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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2024 0:00:06 GMT -6
This thread is just a musing, friendly chat, advice sorta thing. Nothing serious.. It dawned on me that at the beginning of 2024 in a musicial sense (forget the engineering side) I've not recorded or done anything new since 2002. A few things were redone a bit later but it was an ITB test demo that sounded crap (for multiple reasons) so it doesn't really count. I've improved in some areas (vocals / songwriting mainly) got worse in others (piano / guitar / drums / theory). I've also been in a few bands as a guitarist or singer since 2002, some were okay to be fair and despite being extremely underconfident about my voice I've won a competition or two (mainly in genre's I never wanted to do like pop so it was a hollow victory). I am crazy about music, I often recite new ideas until the early hours but over the years and I blame engineering for this. I've become a critical perfectionist that talks myself out of things before I've even begun, if something isn't perfect I'm afraid to put it out there. This is a problem because despite being enthralled by music it's stopped being fun and feels more like a job. Add in the lack of time due to a heavy career, then family, laundry, cleaning and all the regular stuff we have to do it's becoming harder to justify all the $$$'s locked up in a studio. So, at this point I am thinking about packing it in and selling everything off.
It's complicated because a part of me knows that demo's released by some of my favourite bands were questionable at best, you've got to start somewhere and keep going at it although mediocrity or worse will never be good enough for me. Maybe a new balance? Something simpler like me and an acoustic (Alexi Murdoch / Breathe kinda thing) would be a better start. Something to just play, have fun with and enjoy instead of working on complex scores that require so much to complete?
Oh, I don't bloody know  .. |
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Post by Blackdawg on Jan 30, 2024 0:59:33 GMT -6
The answer to this is to let someone else mix/master and even engineer it. If you want to focus on the music more. Cut out the engineering. I've seen many many musician friends try to get into the engineering thing only to have the same thing happen. It becomes less fun. Too busy. Never gets done. Ect. Then they go back to making it someone elses problem and they can focus on mainly just the creative side.
I think someone on here just recently made this move as well.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2024 1:16:50 GMT -6
The answer to this is to let someone else mix/master and even engineer it. If you want to focus on the music more. Cut out the engineering. I've seen many many musician friends try to get into the engineering thing only to have the same thing happen. It becomes less fun. Too busy. Never gets done. Ect. Then they go back to making it someone elses problem and they can focus on mainly just the creative side. I think someone on here just recently made this move as well. Unfortunately I wish the engineering side was the issue, in the grand scheme it takes a good Sunday to mix and master a track which is nothing. The problem is it can take a month or two to create / compose a track, I was working on a sort of hybrid rock / pop song and I spent 4 or 5 hours that I didn't have every night for a week getting the groove for the drums right, creating instruments that fit, practicing a multitude of live instruments and ensuring it sounded like it was supposed to when recorded. This wasn't a complex song either compared to some of them. I've spent two days just looking through NI's catalogue trying to find things that would work..
You sorta see why some songs were put together by teams, not just one person. What I have thought about doing is outsourcing some of the playing itself, depends how much it costs.
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Post by Blackdawg on Jan 30, 2024 2:17:16 GMT -6
The answer to this is to let someone else mix/master and even engineer it. If you want to focus on the music more. Cut out the engineering. I've seen many many musician friends try to get into the engineering thing only to have the same thing happen. It becomes less fun. Too busy. Never gets done. Ect. Then they go back to making it someone elses problem and they can focus on mainly just the creative side. I think someone on here just recently made this move as well. Unfortunately I wish the engineering side was the issue, in the grand scheme it takes a good Sunday to mix and master a track which is nothing. The problem is it can take a month or two to create / compose a track, I was working on a sort of hybrid rock / pop song and I spent 4 or 5 hours that I didn't have every night for a week getting the groove for the drums right, creating instruments that fit, practicing a multitude of live instruments and ensuring it sounded like it was supposed to when recorded. This wasn't a complex song either compared to some of them. I've spent two days just looking through NI's catalogue trying to find things that would work..
You sorta see why some songs were put together by teams, not just one person. What I have thought about doing is outsourcing some of the playing itself, depends how much it costs.
LOTS of ways to get session folks to play stuff for you these days. Fiver. Soundbetter. Lots of cool ways to collaborate with people remotely as a producer(sessionwire is my favorite). I would also encourage using more people. Collaboration is the really a super power to creative endeavors. Steel sharpens steel so to speak. It's always inspiring to work with people that are passionate and great at what they do. Self obsession only goes so far before it fizzles out. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2024 17:01:21 GMT -6
I think I've found a solution to this, every 3 weeks I'm going put something out there irrelevant of state. I'll learn what's possible in that time, what's not, where I need to outsource and hopefully I'll just get better / faster through doing anyway. I've done it before so there's no excuse really.. If it sucks for whatever reason then I'll have to learn to take it on the chin, not everything everyone releases is pure gold and I have to accept it.
Either that or nothing gets done for three months then I'll sell up and go on a cruise or something, take up pottery maybe? Who knows..
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Post by drbill on Jan 30, 2024 18:11:42 GMT -6
I could write a book on this situation. To make it short, your 3 week plan is a good step in the right direction. Good luck.
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Post by theshea on Feb 1, 2024 4:17:23 GMT -6
yeah, family, life, age (over 40) are big „problems“ for creativity. thats the main reason why bands suck after approaching 40 years age. many suck before …
i used to think ALL THE TIME about my songwriting during my 20-35‘s. while doing a walk i was beating out the drumrhytm, while shopping i was humming a melody …
no i am trying to remember when my kids have sport or music courses and what food needs to be bought and when doing the laundry - not very rnr!
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