I like to hit things...

L

lo beam

New member
OK, this is a bit of a non-specific post I know..but after fooling around a bit with computer recording I've decided I like it, but for the sort of music I'm doing it always seems like I have to spend ages planning tracks out and programming stuff before I can get down to being truly creative.
I come from a pretty trad singer/songwriter background I suppose and don't have a real bells & whistles set-up ( G4 Mac/2496 soundcard/audio buddy pre/ coupla good condensers/ Ableton Live & Logic Express/ some nice plugins like idrum & automat synth), but it's good enough for now.
The thing I don't really get is I can't be arsed spending ages programming beats for a whole song when most of the time I'm not even sure how I want it to go. I'd normally just put down acoustic & vox live and build up the song around that framework - but now without access to a live kit ( but I do have lots of cool "real" drum samples), I'm finding it never works adding beats afterwards.
Any ideas about how I can make the whole thing more user-friendly? I like to hit things rather than piece them together with a mouse...so maybe a midi keyboard would help?

Sorry this post isn't more coherent, but was just fishing for ideas from folk who may have gone down this road before...

Thanks -
 
I understand your frustration, believe me. The one man band thing can get quite demanding. That's one of the reasons I like being in a band - I don't have to do everything.

But when working on solo stuff, you just have to bite the bullet and spend that time if you want what's in your head to be the same thing that's on the CD people hear.

What's you primary instrument? What do you write with? Getting the idea down should be the first goal, though. The composition is more important, and should help guide how the rest of tracks fill in. I've had as many as four different working versions of a song before I went to do the final recording.

Don't know if this helps at all.
 
Thanks. Yeah, the songs are written on acoustic and are usually structurally sound and arranged even before I hit record...but I like to think outside the box and give myself lots of headroom for experimenting with how they'll end up.
I'd like to be able to listen back to the basic vox/git track and tap in ideas for beats in real time ( so, mebbe it IS some sort of midi controller I need...), thus making the experience as close as poss to "natural" playing. I don't mind spending hours afterwards fine-tuning things, but that initial period has to be as easy as possible to get down, or I just lose heart and get bogged down looking through manuals & stuff.
 
I'm feeling you; being a one man band/home recording engineer ain't the easiest freakin thing to do! It's easy to get bogged down with all there is to do during a little recording project and lose your inspiration. I think a midi controller would definately speed things up for you, as will using templates and presets.

Alot of times I'll just throw down a couple of bars of my basic drum ideas using my midi keyboard. Then I can go back and copy and paste those bars to put together a rough drum track as I write the tune with my guitar/voice.

If your software allows, setup a template for songwriting. I have a template setup in Cubase that has a vocal track with reverb, a guitar track with Amplitube, and a drum track with BFD drums. All I have to do is open Cubase, open the template, and hit record.

Also, for vst effects and instruments, I setup presets for quick use so that I'm not fiddling with effect/instrument parameters for half an hour.
 
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