option fatigue anyone?

[syrupcore]

I like having lots of random things around so that when I start something I can have fun picking what I'm going to limit myself to using.

it's the only way I ever get anything completed. Just because you have options doesn't mean you need to use them at all times. Just cut yourself off.

[OneZero]

Not everything you record needs to be good or even listenable to other people.

WORD!!

[Slider]

Two words:

Four-Track

Those were the days!!
One mic on the drums... lets make us some music.
Studio laboring is really painful at times.

One of the worst sounding records I ever worked on took almost a year to make.

Some of the best were the "okay that's done, now point the mic at that" kind.

[mikehattem]

You've got to have it all in your head before you can get it out...

Thats very true for the most part. And I always know the general direction a song is gonna go when I start recording. However, I leave myself open to trying things out as they come to me. Invariably, I will come up with new parts or new instrumentation as the song starts taking shape and they're usually things that would'nt have made sense at the early stage. When i get an idea to try something out, probably 85% of the time I end up keeping what I did so I have a decent batting avg when it comes to that. Now if it was the other way around and I found myself not using these "spontaneous creative additions" most of the time, I would limit myself to how much I explored them especially if it was eating up valuable recording time. That's my favorite part of the creative process of recording - when you come up with something that takes the song in a new direction from what you expected in the beginning and just makes it better. There's no more satisfying feeling, creatively speaking.

Mike

[majortom]

I had been thinking about a new song for about 2 months, on a whim I sat down fired up a mic palyed the song...made up words where I had none, threw a bit of a flange on it copied the flanged track panned it out on both sides ran the clean up the middle...and yeee haa, made me so happy I almost crapped myself!