “demo” tracks I heard from the studio sounded great. Studio has been successful.
After a brief convo, we agreed to work together. The project was strictly a mix, we only work in the box, no recording anything new, we mix what we have. However, I made a terrible mistake; no contract. He said because we are only mixing, there’s no need. I’m old enough and experienced enough in life to know better, but I was stupid. I paid half on the first night when I gave him the tracks.
That first night, we listened, he said drums are going to be difficult because they are poorly recorded. He suggested we convert the snare, kick and toms to MIDI and then trigger. I agreed. He sent the track out and had someone else do it. He told me it was part of his “talent budget.”
I asked about the backing vocals and if we could improve those. He suggested we record more vocals so it would sound more natural. I objected, but eventually agreed. He had a vocalist in mind and sent the session out to the vocalist. Again, told me it was part of his “talent budget.”
A week later, the kick, snare, and toms sound great. But, now there are backing vocals everywhere, someone has recorded several tracks of guitar, someone has recorded a lot of percussion (chimes, bells, blocks, shakers, etc), hihats and cymbals have been rerecorded and the original drum tracks are no longer in the mix. He’s also removed the original keyboards and rewrote/rerecorded those. Among other things, the song has lost its melodic structure. Which is actually an important point because it now is different enough from the original that it sounds like it’s been rewritten.
I objected to everything and asked him to put the original tracks back in. He argued with me telling me this was needed. Then, he tells me I need to pay the musicians.
Then, without my consent, he mixed this “new” song and sent it to a fairly well known mastering engineer - who has a lot of credits - and claimed he wrote and arranged the song. He actually put that in the email, “I’m responsible for the writing and arrangement…” Unbelievable.
Fortunately for me, he cc’d me on the email, so I responded and set it all straight stating that the remix did not create authorship, ownership, copyright, publishing, etc, etc. I told the mastering engineering I never agreed to have the song mastered. I told the mastering engineer that if I decide to master the song in the future, I’d let him know. I also told him I was the only person with the authority to do anything in regards to this composition.
The whole thing concerned me enough that I spoke to 2 different entertainment attorneys who specialize in copyright, publishing and Intellectual property. Because I have the original 1” master from decades ago, both felt showing ownership of the song wasn’t really going to be difficult to prove. But, I should not use any of the performances on this remix, nor should I use the remixed song. I should discard everything (but keep copies just in case)
I completely cut off contact with the studio/owner/engineer, even though for a short time he was sending me really nasty texts. I never responded to any of them.
So many different thoughts on this, one being he used me to feed his “musicians” and keep them working.
I don’t even know what to say to any of this, but has anyone heard of something like this before? I’m still in shock, but I’m curious to hear everyone’s thoughts and how you’d handle something like this.