Emergency Key Change!!

So let's say I've already had my musicians come in and record their parts on their instruments.... but suddenly, the client wants the key of the entire song chance by a couple of half steps.
How should I go about this? Is there a method where I can do it with the final mix, or will I have to pitch shift manually, track-by-track? What sounds best?

davdud101
So let's say I've already had my musicians come in and record their parts on their instruments.... but suddenly, the client wants the key of the entire song chance by a couple of half steps.
How should I go about this? Is there a method where I can do it with the final mix, or will I have to pitch shift manually, track-by-track? What sounds best?

First, I assume you're not using MIDI. 
 
Second, if you do the final mix, any unpitched parts (like drums) will be transposed as well...you probably don't want that, so you'll need to transpose each pitched audio track, or premix all pitched tracks and transpose that.
 
The DSP-based Process >Transpose algorithm in SONAR is up there with the best of them. If it doesn't do it for you, it's unlikely you'll find something that does.

SONAR's pitch-shifting algorithm is licensed from iZotope, and it's very good. A couple semitones is fine, but of course the more you transpose, the less natural the sound.

Guitarhacker
whatever makes them happy...... right?

As long as they're paying.....  Yes

How to break it to them that it costs money?
 
 
Straight up.  Either quote them the hourly rate or a project rate. What ever you charge, don't be ashamed to ask for it.   Time is money and people know that if they go somewhere else they will have to pay for the service there...so you asking to be paid is part of the business and normal.
 
Pricing... look around at other local studios and see what they are charging. Figure out where you fit into the quality/price vs the other locals.  Set your price at the higher end of what you think your time and experience is worth in the local market. You can always come down in price to get a job but you can't go up on rates in the middle of a project.
 
I don't do much work for hire, and I have very little local studio competition around here..... I don't generally do walk in clients.... it's mostly on line when I do work for others. Word of mouth. We settle on the price for the project or the hourly rate or a per track rate up front. Recently, I did a song project.... just tracks for a client. It was a cost of the project deal. He was wanting to change this and that, then the key, and I had to write to him and tell him that his indecision needed to stop and we needed to get the project rolling. Time is money and it was being wasted on all the changes. I told him to pick a key, settle on a style and lets get this done..... the option was I was out unless he could find something he liked and we would go with it.  Waaa Laaa.... he liked the style and the key, we finished the project and I sent him  the song as MP3 with silence breaks...... for his approval. He liked it, paid me and I sent him the full wave.
 
Then..... 2 weeks later.... he came back wanting a key change on it. I told him it would cost the same as he had just paid and I could rework it in that new key..... he declined. I didn't really care.   Thar's the great thing about running a studio as a hobby..... I don't have to accept the work and I don't worry when someone walks away.
 
Always write up a work for hire that specifies the money to be paid. Get signatures and only then start the work. If not, you'll get screwed. Get a deposit or down payment depending on the size of the project. Figure out based on the time you expect the project to take, when you have used that deposit. DO NOT keep working without getting another chunk of money.  Always be working on their money (dime) or you will end up working on your time.
 
I've seen a number of folks here who tried running studios complain that they had spent 10 hours on a project, were paid for 3 hrs with the deposit (if they bothered to get one) and then the band/artist said he/she didn't like the way it was sounding and walked away..... leaving the studio on the hook for free studio time.
 
I put silence into all my mp3 test tracks..... every 10 seconds. That kept the customers from using the mp3 and walking out on paying for a finished product.
 
Just my 2 cents.....

Yeah, I actually am going to use that. I have no b axis, and really I'm at no 'professional' level, so I'm still figuring out how to DO the labor and run the books. So basically GH, you've got it like... :
 

1. Client pays a security, then you begin work and have them client pay in increments
2. Once it's done, you send a semi-lo-quality, semi-silenced copy for final product demo
3. The client finishes payment and you send the full quality final product

That's pretty simple. I'd have to say though- I'm curious how your online work goes? Do you still go by an hourly rate? 
I'm thinking in terms of ME- I like to experiment, I'm not the greatest producer and so I might take a long time to fix something... How do you factor something like that out of the total when it's at an hourly rate? I think that's been what scares me away from doing walk-ins, especially when my church's studio gets running.

jeffb63
The zPlane elastique in sound forge is very good.

