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MCI2424
New member
I have sold a bunch of stuff recently because I had a ton of stuff I never used anymore. I don't record for a living anymore and decided to cut down. I kept the best stuff.
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rf1
New member
Yeah I think it happens everytime not only in music and mixing... (Myself, I'm very new to this recording world), but I've found myself in THIS very position not only in this but also at university,
I picture myself in a classroom listening to this doctor in IT talk and talk about something relevant to the class and I think "what hte hell am I doing here listening to this theory crap? I should be in (insert place) doing (insert activity)!!"
But hell!! that's the process, making mistakes, doing real shitty mixes, not being able to play that awesome Muse riff you love in your cheap guitar... it all comes down to perseverance
I picture myself in a classroom listening to this doctor in IT talk and talk about something relevant to the class and I think "what hte hell am I doing here listening to this theory crap? I should be in (insert place) doing (insert activity)!!"
But hell!! that's the process, making mistakes, doing real shitty mixes, not being able to play that awesome Muse riff you love in your cheap guitar... it all comes down to perseverance
antichef
pornk rock
My wife would like for me to give up and sell everything 
I've only just started recording again in the last year or so after a 15 year break (marriage, kids, etc., still going on) - I'm far from my own worst critic -- I wouldn't think of quitting now, even realizing that most of my stuff probably sounds a lot better to me (and seemingly to people I know who probably wouldn't tell me I suck even if they were about to throw up) than it would to other people -- I plan to ride that bus as long as I can. If I seriously worried about making songs with broad appeal, I'd stress and might want to give up. I don't have that much stuff, either.
I never stopped playing guitar, though (22 years now), and I do get in ruts - the way I break out of them is to put some arbitrary constraint on my playing, for instance, if I break a string, I just leave it that way and try to make the guitar sound good anyway, then change the strings when I'm out of the rut. Or maybe force myself to play in a genre that doesn't interest me. Working with the constraint exposes some previously unnoticeable thing that was the rut. I've never relied on guitar playing for a living and if I did, maybe I couldn't afford to do this sort of thing -- but it pretty much always works.
I don't have near the experience with recording gear to go stale, but if I did, maybe I try removing some signal chain component that's always there? Use crappy mics? Temporarily ditching a quality analog component for a not-so-good-digital-replica? something like that.
I've only just started recording again in the last year or so after a 15 year break (marriage, kids, etc., still going on) - I'm far from my own worst critic -- I wouldn't think of quitting now, even realizing that most of my stuff probably sounds a lot better to me (and seemingly to people I know who probably wouldn't tell me I suck even if they were about to throw up) than it would to other people -- I plan to ride that bus as long as I can
. If I seriously worried about making songs with broad appeal, I'd stress and might want to give up. I don't have that much stuff, either. I never stopped playing guitar, though (22 years now), and I do get in ruts - the way I break out of them is to put some arbitrary constraint on my playing, for instance, if I break a string, I just leave it that way and try to make the guitar sound good anyway, then change the strings when I'm out of the rut. Or maybe force myself to play in a genre that doesn't interest me. Working with the constraint exposes some previously unnoticeable thing that was the rut. I've never relied on guitar playing for a living and if I did, maybe I couldn't afford to do this sort of thing -- but it pretty much always works.
I don't have near the experience with recording gear to go stale, but if I did, maybe I try removing some signal chain component that's always there? Use crappy mics? Temporarily ditching a quality analog component for a not-so-good-digital-replica? something like that.
peritus
The not fountain head
this thread is depressing.. 
/unsubscribe
/unsubscribe
Cajun
New member
Been there man... got so burnt-out with musicians who were not serious and all the BS that accompanies the normal life of a musician that I had to take time off twice. Once was for an 8 month period where I went so far from music that I never turned on a radio, CD, tape, etc... NOTHING... was only newsradio in the car the whole time. Second time was for longer... closer to 2 years. Never sold off all my stuff (I have kids that I planned on passing it all on to anyway) but I totally understand the level of frustration yuo are asking about.
futuredays
home recordist
I am basically a hobbyist/guitarist/songwriter. When I was younger, making music was the be-all and end-all.
At one point, I did quit. But I did not sell my gear. I stopped for a few years and have come back to it in periodic spurts.
I was disenchanted and frustrated. There were a few songs I recorded over and over again in different ways (acoustic, electric, fast, slow), unsatisfied with each result. At the time I stopped I actually had a bunch of songs ready to start recording, so it wasn't like I had writer's block. Nothing was sounding good anymore, everything seemed forced and contrived.
My stopping coincided with a geographical move which diverted a lot of my attention. I also have other hobbies - visual art specifically.
