"'Tis what it'is" vs "Can of worms", and other important questions
My previous resolution of keeping stuff coming out quickly through the
pipeline has very soon turned from a plan to a vision. Obstacles hinder
the ship, life has a way of doing that to your plans.
I don't see that as a failure, but as an aha moment, a powerful realization. Now I keep that 'keep it simple, keep moving' mentality in mind all the time, even if the circumstances oblige me to take a detour (gosh, here I would need X, so half an hour trip to the Internet to see if X is possible, and if it is, how to actually do it).
For the song I'm working on, for example, I guesstimated a very simple workplan: programming drums and print them in the session, 1 day. Recording bass, 1 day. Recording guitar tracks, 1 day. Recording vocals, 1 day. Audio production, 2 days.
That's an ideal blueprint to keep in mind, but reality soon conspired against such a beautiful arrangement of things. I intend to make a full reflection about the song when I'm done with it, so I won't go into details now, but the thing that protruded like a sore thumb was that audio production is going to take waaay longer.
I don't like audio production. I'd rather not do it. But, as everything you focus on, you get better on it as you go. And with knowledge, comes responsibility; there are more and more things you cannot ignore. Things that, if you just let go, will mock you whenever you listen to the final result.
I'm still adhering to the punk spirit of the thing, it's not that I'm going to become one of those guys who spend an evening testing cables for fun or something like that... It's very obvious things that didn't use to be there.
Example; when I was finally done with my production, arrived to the "'tis what it is" stage with only a couple of polishing things here and there, I saw this can of worms I've sometime found in the past. Let me describe the scene:
"So what do you do in real life?" "I'm a musician". "Great, let me open my laptop here, let's play some of your stuff".
The can of worms is served: should I listen to the mix in my laptop speakers?
I opened it and didn't like what I found. The guitar, which in the headphones mix sounded the way I wanted, in the unflattering laptop speakers sounded like some kind of electric discharge, with all kind of dynamic variation, smudging absolutely the rest of the instruments and making the song impossible to come through.
I had just been served some 5, 6 more hours of production. Production that like I say I don't like and I have a short fuse for; after 30-60 mins of that both myself and my ears are exhausted and have to quit for some prudential time.
The good part is, after going through that gross exercise of making the mix sound acceptable in the laptop speakers, the headphone mix sounds much better!
Such are our fights these days.
I don't see that as a failure, but as an aha moment, a powerful realization. Now I keep that 'keep it simple, keep moving' mentality in mind all the time, even if the circumstances oblige me to take a detour (gosh, here I would need X, so half an hour trip to the Internet to see if X is possible, and if it is, how to actually do it).
For the song I'm working on, for example, I guesstimated a very simple workplan: programming drums and print them in the session, 1 day. Recording bass, 1 day. Recording guitar tracks, 1 day. Recording vocals, 1 day. Audio production, 2 days.
That's an ideal blueprint to keep in mind, but reality soon conspired against such a beautiful arrangement of things. I intend to make a full reflection about the song when I'm done with it, so I won't go into details now, but the thing that protruded like a sore thumb was that audio production is going to take waaay longer.
I don't like audio production. I'd rather not do it. But, as everything you focus on, you get better on it as you go. And with knowledge, comes responsibility; there are more and more things you cannot ignore. Things that, if you just let go, will mock you whenever you listen to the final result.
I'm still adhering to the punk spirit of the thing, it's not that I'm going to become one of those guys who spend an evening testing cables for fun or something like that... It's very obvious things that didn't use to be there.
Example; when I was finally done with my production, arrived to the "'tis what it is" stage with only a couple of polishing things here and there, I saw this can of worms I've sometime found in the past. Let me describe the scene:
"So what do you do in real life?" "I'm a musician". "Great, let me open my laptop here, let's play some of your stuff".
The can of worms is served: should I listen to the mix in my laptop speakers?
I opened it and didn't like what I found. The guitar, which in the headphones mix sounded the way I wanted, in the unflattering laptop speakers sounded like some kind of electric discharge, with all kind of dynamic variation, smudging absolutely the rest of the instruments and making the song impossible to come through.
I had just been served some 5, 6 more hours of production. Production that like I say I don't like and I have a short fuse for; after 30-60 mins of that both myself and my ears are exhausted and have to quit for some prudential time.
The good part is, after going through that gross exercise of making the mix sound acceptable in the laptop speakers, the headphone mix sounds much better!
Such are our fights these days.
