“Alright, Yo. Do it like that again two more times and I’ll piece it together from there.”
“Alright. Start me over.”
“I got you.”
I restarted it and found myself adjusting her volume just a little. She ran through the next two recordings then I had her come out of the booth and sent Charm in.
“Let me know when you’re ready. I’m gon’ let you lay your verse and I saw a few issues in the chorus I want you to touch up.I’ll send Myome back in for that last chorus then have y’all lay adlibs.”
“Okay.” Charm nodded and I started her. I glanced at Myome while Charm recorded. “Where’s your girl?”
“I don’t know.” Myome grabbed her phone and immediately started tapping the screen.
“I can cut her verse if it comes to it.”
“It won’t,” Myome said simply, her face still focused on her phone.
“Y’all ain’t even got an album out, Yo. It’s not a good look to be begging for production or features then fucking around with people’s time and the label’s money.”
“I know that, Berlin.”
“I feel like you got some attitude in yo’ throat and I know fucking well it ain’t directed at me when I was here on time and ready to work.” I looked back at Charm and adjusted a setting on the soundboard to make sure she sounded good with minimum vocal adjustment. “If you gon’ be upset, take it out on that bitch, not me. If I get what I need and she ain’t here, I’m leaving, whether y’all shit is album ready or not.”
“Okay.” Myome nodded, then put her phone to her ear. She paced slightly in half of the studio while I restarted Charm. “Bitch,” she said tightly and I glanced at her. “Get the fuck to the studio, Retta! What are you doing?” She walked toward the back of the studio into the small bathroom, slamming the door behind herself.
I shook my head but gave Charm my full attention and we got her knocked out after one more take since she was who I’d had a verse locked in for initially and we were just cleaning things up.
Myome came out of the bathroom after just a few minutes and I had her and Charm in the booth together immediately.
They’d both recorded verses and choruses so we just needed to get the chorus they wanted to record together then Retta’s verse and the adlibs.
Thankfully Charm and Myome were good at taking instructions as well as writing and having a good idea of what they wanted their music to sound like. It was always easier to work with someone who had a musical ear.
Shit. I was supposed to be producing songs, not arranging them and helping people with writing and organizing their fucking verses. However, I also wouldn’t slap my name on something that sounded like bullshit just because the check cleared. If I had an opinion, I would share it and didn’t care who liked it.
“Berlin,” Myome said softly into the mic and I looked up at her and lifted an eyebrow.
Apparently that real name shit was going to stick, which I actually found funny. I didn’t walk around letting people call me that shit, but I also knew she somewhat needed to get used to it with my family and everyone else staying tapped in on damn near everything we did.
“What’s up?” I lifted the sound of their mics to make sure I could hear them.
“Can I get you to stack my vocals on that first chorus where I’m raised a little bit above Charm?”
“Yeah. I can do that. You know how you want it stacked?”
“I think the last two lines with three different vocals.”
“A’ight. I got you.”
“Okay.” Charm nodded and I moved to the right starting place and got her set up.
I had her punch in all three stacks and replayed them.
“Can you layer Charm under it with a held out note?”
“Yeah.” I moved the recording over and added a line. “You ready for that?”
“Yep.” Charm nodded once and I started it so she could lock it in.