Just curious how many of you get stuck doing something that I know plagues me. I'll begin to lay something down-- I may even like it. Then I walk over to the desk and listen over the monitors. The next thing you know, I start tweaking things. I get absorbed into the engineering side before getting back to creating the music itself. I know that it's totally breaking my momentum (for lack of a better word). 

One of my my co-workers who also records tells me that he consciously writes away from his studio environment to force himself from doing what I described. I'm just curious if others have the same issue. If so, do you have any strategies of your own that seem to work?

Thanks.

Hi Thomas,

This is a really good question. I believe I answered this before on another forum....I tried to search for it so I could just copy and paste, but I can't seem to find it. Oh wait, I know where it is! It will be a long read of course...but I promise you it will be worth it and may help you out. :) This comes from a thread where someone asked about the bipolar effects of being an engineer vs. a musician. I've added to it and fixed it to suit your particular needs. :)

There are 4 things that go with the start of a recording for me.

1. Have a nice template that is already set up for you. All soundcard ins and outs, track names, busses etc. Even if you don't use some of the stuff, it's there if you need it and there are less things that need to be created and set up that take you out of your zone.

2. The sound selection

3. The tracking procedure

4. The musician and performance

3 of these things need to be there at once for *me* at all times or I'm lost. I've done it so often you just fall into it from repetition really.

Sound selection: When I'm working on sounds, all I think about here is how good the sound is that I'll be working with. Nothing else is going through my mind at this stage of the game. Sometimes I won't even concentrate much on the sound selection at this point because let's face it, if this is the first time I am trying to perform this idea, I'm probably going to need to just create a scratch track of it as a pre-pro idea and let it sink it. Of course you don't have this luxury when recording others...lol...but for yourself, the only clock you watch is the one that says "bed time!" So don't be too hard on yourself with a new idea. Relax and just print the idea if it's a new one. If it's not and this is an actual take, then of course you really hit the sound selection until you feel it's where it needs to be.

Tracking procedure: When I'm tracking, I'm tracking. I know the ARM button needs to be pressed or I already have it pressed and activated because when I was doing my sound selection, I was also checking the levels into my DAW. So ARM is already lit up for me. I do not try to mix or produce the music at this point nor do I think about it and get too far ahead of myself. I want the best capture and performance possible. Never try to mix or produce yourself at this stage of the game and keep a clear head concentrating on the tracking part. Of course if the sound is getting on your nerves, you want to stop right here and get a good sound first. LOL! But in all honesty, the way you set up your room for recording that guitar is how you have to set up your mind to work as one with the sound man in you, the tracking guy and the musician guy part of you. I know...easier said than done. but like I said, it's all repetition really and you just go on auto-pilot after a while. Just do it in steps like I do here if you can. Even if you find you need to write things down to stay focused. Nothing wrong with being human.

The musician: after I've tracked the part, I go into musician mode and evaluate whether the performance and musicality was good or bad. I don't let this hinder me as I'm tracking nor do I stop recording because I made a mistake unless it's a huge mistake or early enough in the tune to where I can just start over again. But I never worry about mistakes because I can always punch them in, ya know? When this is all done and to my liking, then I throw on another hat.

*Side note* Mixing and producing: I don't even go here until I like the sound of what I tracked as well as the performance. Now, there are cases to where we may sometimes create a blue print on how things should go. You know, you have a song idea and you try to sort of produce the sound as you track etc. I try not to do this yet and here's why...

Like I mentioned in the early part of my tracking comment, if I have never tried to record this song before, I use my first few takes as pre-production and may just stop right here and evaluate what I've done and experiment with other instruments or vocal harmonies etc just to see if there is something workable going on. If I played a cool guitar riff that is one of those "oh wow, this soo rocks!" kind of riffs and I can't come up with a melody for it, this is probably not a riff I would use HERE. So I like to let things sink in a bit unless of course I have this song mapped out in my mind already and know for sure it's going to work.
 
But even there...have you ever heard the sound of excellence in your head, printed it and cringed because it didn't sound right? LOL! I've had my share of throw-aways, that's for sure! Sure, this can be a bit more time consuming, but it can really help sculpt ideas if this is a fresh song idea. But a test run is always a good thing. This way when you start to mix and produce a bit, if you don't like what you hear, you reprint it with a different sound or performance and it's usually much easier because you've been down this road already.

So im my opinion, when you track, you track without losing focus on THAT part of the procedure. When you are satisfied with what you have, then you move onto the next phase of the game. I find that one of the biggest hinderances for people is when they start to mix or produce before they have finished the tracking. Or, sometimes they don't put enough thought into the sound selection or tracking performance and are left attempting to polish a turd. This is usually a huge time waster...but in other situations, can bring forth some pretty cool things that happen by accident. It's really a tough thing to get a grasp on though. There are so many variables in this field, it's too easy to move on too fast, forget something or just sort of get yourself stuck in a loop and stare into space. LOL!

