Having an Objective View of Your Abilities

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.
 
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!!!!!
 
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.
 
newcomputeruser said:
beethoven was deaf
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philbagg said:
He was a composer. Not a recording artist, engineer, or producer.
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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 ! :D
 
grimtraveller said:
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 ! :D
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wouldn't that be a blessing sometimes!
:D
 
grimtraveller said:
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 ! :D
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Troof! I've written horn arrangements on my coffee table while watching football.:laughings:
 
Ive been searching around for something like this for awhile now.
Finally.

Okay, so I would love to start recording music. I'm sure you all have heard of Owl City (Adam Young). If you havent you can here. http://www.myspace.com/owlcity

I would like to record music like this. Not exactly like him obviously. But the same style. Currently I have a My laptop, Drum set, Mirco Korg Synthesizer, Yamaha PSR-157 keyboard, Old Squier amp I use, Headphones, and a Philips mic I got from walmart. I know, Some of this isnt the best. But thats why Im here. Im kind of stuck in a rut. I have no clue what I need. Well, I sorta do. But I would like help. Can someone please tell me an overall list of things I need to start recording. I have been playing these instruments for a pretty decent time now. Just this whole recording part, has got me confused. Please help?
 
Supercreep said:
... Now for the rub: If you have a tin ear, none of this is going to help you turn around a decent product...
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People like that get weeded out of music after a short time. If you don't have good ears you won't get the self-reward from it, your work will sound like shit and no one will want to play with you. Because of that, music weeds out people with no talent pretty fast.

It takes care of itself... those people become car salesmen and politicians.

But if Supercreep's general thought was that talent will always trump gear, I'm all for that. :)
 
Good thread. i'm new here, this is my first post. Everyone struggles with ego at some point or another, and it can definitely interfere with "objective" self awareness.
Its definitely tempting to want to believe a really nice piece of gear will elevate artistry. Its good to understand technique , creativity and tools as three different elements, but they are constantly at play with one another, as well as self.

Who knows what self delusion lurks in the heart of the seemingly tonedeaf?
Anyway, Ive read a lot of good posts here and I hope to develop some skill to do decent home recording, but I know its going to be like everything else, dues must be paid. Funny how we live in a culture where so much is geared towards the idea that you can just buy a thing and it will do the work of extracting and fullfilling your goals. That being said, stuff, more stuff. I need more stuff......
 
This might be a bit of a tangent, but I have found over the years that I prefer the results of my collaborations with others more than the results of 'just me', even though technology will allow me to play all the parts.
 
Supercreep said:
understand how to incorporate space and silence into an piece, your client's recordings will suffer.
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I'm trying harder to understand how to incorporate space and silence into my posts here.

Supercreep's words and the follow up are truth.

But if I blow >$50k on equipment (kind of easy to do, btw), then dick around and make a bunch of half finished songs that nobody - including me - likes, then sit back, consider it all, and honestly think: "that was awesome!", who's to say I screwed up? :D
 
gecko zzed said:
One of the confounding factors is that it is your brain and imagination that tells you what you are hearing, not your ears . . . something sounds good because you want it to, not because it is..
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I agree 150%. When I sing in the shower, I think I sound like a god but my family has a different opinion :)
 
clivus said:
This might be a bit of a tangent, but I have found over the years that I prefer the results of my collaborations with others more than the results of 'just me', even though technology will allow me to play all the parts.
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i hear that, i get board of playing with myself, for me its not about playing with one instrument, i need something else to play with, so i can play off of it.
keeps the game fresh, if you get my drift.
 
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