fat_fleet
Swollen Member
Nah, pretty much a one trick pony here.
Nah, pretty much a one trick pony here.
G
Greg_L
Banned
No, I'm trying to do more
BroKen_H
Re-member
Absolutely! Between drums (I play at church), piano (my life's love), bass and singing (what I used to do for a living), trying to record and mix and edit and master my own soundtracks, learning guitar, + housework, keeping up with maintenance on three vehicles and all the power equipment, yardwork, etc. etc. I get a little flabbergasted for free time.
My wife sings, too
but not well...she does crafts (which have a plethora of skills as well) and actually makes MONEY doing that, so I guess maybe I should pick up some knitting needles or something...
X
Xdrummer
New member
It's interesting to read how many people have a love/hate relationship with gigging. There was a time I took every gig that was offered, in part for the money, in part because the more genres I experianced and the more different players I had to react to the better musician I became and in part because you never know who you may encounter (or who may hear you) to advance your career.
Now that I'm older (a lot older) I no longer enjoy hauling gear, late nights, dealing with drunks and drunken drivers. etc - so I only accept maybe a dozen gigs a year and they have to be close to home, very decent hours, pay better than average, little or no rehearsal and only with musicians I respect. It get's me out of the house, earns a little extra for the occasion gear upgrade and gives me an opportunity to stretch my chops more than recording can - but as a freelance "sideman" I don't have to concern myself with any of the BS that all bands deal with.
The thing I've found challenging - I've recently been trying to find people to come down and record (just for the fun of it) - but if there are no gigs, no cash and no instant gratification (haveing people "applaud") - few musicians are interested. I'm able to be self contained (I can play several instruments) - but after being a "one man" operation for a long time - I miss the interaction with other musicians.
When I was a young musician, there was plenty of live work - but we all jumped at any opportunity for the creative satisfaction of getting a chance to record (keep in mind, in those days home recording was not very common) - but now, it seems all the musicians I encounter are not all that interesting in recording - only in gigging.
Now that I'm older (a lot older) I no longer enjoy hauling gear, late nights, dealing with drunks and drunken drivers. etc - so I only accept maybe a dozen gigs a year and they have to be close to home, very decent hours, pay better than average, little or no rehearsal and only with musicians I respect. It get's me out of the house, earns a little extra for the occasion gear upgrade and gives me an opportunity to stretch my chops more than recording can - but as a freelance "sideman" I don't have to concern myself with any of the BS that all bands deal with.
The thing I've found challenging - I've recently been trying to find people to come down and record (just for the fun of it) - but if there are no gigs, no cash and no instant gratification (haveing people "applaud") - few musicians are interested. I'm able to be self contained (I can play several instruments) - but after being a "one man" operation for a long time - I miss the interaction with other musicians.
When I was a young musician, there was plenty of live work - but we all jumped at any opportunity for the creative satisfaction of getting a chance to record (keep in mind, in those days home recording was not very common) - but now, it seems all the musicians I encounter are not all that interesting in recording - only in gigging.
X
Xdrummer
New member
Man, you hit on something that is what I consider one of the biggest challenges. Like most on this site, I wear all the hats and accordingly, it often takes many hours to finally complete a song (writing, arranging, playing all the part, singing all the hamonies, mixing, mastering) and then I have to mail stuff to publishers, follow-up often re-record, rinse and repeat. I must have about 20 songs that are written and waiting for me to find time to record them.
Like many, I play several instruments well (guitar, bass, keys, drums/percussion) and I continue to try to improve my chops on lap steel, pedal steel, violin, banjo, mandolin, uke harmonica and most recently sitar. Unfortunately, if I commit too much time on learning say pedal steel, my chops on guitar or drums start to get rusty - it's an endless, vicious cycle!!!!! I retire from the day gig this year - and my goal is to utlilize the 10 plus hours a day I will gain to improving my chops (maybe an hour on each instrument dailly - or until my hands start to hurt) - and now I'll be able to record more (instead of mostly on Friday and Saturday nights). So many instruments, so little time!
P
pegger
New member
I find music very interesting. The ability to catch the interest of another person by telling a good story, or imprinting a certain sound into anothers mind such that they equate an emotion to it. I love the interpretive art of music.
with that said, I am a mediocre musician at best. I learned to play guitar in college because I enjoyed hanging out with others who had a asimilar passion. From learning to play 3 chord covers, I graduated to trying to write songs, and found myself heavily influenced by the artists who's music gave me the enjoyment of assigning my emotions to their music. Then you start to branch off into working with other like minded musicians, and forming bands (for me it's only been buddies hanging out in the basement working on our material with a few covers now and then).