My quitting also coincided with a general disenchantment with rock music altogether. Many years prior I had started listening to jazz and classical music. Increasingly those music styles took over and I dropped making music altogether and just became a listener. (I'm just a dumb non-music reading guitarist so the thought of, say, playing jazz or classical guitar never entered my pea brain.)
During the time I abstained, I didn't miss rock music or playing at all. Everything I heard in rock music just seemed so cliched and hackneyed. Listening to lyrics and anticipating the rhyme. Hearing where the vocal is double-tracked because the singer doesn't have the chops to produce a fuller vocal sound...or lazy to nail it just right. Hearing all the innumerable grunge clone bands all pretending to be tortured souls. Listening to yet another songwriter explain that they like writing sad lyrics over happy melodies, as if they were the first one to ever think of doing this.
So I was glad to get away from it and listen to jazz and classical, which seemed strange and foreign and fresh to me. (But of course those musics have their own sets of cliches as well!) There were also periods when I preferred silence.
In the end, I am the only one to blame for the shift in my perceptions...I just started to hear and see things differently.
It took a long time to come back and the process is still ongoing. I think a part of me just needs to express itself through music so I *had* to come back eventually. Before quitting I was deadly serious about music. I think my earnestness probably led to becoming very rigid in my thinking which in turn just fed my growing disenchantment and an increasingly elusive perfectionism. Nowadays, I'm more casual about things - whatever will be will be.
At one point, I did quit. But I did not sell my gear. I stopped for a few years and have come back to it in periodic spurts.
I was disenchanted and frustrated. There were a few songs I recorded over and over again in different ways (acoustic, electric, fast, slow), unsatisfied with each result. At the time I stopped I actually had a bunch of songs ready to start recording, so it wasn't like I had writer's block. Nothing was sounding good anymore, everything seemed forced and contrived.
My stopping coincided with a geographical move which diverted a lot of my attention. I also have other hobbies - visual art specifically.
My quitting also coincided with a general disenchantment with rock music altogether. Many years prior I had started listening to jazz and classical music. Increasingly those music styles took over and I dropped making music altogether and just became a listener. (I'm just a dumb non-music reading guitarist so the thought of, say, playing jazz or classical guitar never entered my pea brain.)
During the time I abstained, I didn't miss rock music or playing at all. Everything I heard in rock music just seemed so cliched and hackneyed. Listening to lyrics and anticipating the rhyme. Hearing where the vocal is double-tracked because the singer doesn't have the chops to produce a fuller vocal sound...or lazy to nail it just right. Hearing all the innumerable grunge clone bands all pretending to be tortured souls. Listening to yet another songwriter explain that they like writing sad lyrics over happy melodies, as if they were the first one to ever think of doing this.
So I was glad to get away from it and listen to jazz and classical, which seemed strange and foreign and fresh to me. (But of course those musics have their own sets of cliches as well!) There were also periods when I preferred silence.
In the end, I am the only one to blame for the shift in my perceptions...I just started to hear and see things differently.
It took a long time to come back and the process is still ongoing. I think a part of me just needs to express itself through music so I *had* to come back eventually. Before quitting I was deadly serious about music. I think my earnestness probably led to becoming very rigid in my thinking which in turn just fed my growing disenchantment and an increasingly elusive perfectionism. Nowadays, I'm more casual about things - whatever will be will be.
ecktronic
Mixing and Mastering.
No, never.brendandwyer said:
Thats not to say at some point in my life I might not have the same passion for recording.
I am really more into mixing, recording is just something I have to do at the moment, so I can mix.
Eck
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metalredneck
New member
Yes, and that's why I have motorcycles. When one therapy fails, another must placate the voices. Don't give up, but a break is sometimes in order.
pouxhawk
Member
Can we clarify the term quitting?
Selling your stuff for the survival of your family doesn't constitute quitting to me. I would imagine that every one of you fine people here have had to give up something precious along the way. I would bet that any one of you would do the same thing again in a heartbeat if it became necessary.
Being involved in both music and television production, I sometimes have to trade resources between the music side and the higher paying video side. I have to invest in what pays the rent. It means that audio gear will come and go, dictated by my picture making needs. Sometimes it means not recording for a little while. I don't consider it the same thing as when I stopped recording out of laziness, frustration, or impatience. I guess I'm trying to say that the act of selling all your stuff as soon as you quit seems sort of self punitive. Like your trying to hurt yourself. Like the equipment's only purpose now is to torment you. That sounds like an angry decision, which at least in my case, always ends badly.
Needing the money is one thing.
Selling your stuff and blowing the money feeling sorry for yourself is another.
This old junk yard dog has been both places and they both suck very much.
No matter how many little black boxes we acquire, we will still have only one heart. Fortunately that's where the music is.
Actually, my motto now is; get a couple of nice pieces, hold on to them until they pry them from my cold dead fingers.
dino
Resident Curmudgeon
Selling your stuff for the survival of your family doesn't constitute quitting to me. I would imagine that every one of you fine people here have had to give up something precious along the way. I would bet that any one of you would do the same thing again in a heartbeat if it became necessary.
