Orlando Soundworks, Michael
Fraud, Bait & Switch, Deceptive Sales and Trade Practices, Unprofessional, Unable to Deliver Advertises, Liar and Cheat

WARNING/CAUTION TO ALL: (Especially Soloists/Vocalists)

He is not reputable.

He is not professional to work with or in any respect of the word/term.

He is rude, obnoxious and trashy... And that is putting it mildly.

He is a bully that resorts to underhanded behaviors and trash talk to cover up his own inadequacies!

He is not what he says.

He will not do what he states.

You stand a pretty good chance of let down and not getting what you expected even though you clearly stated up front what your needs and expectations were.

It is a bait and switch scheme. A lure to get you in there and make you feel so invested with the flat rate per song and if he said he is not counting tests runs/trials, warm ups etc, don't believe him/it, he is lying!

You would be better off hourly with someone who will work your song with the utmost professionalism, sound quality and training and not someone who hands you back a CD you cannot even use and later and still has to email you, your three tracks because he gave you a defective CD from a stack he meant to discard. Only to later review what he emailed you was no different!!!

You may get promises of a great price the best available only to have it later change. There is a reason why his prices have been everywhere from "Grand Opening Special" $50, $100, to $25...

Or be told that running through songs to set levels or warm up are no charge but later he will claim you did not pay him for something he already told you was not charged! (I.E., three tracks later became 10 or 11 after making a complaint to OC fraud Dept & BBB).

I first came to him with issues to work out amicably one-on-one and after much denial, accusations and blaming me of letting others get to me to stir business away from him and finger-pointing—he said he'd see what he could do and get back to me... Well I never heard back from him again until an investigator personally contacted him and now he remembers all sorts of intricate and elaborate details, that were either fragments of actual discussions (breaking from the heat in front of the commercial fan) and all the rest was all fabricated to his advantage and my disadvantage (what a surprise, right?)...

How ironic when he admittedly couldn't even remember to reach me and forgot all about me until now, then proceeded to blame me for not continuing to reach him thereafter when he is the one who did not get back to me as he promised, but that too was my fault!

He'll flatter you out of your cash only to deny any complement and even go as far, as to shift blame off himself and onto you, for not being good enough, or selecting better material, or not being able to handle your picks etc... Meanwhile he is the one completely out of his own depth/range.

Perhaps you may get lucky, or have better chances if you are in a band or a group, but is that a risk you are willing to take?

As far as sound engineering, he has no editing skills or capabilities whatsoever and you will NEVER find this out until after the end of your session.

He will never admit until it is too late (If at all), that he cannot cut out or fix spots or any of the basic industry standard practices i.E., editing and mastering necessities that you may require. But he will lie and say that you were told and knew before hand of his capabilities, which are things HELLO that only he could know and tell you, so you are AGAIN at his mercy.

So unless you can sing perfectly each take for your average 4-6 minutes and also hear yourself the entire time without the audio constantly cutting on/off from your headphones and also have a clear head to concentrate meanwhile being overheated and dripping with sweat etc; sorry I could not, and I think that makes me human... And frankly I expected a studio/engineer to be able to do typical studio/engineer work, not lack any and all recording tools and software i.E., Pro Tools, Cakewalk Sonar, Cubase, Rerson, Imageline, etc and not have any available back-ups or substitutes in place. All things that I have gotten a crash course in since left completely right back at square one, right back where I started, but with less cash to have to redo everything he butchered!

An off day or what, I'll never know, but he complained about being kept up late the night before with little sleep from one of his groups he claimed, fuzzed over every little thing and kept him up all hours, working all day and night to finish all the tracks for their project that he was working on (my issue is with him not them/you so I will not state the name, but I am sure you can figure it out with a little deductive reasoning who he was referring to)

His air-conditioner does not work, but he will turn it off overnight and tell you that it should be getting cooler and hours later... Still no change, except for your wallet is much lighter!

So if you leave feeling cheated, it is because you were, if you were not then perhaps these accounts/testimonials will continue to make the process better and easier for others, so consider yourself fortunate!