Then I started thinking about how do I make this music so that others can listen to it, and choose to like it or not? That led to buying a cheap USB mixing board. Which I quickly learned to not use for recording anything of quality. Then I stepped up to a proper digital recording interface with multiple channels. Then I had to learn how to record properly (still learning). Then I had to learn how to edit my recordings (still learning).
So my motivation is two fold.
1) I want to share my music. I want others to hear it and make their own opinions about it, the same as I do with other peoples music. I want to be able to give back to music what I take. So far I'm not quite at the give part. That is contingent on completion of point number 2 below.
2) I Enjoy learning. I find the most pleasure from figuring out how to do something extremely well, and then proving my abilities to others (some might call it bragging, but heck, if you make the effort to get good at something, why shouldn't you let others know about it?).
with that said, I am a mediocre musician at best. I learned to play guitar in college because I enjoyed hanging out with others who had a asimilar passion. From learning to play 3 chord covers, I graduated to trying to write songs, and found myself heavily influenced by the artists who's music gave me the enjoyment of assigning my emotions to their music. Then you start to branch off into working with other like minded musicians, and forming bands (for me it's only been buddies hanging out in the basement working on our material with a few covers now and then).
Then I started thinking about how do I make this music so that others can listen to it, and choose to like it or not? That led to buying a cheap USB mixing board. Which I quickly learned to not use for recording anything of quality. Then I stepped up to a proper digital recording interface with multiple channels. Then I had to learn how to record properly (still learning). Then I had to learn how to edit my recordings (still learning).
So my motivation is two fold.
1) I want to share my music. I want others to hear it and make their own opinions about it, the same as I do with other peoples music. I want to be able to give back to music what I take. So far I'm not quite at the give part. That is contingent on completion of point number 2 below.
2) I Enjoy learning. I find the most pleasure from figuring out how to do something extremely well, and then proving my abilities to others (some might call it bragging, but heck, if you make the effort to get good at something, why shouldn't you let others know about it?).
Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
My motivation is because I want to win a Grammy and maybe a People's Choice Award...and a Tony
G
Greg_L
Banned
Go for the E.G.O.T.!
B
Btyre2013
New member
working in a job that sucks is my main motivation to get somewhere with my music
Seafroggys
Well-known member
Who cares if you win one award anymore. You have to get all of them to be even worth anything
dverno
Average Member
I am one of the "I love to play live, but get more pleasure-per-calorie/minute from recording" crowd.
My studio is set up, and except for the inevitable experimentation I can leave it set up and go in to play-record-try new things whenever the impulse hits. I have equipment that, though I know how to use it in a functional sense, I have years of tinkering to do in order to understand it in it's entirety.
As a musician, I'm mediocre and realistically will not become much more (in this lifetime), but when I multitrack myself I find it satisfies some need I have to come across as a competent musician. I DO love to play with other musicians, and have done plenty of it, but I just get more out of the recording side. My best experiences are when I combine playing with other musicians AND recording.
My studio is set up, and except for the inevitable experimentation I can leave it set up and go in to play-record-try new things whenever the impulse hits. I have equipment that, though I know how to use it in a functional sense, I have years of tinkering to do in order to understand it in it's entirety.
As a musician, I'm mediocre and realistically will not become much more (in this lifetime), but when I multitrack myself I find it satisfies some need I have to come across as a competent musician. I DO love to play with other musicians, and have done plenty of it, but I just get more out of the recording side. My best experiences are when I combine playing with other musicians AND recording.
S
Super Hydro
New member
Its something that doesn't come natural and is 50 times more failure than success, but finishing a song or performing gives me something no other activity can.
Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
I also want to win Most Improved Odor
HRmusic90
21st Century Digital Boy
Yeah I've definitely been there... Still am there actually. In addition to making and recording music, the nerdier side of me likes to program (C is really the only language I know). I have some basic woodworking skills and I made my own shelf for my rackmount gear. And after completing it, it got my mind going of other things I could make... if only I had such and a tool... I wonder how much they are... Stop it. Stop it. I already don't have time for my current hobbies.
A phrase I heard a while back was "a jack of all trades but a master of none".
M
Mozart1220
New member
Hard for me to pick one since the first three apply equally. I love playing live because I get self justification. I'm like Sally Feild at the Oscars "You like ME You really LIKE Me!" And I also love the recording side because something is created that wasn't there a short time ago. I used to love to smell a new reel of tape. I'd hand it to my friend and say "You smell THAT? That's the smell of POTENTIAL".
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D
Daniel Y
New member
I got into recording because as a musician I wanted to get my ideas down, but enjoyed the creative challenges that come up with the recording/mixing process that I actually probably do more of the latter.