Being involved in both music and television production, I sometimes have to trade resources between the music side and the higher paying video side. I have to invest in what pays the rent. It means that audio gear will come and go, dictated by my picture making needs. Sometimes it means not recording for a little while. I don't consider it the same thing as when I stopped recording out of laziness, frustration, or impatience. I guess I'm trying to say that the act of selling all your stuff as soon as you quit seems sort of self punitive. Like your trying to hurt yourself. Like the equipment's only purpose now is to torment you. That sounds like an angry decision, which at least in my case, always ends badly.
Needing the money is one thing.
Selling your stuff and blowing the money feeling sorry for yourself is another.
This old junk yard dog has been both places and they both suck very much.
No matter how many little black boxes we acquire, we will still have only one heart. Fortunately that's where the music is.
Actually, my motto now is; get a couple of nice pieces, hold on to them until they pry them from my cold dead fingers.
dino
Resident Curmudgeon
flatfinger
Use every dam bit!
pouxhawk said:
well put
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ofajen
Daddy-O Daddy-O Baby
brendandwyer said:
Good question.
I've never been that disenchanted with the music. These days, I notice that my very old mixes on cassette have some funky thing going on in the low end, since my monitoring setup is much better now.
One thing that occasionally comes up is that I feel that I have too much gear and that I'm the sort of person who is more creative with less gear. So I've sold off some stuff over the last few years and will sell a little more. Plus, now that I use a DAW and mix mainly in the box, I use my cheap outboard gear less, and I've sold some of it. I've also sold three big tape machines and that's given me a lot more room. I just kept the 1/2" machine to mix to.
Another thing that occasionally pops up is an attitude of using only real instruments and nothing synthesized. I just wait it out and it goes away after a while, when I make a cool new sound on a synth that I want to use.
One frustration I do have is that my job is seasonal and from January to May, during our legislative session, I have very little time to play and practice, much less compose and record complex music. Having four little kids doesn't help in that regard, either, but I can still find a little time during the slow season.
Cheers,
Otto
joeym
New member
not on anybody's life....!
I'm ADDICTED and the quality gets better every day!! When I think of what it was like 20 years ago ( yeah, I'm that old...) to even think of recording a demo, and the possibilities I have now ?? NO WAY!!!
Lock me in my studio and throw away the key!!!!!!
I'm ADDICTED and the quality gets better every day!! When I think of what it was like 20 years ago ( yeah, I'm that old...) to even think of recording a demo, and the possibilities I have now ?? NO WAY!!!
Lock me in my studio and throw away the key!!!!!!
Lectric_Lab
New member
been in music for forty-eight years (man thats hard to say) guess its in the genes, never stopped playing out, or trying to record... whether it be major studios or pluncking around with a stereo 1/4" tape deck I am an artist/musician and recording engineer second, wow multi-track cassette recorders were nice when they came out, and now its gotten so anyone can put down some music, voice, whatevers on the s/w.
Everybody has a bad day, especially those that are stuck up to their a--in cedit, not here, mines all paid in full. Hope yours is too.
There was an occasion where I slid my guitar under the bed, tired of the whole music scene, wasn't two weeks later I was draggin' her back out, missed my baby...I'll never quit.
As far as a studio goes, I record my own music compositions, sometimes the ideas are there... sometimes not, and I record demo's for bands to get work...pretty easily too, they just set-up I capture, mix, they're jazzed already just hearing themselves, get some dough, 'bout it....go on with my own stuff.
And as said previously...riding motorcycles and building them is another outlet. Its really hard staying insane, but I am really trying.
Everybody has a bad day, especially those that are stuck up to their a--in cedit, not here, mines all paid in full. Hope yours is too.
There was an occasion where I slid my guitar under the bed, tired of the whole music scene, wasn't two weeks later I was draggin' her back out, missed my baby...I'll never quit.
As far as a studio goes, I record my own music compositions, sometimes the ideas are there... sometimes not, and I record demo's for bands to get work...pretty easily too, they just set-up I capture, mix, they're jazzed already just hearing themselves, get some dough, 'bout it....go on with my own stuff.
And as said previously...riding motorcycles and building them is another outlet. Its really hard staying insane, but I am really trying.
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rayd8
New member
i'm so new and freshly interested in it that i'm thinking about quitting my job to go back to school to be a recording engineer
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mrhotapples
New member
This is my first year putting any real time, money and...More money into engineering. I've gotten offers to do albums for at least 6 independent bands at the end of the year into the next, I've started working with a local studio, I've gotten recognition in the community, but I'm still broke and I vowed that I'd get a more consistent job and sell all my gear at the end of the year if I hadn't completed something really good.
