don't sit on it too long

  • Thread starter Thread starter dobro
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dobro

dobro

Well-known member
I'm gonna cross-post this, cuz it's legitimate in this case.

I've learned something about putting recording projects together: don't sit on it too long.

My best results are when I keep at it and take it a long way to completion the same day/same week, rather than leaving a lot of time between the different stages of writing, recording and mixing.

The advantages: if I record the song shortly after I write it, it's still got that freshness and, for lack of a better word, wonder. The magic's still there. And when I listen to the various tracks I recorded the next day, it's a lot easier to select the keepers the cull the others. And all that careful listening generates ideas for arrangement and other tracks. Plus it's a *lot* harder to pick up the trail months down the road when I find out that I have to redo a track for some reason.

And then there's the mixing: that's when I *really* listen carefully and learn all sorts of stuff. It's at that stage usually when I notice the tracks that I thought were okay but which actually need to be redone. And like I said before, it's easier to redo a track when your chops are up, and harder later on. I know you have to leave time between recording and mixing. I know that. But don't sit on it too long.
 
I couldn't agree more. There are times though, when I just let my mind do the work it's supposed to do. I'll step back for a few days and let my brain write some harmonies, or guitar licks or whatever. Taking too long can be a real detriment to even that process.


bd
 
Also if you leave things too long new 'more exciting' ideas come along which demand your attention and the moment passess for the unfinished song.... and it remains undone.

Still, when the muse has gone and you are sghhort of inspiration, then thats the time to look back at your old ideas and re-examine them.

I have left some songs unfinished, and when I come back to them months later i don't think they were that good! Sometimes you feel you have invested a lot of time in a poor song that you swant to finish it, but maybe the reaosn you don't finish it is that it's not really that good and deep down you know it?

Sorry, I'm rambling....
 
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