But the object is to just be so in your world that it all sort of happens and you're no longer thinking about it really. For example, when I play live and sing lead vocals and guitar at the same time, it's not just something I do. I have to practice the guitar parts to the point of no longer thinking about them. THEN I can work on the singing aspect and all I have to worry about is being in key and remembering the lyrics. But it's hard for me to just do it. The same with moving around on stage like a lunatic. If you don't know what you're supposed to play that well, if you try to move or put on a show, chances are you're gonna blow it.

So that's pretty much how I handle this stuff, After you do it for a while, you just fall into your own little system and you find that you're no longer thinking about things the way you might have been a year ago. It all comes together in time....you'll see.  But you definitely have to stay focused and try not to do too many things at once. It will pull you right out of the mood. Also try not to be too critical. Sometimes an idea just needs to be tracked and logged so it sinks in.

And last but not least, not all song ideas turn into songs. They may at some point become "parts of songs". Every thing you record should be logged and saved in a folder with a little text file about it if possible. This way, when you write other songs, you have folders full of ideas that just may work in the new song. The only bad idea is the idea that isn't tracked or logged. You never know what you may be faced with. Some of the weirdest ideas I ever printed didn't make the grade for my own music. But low and behold, they worked perfectly in other peoples music...so you just never know.

The day you do too much and add stress into your recording realm is the day it becomes less fun. The key is to keep things fresh while always feeling some sense of accomplishment. Even if you just end up with a steady drum machine type beat and a guitar riff. At the end of the day, you can't get blood from a stone. I can't sit here right now and tell you "I'm going to write a song Thomas!" I can tell you "I'm going to work on a few ideas" but unless the full inspiration is there, I'm better off going for a ride in my car or playing Xbox 360 or messing with photography or something. So just enjoy it, always track "something" and never try to get too far ahead of yourself.

One last thing....sometimes it's really cool to mess with sound selection for long periods of time while logging your results. I've spent loads of time doing this sort of lab work. Like you did with the Dream Theater cover...keep doing stuff like that while logging the sounds youc ome up with. This is very inspiring and also challenging in a good way. Even if you don't play the cover songs exactly, challenge yourself to create the sounds associated with them. It's much less stressful to record a cover that is already written than it is to write something from the ground up. :)

Just as an example of what I'm talking about, I was talking to one of my friends about stereo guitar recording, effects and how to handle them. He uses chorus in a lot of his tones and struggled with how to make a chorus'd sound stay out of the mud zone. At the time, I had been working on sounds for Living Color's "Cult of Personality" for a demo my band was doing. This was the perfect chance to try and teach this guy a little about this as Vernon from LC uses quite a bit of chorus in his sound. So stuff like this can be helpful especially when inspiration hits you, and you want to reach for a sound that you know works. I do stuff like this all the time. We learn from our inspirations and sometimes just messing with tones is enough for me to feel I've accomplished something. The object in all of this though, is to always stay focused on each thing you work on to where you feel some sort of accomplishment at the end. Hope this helps, good luck brother. :)

-Danny

I think, "engineering and music production," is art.  I think these lines of, "guitarist, pianist, vocalist, performer, producer, engineer," are at this point, "as blurred, as they can be."

I totally understand, "where you are coming from."  Because, you just want to lay down your ideas, on whatever your traditional instrument may be.

I guess we all have our different workflows.  I've been training myself to, "multi-task," guitar playing, and music producing, and frankly, "its exhausting.

You might want to check out a Zoom Recorder?  You can drop it on the floor, "and jam out on your traditional instruments," and head into your studio room with, "your roadmap."

I dunno..  Good luck!!!!!!

It is interesting how the genre can have a major impact on this too. It is very obvious for example the way Danny works is very different to me.

I produce a lot of music that is synth based for example and I can afford the luxury of wearing the composer hat initially and not get into any engineering much at all. For me this stage is much more about the music. Sure the sound selection is important but only to some extent. I do get some rough balances but that is about as far as it goes. If you get bogged down in engineering at this stage your creative composing flow will simply stop. Ideas are very delicate and can be likened to a very thin piece of cotton holding up something slightly heavy. One slip and its gone. I get all the music right first. It does take a little discipline, I don't have to be away from the computer to do this. But saying that I also can get ideas completely away from the studio and then I vocalise them and sing them etc into my phone. I will beat box the grooves etc. I might hear multiple parts in my head and vocalise all the parts one after the other.

Then I come back, transfer those rough recordings into the DAW. For multiple parts that have been vocalised serially, I put those onto sep tracks on top of each other so I can start to hear it all at once. Then I go about rebuilding the ideas using the instruments.

Once the music is settled I wear the engineer hat, go back to sound selection in more detail, print things to audio, play live drums if necessary, overdub other things, balance and use effects etc ie do the mix. Sometimes the music may get changed along the way too but not much usually. 

