Too much choice, workflow and consistent productions
Comments
Write before you record and make it excellent, not during the process. They are very different mindsets.
I know what you mean. But I tend to use combinations of sounds and tracks to spark the creativity. I have yet to write a song on a single instrument be it guitar or keyboard. I just don't work that way.
I guess it comes from making music in a group when I was younger - you start with an idea, but all 'musical voices' are involved in developing the idea in to a song.
Might try more writing first, then recording though. Even just do demo's with the most basic of instrumentation, then re-do them as full arrangements.
Might try more writing first, then recording though. Even just do demo's with the most basic of instrumentation, then re-do them as full arrangements.
Yeah. I'm thinking of buying 4 track portastudio.
I would have loved all the options available to me now back when they simply weren't. Drums are a great example, it was never possible to get decent drums without an actual drummer and even then you needed to be able to record them properly. Now, I use superior drummer and it's proper studio recordings in minutes.
That's so long as you fire up your computer, load all the samples, having already spent hours downloading, installing, sorting out drivers, learning the software, and figuring out how to integrate it into another piece of software. Then it's midi packs, editing, quantising, piano rolls or e-kits and sitting at a desk moving a mouse around.
What I used to do was fire up a tape recorder plug my guitar into it and sit down with a mate of mine creating stuff. We made sounds with whatever we found in arms reach. Boxes hit with pencils for drums, towel rail for horn sections. The odd kazoo solo wasn't unkown either.
I miss all that.
I'm quite liking the idea of having a stripped down Reaper template for writing/doing quick demos. One drum track, two guitar tracks, bass, keys, vocals, and atmosphere/loops - enough to get creative without getting bogged down.
While having project templates is a great idea to get some consistency in the sound, you might be finding that the compositions themselves don't share enough to sound like they are part of the same project. That's not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you want to work in different styles but you won't be able to solve that with production necessarily.
Personally, and I say this as someone who rehearses with a band weekly. I feel like writing as a group is pretty over-rated. While there definitely are lightning in a bottle moments I think you also need to wade through 30 mins of minor variations of the same idea which isn't strong enough to make up a song, bits where not everyone is on the same page feel wise etc.
My favourite way of working personally is to demo up something on my own then refine it with the band or even just the singer.
Personally, and I say this as someone who rehearses with a band weekly. I feel like writing as a group is pretty over-rated. While there definitely are lightning in a bottle moments I think you also need to wade through 30 mins of minor variations of the same idea which isn't strong enough to make up a song, bits where not everyone is on the same page feel wise etc.
My favourite way of working personally is to demo up something on my own then refine it with the band or even just the singer.
Modern music gear is wonderful for the home recording musician, however it goes without saying that there's a risk that having too many options during the composition, recording and mix phases of music making, slows things down and results in inconsistent productions - by that I mean that listen to a few songs side by side and they sound like different artists - the elusive 'my sound' is missing.
Back in the day when I was a young musician, the choice was sort of made for you - the results were largely dictated by who you were in a band with - each member played their part with their one set of gear and the result was the sum of the parts. But now I'm responsible for all parts, and all aspects of the music making process. I'd really like to set some constraints and use the same elements to make a collection of songs.
So over the holiday period, I'm going to do what I've been thinking of doing for ages. I'm going to audition my five guitars in combination with the 10 or so HX amp patches I have, combined with the six dirt boxes I regularly stack in different ways, playing in about 8 different tunings, and come up with a short-list of combinations. I am also going to pick an EZ Drummer kit, maybe a Sitala drum machine, a couple of organ sounds and maybe a reverb or two. And that will be my template for the next while. Not saying I won't deviate from this template at times (probably quite frequently), but I need some certainty and a higher probability of creating a collection of music that is stylistically and production consistent.
It will possibly also mean I'll finish a few more of the hundred and one ideas I've got in the backlog....
Sure others will have come up with approaches to this. And I'm also sure others will be better at working with the creative freedom having all these options provides.