When the red light comes on

Supercreep said:
Where do my timing and chops go?

Seriously. What paltry talents I possess on the drums substantially disappear the second I start trying to capture a performance.

Why does this happen?
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I know from first hand experience you have nothing to worry about. Relax. Just play the drums.
 
In all seriousness, I choke with the best of them. But the absolute best thing about having your own studio is UNLIMITED recording time. I only track my parts when the spirit is on me and I ain't shy about do overs. Just keep the RECORD/RTZ controls at your finger tips and keep moving. Also if you can, track your tune in smaller sections and reassemble it after the fact. It ain't hard at all that way to get damn near perfect takes.
 
You need to make sure you have your patterns down and are comfortable with them. If you just sit down and wing it , without recording you probably do great, but when you sit down hit record then wing it , you suck?

That's what has happened to me in the past. Write you part, practice it , tweek it after a few takes if needed, then nail it.
 
I suspect that only very experianced session players don't feel at least a little pressure when the red light comes on. As most have said - you are not alone.

The best cure is to play the part often enough that you have some confidence - and candidly, I would always have the red light on ..... you never know which track will be the magic one. Unless you are in a high cost studio, there is no reason to let it freak you out - it is simple enough to simply track it again (naturallly if the studio is charging x per hour than taking too much time could be an issue - but if you are paying serious studio rates, it would likely be more prudent to hire someone who can hit it in 1 or 2 takes.

Are you trying to play to a click? Many drummers (and other musicians) allow themselves to be ruled by the click and they focus soooo much on trying to hit every share hit on the claick that the performance suffers. The key is to play with the click rather than to the click. Don't be a slave to the click, in most genres, it is okay if your hits dance around the click a little. Oft times, if you program a groove -maybe a conga groove with a cowbell (or whatever) it can be easier to play with (vs, to) - you can somethimes get your brain to think you are jamming with a percussionist rather than playing to a click.
 
Having revelled in your songs and dissected them intimately since 2010, if you get that blank feeling when the red light comes on, long may it continue !
I wouldn't mind red light fever if I produced a body of work of the quality of Little purple circles. :thumbs up:
 
I have to agree with Grim, (well, I often do but that doesn't make "good copy").
Casey, if this is a new sensation for you I hope you get over it soon. However if you've always been this way then I have to offer that it produces great results and should be associated with the muse or something similarly mythological.
It's about time for a new LPC album isn't it? Perhaps it's feeling the need to better the last album. If that's the case I can understand it because Far Out Liars/Liers is Far Out Cool but you managed to raise the bar on each outing thus far so the three of you ought to have this in the bag & can soon enough.
 
Thanks guise. I am about 70 percent through the drums on our latest. I am trying to focus less on getting perfect takes and more on capturing interesting and challenging patterns. My previous efforts have felt a little sterile, imo.

We demoed all the songs first, and now the gang is just watching me slog through the tracks. I feel pressure to "get it done", but can't stand mistakes- so I am pretty wound up when the red light comes on.

I think I rely on improvisation too much, which is a strength live but a liability in the studio when I have to lock in the part permanently. I tend to favor the easy layup and pass up the challenging stuff under pressure.

Drums are hard.
 
Also, sometimes the click, sometimes the bed tracks, sometimes a tambourine. Whatever gets me the most accurate pulse to lock into. I have also just abandoned all of it and played in free time. There isn't any silver bullet.

Demoing songs with fake drums delivers a good demo, but we have to track the instruments again after I drum because I definitely fall into a more "pocket" feel.
 
grimtraveller said:
having revelled in your songs and dissected them intimately since 2010, if you get that blank feeling when the red light comes on, long may it continue !
I wouldn't mind red light fever if i produced a body of work of the quality of little purple circles. :thumbs up:
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^^^this^^^
 
Improv rarely works for me in the studio. By the time I'm getting close to having a usable track I know every fill and every transition I am going to do. Every hi hat click, every bass drum hit - literally every single thing I do is planned, I am simply focusing on execution and energy. It sounds like overkill, but that's how I've gotten my best results.

If I try to improv I end up doing 20 takes, settling for one eventually, and the finding errors later.
 
ibleedburgundy said:
Improv rarely works for me in the studio. By the time I'm getting close to having a usable track I know every fill and every transition I am going to do. Every hi hat click, every bass drum hit - literally every single thing I do is planned, I am simply focusing on execution and energy. It sounds like overkill, but that's how I've gotten my best results.

If I try to improv I end up doing 20 takes, settling for one eventually, and the finding errors later.
Click to expand...

I tend to agree with this. As a live drummer, I tend to take a lot of liberty with drum arrangments - and if somthing doesn't woork, well it's done and over and can't be redone (well maybe avoided at the nest gig). However, when I improvise too much in a studio, I hear all the things that don't work and want to re-record ..... and next thing I know, I'm on take #20.

Having done that so many times - I've now learned to commit to a drum part and play it accurately - but hopefully with enough feel and energy that it does not come across as too sterile. I find I have to do so many less takes that way!
 
Yup, my drum recordings are thought out, planned out, and it's like playing a cover. It works for me because it's faster, I play better that way, and I'm not a good improviser anyway.
 
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