a pitfall of self-recording: how would you deal with it?

[RefD]

Wow, I must have caught you during a serious case of the crabbies, or maybe your kid just vomited all over you.

you're absolutely right and i'm genuinely sorry for losing my cool and being a jerk to you in my earlier response.

Let me try to phrase it another way. BECAUSE you have no time or energy, use that as a creative limitation. In no way did I imply that you have no ability. I'm saying that because you have a fairly small window of opportunity to record, you want your stuff to work. And the best way to do that is to write fairly simple things. I'm a classically trained pianist, but that doesn't mean I'm going to write and record something that would make Chopin spin in his grave. Just because someone can play a whacked 13/8 meter doesn't mean he/she needs to write that. And I'm telling you, simplicity almost always serves the song better. It's true in writing, it's true in theater, it's true in music. And if you only have enough time or energy for a take or two, you want the take to be something where (a) you're not worried whether you'll play it right or not, and (b) you're more thinking about the expression of the take, not the mechanics.

what i recorded really wasn't terribly complicated for me, it was essentially fairly straight-forward chords (most exotic things in there were an add9 and a major 7th) with a few arpeggiated bits done in 4/4 at a moderate tempo.

i mean i've played more complex parts under far worse conditions of mental acuity without this happening.

i guess that's what got me so wound up that i started a thread over it.

On a completely different topic. If you've been sleeping like crap for 15 years (which means you can't just blame your rugrat), you need to get your ass to a doctor and get that figured out. Or get some daycare and housekeeping. Or set up a true office for your day job. If you keep this up, your life is going to fall apart and it won't pretty. You'd be surprised how many divorce case arise from losing control over the logistics (time, money, housekeeping/roommate issues, etc.). On a far simpler and optimistic note, once you experience full sleep, you'll wonder how you ever functioned without it. I'm a reformed sleeper myself.

the sleep thing is mostly insomnia related, which i don't blame my kids for.

things in that area have improved ALOT since i was diagnosed with sleep apnoea in 2001 and started using a CPAP machine.

as for time management, when you have young children (infant and toddler) most of your time belongs to them until they gain more autonomy/ability to take care of themselves.

i still get time for music, it's just extremely hard to come by and i can seldom get more than 2 or 3 hours uninterrupted each week if i am lucky.

this has the net effect of making self-recording very difficult and time-consuming, but i keep at it anyway.

[RefD]

"the question remains in my mind, tho: how did i end up consistently behind the beat by a fixed amount of time after playing (more or less) in the pocket up to just after the opening section?"

sounds like your computer may have dropped out for a few milliseconds. i've had that happen. everything sounds in sync while tracking but on payback the last recorded track would be out of sync. usually a buffer issue for me. forgot to set them back high after playing around with some softsynth which would need low latency.

were you using a midi generated click or an audio click?

anyways, guess it doesn't matter if you fixed it.

later...

it was a recording of a beatbox, actually.

i'm now thinking i just got a case of "brain lag" and starting playing far behind the 1 cos of exhaustion after a long day.

[vvv]

Maybe you were channeling Al Kooper's "Like a Rolling Stone" feel?

[RefD]

Maybe you were channeling Al Kooper's "Like a Rolling Stone" feel?

that's what you get for letting a guitarist play organ.

[nipsy]

I agree with the pants on fire cat, simple is best.


One of the hardest, continuing problem for my fat old ass is to play slow and in time. It aint easy................


(I say as I run for cover......)

[RefD]

I agree with the pants on fire cat, simple is best.


One of the hardest, continuing problem for my fat old ass is to play slow and in time. It aint easy................


(I say as I run for cover......)

with the apparent exception of this one time, it's normally not difficult at all for me to do.

