General Chris Lord-Alge Bait-and-switch

[plexuss]

I found this amusing so I thought I'd share: In a recent Rick Beto video Chris Lord-Alge talked about how he was frustrated that everyone can call themselves a "mixer". He said it should be like the military where you earn your stripes. He fails to see that the role of luck is a significant aspect of being a professional in music. He's mad that it's been democratized and that maybe just maybe there are amateurs that are better than he is. The Old Guard.

In the video he invited viewers to send him their mixes for him to review and he will email feedback back. So I emailed him a track.

I got this bait-and-switch from The General in return.

On Feb 8, 2019, at 8:51 PM, Chris Lord-Alge <info@chrislordalge.com> wrote:

Greetings from CLA,
Since Rick Beato’s interview
I have gotten hundreds & hundreds of emails with mixes to listen to !

I am honored and humbled by your interest

I appreciate the fact you all want me listen to help authenticate you as a mixer or at least tell you why not and give you some helpful hints is here is what i offer

I will treat this like I do all my mixes

I will schedule myself “Mix Critique “ sessions at my studio and listen to each mix on multiple monitors and email each person a paragraph of notes and ideas

In order to budget all this time which is very valuable to me
I am gonna have to charge an introductory fee of $100 dollars to be paid by PayPal
and sent as gift

I feel this is the only fair way to do it

If you want my help I have to charge like i do anyone

REMEMBER 1 SONG ONLY PER CHARGE
SEND ME A LINK TO YOUR UNMASTERED MIX THAT WAS APPROVED BY THE CLIENT

Once I receive your money give me up to 7 days or less to get back with honest and focused notes

Thank you
All the best
CLA

[AnX]

.... Rick Beto video Chris Lord-Alge...

who?

[Aloysius]

never mind

[wagtunes]

I watched one video of his and thought he was an ass, no matter how "talented" he may or may not be.

I wouldn't give him one dime of my money.

[Shabdahbriah]

... "known for his use of dynamic range compression in both hardware and software plugin"

Golly-winkies, sounds original and unique to the craft of mixing. Who knew?!

{aside} Can you imagine the hundreds of utter crap tracks he is being sent?

[Guenon]

I am gonna have to charge an introductory fee of $100 dollars to be paid by PayPal
and sent as gift

[...]

If you want my help I have to charge like i do anyone

CLA uses Paypal gift transfers to charge for his services? Isn't that... some kind of illegal somewhere?

It's against Paypal's user agreement anyway, and they have suspended/limited accounts that engage in such activity.

[vurt]

wonder if ill get the same charge for a one hour drone?

[mgw38]

The gift request is petty.

[Aloysius]

Well he is a Lord.

[punkfest2000]

Not his best moment, bit also pretty trashy of you to post his messages here to ridicule him. And I do agree with the bit about earning your stripes regardless of the situation. There is risk when you didn't sufficiently earn the knowledge

[Tj Shredder]

I would rather take one of his mixes an critique it...

[Bombadil]

But only for €1,000 per song, payable directly into my acc't. Please give me 30 days to respond. His business must be suffering if he needs to resort to this crap to make a buck.

I am not a fan of Rick Beato, either. He knows his stuff, but he grates.

[Hewitt Huntwork]

You nailed it. Democratization has flooded his field (just like it has for musicians in the last 25 years) and rather than have the grace to acknowledge his good fortune he's opted for the get-off-my-lawn approach. (Don't ask me how "send me your mixes" = "get-off-my-lawn". It's a fair question but I watched that whole interview when it was released and the pervasive vibe was elitist and off-putting.) Afterward I went and listened to an album he mixed and I was astonished at how it lacked any sort of immediacy.

I love Beato and I enjoy CLA, but this interview was a little insufferable and I'm glad to add my voice to those who observed the same thing.

[SirkusPi]

Not his best moment, bit also pretty trashy of you to post his messages here to ridicule him. And I do agree with the bit about earning your stripes regardless of the situation. There is risk when you didn't sufficiently earn the knowledge

I think it was perfectly appropriate for the original poster to post this publicly. First, CLA’s letter was not private correspondence with an expectation of privacy, but a commercial solicitation apparently sent to hundreds of people. Second, his petty “send it as a gift so I can avoid fees” is risible and deserves mockery.