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I showed up to the studio 30 minutes prior to the scheduled recording so that I would be relaxed and acclimated to my surroundings. I was a little surprised to see that there was no separate booth for me. Instead, there was a microphone toward the back of this roughly 10'x10' room, a sheet music stand for my copy and a tall chair for me to sit in. Oh, and no headphones (and no place for me to plug mine in).
Finally the people from the advertising agency arrived. There were four of them, one a man from the US. The client showed up next and we were ready to go. In addition to these five people (and me) were two people from the studio. Eight people total in this small room.
Before we could begin recording, the engineer had to turn off the air conditioner. They don't have central AC in many places in Singapore, and the wall unit was making too much noise for us to be able to record. To say that it made the room stuffy is a huge understatement.
I wasn't thrilled with my mic either. I was certain a professional recording studio would have a Neumann microphone. When I asked about it, they acted almost like they had never heard of it before. Instead I was recording into some cheap microphone that, quite honestly, did not do my voice any justice. During playback, one of the reps from the advertising agency asked me if I have a cold. She then wanted to know why my voice sounded so different than it did in my demo. The client and the American man from the agency shook their heads, also wanting to know. I did my best to explain to them (without putting down the studio) that my demo was recording on a professional quality studio microphone.
The American man from the ad agency was the one giving me direction. He wanted me to sound sultry during this read. But there was something he didn't like about my delivery. He told me several times he didn't like my phrasing. Those are his words. I quote, "I do not like your phrasing there." He told me this as if I had anything to do with the copy. I did not write the copy, so I could not control the phrasing. I actually figured out about 30 minutes later he did not mean that he didn't like the phrasing. He didn't like the inflection I was giving one of the words in a specific phrase.
To make a long story short, after two hours in the studio, we gave up. There was a lot of external noise. The studio is next door to a school and the children on the playground were very loud. There were also interruptions of people walking in and out of the studio during the recording session. On top of this, some of the ad people found it necessary to leave their cell phones on and every time one of them would vibrate, the buzzing noise would create a huge distraction.
When I left the studio, the client told me it was not me. She told me the problem was that the studio is not a suitable place to record and they would call me back to determine another time. Later that afternoon I got an email from the studio informing me the client was unhappy with me as the talent for this project, stating that my demo did not represent my true abilities.
I was devastated. The truth is, I believe my demo is quite an accurate representation of what I am able to do. However, given the fact that I was asked to record into a less-than-stellar microphone, I can't say I blame her. If I had been allowed to do this project from my own studio, I have no doubt the client would have been completely satisfied with what I would have delivered, and in far less time. In addition, I would have had complete control of my environment.
This experience has given me a little more diva than I had before. I will no longer settle for crappy equipment or less than perfect studio conditions. If it costs me a job, so be it. Not insisting could likely yield the same results, as I learned in this case. For my two hours' time I earned nothing except an insult and a blow to the ego.
It has taken me a little while to be able to blog this. I was too upset to even bring it up until now, but I've moved past it and am still ready to take Singapore by a storm.
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