An obvious thought, but for the record (no pun intended), a great deal of it is about efficiency.  If I can copy and paste a vocal from Chorus 1 into Choruses 2 and 2, that lets the singer go home earlier and lets me go on to creating another song.  (I was first able to do this with my trusty old VS-1680, but it was a little clumsy, and the resolution was not perfect: sometimes things were a few ticks off.)  Despite all the debate about Melodyne, from a practical and human standpoint, it makes more sense to fix a note than to wear a singer out punching in and redoing parts, possibly losing the feel along the way and maybe breaking note B in the process of fixing note A.  (A little imperfection live is OK, but on a record, it is memorialized forever.)
 
This same logic applies to many other functions and tools.
 
You guys may have different goals as artists and that is not only OK, it is highly desirable: we shouldn't all be in the same bag.  For me, though, it is about songwriting; and anything that helps me focus on writing and arranging instead of mixing and fixing is good.  If I were super rich, I'd spend all my time with a notepad and let my loyal minions tend to the tedious parts.
 
As always, thanks to all my Sonar buddies for these thoughts.  It sparks my creativity to read ideas from my valued peers.

Interesting thread but appears to be biased towards the composers rather than the musicians.
it appears that most here work alone or occasionally collaborate which to me is the greatest asset of any DAW.
Recording live is another thing-the focus shifts from design and composition to performance and the moment,with only mic choice,placement and volume to worry about.
I am a dinosaur though and only record live,i like to get a set together,polish it and record it ,a tad of Boost 11 and maybe some LP64 on the main and move on and let someone else re-mix and master if it`s worth it.
Sonar to me is just an unbelievably robust 16 track recorder.
nothing more.
Unfortunately most of the incredible technology in the software is way beyond my ability and needs and a quick listen to the Songs forum usually confirms that.
I reckon half the challenge of Sonar is becoming proficient with all its functionality and it must be satisfying to be able to create music,exactly as you hear it.
cheers  
 
 
 

sylent

Anderton

konradh
 That said, early Beatles records with a 4-piece band and sometimes doubled voices sound "huger" than some of my 60-track songs. I think it was 1-musical arrangement, 2-superb vocal parts, 3-a great sounding studio space, and 4-engineers who knew how to select and place mics.  Some will say it is tape v digital and that may be a factor but I don't think it is the major reason.

I think it's that the fewer notes you have, the more importance each one has. Just ask Miles Davis 

This is true, every color of silence has it's place in music.

I believe this is the Miles quote (my brother is named after him btw). And it kind of marries up both you comments.
 
"The space between the notes are just as important as the notes".

Grem
I also have lots of uncompleted songs.
 
However, when I play them for people, they ask what am I still working on?
 
Last year I said I would complete an albums worth of song this year. I have about four or five close to complete, about that many in demo/construction mode and about that many in idea mode. I work on a different bunch to keep it fresh.
 
I worked on one song for over five years. Kept telling myself i was learning the software. Get close to finishing it and then start over because I'd tell my self I could do it better now that I have more knowledge. Yep that went on for five years!! The best version by the way was the one I did about year three!!

This is the way for me as well. As soon as I start to see the end of a project (after months or years), I feel the need to do it again, with my "better knowledge / techniques". It is a never ending cycle I think I have over a hundred unfinished songs / projects. I hope one day I will be able to finish at least half of them.
But hey, I am having fun

dcumpian
I, too, have a ton of unfinished (just barely started ) projects and a few years back I decided that I would pick a project and work on it until it was done, or I was sick of it. Everything I've done in the last couple of years is a result of that.
 
I do allow myself a day or two a month to just experiment and play with stuff, which usually generates at least one or two new projects to be finished in the future.
 
I have found that really focusing on a single project at a time has really helped me to improve.
 
Regards,
Dan
 

Sounds a lot like me, Dan. My problem is that new ideas are always popping into my head. One step forward, two steps back.

Wow, what a thread full of insights!  At 64 I've been a singer/songwriter since the early "Elvis" days when I was a little kid... I can so relate to literally EVERY post above...and have huge GAS pains I try to control...(yea, like just buying infinity and gravity... good goin' dude!).  I've gone through the overloading songs insanity.  I've relegated most of my plugins/synths/effects to the dustbin these days... should sell um I guess.
 
My favorite artist is Rush... do so much with so little... exquisitely crafted words and messages, minimally saturated music but everything shines with an expressive sense of urgency, emotion and POWER!...They have several dozen songs which routinely bring me to tears.  They've moved thru the ages and evolution of tech yet have not lost the power and simplicity in what they do.  Just brilliant what those three humans create.
 
I'm now at the point of reassessing everything.  I've shifted to evernote for songwriting whereever and whenever the inspiration hits.  The perfect combo of tech and primitive language.  I have no more, "where'd the f'in' words go"... they're everywhere, on my phone, in the cloud, on the vastmaschine...
 
I'll often come up with a melody along with a message and it's generally the best as it arrives in that creative moment, whether while working in the garden or.... so I have phone aps to capture it.  Have even started using google translator to capture song thoughts way faster than I can type or write.
 
I think the old way forced us to come up with a whole idea or framework/foundation...and is important to remember, as endless options nowadays can be a distraction if we let it...it is addicting!  I do miss the band practices/song writing sessions where multiple influences co-join into something unique and squirting it into my various Tascam's or later, ADAT was the goal.
 
My struggle these days is I am a naturally intuitive artist, whether in garden design or composition... and many of my recent songs start out as just playing around with something like BFD3 and Stratosphere or some Kontakt library... Yet I know that just sitting down with the acoustic guitar and working out a song generally results in a more cohesive effort.
 
But this era of DAW/VST/CPU power is friggin' amazing.  I'm soooo glad I'm here.  To wield such power that heretofore never existed is orgasmic...

Evernote syncs to desktop app, mobile apps Sylent...so any change migrates to all devices... just go to google store and download the chrome app... it also lets you email the lyrics as an additional backup.

Vastman
btw, as to dictating, I'm using "google keep" which is just fantastic for free form dictation of ideas... the accuracy is truly amazing (has been improving steadily over the last few years) I'll often then just cut/past to evernote...
 
Keep is also cross platform and auto syncs everything.
An old bbc show, Starcop... the dude had his "box" (his name..."hey, box...remind me about...."), looked like a cell phone... and I've always dreamed of it... we are almost there, natural language and all.
 

Thats cool, I have keep and evernote already installed too.
I'll see about adding that into my remote workflow.... translators help so much, and have come a long way since win95 and that first Acer system version. lol
Thank you kindly.
 
And yes, at 50 myself, and seeing the tech changes in my lifetime gain perpetual speed, I can't imagine in 2065.
No app, no box, just speak it into your hand! lol
 
 

Graham at The Recording Revolution won some serious kudos from me when I happened across a couple of his videos. He is pretty open about what he uses, but always caveats that with "use whatever works for you." There is sound advice in mastering a handful of things versus knowing a little about everything (the "Jack of All Trades, master of none" scenario).
 
This thread has a lot of nice feedback from all perspectives and one point that stands out is that not everyone has the same goals, and people shouldn't feel "pressured" to set goals that do not suit them. It is often good to reflect on goals and reprioritize based on life happening in the background. For me, much of this has manifested itself (since the OP) in "proficiency in chosen workflow," and what I have done definitely won't suit anyone but me.
 
I just wanted to make sure this thread wasn't inadvertently implying "standards" in any way... it all comes down to personal preference and knowing oneself.

Jim Kalinowski
I never seem to have a bad time when I'm hanging out in my studio, whether I'm recording or just trying out new stuff.

 
Indeed