Lt. Bob
Spread the Daf!
Yancy ..... is that you?
B
Bop Stop Studio
New member
For me, it was my wife that got me hooked, so I can blame her for my GAS issues, hoarding issues, and general lack of balanced priorities!
She was leaving Berklee as a pianist and I was a frustrated guitarist but a full time scientist.
The need for some sample tracks and demo CDs started my interest, getting a couple of mics and a 8 channel firepod.
Fortunately mostly acoustic jazz so worked reasonably well and it got me into developing monitoring etc......
It got me into music gear again and I started to repair and deal guitars, started cheap and moved into one of a kind custom arch tops, I had over 150K in arch tops at one point. Not all profit, but I sold them all years later to buy acoustic piano ad invest in sound treatment which is a long road as u know.
I was also dealing and playing trumpet a lot then, made some cash on the side and continued to build sound treatment and gear.
11 years later, I am now still a scientist for the time being but going the a transition soon. I am now a drummer as primary instrument, from simply playing our studio kit regularly and falling in love with drumming again from watching and interacting with some excellent jazz drummers. I now play drums everyday with my wife and gig with my wife on occasion and enjoying that, although I was doing that on guitar I could never match her piano playing.
Now I have 24 channels of tracking, excellent but still work in progress acoustic treatment in 3 rooms, some nice instruments, some nice mics, and some nice pres all clean oriented such as millennia, benchmark, earthworks, ...
I am now a full blown HR addict.
Over time have done some projects with some excellent players and now just beginning to begin tracking again after about 4 years of down time just building.
I can say now that my motivations have shifted. I am of course still focused on tracking my wife and her projects, but I am more focused again on my playing (drums) as well. In terms of any commercial level I look forward mostly to meeting, hearing, tracking, playing with, and producing a great sounding CD with some great players. One of my first projects when I had gotten to a point of a couple of 16 channels of tracking was for just a application to Juilliard masters in jazz program for a drummer friend who's is Antonio Sanchez's protege, he bought by some young and talented players who were all full scholarship kids, so they were amongst the very best at Berklee. They sounded great and we did 10 tracks in 3 sessions. Each of those players was on the verge of becoming not famous, as this is jazz, but playing on major stages with some players. I can say several of them have played Newport Jazz fest that I have seen and I am sure some will go quite far in their careers.
Just an example but it is a big motivation for recording, as I have and will meet some great players on I hope some unique and exciting projects. Not money making, but secondly I hope to eventually run into players that we will play with for years to come.
my wifes website is (dot)sooheemoon(dot). if you want to see a jazzer just paying her gigging dues and (dot)bopstopstudios(dot) to see my budding home recording studio. (fill in the address stuff, I can write it out yet as a new user)
So in the end, it is great cause I can always point my finger back at my wife. As we speak no space to walk in the hallways do to the constant reorganization and acquisition of boxes. Next week, I have a guy coming to help me finally mount 8-10 sound clouds and 4 large diffusers combined with big bass traps in the rear wall ceiling corner with aircraft wire. That will clear some pieces out of the walking way.
All the best to u all and your music!
She was leaving Berklee as a pianist and I was a frustrated guitarist but a full time scientist.
The need for some sample tracks and demo CDs started my interest, getting a couple of mics and a 8 channel firepod.
Fortunately mostly acoustic jazz so worked reasonably well and it got me into developing monitoring etc......
It got me into music gear again and I started to repair and deal guitars, started cheap and moved into one of a kind custom arch tops, I had over 150K in arch tops at one point. Not all profit, but I sold them all years later to buy acoustic piano ad invest in sound treatment which is a long road as u know.
I was also dealing and playing trumpet a lot then, made some cash on the side and continued to build sound treatment and gear.
11 years later, I am now still a scientist for the time being but going the a transition soon. I am now a drummer as primary instrument, from simply playing our studio kit regularly and falling in love with drumming again from watching and interacting with some excellent jazz drummers. I now play drums everyday with my wife and gig with my wife on occasion and enjoying that, although I was doing that on guitar I could never match her piano playing.
Now I have 24 channels of tracking, excellent but still work in progress acoustic treatment in 3 rooms, some nice instruments, some nice mics, and some nice pres all clean oriented such as millennia, benchmark, earthworks, ...
I am now a full blown HR addict.
Over time have done some projects with some excellent players and now just beginning to begin tracking again after about 4 years of down time just building.