Agreed, that's the other one I consider in the same league as Radius. 

davdud101
Yeah, I actually am going to use that. I have no b axis, and really I'm at no 'professional' level, so I'm still figuring out how to DO the labor and run the books. So basically GH, you've got it like... :
 

1. Client pays a security, then you begin work and have them client pay in increments
2. Once it's done, you send a semi-lo-quality, semi-silenced copy for final product demo
3. The client finishes payment and you send the full quality final product

That's pretty simple. I'd have to say though- I'm curious how your online work goes? Do you still go by an hourly rate? 
I'm thinking in terms of ME- I like to experiment, I'm not the greatest producer and so I might take a long time to fix something... How do you factor something like that out of the total when it's at an hourly rate? I think that's been what scares me away from doing walk-ins, especially when my church's studio gets running.

 
First of all, I don't do a lot of work for hire....it's only on occasion.   But , yes... steps 1,2,3 are what I used.  Although quite often, since it is not my "dayjob" I will start a project with no retainer fee paid. If I did this as a source of income, absolutely, no pay, no play.
 
Next, I mostly give a set price for something. As I said before, the down side to a set price is that the client tried, in this case, to change this, change that, I don't like this, I don't like that and I had to put my foot down to stop the diminishing returns on that set price. Once I let him know that I wasn't going to spend hours of time redoing things that really didn't fit into the big picture, we were able to move forward. One of the biggest time wasters on this project was trying to nail down the specific style this client wanted. He was sending me one or two videos and telling me, kinda like this style in the video, but more of a cross between the "Black Keys" and "Johnny Cash"..... WHAT?  I'd throw something together and .... close.... but more like this video and a bit more this or that..... stuff like that can drive you crazy and wastes time..... but across the net, with someone who only sings and wants backing tracks.... it is what it is.  This was the point, after several days, back and forth with several demo's... time to make a freaking decision and nail something down or pull the plug on it.

I basically sent an email that said something to this effect. We agreed to a specific price for the song project/tracks. My ability to deliver a quality product to you at that price depends upon you being able to make decisions and move the project forward. I'm willing to spend as much time as you wish on specifics. However, that extra time to do so, was not calculated into the project cost. It would be necessary for me to charge you XX dollars per hour if we need to spend time reworking tracks at this point in the project.
 
Upon receiving this email, the client agreed that the tracks we had to that point, in the last demo I sent, were in fact, perfectly good and he was just being a bit too picky.  We went on to finish the project and finalize it. I sent an mp3 of the finished track with tiny gaps of silence..... I used the "mute a section" of the song function in Sonar....used the PROCESS AUDIO FX and waaa laaaa... short gaps placed to allow the client to hear the important parts but rendered the track unusable for commercial purposes. This process of gaps of silence were used in ALL demos going to the client. Also, this gap technique is used in plugin FX that are full function and then revert to demo mode after 10 days.....some use bursts of white noise, some use gaps.  Gaps are harder to fill. 
 
  Once he paid me with PayPal, and I transferred the payment to my bank... I sent him the link to DL the full, unadulterated wave file of the song project.
 
He wasn't sure if he just wanted the project as a single wave or if he wanted the individual tracks..... and a number of other issues.....like mixing them himself or paying another studio to do so..... mastering, adding his vocals to the song.... on and on..... it was necessary to pin him down to what he was willing to pay me to do....then setting out to do that.  In the end, he wanted me to provide ONE track, mixed and polished, ready to go so all he needed was to drop his vox into it.   I saved the project in case he comes back and wants to purchase the individual tracks. 
 
After this was all said and done.... he came back asking if we could change the style or was it the key? I think it was the key.... half a step lower....  I replied certainly!  It would cost the same as what I had done in the original. Haven't yet heard back.

The important part in all that above is to try to cater as much as you can to the client's desires...yes, you want to give them what they are looking  for and more.... but at the same time, be ready, willing and able to put your foot down when needed and keep things on track and profitable. The clients will push you as far as you let them. So keep control of the process.