Captain's log #41
What I did yesterday, after considering several options, was starting a new song from scratch.
I live by my intuition and along the years I've learned to listen to it and follow it, sometimes very blindly. But I've found that it is very powerful and it serves me well (it's a miracle that a peculiar creature like me has hit his forties relatively intact).
Intuition is immediate, boom, while logic, on the other hand, lives within time. Sometimes logic has taken years to catch up with why it was a good idea to do X.
(Also, in other occasions, I've mistaken the signs; in the musical realm you have aesthetic clues that tell you if you hit the target; in real life not always, so sometimes intuition is easy to be mistaken with that other tiny voice of plain desire...)
Deep water navigation to try to explain what I did yesterday. Here's a more superficial explanation; I've found that it is a great practice to document things; together with that, I've found that sometimes it is great to forget about the whole documentation and just do things from scratch. That way, you avoid the risk that the documentation has turned into "bureaucracy"; you turn your eyes back to the prize.
I apply this kind of "clean eyes technique" in all my documentation, and music production is not an exception. It usually happens when I have a "back to roots" feeling; "it cannot be so hard to record a song, let's just do one, solving all the problems as we go".
So yesterday I opened a new project folder and dived headlong into the power ballad, entitled "Empty roads". I also decided to log the process as I went along, to find what are the main time wasters; here is the log:
8:30
Create session
Find song tempo
Change metronome sound
9:00
Setup audio interface
Find song's previous documentation
Install word processor (required for the lyrics file)
Prepare tracks for demo (voice+guitar: 2 mono tracks)
9:15
Recording demo tracks (with metronome)
9:30
Guitar comping
9:40
Bass (emulated) - Set levels
Setting levels in the chain (emulator sound, headphone levels...)
11:00
Recording bass
11:10
Setting guitar tone (Guitarix)
11:20
Recording guitars
11:33
Comping
11:50
Generate drum track (Drumgizmo)
1:46
End of session
A simple look at this tells a lot about my workflow, the opportunities for improvement, and the time hogs. Bass emulation was a royal PIA, and the final solution I got was only meh, a compromise. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong with this new computer; in the past I've recorded like 40 or 50 songs with bass emulated via Rakarrack, and it was OK, but I don't seem to get a good sound now. This is the nasty thing with so many moving parts... Maybe I'll check some MIDI based solution in the future.
What I discovered in this marathon session? Well, firstly, I couldn't have gone through it if I didn't enjoy the process a lot. The stage where you record stuff and see the song grow and grow fills me with joy, a joy that links directly to my childhood, recording silly stuff in cassettes and replaying it to myself time after time.
This song was well rehearsed because I was in the habit of playing it now and then. In the recorded result right now I see both how rough everything is, and also the composition and performance quality.
I'm starting to see the recording process as an arrow shot; you can either hit or miss the target, but it doesn't make much sense to try to redirect the arrow once it's in the air. Something like that. The more you tinker, the more you risk breaking something.
And I need the joyful part. I need to express myself. Some people don't seem to, but I do. The fact that music no longer has market value should not stop me from launching stuff out there. And if it's going to sound rough, then so be it. I'm going to be extremely sparse about "audio production" (the boring part), and do only the audio stuff that I learn along the way while I'm singing, playing...
In the end I've mentioned it before, I enjoy that kind of roughly produced music. When you like the song, at one point the song is just the way it is. So chances are some other people will lend it an ear or two too. Not everything is lost.
These ideas are scattered because I'm still elaborating them. I think I'm giving myself permission to be sloppier and happier. I have to maximize the joy I get out of music, otherwise I won't do it, and I will get depressed and frustrated. I have to stop having bursts of productivity, or rather have them everyday and make them somehow sustainable.
Today I've recorded the actual voice track; I've searched my notes on how to set the session like a thirsty man seeks water. That's the test that shows that the process is good, when you go back to it spontaneously.
I'll try to keep keeping it simple and maintain momentum. While listening, this song has grown an additional guitar part and a keyboards section, that I will have to "manifest" tomorrow. Still great fun, still dying to do it. Let's keep things this way.