Promises of putting you in touch with producers and record labels that he is in contact with, who are looking for singers... Bologna it will never happen!

Yet he will complain about others and if you have heard him talk about other people just imagine what he is saying about you when you are not around.

He is not your friend, although he can appear quite friendly. He likes money and it does not matter how he obtains it promises, falsehoods etc... But disagree or call him on anything and see how quickly he turns real nasty. As you will not believe the emails that I started receiving from him and the funny thing is he actually thinks he is right in everything he has said and done, with no err. He is perfect with no faults whatsoever.

He does not care and hopefully you won't have to find this out the hard way like I did. You will see his dog (albeit cute) get into everything and will have to wait on all the time spent either cooling off in front of one of the two commercial fans to catch your breath before trying to record some more under those conditions... As well as waiting many times for several trips outside with his dog to go potty or him unraveling and untangling him from cords or tape that he got into.

You are best to not come alone so at least that way you have witnesses to back you and everything you say and do. Document EVERYTHING and/or tape record (get permission first, although this will probably never fly) and try to have other opinions to bounce off thoughts and ideas, before and during (HECK print this out and use as a checklist if you dare). Taking suggestions back to him later on about things he should and should not have done will get you no where even though you are not the engineer he is (suppose to be, anyway).

You cannot count on his opinion or anything else he says; he will try his best never do or say anything that you could refer back to; but be careful what you tell him as he will twist your every word from actual snippets into a full storyboard of dramatical epic proportions. Actually—this he ought to really pursue;as fabricating events is his true calling... TALL TALES is what he is best at!!!

Document EVERYTHING... Anything key, or vitally important record, or have some king of proof to back you up, he is very deceitful and treacherous... Again, if it comes down to his word he will say and do anything to get his way and come out on top!

Count on him for nothing. Even if you tell him you were unhappy or he asks, he will just as soon blame his own studio monitors and call them cheap telling you he bought them off EBAY for $10 bucks, but it will sound much better in your car or at home on your stereo.

If you ask him or tell him to do something, or tell him you did not like something, or want something changed and you think he does not hear you, or he gives you a blank stare... It is because he is trying to come up with a way out of something that he does not know how to do, or how to deal with. Watch him very carefully here... This is where he will make like he is changing something (punch a few buttons/knobs and making a few changes) and then playback again, meanwhile it still sounds the same and nothing has really changed.

He can and will say anything he has to, to make you look as bad as possible and will never admit any wrongdoing and will also resurface recordings that he stated were deleted and would no longer be available after the session, but will keep them to use against you and that is what he uses his skills and tools to do&absolutely nothing, except for harm and to try and paint you in the most unflattering light, yet spending hours on end working with people, he claims (in not so many words) were a waste of time so what it all comes down to is, he is still a cheat no matter how you slice and dice or look at it!!!

... Lastly if this has already happened to you, please make sure you speak up so that history does not continue to repeat itself and others can be warned and protected or at the very least make an informed decision, with information and knowledge they otherwise would never have and later wished they'd obtained other than the hard way, as I did and wished someone had warned me first.
So at least this way you can go into everything with your eyes wide open. An advantage I only wish I had, hindsight 20/20.

Perhaps at some point he will change but since he cannot or will not hold himself accountable, others will have to do it for him until he has no choice but to stand and uphold his words, promises, exaggerations with concrete evidence that is not so full of holes and as phony as a $3 dollar bill... Until then good luck and best wishes to you all including you Michael.in the end I hope this helps you most of all~

*COMPLAINT FILED W / BBB & Orange County FL Fraud DEPT*

The advertising and prices charged for goods/services clearly involve misrepresentation. Aprx. Around the month of July a series of ads ran in the Orlando Weekly "Attention Bands & Musicians, Orlando Soundworks, Central Florida's Newest Recording Studio is Now Open! Grand Opening Special! $50 per song, FULLY MASTERED!.." Which it is now $25.00 Grand Opening Special, in reality (and I had this verified by other professionals) What I received and paid $150.00 has absolutely no value and cannot be used. This effort must be redone, which again will most likely be at my complete own expense and I am hoping that I can at least apply the $150.00 previously spend here, (not getting what was advertised), that money would be helpful putting it towards accomplished what I had hoped to have done at Orlando Soundworks but will clearly now never happen!

