[Lcjones]

Is three a crowd? Just an observation.

Musician, producer and engineer? Oh My!

I've got a lot to learn in song writing, melody crafting and recording. All of which I approach as best I can. But I wonder if working all three components is such a good mix. It's dog-gone hard enough trying to be creative with one brain, much less three. And doing them all at the same time as they each go in a different direction is, at the very least, a taxation on the mental powers. I mean it's good to know these things as a singer/song writer, but when quality is required.........

It's one thing to sit and record a cover tune. I'll sit and listen to the song and learn the individual parts to the best of my skills. I may not hit note for note, which is what I strive for, but sometimes it's just not possible. Even so, with a couple hours practice on the tune, I can put together a pretty good facsimile of the original. And thats just what it is. A facsimile. A reproduction. Now, don't take me the wrong. I think it's great to able to do covers. I really enjoy learning and playing them and the satisfaction is awesome.

The difficulty comes when trying to write an original tune where there is no "cover" to guide you. So writing the lyrics, creating the melody, polishing said lyrics and melody and then taking it to the next level of recording. The tune has to be looked at in a different perspective at this point. The song has to be "produced" in order to make it a great tune. The nuances. When to embellish. Timing. Adding a little egg shaker beat or a tambourine hit at just the right time. Should there be strings? How about sustain on that last note on the fourth measure? Is it too much? Is it not enough to make the song memorable. And then..... it has to be recorded. Here comes that engineers hat. Taking all these ideas and sounds and getting just the right tone, at the right moment is a heady task. Getting that impeccably clean sound is outrageously difficult.

Of course, good equipment is a large part of creating good sound but if the "ear" isn't there, good equipment doesn't mean squat. All the plugin's and VST's and compression and chorus and delays won't help one bit if the "engineers ear" doesn't know what to listen for. It takes years of experience to know!

So as I sit in my "open aire" studio, contemplating one of my songs, I think, you know, it's ok to do the "three-brain" show at home, but when it comes time to "record" that project CD, I'm paying someone to do it. I'm just going to go in and sing my little Kentucky heart out and let someone else worry about which knob to turn!

**

[Rockerbob]

All you have to remember is the musician is a prima dona, the producer: a control freak, and the engineer: a wanna be.

I find that recording covers help with originals. I see what the "pros" do with a tune and I steal the bits I like.

When producing a recording, I frequently record many more parts/tracks than I will eventually use. Then I chisel away at it until I like it.

In the past few years I discovered I had a great talent to help me make better music. My good friend, Carl Walker. For years I had written and recorded alone. A few years back, Carl and I started collaborating and my music has never been better. We share all the duties in the studio, although I am mostly the wannabe and control freak.

[Tekker]

Personally, I really enjoy all three, playing , producing , and engineering ....

Ever since I started recording I have been bit hard by the recording bug and anymore my money goes into better recording gear. I find recording just as much fun as playing, but I think it takes a certain personality for that. I'm a tweakaholic so I can spend hours and hours tweaking various parts in a mix trying to get them to perfection (or as close as the recorded tracks will allow).


Something you can always do to is record the tracks at home and then send them out for mixing/mastering. The convenience of being able to hit the record button when the mood and inspiration strikes and do as many takes as you need without having to watch the clock is a huge benifite to recording at home.

-tkr

[brandondrury]

I will say that as a wanna be producer / engineer that it is very tough to engineern and produce (at least for me). Using both the right side of the brain and the left is a hard switch. I find that I'm not nearly creative enough when I'm engineering. I get too focused on what 400Hz is doing to notice other things.

I think 3 is a healthy number. If you are not comfortable, than the producer is not doing his job. You need to let him/her you are not comfortable and then you can discuss ways of fixing it.

Brandon

[gollo]

I find that sometimes it is best when a song has been recorded (roughly), it is best to leave it alone for a couple of weeks. At the time of recording you begin obsessing about something that just doesn't sound right and the more you mess about with it, either you create another problem or just make the original one worse.

If you leave it for a while, when you come back to it, you will be listening with "fresh ears" and will probably have a completely different opinion of the song.

[brandondrury]

To expand on that concept, there is an instinct that a great producer must develop that allows him/her to to know when a fresh perspective is needed or not.

William Wittman (multiplatinum producer) was explaining that sometimes you should just go with your gut and not have a fresh perspective. Sometimes you should just go with it. He seamed to imply that if you have to check your work 2 weeks later, that you may be undoing all the genius you had in the moment.

Then again, as you said, sometimes you just waste time without perspective.

Brandon

[gollo]

Of course you are right brandondrury,

guess that's why I can spend months on song and never finish it