I live by my intuition and along the years I've learned to listen to it and follow it, sometimes very blindly. But I've found that it is very powerful and it serves me well (it's a miracle that a peculiar creature like me has hit his forties relatively intact).
Intuition is immediate, boom, while logic, on the other hand, lives within time. Sometimes logic has taken years to catch up with why it was a good idea to do X.
(Also, in other occasions, I've mistaken the signs; in the musical realm you have aesthetic clues that tell you if you hit the target; in real life not always, so sometimes intuition is easy to be mistaken with that other tiny voice of plain desire...)
Deep water navigation to try to explain what I did yesterday. Here's a more superficial explanation; I've found that it is a great practice to document things; together with that, I've found that sometimes it is great to forget about the whole documentation and just do things from scratch. That way, you avoid the risk that the documentation has turned into "bureaucracy"; you turn your eyes back to the prize.
I apply this kind of "clean eyes technique" in all my documentation, and music production is not an exception. It usually happens when I have a "back to roots" feeling; "it cannot be so hard to record a song, let's just do one, solving all the problems as we go".
So yesterday I opened a new project folder and dived headlong into the power ballad, entitled "Empty roads". I also decided to log the process as I went along, to find what are the main time wasters; here is the log:
8:30
Create session
Find song tempo
Change metronome sound
9:00
Setup audio interface
Find song's previous documentation
Install word processor (required for the lyrics file)
Prepare tracks for demo (voice+guitar: 2 mono tracks)
9:15
Recording demo tracks (with metronome)
9:30
Guitar comping
9:40
Bass (emulated) - Set levels
Setting levels in the chain (emulator sound, headphone levels...)
11:00
Recording bass
11:10
Setting guitar tone (Guitarix)
11:20
Recording guitars
11:33
Comping
11:50
Generate drum track (Drumgizmo)
1:46
End of session
A simple look at this tells a lot about my workflow, the opportunities for improvement, and the time hogs. Bass emulation was a royal PIA, and the final solution I got was only meh, a compromise. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong with this new computer; in the past I've recorded like 40 or 50 songs with bass emulated via Rakarrack, and it was OK, but I don't seem to get a good sound now. This is the nasty thing with so many moving parts... Maybe I'll check some MIDI based solution in the future.
What I discovered in this marathon session? Well, firstly, I couldn't have gone through it if I didn't enjoy the process a lot. The stage where you record stuff and see the song grow and grow fills me with joy, a joy that links directly to my childhood, recording silly stuff in cassettes and replaying it to myself time after time.
This song was well rehearsed because I was in the habit of playing it now and then. In the recorded result right now I see both how rough everything is, and also the composition and performance quality.
I'm starting to see the recording process as an arrow shot; you can either hit or miss the target, but it doesn't make much sense to try to redirect the arrow once it's in the air. Something like that. The more you tinker, the more you risk breaking something.
And I need the joyful part. I need to express myself. Some people don't seem to, but I do. The fact that music no longer has market value should not stop me from launching stuff out there. And if it's going to sound rough, then so be it. I'm going to be extremely sparse about "audio production" (the boring part), and do only the audio stuff that I learn along the way while I'm singing, playing...
In the end I've mentioned it before, I enjoy that kind of roughly produced music. When you like the song, at one point the song is just the way it is. So chances are some other people will lend it an ear or two too. Not everything is lost.
These ideas are scattered because I'm still elaborating them. I think I'm giving myself permission to be sloppier and happier. I have to maximize the joy I get out of music, otherwise I won't do it, and I will get depressed and frustrated. I have to stop having bursts of productivity, or rather have them everyday and make them somehow sustainable.
Today I've recorded the actual voice track; I've searched my notes on how to set the session like a thirsty man seeks water. That's the test that shows that the process is good, when you go back to it spontaneously.
I'll try to keep keeping it simple and maintain momentum. While listening, this song has grown an additional guitar part and a keyboards section, that I will have to "manifest" tomorrow. Still great fun, still dying to do it. Let's keep things this way.
