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It is always an issue. I can play for hours, I can record soundtracks for other people, but when it comes to actually laying down my own shit it becomes a battle against nerves, laziness, and whatever excuse I can dig up at the moment.

So how do you cure it? How do you make yourself record? Am I alone in this struggle? I have tons of songs, lots of unrecorded material, but am paralyzed every time I start to lay it down.

most of my stuff is acoustic, so i set up the mic so it will pick up my vocals and guitar.

i hate doing all of the bs like mastering, mixing, eq'ing, etc so everything is pretty rough

Ilikewater wrote:It is always an issue. I can play for hours, I can record soundtracks for other people, but when it comes to actually laying down my own shit it becomes a battle against nerves, laziness, and whatever excuse I can dig up at the moment.

So how do you cure it? How do you make yourself record? Am I alone in this struggle? I have tons of songs, lots of unrecorded material, but am paralyzed every time I start to lay it down.

honestly, I just hit record before I even pick up my bass. I record every single second of fucking around I do. Even if I end up with 2 hours of nonsense, at least it's recorded. Then I listen to it a day or two later and if it's trash, I just hit delete. If any of it is decent, I cut that clip out and save it.

I usually get into a mood to record, and start noodling around, and then I lay down drum tracks before I lay the flushed out ideas of what I was playing before. Other times, like bigchiefbc, I just hit record as soon as I pick anything up!

Sometimes I'll just lay down initial noise & drones, just to have something to react to.

Sometimes I'll have a part, and I'll just get that one part sounding good, then try to record other bits on the spot to flesh out that idea.

Sometimes I just work on whatever backlog of half-finished bits I have floating around.

Mostly I try not to stress about it, and work under the "any progress is good" mantra.

first i compose the basic image...

then i record. usually guitars first over programmed drums, starting with rhythm parts, including layering. Then i usually semicompose/semiimprovise melodies and solos. Then bass

then EQing, panning, mixing etc...

approximate time for th creation of one song... three afternoons (one for composing, second for recording, third for the tech shit)

how do i do it? when i have the time, i compose/record/master etc

The only stuff I ever record is when I'm fucking around with the Utter Stutter.
So...whenever I feel like fucking around with the Utter Stutter.
I think what bcbc does is a good habit to get into though.

My grandmother bought me a $25 itunes giftcard. I bought multitrack DAW. Now I'm gonna record everything!

jrmy wrote:Sometimes I'll just lay down initial noise & drones, just to have something to react to.

Sometimes I'll have a part, and I'll just get that one part sounding good, then try to record other bits on the spot to flesh out that idea.

Sometimes I just work on whatever backlog of half-finished bits I have floating around.

Mostly I try not to stress about it, and work under the "any progress is good" mantra.

I like this...also, just hitting record is a great idea. I use to carry around a handheld that I would record everything. any jam session, any improv-ing, and random conversations. Seemed like I got a lot more done. I may have to invest that again.

I think part of what throws me off is the gear setup to record. mic placement, level checks, and all the other must-do's before I get started. plus, being on graveyards this month for my job feels like it is destroying all drive to do anything.

If its what you want to do, you'll do it

Ilikewater wrote:I like this...also, just hitting record is a great idea. I use to carry around a handheld that I would record everything. any jam session, any improv-ing, and random conversations. Seemed like I got a lot more done. I may have to invest that again.

I think part of what throws me off is the gear setup to record. mic placement, level checks, and all the other must-do's before I get started. plus, being on graveyards this month for my job feels like it is destroying all drive to do anything.

If the setup is holding you back, I'd suggest either finding a way to have a permanent recording area set up, or a way to streamline the process. Maybe just try to focus on getting scratch tracks down by recording direct, and saving the full amp recordings for when you're happy with the initial structures. Or look into finding amp sims you can live with. Don't let perfection be the enemy of the good!

Bellyheart wrote:If its what you want to do, you'll do it

I believe this, but what I don't want to do is fuck up something that I love. Sometimes I think the fear is putting something outside of me that has been in there for so long that I have no idea what it will look like from a different perspective. Maybe I've been holding on to a piece of shit and calling it gold.

Just talking about this, is really helping. just laid down a skeleton track for a song long over due.

jrmy wrote:

Ilikewater wrote:I like this...also, just hitting record is a great idea. I use to carry around a handheld that I would record everything. any jam session, any improv-ing, and random conversations. Seemed like I got a lot more done. I may have to invest that again.

I think part of what throws me off is the gear setup to record. mic placement, level checks, and all the other must-do's before I get started. plus, being on graveyards this month for my job feels like it is destroying all drive to do anything.

If the setup is holding you back, I'd suggest either finding a way to have a permanent recording area set up, or a way to streamline the process. Maybe just try to focus on getting scratch tracks down by recording direct, and saving the full amp recordings for when you're happy with the initial structures. Or look into finding amp sims you can live with. Don't let perfection be the enemy of the good!

Yeah, this. When I said that I record everything I do, it's easy for me because I have a recording setup that I leave wired up permanently in my music room. I either run direct, or from the loop out of my Marshall combo to a mixer and then USB to my old laptop.

Yeah, I have it usually in some form of set up. I think I'm going to go straight into the 16 track for laying down the bones, and then start to mic everything to get the actual sounds.

i once recorded an album on a laptop with a broken power supply, whos battery i would have to remove and charge in another laptop whenever it died. got so mad