Well I hate to admit to the adage if it sounds too good... Well I wished my demo sounded as promising as this ad and his convincing chit, chat. There were clearly issues on the onset. Michael dismissed them all stating that he had not added effects, editing etc. After he supposedly did I asked about retakes and editing out bad spots that clearly off key, sharp, flat etc... He claimed that layering a second track is a fabulous studio trick that will fill in those areas. Well it did not. When I asked about actually editing he stated that he would have to punch in the exact spot to edit right over and that could cause more track problems (well that is what a studio is for);basically the bottom line was he recorded two takes only, never made any edits (I do not think he knows how or can't/won't for whatever reason) then he played the two together for a "more full sound/blend" added some reverb and called that mastering and it was suppose to sound different in the car because his studio speakers he blamed as lousy, cheap $10 speakers he bought off E-bay.

Well in the car they sounded just as bad if not worse. I am referring to, the expectations that he wanted me to believe that his "unorthodox methods" would polish. My expectations are well within reason here, similarly to a resume, which is what a demo is, a vocal resume; well just like a written one, it can only be as good as its subject and content, however with that said, I am sure you would expect someones professional and expertly revised version to be edited, proofed, error free and corrected, spell checked etc... Well the equivalent of what I received was none of the above benefits, and having your resume written in crayon on a brown paper bag soiled with grease and coffee stains. I could and have done better on my own, and in fact I have and I am not a professional sound engineer like he was suppose to be and that is what I was paying for.

Lastly, I also wanted to add that there was little or what felt like no air conditioning. When I walked into this so called make shift "studio" I walked passed two commercial fans blowing full blast. When I asked about the a.C. I was told that he just turned it on and it takes a little for it to cool down, he got there 30 minutes ahead to try to cool things off. Well several hours later still no cooler, no relief, in fact I walked around with a cool patch on my forehead all day and even with that I was miserable, but he offered a drink of lemonade to help. Plus all day we were constantly interrupted by his dog, a cutie but still, not what I had planned for. Even with all these things, I was still willing to tolerate and put it all behind me so long as the end result prove worth it.

Unfortunately when that too was not the case it just further added insult to injury and to all of the endless annoyances of the day and made it all that much more of bitter a pill to swallow. I have tried calling and emailing him (Michael), last response was more than a week ago, where he said he would see what he could do with it, after a lot of finger pointing blame at me and none, no responsibility on his part for anything. Since then I have heard nothing since. Also to add you also cannot find an address or only information more than his myspace page and the ads unless he personally gives you the address. I am starting to wonder how legit he really is, in all this and whenever there was a concern about having the ability to do something or not he stated that he has only been open since March of this year. This is clearly all false pretense, false advertising and misleading information. There is no full mastering. There is not even any editing. It would be like I mentioned before having someone type a document for you without any proofing, editing, corrections etc... And that is exactly what he did take my money and not offer the typical and standard services of a truly professional recording studio.in a true professional capacity, there is usually service and not excuses for lack thereof, in addition it is not unreasonable to expect, basic air conditioning, editing, true mastering etc... And an environment that is pet free or at least one where you are not tripping over them, dripping with sweat, waiting for doggie pottie breaks etc... Common! Please need your help and assistance before this becomes the case for others and a spreading epidemic for other people trying to save a few bucks while in the end truly costing yourself more in time and money to redo everything all over again from scratch! I hope you can also help to recover those funds and as for the time, well I hope that will be my only cost and lesson in all this as well as getting to help others avoid the same pitfalls!!!

Company: Orlando Soundworks, Michael
Country: USA
State: Florida
City: Orlando
Address: 5651 Commerce Drive, Unit#2
Phone: 4073944286

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