Lately I have been getting into the vocalisation thing in a big way. I am starting to think that if you cannot vocalise or sing your ideas then how can you get them out? eg the way George Benson can sing along with his solos as well as Keith Jarrett etc. I read somewhere that David Gilmour sings the guitar solos first then he learns to play the solos in unison with his singing.

Don't forget these are left brain (engineering) right brain (creative) things and you can keep them separate or work back and forth between the two. One can inspire the other quite easily.  

I have noticed, for me, sometimes inspiration comes from the strangest place.... sometimes just the sound of a particular effect or instrument.  And often, that sound appears when I'm doing just as you described-  engineering or tweaking a previously recorded part.

And then I go forward.  Left brain, right brain syndrome???

I think oil painting is engineering.

I know that sculpting in cast bronze is.





I've never bothered trying to separate engineering and art... they have always gone hand in hand.


My personal goal is to have all the techie stuff happen fast and easy due to familiarity with the craft while the artsy stuff is happening up in a happy place up in my noggin... a place that is protected from all the distraction the techie stuff thinking generates.



best regards,
mike

I like to get the whole piece sketched out as soon as possible, not being too concerned with getting every sound right to start with.

The mix will be rudimentary at this stage, no panning or eq, just basic level-setting.

Then I start making decisions about instruments and sounds to use, whether to 'dismantle' the melody - break it up so that different sounds or instruments are playing different parts of the whole.

Being as I work mostly on instrumentals, I then start thinking about how to maintain interest - not playing all my cards straight away, so if there's a nice meaty hook or riff, I might take it out of the early part of the tune so it has more impact when it hits later.

Adding little details comes next, textures and sounds, counter-melodies and transitional phrases.

Sometimes I'll have the whole thing ready to go, and then add a new intro, a little hint of what's to come maybe.

It always seems to me like a blurry picture coming gradually into focus, and when it's good and sharp - time to stop.

And last but not least, not all song ideas turn into songs. They may at some point become "parts of songs". Every thing you record should be logged and saved in a folder with a little text file about it if possible. This way, when you write other songs, you have folders full of ideas that just may work in the new song. The only bad idea is the idea that isn't tracked or logged. You never know what you may be faced with. Some of the weirdest ideas I ever printed didn't make the grade for my own music. But low and behold, they worked perfectly in other peoples music...so you just never know.

Hi Danny-


Thanks again for the words of wisdom! The paragraph I quoted really hits home for me. I refer to it as my collection of Mr. Potatohead parts. But as we were discussing offline, I generally am lacking a potato for them!


Hi Linear- I oftentimes use the recorder on my phone when ideas strike me and "sing" (if you can call it that) them to create a palette to use later.


Thanks to all for your ideas. I'll spend the next four days changing up the routine a bit. I'll try to focus on laying down scratch tracks only as a sketch for an idea that is in my head. I suppose if I have structure in place, I can then shift to sound-selection and performance detail. The hard part will be to control the inner ADHD that will make we want to start tweaking the mix concurrently.


Thanks again everyone!

The only thing I would add is if I don't have the arrangement worked out prior, which I try to do in all cases, then I know it’s going to be a scratch track experience so I won't focus on the performance as much as just getting something down. Then I play with moving things around in the computer. This can take two forms the first being audio the second just midi tracks that are easily cut and pasted. I hate working this way as it consumes a lot of time but sometimes chasing an idea is not always straightforward. Usually for this, I will either track the idea on vst piano or just set up a single mic with guitar and vocal. The purpose is to chop things up, get some ideas down on the page that can be moved around.

Once I have the arrangement locked, then I will go back and have a system very similar to Danny's where I focus only on the performance, having things in tune, and critically the tone of the instruments as much as possible with mics, room placement, amplifier settings/pedals and compression settings. This really saves an immense amount of time when you mix. Also getting the vocal performance as close to finished as possible. As pointed out, get the software out of the way as much as possible in this effort, templates and ready to go recording setup is the order of the moment. Also routing for external hardware should all be set up and at your fingertips. The primary key is to not be distracted by technology when you are creating.

I think it's all tied together in the home studio.....after all, one person generally wears all the hats.

So I start with the end in mind. When tracking, I'm thinking how I would like the track to sound in the final mix and do what I think is needed at the tracking stage to facilitate that down the road. 

Mostly that consists of getting good audio levels into the track and not much more than that. With guitar.... yeah I want the sound to be right to start with since I'm not using sims..... what I got is what I get. 

Once tracking is done, it's then a matter of the mixing and engineering and production all wrapped into one big ball. 

I have scrapped everything on occasion and started again since it was not happening like I thought it should.  No fear. 

It is easy to get sidetracked and chasing rabbit trails if you are not careful. When I find myself getting too focused on something that should rightly come later in the process..... I have learned to let it be and move on the the important things that need doing at the stage I happen to be on. It's easy to waste hours doing something that will likely have to be redone later anyway... so prioritize.