One Man/Woman Productions - What Are the Biggest Things That

[joninc]

sometimes creating is worth it just for the sake of creating.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

sometimes?

[joninc]

you know what i mean!



it's good for the soul - even if there's no audience for it.

[honkyjonk]

I do the one man band thing not for myself or for potential listeners but for the story of the song itself, which already existed somewhere before I wrote it down. I feel a little spooky towards that sort of thing. . . .

So, the recording process is subservient to that.

But, the most infuriating things in no particular order are:

-how to get sounds. Do I record in the control room? (attic space, small room, sound sucks) or the room adjacent? (attic space, small room, sound sucks) or run a snake downstairs (tramping back and forth after good takes only to find that once again, the sound sucks)
-Tape? I love tape, but that means I have to compress before hand and get the levels right. Very difficult, especially when not in the same room as your monitors and gear. For awhile, what I was actually doing was getting levels/sounds in the control room with the intended mic/instrument and everything, then transporting the whole setup downstairs. Only to find that of course it sounds completely different in another room. But fuck it man, it was a good take, which leads to the next problem. . .


-Mixing. Listening to my own song a thousand times sucks, and not being very good at mixing doesn't help. And having sucky sounding rooms and a bunch of less than ideal sounds from using the wrong mic/wrong instrument (because I like to experiment, yo) in said room/s doesn't help. And, side point, but I've had my monitors for like 8 years or something but I obviously still haven't learned how they translate worth shit.

-Using headphones. Intonation? Dynamics? Where am I?

-Making things fit together (when you loathe click tracks). This isn't just a problem with one man bands, but any project that is all overdubs. However, (outside of overcoming potential rhythmic discrepancies, which one might be inclined to assume inherent, hearing that there is no machine forcing it's own strict structure on my beautifully flawed instinctual human pulse,) one of the enlightening things I've learned is that if you sit in your control room w/ an amp in the other room, monitoring off of your monitors, it's SO MUCH easier to be in tune and play dynamically and blend with the other tracks, just by the way that I'm playing. Another revelation is using a hyper-directional dynamic to sing with while listening through the monitors for the same reason.

My advice for anyone doing the 1 man band thing is simplify simplify simplify. Start with the intent to make the absolute simplest version of the song to still get across the impact of the story. If you want to go all Yoshimi or something, get some help.

[percussion boy]

The hardest part for me is simultaneously being the singer/musician, who really cares about doing a good job, and the producer who has to say, "It's not good enough yet. Do it again."

Multiply this for the groove, the vocals, the "icing," and the mix.

Other side of the story is that this approach works for me -- more effort = more emotional recordings. It's just the time and bloodshed I hate.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

it's good for the soul - even if there's no audience for it.

100%. i dunno what i'd do if i couldn't sit in a room alone and make stuff up to entertain myself.

i've been making music by myself for a long time now, and the process has evolved to the point where recording stuff is never really a problem...i know if i put this mic here with this instrument sounding like this, it's gonna sound basically how i want it coming through the monitors.

and i like to edit and mix, so i don't mind sitting here for ages tinkering with stuff.

for me, the problems are usually just a result of everything being MY ideas. i hear things a certain way, i can do certain things on various instruments....sometimes good, sometimes not so good...but obviously if i was sitting here with 3 other people the tunes would come out totally differently. so sometimes i feel limited by my lack of ability to play different stuff, or to hear different melodic/harmonic/rhythmic ideas...you get the idea.

i still love doing it though!

[vvv]

+1: You are describing me.

[jgimbel]

for me, the problems are usually just a result of everything being MY ideas. i hear things a certain way, i can do certain things on various instruments....sometimes good, sometimes not so good...but obviously if i was sitting here with 3 other people the tunes would come out totally differently. so sometimes i feel limited by my lack of ability to play different stuff, or to hear different melodic/harmonic/rhythmic ideas...you get the idea.

Something I've been doing for the past year or so when recording myself (getting back into it after some time off) is to consciously put on different "hats" when I'm playing and recording. When I'm getting guitar sounds, I start out focusing solely on that, the guitar and the amp, what guitar, etc. When I'm micing it up I think about it how I think the other 90% of the time when I'm recording other musicians. When I'm playing I'm leaving room for the "bass player", when I'm drumming I try not to step on "the singer", etc. When I'm singing I try to make sure I'm being true to the "person" who wrote the song, still being that and what I felt at the time. I've also been tracking everything and not letting myself screw around with it too much ("mixing as you go") because I spent years doing that and by the time I move onto the next song I'm sick of the current one. I've got all my songs that are finished totally unmixed, ready for when I'm going into that stage of the record. I'm generally thinking about the production from the beginning of the song writing until the end. Keeping things separated, especially not combining the recording and mixing into one step, has really helped me stay sane and organized about it. It also keeps me really anxious and excited to mix it, which for me is really important.

[Forsooth!]

The most daunting thing I'm facing now is drums. I have a great space to record drums in, but no drummer and also I don't want to get evicted from my apartment building. I have considerable access to soft synth drums but I don't want to use drum machine sounds for the kind of music I'm making, and I'm not quite sure how to transform the realistic acoustic kits into something that doesn't sound cheesy. I mean I know how to program drums, but the sounds just aren't great.

And, of course, privacy. Living with two roommates makes for very sheepish recording sessions. How am I supposed to track all my terrible vocals when I know people can hear me doing it? It's mortifying.

On the plus side, I can record great guitar, bass, and synth sounds and have a fair mixing environment.

Oh also what I wouldn't give for an upright piano to keep mic'd up.

[Marc Neibauer]

Walls I've hit:


Self-doubt ("does this sound good? too bright/dark, is this tune interesting, have I written this song before?)

And lack of input (technical, creative) from other people. Or a second set of ears I think you would call it.

[dino]

The biggest obstacle for working alone for me is, and has always been, the moment I hit record. I can practice a part to (relative) perfection, only to have the recorded version sound tentative and weak. It's really difficult for me to stop being a technician and start being a performer. The few times I performed on other folks recordings they loved the results, so I know I can do it, but that just makes the issue even more frustrating. If I sounded bad on other peoples projects I would just admit I wasn't good enough, sell all this stuff, and go get on with my life. I'm actually working on something right now after several years away from self recording and the issue still remains. Painfully frustrating....d

[Snarl 12/8]

^ I almost can't believe that I still get "red light fever" after all the hours I've spent recording myself. It's kinda weird. I think it has to do with being the worst kind of perfectionist.

[dino]

Why bless you Snarl... Now I don't feel so alone in my affliction...
Red light fever...Good name.....d

[Snarl 12/8]

I can't remember where I heard that term years and years ago, but I didn't make it up. Which means there are other sufferers and from a long time ago, as well.

[Bro Shark]

Nothing I've ever done by myself holds a candle to what I can accomplish working in a group. Not even close, no contest. Differing ideas and viewpoints improve upon each other exponentially.