But I have no real intention of selling my gear, regardless of what happens. I just the other day put another 200 dollars into a mic (EV ND868!) and a stand. I love engineering, I love being a part of music at a deeper technical level. I also love being able to wake up, slap a few mics on a drum kit, DI my guitar into an amp sim and spend a few hours recording song ideas. It gives me more to show to people and it lets me express myself and work on my abilities without having to wait for a project.
When it comes down to it, nobody starts a home studio to make money. They start because they want to record their own music. Some of us go on to realize that we can make a career out of engineering much more easily than with a band and start working outside the home, some of us do both, but it's all about music in the end. To quit audio would be to quit music and I can't quit music no matter how poor I am.
I think you've got to remember, always, that the things you do have no inherent value; you have to place value on them. If you love something, pursue it to the fullest extent and you'll be happy. Second guessing yourself is fine, but only as long as you are truly weighing the repercussions. Sometimes the money and free time I'd gain from selling my gear seems nice, but the hole it would leave in me for the long-term and the hardship of trying to find all my mics again once I realized how miserable I was would be too hard to go through.
'tis a cruel mistress.
But I have no real intention of selling my gear, regardless of what happens. I just the other day put another 200 dollars into a mic (EV ND868!) and a stand. I love engineering, I love being a part of music at a deeper technical level. I also love being able to wake up, slap a few mics on a drum kit, DI my guitar into an amp sim and spend a few hours recording song ideas. It gives me more to show to people and it lets me express myself and work on my abilities without having to wait for a project.
When it comes down to it, nobody starts a home studio to make money. They start because they want to record their own music. Some of us go on to realize that we can make a career out of engineering much more easily than with a band and start working outside the home, some of us do both, but it's all about music in the end. To quit audio would be to quit music and I can't quit music no matter how poor I am.
I think you've got to remember, always, that the things you do have no inherent value; you have to place value on them. If you love something, pursue it to the fullest extent and you'll be happy. Second guessing yourself is fine, but only as long as you are truly weighing the repercussions. Sometimes the money and free time I'd gain from selling my gear seems nice, but the hole it would leave in me for the long-term and the hardship of trying to find all my mics again once I realized how miserable I was would be too hard to go through.
'tis a cruel mistress.
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tojo
New member
yeah i get pretty discouraged sometimes but I keep pluggin on.
Todzilla
New member
Halfway through every recording project I've done.
...for the past 40 years
...for the past 40 years
jmorris
New member
Great question as I was just thinking about this and whee to post a question/frustration I've had for a long time. Have I thought about it? Yes..here is why. Maybe some of you have had the same experiences. First, I do mainly live bands these days in clubs. Now at 49 years old I dont really want to hang out in clubs all night trying to drum up business. So... I tend to email bands with invitations to explore what I do. Now Im going to post some links to area bands. These are really good band but to my ears have really band examples of their craft. Then the last link will be mine. I have offered fee service to these bands yet no responce? I figure hit the best bands in town, do a great job, even for free and get nice exposure. All these bands are great and it really bugs me a band does not have proper examples of what they can do...is it just me???
Here is a great party band with bad live audio...to my ears anyways
http://skycoasters.com/liveCD.htm
and another one
http://www.thesurgerocks.net/ReDesign/all pages/audio.htm
and last one of theirs
http://www.primetimefunk.com/media.html
and my stuff..
http://nocache.homestead.com/redd37/lilann.html
I "think my engineering is better
I offer free and no one bites. Maybe "free" means shitty? But these are the reasons I have thought about quiting.
Here is a great party band with bad live audio...to my ears anyways
http://skycoasters.com/liveCD.htm
and another one
http://www.thesurgerocks.net/ReDesign/all pages/audio.htm
and last one of theirs
http://www.primetimefunk.com/media.html
and my stuff..
http://nocache.homestead.com/redd37/lilann.html
I "think my engineering is better
I offer free and no one bites. Maybe "free" means shitty? But these are the reasons I have thought about quiting.
The REAL Jigsaw
New member
I write, record, mix, master and promote myself. The only thing I haven't tackled yet is producing beats. Don't have the ears for it yet, but will someday.
Have I thought of quitting? NEVER! Without music, I would not be who I am. I'd rather be dead without it.
www.myspace.com/shavezthegreat
Have I thought of quitting? NEVER! Without music, I would not be who I am. I'd rather be dead without it.
www.myspace.com/shavezthegreat
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Bguzaldo
New member
When you've had horrible self esteem issues all of your life it's a different ball game. I don't wanna dive deep into psychology, but when you spend so much time and effort into creating something and you find that what you created just sucks major ass and it disgusts you, you sort of see your self in what you made and become disgusted with yourself. But that's when you realize how much you love it, when you realize it can affect you that much.