[calaverasgrandes]

I get that quite often when I record myself. My timing will bunch up on either side of the pocket. But more often I have a bad habit of overplaying. Especially when I only have one or two tracks done, I'll start just blowing the crap out of every fret on my bass or guitar. I go back and listen and its just this wank fest devoid of emotion or groove.
But then sometimes I'll go in and edit out 80% of that and keep just the good bits. Thats the luxury of digital. Well that and not having to hear the "shlip...shlip... shlip" of the take up reel flapping that last piece of tape against the tensioner, after you just finished the most transcendent take.
Man that used to suck.

[mikehattem]

situations like this are exactly WHY i always tell people they are fools for trying to make records on their own at home. i mean seriously, do you think this would've happened if you were in a real, professional recording studio, working with a proper record producer making a legitimate product?

Is it that big of a deal?!? He essentially kept a "bad" take without realizing it and now he's trying to figure out how to deal with it. People record bad takes in studios as well. Do we even know if studios were the ONLY place to make a record that he wouldn't be making one at all?? It's better to record at home (or anywhere) than not at all. I've been recording at home for about 5 years. If I couldn't I wouldn't be making records... with going to school full-time and two young boys I don't have the time or money to go to a recording studio. But with my home setup I can get stuff done in pieces here and there and my records always get finished.

[RefD]

situations like this are exactly WHY i always tell people they are fools for trying to make records on their own at home. i mean seriously, do you think this would've happened if you were in a real, professional recording studio, working with a proper record producer making a legitimate product?

Is it that big of a deal?!? He essentially kept a "bad" take without realizing it and now he's trying to figure out how to deal with it. People record bad takes in studios as well. Do we even know if studios were the ONLY place to make a record that he wouldn't be making one at all?? It's better to record at home (or anywhere) than not at all. I've been recording at home for about 5 years. If I couldn't I wouldn't be making records... with going to school full-time and two young boys I don't have the time or money to go to a recording studio. But with my home setup I can get stuff done in pieces here and there and my records always get finished.

mike, it's okay!

i know MSE and he's totally joking here.

FWIW, for laughs he's parroting JR's infamous sentiments on home recording.

[calaverasgrandes]

FWIW I utterly revile all of you home recordists. Nothing personal. I have been making music my whole life and recording onto whatever I could find for almost that long. Back in the late 80's I was fresh out of high school and cluttering up my parents house. Someone had the great idea that I go to audio engineering school! I did. I got to learn about music from dudes that recorded a lot of great stuff in the 60's and 70's. I got to play with pultecs and 1176's, Neumanns and RCAs. All routed to a Quad Eight mixer feeding a Stephens (?) 16 track.
I thought I was going to graduate and just go to work engineering. Hell no! Of course in 90 and 91 Alesis and Mackie conspired to create the home studio market. Releasing the ADAT and the 1604 mixer. Sure it didnt sound as good as an Ampex 1200 and an API mixer, but to most of the tone deaf weekend warriors that didnt matter.
I hate you, you guys ruined my life!






Thats how you do sarcasm

[tinycat]

The answer is already in the other posts so I will add this.

When I'm tracking a band with a click I don't listen to the click in the control room. I think of the click like the lines on the highway. There's a little space to move side to side, but they keep you from going too far. If I don't hear a problem without the reference of the click, the take is fine (speaking only of tempo, other things are evaluated as usual)>

i am glad i decided to come here and found this particular thread today. the above quote is tremendously helpful for me right now. as is much of the thread.

for the past few years i have been recording and releasing electronic music but i have decided to go back to my roots, pick up my guitar (bass etc) and record. of course, this coincides with the recent birth of my daughter, so i have my stay at home dad duties on top of that. and i do some freelance work from home too. so getting something let alone something good down on DAW is slow going at best.

so i came here to figure out how to get myself together. anyhow, thanks guys and will be seeing you around.

[calaverasgrandes]

thats what I really love about DAWs as opposed to tape based production. You can hop on and throw down a few takes even if you only have 20 minutes to spare. With my old reel to reel I had to spend at least that much time just getting ready. Not counting biasing and all (which I really only did on a weekly basis).