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pawma
New member
I'm taking breaks every two weeks on the weekends works fine for me.
paddedcell
Doggy Claws
In my "yoot", I was heavily involved in music and gigging, in bands doing original material and in top-forty club bands. Early on, I discovered that making a pact with the drummer for dealing with equipment load-up would probably save both our lives. I helped him with his gear, and he helped with mine (I'm a keyboard player). Personally, I think I got the better part of that deal -- drums are actually pretty light by comparison to keyboard gear. . .
I spent almost two years with a band doing original stuff, touring and doing recording. We even cut a 45 that got some amount of radio play on the local indy stations. We were so farking cool. . .
I think that working with the band in a genuine recording studio and seeing how things were done had a substantial impact on where I've ultimately wound up. Touring was actually pretty sucky -- half the time we were living out of the guitar player's van (four guys sleeping in a van sucks on a very fundamental level), and we made enough to eat and buy gas. The drummer had his own van, so all the equipment went into that. But at my young age, it was an "adventure", with enough scary edges and positive reinforcement to make it pretty cool. My memories of it are fonder than the reality warranted.
For about a year and a half, I made my living with a top-forty band, and we were gigging six nights a week. We had hooked up with a real hotdog booking agent, and we had as much work as we could choke down. My life went upside down, and I was going to bed at 3am or 4am and getting up around noon. It was a bizarre change of pace, but it was a living and I paid for food, gas and a roof out of it, frequently with enough left over for drugs and chicks
Looking back on that, I suppose those years were some of the best years of my life in terms of living and novelty, but it's not what I want now. I still regard myself as a "professional" musician, but I rarely play gigs anymore and have about the same attitude about doing that stuff as Greg_L. I like recording, and in the same way that a painter paints because "they have to", I write and record because it's something I need/want to do. Gigging every once in a while is OK, but I'd rather be tucked into my little rat-hole of a studio for 5 hours. . .
My day gig is occasionally demanding enough that I have to turn complete attention to that end of my life (I'm self-employed, so if I stop treading water, the business sinks). I haven't even unlocked the studio door for the past three weeks, but when I finally go back in, I will have been away from the stuff I was tracking long enough to have acquired a little objectivity -- so maybe that's a silver lining, in its own way.
Over the last 10 to 15 years, The music business has changed radically, and I don't think that anyone really knows where it's going to wind up. The internet has changed marketing and access, computers and digital technology have changed the recording process, and
the money in music frequently comes from different directions now. I like that I don't have to produce, musically, in order to make money -- money is a second or third consideration for me; perhaps not even that much.
I would really rather be doing what I'm doing now than most "live" work, but I completely understand if someone's motivation for playing and writing is live performance. There are plenty of people for whom the call of the stage is as strong for them as the call of the studio is for me. . .
I spent almost two years with a band doing original stuff, touring and doing recording. We even cut a 45 that got some amount of radio play on the local indy stations. We were so farking cool. . .
I think that working with the band in a genuine recording studio and seeing how things were done had a substantial impact on where I've ultimately wound up. Touring was actually pretty sucky -- half the time we were living out of the guitar player's van (four guys sleeping in a van sucks on a very fundamental level), and we made enough to eat and buy gas. The drummer had his own van, so all the equipment went into that. But at my young age, it was an "adventure", with enough scary edges and positive reinforcement to make it pretty cool. My memories of it are fonder than the reality warranted.
For about a year and a half, I made my living with a top-forty band, and we were gigging six nights a week. We had hooked up with a real hotdog booking agent, and we had as much work as we could choke down. My life went upside down, and I was going to bed at 3am or 4am and getting up around noon. It was a bizarre change of pace, but it was a living and I paid for food, gas and a roof out of it, frequently with enough left over for drugs and chicks
Looking back on that, I suppose those years were some of the best years of my life in terms of living and novelty, but it's not what I want now. I still regard myself as a "professional" musician, but I rarely play gigs anymore and have about the same attitude about doing that stuff as Greg_L. I like recording, and in the same way that a painter paints because "they have to", I write and record because it's something I need/want to do. Gigging every once in a while is OK, but I'd rather be tucked into my little rat-hole of a studio for 5 hours. . .
My day gig is occasionally demanding enough that I have to turn complete attention to that end of my life (I'm self-employed, so if I stop treading water, the business sinks). I haven't even unlocked the studio door for the past three weeks, but when I finally go back in, I will have been away from the stuff I was tracking long enough to have acquired a little objectivity -- so maybe that's a silver lining, in its own way.
Over the last 10 to 15 years, The music business has changed radically, and I don't think that anyone really knows where it's going to wind up. The internet has changed marketing and access, computers and digital technology have changed the recording process, and
the money in music frequently comes from different directions now. I like that I don't have to produce, musically, in order to make money -- money is a second or third consideration for me; perhaps not even that much.
I would really rather be doing what I'm doing now than most "live" work, but I completely understand if someone's motivation for playing and writing is live performance. There are plenty of people for whom the call of the stage is as strong for them as the call of the studio is for me. . .
R
RAMI
Guest
paddedcell
Doggy Claws
That still makes me laugh. . .
R
Rod Norman
New member
The secret is your ears. The human ear cannot take continuous hard work and the hairs that vibrate to send frequencies to the brain can become damaged by loud volumes. I recommend breaking often (stopping the music to relax and talk or take notes), avoiding headphones except to line up edits, and taking a day off before trying to mix. Good Luck,
Rod Norman
Rod Norman
JimmyS1969
MOODerator
Padded, you totally trumped me on post size! lol!
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namnibor
New member
The movie documentary, "I Dream of Wires", is basically way my brain works and literally do not sleep more than 4 or so hours a day. Hell, pretty much whatever currently working on will still be firing from synaptic connections and often when get up in middle of whenever *sleep might be* to drink water or whatever, will find myself pulled-into slipping headphones on and flicking on any synth that is not already still on, to have another go at it. Before know it, large animal 
is reminding me it's time to feed him!
My townhouse *lives IN my studio*, much like an artist's loft is to their creativity. The Virus KC and KB often get left on so I also enable myself like a moth to the flame, being drawn to all the 'pretty lights'
is reminding me it's time to feed him!My townhouse *lives IN my studio*, much like an artist's loft is to their creativity. The Virus KC and KB often get left on so I also enable myself like a moth to the flame, being drawn to all the 'pretty lights'
G
GazzerG
New member
When it starts sounding worse or you find yourself stuck in one problem for an extended amount of time, then it's time to take a break!
paddedcell
Doggy Claws
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
From the song in question or from music per se ?
Even in the days when I wanted to be a full time musician, the gigging part of it very much played second fiddle to writing and recording. When I used to write stories about bands, I might talk about them seeing different parts of the world while touring, but little about the actual playing live {except in one of them where one of the band gets gunned down in the middle of a gig}. The content was definitely top heavy in the direction of song writing, recording and inter band warfare !
I used to go to tons of gigs and I used to lap up the music. But after 1984, gigs just bored me. Actually, thinking about it, it's significant that performing was already on the downhill slide in my life before I started recording. I've played live many many times over a 21 year period but I can count on one moustache the number of times I've enjoyed it more than recording. I'm very influenced by something Jack Bruce said; he pointed out that in a gig, the moment that note has passed, it's gone forever. Whereas recordings are precisely that ~ documenting for posterity, that moment
Neither inferior or superior, it's a different discipline.
Lt. Bob
Spread the Daf!
exactly ..... two way different things ........ I'm a live player first and although I've had a studio since '69 and have done lots of recording .... I've never liked it as much as gigging.