I can say now that my motivations have shifted. I am of course still focused on tracking my wife and her projects, but I am more focused again on my playing (drums) as well. In terms of any commercial level I look forward mostly to meeting, hearing, tracking, playing with, and producing a great sounding CD with some great players. One of my first projects when I had gotten to a point of a couple of 16 channels of tracking was for just a application to Juilliard masters in jazz program for a drummer friend who's is Antonio Sanchez's protege, he bought by some young and talented players who were all full scholarship kids, so they were amongst the very best at Berklee. They sounded great and we did 10 tracks in 3 sessions. Each of those players was on the verge of becoming not famous, as this is jazz, but playing on major stages with some players. I can say several of them have played Newport Jazz fest that I have seen and I am sure some will go quite far in their careers.
Just an example but it is a big motivation for recording, as I have and will meet some great players on I hope some unique and exciting projects. Not money making, but secondly I hope to eventually run into players that we will play with for years to come.
my wifes website is (dot)sooheemoon(dot). if you want to see a jazzer just paying her gigging dues and (dot)bopstopstudios(dot) to see my budding home recording studio. (fill in the address stuff, I can write it out yet as a new user)
So in the end, it is great cause I can always point my finger back at my wife. As we speak no space to walk in the hallways do to the constant reorganization and acquisition of boxes. Next week, I have a guy coming to help me finally mount 8-10 sound clouds and 4 large diffusers combined with big bass traps in the rear wall ceiling corner with aircraft wire. That will clear some pieces out of the walking way.
All the best to u all and your music!
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famous beagle
Well-known member
Thanks for the story Bop Stop. That's some impressive gear in your studio for sure!
B
Bop Stop Studio
New member
Hey Thank u for the comment.
It is getting close to what I was going for. I am still working on my engineering skills, despite doing it a while I do need to advance in terms of when the need arises for more sophisticate post processing and mastering is another area where experience is going to begin to be the limiting factor. I am getting close to having the gear and a make shift space that can achieve quality results. Lots to learn for sure. I can draw some very strong parallels between tracking and my main gig, as a neuroscientist. Outside of neurochem and neuro-imaging, I helped redesign and am an expert in electroencephelogram brain recordings. Basically, the similarity is that I am acquiring endogenous electrical signal from the scalp. instead of mice I am using electrodes, but from there out very very similar. The raw EEG electrical signal is small so run into 32-128 channel preamps and thru ADC and passed via fiberoptic to F-USB and into a windows system. From there out the digitized signals are post processed via similar concepts of DSP, filtering, compression, potentially notch filtering, HP and LP filtering, artifact removal, all this using the same mathematical tools to achieve these digital processes. From a huge wall of analog gear, this is all done now in a small box and some optic cables. The software is not so different than Cubase or Digital Performer, but obviously to exactly the same, but similarly understanding conceptually what is being done digitally is a key. Learning the nuances of Cubase and the various hardware routing will come over time, but I do hope to begin tracking frequently if possible soon. I haven't advertised yet even amongst friends an colleagues but in a few weeks hope to dig in with some players.
Next is upgrading interface, been saving for the right one to come along, right now between Mytek (pricey for 24 channels), Antelope Zion, Orion, Focusrite REDNEt 2 + 1, we will see. I also have mixing control surface envy, but all in time.
It is getting close to what I was going for. I am still working on my engineering skills, despite doing it a while I do need to advance in terms of when the need arises for more sophisticate post processing and mastering is another area where experience is going to begin to be the limiting factor. I am getting close to having the gear and a make shift space that can achieve quality results. Lots to learn for sure. I can draw some very strong parallels between tracking and my main gig, as a neuroscientist. Outside of neurochem and neuro-imaging, I helped redesign and am an expert in electroencephelogram brain recordings. Basically, the similarity is that I am acquiring endogenous electrical signal from the scalp. instead of mice I am using electrodes, but from there out very very similar. The raw EEG electrical signal is small so run into 32-128 channel preamps and thru ADC and passed via fiberoptic to F-USB and into a windows system. From there out the digitized signals are post processed via similar concepts of DSP, filtering, compression, potentially notch filtering, HP and LP filtering, artifact removal, all this using the same mathematical tools to achieve these digital processes. From a huge wall of analog gear, this is all done now in a small box and some optic cables. The software is not so different than Cubase or Digital Performer, but obviously to exactly the same, but similarly understanding conceptually what is being done digitally is a key. Learning the nuances of Cubase and the various hardware routing will come over time, but I do hope to begin tracking frequently if possible soon. I haven't advertised yet even amongst friends an colleagues but in a few weeks hope to dig in with some players.
Next is upgrading interface, been saving for the right one to come along, right now between Mytek (pricey for 24 channels), Antelope Zion, Orion, Focusrite REDNEt 2 + 1, we will see. I also have mixing control surface envy, but all in time.