never wants to be young again
I posted on here about a new approach to recording I've been having, then wrote an email to a songwriter friend out of Tulsa. I liked the things I wrote to him, so, I'm going to quote myself on here and you can give me some feedback if you like:
"I had some thoughts while in the studio this past weekend, but I'd like some insight on them... I don't know if they're practical. And I'd like to just get someone who would have an informed opinion, to hear about them.
I usually psych myself out while recording... I'm thinking to myself: 'I'm paying for this' + 'It is a professional recording studio, with learned engineers' = 'this better be my best take on capturing these songs. It has to be executed by the textbook... will be the definitive version... this is the version people are going to go by... I want this to be the version people go by because I'm paying for it...'
That doesn't put me in a good place to capture my songs well. Right now, it is one thing capturing lightning in a bottle in terms of the music, and a second attempt at doing so as a recorded medium.
I stopped a moment... why do I have to do things this way? I have these songs all on multiple formats (computer, tape, and now professional studio) in different takes. When I line them up side by side, each one has its strengths and weaknesses, and I would probably be more satisfied taking one song from one session, another from another session, and putting them together, instead of using just the product from a particular session.
I mean... I think I should begin recording in different places, under different conditions, different times of day, with different people, in different formats... and whenever I'm good, taking my entire project and doing some 'song selection'. To finish the project out, I make up for the discrepancies through mixing and mastering the record so that it has a congruous sound and feel without each song losing its own individual identity.
This might not seem efficient or practical to some, but to me, it looks like a possible (at least short term) solution to my studio fright... and long term thinking... this might be the way to best capture my songs. The nuances that come with different atmospheres and performer impulses becomes a distinct fashion for what you expect to hear whenever I put something out. Why not? Ultimately, even if you are not recording live, each individual performance (granted it is not heavily quantized or auto-tuned) is a live experience of that instrument's part. Take the unique qualities about when and where and how it is recorded, and monetize that just like you do the music."
"I had some thoughts while in the studio this past weekend, but I'd like some insight on them... I don't know if they're practical. And I'd like to just get someone who would have an informed opinion, to hear about them.
I usually psych myself out while recording... I'm thinking to myself: 'I'm paying for this' + 'It is a professional recording studio, with learned engineers' = 'this better be my best take on capturing these songs. It has to be executed by the textbook... will be the definitive version... this is the version people are going to go by... I want this to be the version people go by because I'm paying for it...'
That doesn't put me in a good place to capture my songs well. Right now, it is one thing capturing lightning in a bottle in terms of the music, and a second attempt at doing so as a recorded medium.
I stopped a moment... why do I have to do things this way? I have these songs all on multiple formats (computer, tape, and now professional studio) in different takes. When I line them up side by side, each one has its strengths and weaknesses, and I would probably be more satisfied taking one song from one session, another from another session, and putting them together, instead of using just the product from a particular session.
I mean... I think I should begin recording in different places, under different conditions, different times of day, with different people, in different formats... and whenever I'm good, taking my entire project and doing some 'song selection'. To finish the project out, I make up for the discrepancies through mixing and mastering the record so that it has a congruous sound and feel without each song losing its own individual identity.
This might not seem efficient or practical to some, but to me, it looks like a possible (at least short term) solution to my studio fright... and long term thinking... this might be the way to best capture my songs. The nuances that come with different atmospheres and performer impulses becomes a distinct fashion for what you expect to hear whenever I put something out. Why not? Ultimately, even if you are not recording live, each individual performance (granted it is not heavily quantized or auto-tuned) is a live experience of that instrument's part. Take the unique qualities about when and where and how it is recorded, and monetize that just like you do the music."