Having an Objective View of Your Abilities

[Monkey Allen]

I'm such a noob...I discovered only yesterday the advantages of wearing headphones and monitoring mic positions when mic'ing acoustic guitar. Wow...what a great way to set up a mic. I always used to just put a mic about where I thought was good, record, listen back...after about 2 times I'd just take what I got. Now I can hear what's happening.

[rayc]

Another maxim would be to start off with simple gear & a simple arrangement of a simple piece. When that's nailed it would be time to progress.
I spent 10 years fiddling about with 1 mic and a cassette portastudio.
That set up forced me to learn a lot: having to ping pong meant I had to think ahead so that the final picture was what I was after - in other words plan a little.
Working with just a couple of pieces of gear meant learning how to milk them for the best possible result. I often amazed at what can be achieved with a dynamic mic, in built preamps, old guitars, a mid 80's drum machine and 4 tracks.
Because of the above my pieces were fairly bare bones: I didn't have anything to hide behind so the tunes had to work in & of themselves.
I still haven't nailed the simple but have improved somewhat.
I've indulged in gear lust BUT, being constrained by finances, haven't spent more than a couple of hundred dollars at any one time (except for my last computer upgrade) & as a result I have a bundle of stuff I don't even look at buthave a small assembly of, what are to me, essentials.
Oh, & I still have & still use, occassionally, the 4 track cassette machine.
Oh, Oh, IF you've a tin ear you can train yourself to improve - it takes time and work but a cloth ear can be trained. Arranging can be learnt and simply recording what's happening to the best of your gear & your ablity is achievable so long as you don't tell yourself lies.
In other words: what Supercreep said!!!!!

[CaptGoldenEars]

My strengths have been from the beginning, a good ear, good intonation and a team spirit. I spent many years honing my guitar playing and people skills. Recording however has been trial and error. And only in the last few years have i come to realize the importance of a good sounding room. It's better to have a room that's a little live than a little dead. A little dead is dead, period. A live room can always be tamed. Dead rooms are hard to bring to life. My best recordings thus far have been with average equipment in nice sounding rooms. And when the band is "on" of course. Now, there will always be better engineers than me and folks with incredible sounding productions but pound for pound, nothing beats a good band in a good room.

[Supercreep]

pound for pound, nothing beats a good band in a good room.

What about blowjobs on demand and an unlimited sum of other people's money?

It's got to be at least a runner-up.

[CaptGoldenEars]

What about blowjobs on demand and an unlimited sum of other people's money?

It's got to be at least a runner-up.

Thread title says something about an objective view. A fella can dream i guess.

[newcomputeruser]

...

Now for the rub: If you have a tin ear, none of this is going to help you turn around a decent product.

If you don't have an ear for pitch, and your instruments are out of tune with themselves and other instruments, your recordings will suffer.

beethoven was deaf

[philbagg]

beethoven was deaf

He was a composer. Not a recording artist, engineer, or producer.

[grimtraveller]

beethoven was deaf

He was a composer. Not a recording artist, engineer, or producer.

Not only did recording {as we know and love it} not exist in his day, he went deaf. He wasn't always deaf. I remember many moons ago, reading about Rick Wakeman composing songs to one of his 70s albums on a plane with a pencil and music manuscript. He heard certain sounds in his head, he notated them. Point being that anyone that reads music can do that. If you've gone deaf you could still write music. And you'd never suffer the agony/embarrassment of having to hear it !

[Lt. Bob]

Not only did recording {as we know and love it} not exist in his day, he went deaf. He wasn't always deaf. I remember many moons ago, reading about Rick Wakeman composing songs to one of his 70s albums on a plane with a pencil and music manuscript. He heard certain sounds in his head, he notated them. Point being that anyone that reads music can do that. If you've gone deaf you could still write music. And you'd never suffer the agony/embarrassment of having to hear it !

wouldn't that be a blessing sometimes!

[TeyshaBlue]

Not only did recording {as we know and love it} not exist in his day, he went deaf. He wasn't always deaf. I remember many moons ago, reading about Rick Wakeman composing songs to one of his 70s albums on a plane with a pencil and music manuscript. He heard certain sounds in his head, he notated them. Point being that anyone that reads music can do that. If you've gone deaf you could still write music. And you'd never suffer the agony/embarrassment of having to hear it !

Troof! I've written horn arrangements on my coffee table while watching football.