Intentional Distraction

[vvv]

Aiight, so when recording myself, I'll take breaks, sometimes, and I like to drink stuff, coffee, tea, booze, whatever.

Mixing down is the same, and let's add food.

As I type this I am doing something I seldom do, which is record others. At this point we are on take 6 of a keyboard pad, hence the attempted distraction of this post.

What do all y'all do to maintain patience, composure, and sanity when recording others? (I gave up drugs.)

[RoyMatthews]

I do think distractions can be valuable. Sometimes I might intentional do something else while listening and I notice something new. It's the aural equivalent of peripheral vision. Sometimes we see things out of the corner of our eyes that we don't notice when looking straight at it. Sometimes you free part of your mind that would actually get in the way.

The hard part is convincing the client that my reading email is actually a listening technique.

Really though breaks are a necessary part of mixing. The more you listen to something over and over the more "right" it becomes. You get used to it. You need to eat, pee, yell at an intern (it's ok it's part of the process I let them know beforehand). Especially in this day without rewind times to think.

FYI, I was kinda drunk when writing this which was probably the only way I'd pretend I'd have any idea why I'm talking about.

[Nick Sevilla]

At this point we are on take 6 of a keyboard pad

Oh my...

[RoyMatthews]

At this point we are on take 6 of a keyboard pad

Oh my...

You can't rush perfection. You want a keyboard pad that people will talk about for generations. Now, personally, I can't remember any keyboard pad ever but that just means we haven't slaved over them enough.

"How many tracks have we used? 18? Well let's see what we can put on the other 6! BTW, how late can you stay?" Thank god for SMPTE. "Sorry I need a track for time code and a guard track so there's only 4 tracks open to put stuff on. What? no we don't have automation or any real syncing capabilities (I'll be damned if I try to learn the sbx80) but you'll be glad that you have the time code if you need it in the future. Also the cops around here don't like people parking on the street past 3 am so maybe we should finish up in the next couple of hours?."

Sorry, I think I just had a flashback

[drumsound]

I like walks around neighborhood if I'm alone working on a mix.

[vvv]

You can't rush perfection. You want a keyboard pad that people will talk about for generations. Now, personally, I can't remember any keyboard pad ever but that just means we haven't slaved over them enough. ...

He calmed down and we got lots done, stereo keys on 6 tracks and stereo percussion on 7 tracks, two lead vocals, a bunch of BV's (used figure-eight for multiple singers -cool!)

We took a nachos break, and are now back at the bongos.

Worse part?

Nobody else drinks, and so I won't.

[losthighway]

This is one of the most interesting parts of the profession to me.

I've heard about Steve Albini's playing online poker when tracking (I've actually read his defense for it over at the EA forum). There's something gained when you don't have too much time to twist knobs that are already set well, just because you're fidgety while the same guitar solo is attempted over and over for two hours.

By moving your attention away from the music, you can bring it back with a little better focus, and you can avoid going into head spin (obsessing over minor tempo shifts, or hearing a guitar is/ is not/ no it's fine/ not it's not in tune).

I play a lot of Words With Friends for this kind of low involvement side track. The challenge is this: I know I benefit from it. It helps my stamina. Some parts of a session are going to be boring and just need to happen. BUT the trick is not to get too ADD and start missing things. The thing I hate the most is when a full band is tracking and I'm troubleshooting gear, responding to a text, multitasking in some way and then the take ends. Dude says "What about that one? Was it better?" And I realize I missed what was going on, so I can only reply "I think I need to hear it back to be sure. What do you think?"

That said, even when I am super-focused I usually need to hear a playback before I can be certain. Maybe this is why I'm more engineer than producer.

[vvv]

Ha!

I was posting yesterday as the bongoist was a-bongoing and he missed the 1 on the start of the second of the outro choruses and so I stopped the track to punch him in and he said, "Man! You don't miss anything!"

Which makes up for the couple times the keyboardist was done keyboarding and it took me a few seconds to stop the recording.

They will be back here inna cuppla hours for Day Two of, "As the World Burns" a/k/a "Overdubs and Wankery and Let's Try All of This" - I'm havin' a ball, even if my kids have to flee the house.

Notes to self:
1. nacho's ain't the best munch for 4 middle-aged guys in tight quarters;
2. buy some more air-freshener.

[accordion squeezist]

Hey, please tell me what "keyboard pad" means. I played pro for years; you'd think I'd know, but honestly I don't.

Back on topic, I will hit the red button and go out and smoke a cigarette and make my way back to the stop button when I think they're done. I probably do this more than I realize. I hate just sitting there.

[RoyMatthews]

There's nothing more embarrassing then when the singer walks into the control room when you're recording him and not paying attention.
"Um hey guys I've been saying I can't hear myself in the headphones for awhile now?"

[kslight]

I understand the need to take a break to gain perspective, and I understand many studios are a much more relaxed non-corporate atmosphere where non-productive tasks take place probably more frequently than most places of business, but a lot of the examples being given just sound down-right rude from a client's perspective. I think the engineer/producer's focus really needs to be on the talent, however boring or frustrating?it is your job after all. As much as engineer's need to justify getting paid for their services these days (versus the DIY approach by the band), it seems like if they aren't interested enough in the talent they probably are in the wrong business altogether. Would you tolerate your employee constantly texting, surfing the internet, playing games?while the paying client is being recorded (however unfruitful the progress may be)?

[losthighway]

Well, does business like efficiency always tend to work in the creation of "art"? Artistic processes tend not to always be in a straight line. I think it's more than a little holier than thou to think that somehow by staring at a computer screen or a meter constantly, you're doing a more virtuous job of serving the client.

I think attention is a resource. It makes sense that having an intuition of when and how much to spend it would be a professional asset.

[losthighway]

Hey, please tell me what "keyboard pad" means. I played pro for years; you'd think I'd know, but honestly I don't.

I believe this usually refers to something like a synth setting that has kind of infinite sustain as you hold the keys down. It's like a chord wash for texture that doesn't really have much by way of dynamics or rhythm.

[vvv]

Losthwy: you got it. We are a guitar band, but the singer just bought a new (to him) synth (KorgDW8000, I think.) Therefore, apparently, we must have it on every song.

ksl: It's MY BAND. As to the other posters, they are sayin' it works, gets good results, etc. At the end, then, IMNSHFO, that's what counts.

[kslight]

Well, does business like efficiency always tend to work in the creation of "art"? Artistic processes tend not to always be in a straight line. I think it's more than a little holier than thou to think that somehow by staring at a computer screen or a meter constantly, you're doing a more virtuous job of serving the client.

I think attention is a resource. It makes sense that having an intuition of when and how much to spend it would be a professional asset.

I said nothing about being totally business-like?but how does texting your wife and playing Scrabble-by-any-other-name benefit the client's art?

I said nothing about staring at a computer screen or meter?(though obviously you do want to pay attention to at least one of those), I said focus on the talent. If you aren't paying attention to their performance, what do you think your job is, plug in a microphone and press record?

If you (or the client) needs to take a break, take a break. But don't dose off while they're putting down the meanest solo of their life. If you can't leave your video games alone for 5 minutes, maybe you should be in the other room smoking a bowl playing Super Nintendo.

ksl: It's MY BAND. As to the others, they are sayin' it works, gets good results, etc. At the end, then, that's what counts.

I understand you, I'm referring to productivity with paying clients.