You Know You Suck When....

.... you're recording a part, and the little clip title thingy says "Record 197".

Hey, perfectionism ain't nothing to be sorry about, it just means you are passionate

It's one of the benefits of not being on stage where there is no "do-over's" and a hedge against Murphy's Law.


Sometimes it would be nice to do another "Take" live, but your audience would not appreciate that.

Definitely one-take if possible, I hate comping guitar parts. I try and aim for a 'performance' feel as far as possible. Just did a one-take solo for Ed, and it took all week to get it down right.

I learn a new reason I suq every day... it is something that comes with age and I am aging well!

J

 I just get so darned upset with myself sometimes when it's like 6 notes that i can't seem to get straight, and I screw it up THE SAME WAY 50 times in a row!!   LOL

They prescribe desoxyn for ADHD now... just sayin'

J

Slow parts can be a pain - there's just so much room around each note, and rushing a single note by a few ms can ruin the whole thing.

One silly thing that helps me keep the feeling and to let go and be less mechanical is to actually record a dummy guitar track if possible. I've noticed early on that if I had to record similar parts hard panned left and right, I struggled w/ the first one and the second one was much better, so I stopped wasting time trying to record THE right take the first time. I just go back once the second guitar has been recorded and re-do the first one.

Another things which used to slow me down a lot is that even though I use amp sims - I insist on re-recording everything the minute I change something like a cab or if I add distortion - because I'll react and play differently. 

To be honest, I think the main reason why I have a tendency to pile up tracks is not mistakes, but sounds. And each new sound means doing a bunch of takes.

Archiving the old sounds and creating new tracks all the time isn't an efficient option either as I'd end up w/ tons of tracks and plug-ins to manage. And it's always tempting to re-open the amp sim and modify the cab or add a little this and that.

One thing that helps w/ that is that my host has input tracks, so the sounds are "printed to tape" as is. I'll usually record a few different options and pick what seems to work best afterwards. There's something about committing to a sound and making it work. 

And then of course, spending time away from it. I'm sure I've deleted more than my share of good performances because I just kept at it too long. A producer will make that call for you. When I think back about the time we spent in a real studio - man, we rarely did more than 2 or 3 takes, and I was pretty happy w/ the results.

Wel,... every time you enter a note... it's another record. Every time you apply effects... yep. Every time you...

If at first ya don't succeed......

:-)

There's always one song that just screws you to death.

I choose not to think of it as piling up (potentially) useless takes.  Instead, I think of it as providing an abundance of material for the gag reel.

It's a lifestyle, really.