Third Take

It’s late at night, and I’m messing around on the guitar before I go to bed. I’m tired, and work is going to come all too quickly tomorrow morning. Just as I’m telling myself it’s time to call it a night, I play something that makes me stop and sit up – some fragment of an unwritten song, a riff, a melody, or some other hook. It’s what artists call inspiration – that magical moment of creativity that could lead to a finished work.

The unfortunate reality of our times is that the world does not stop when we get an artistic idea. I still have to go to work in the morning, and the sooner I get to bed the better tomorrow will fare. Yet the promise of a new song hangs in the air, and I know from experience that it will be forgotten if I leave it now. But I have a “recording studio” right there in the room with me. Is it ready to go? Read more

What’s the one piece of gear every studio has? A lava lamp.

In my modest home studio, I’m usually recording myself, my band, or my friends. We all know we’re recording in a converted bedroom, and there are no expectations for it to look or feel like a “professional” studio. However, that doesn’t stop me from trying to make the studio as comfortable as possible. Recording is fun, but it is also stressful, and marathon days can be grueling. A few comforts can make a big difference in fatigue, attitude, and end result. Read more

I wasted way too much time in the last session trying to record a short snippet of guitar and make it into a loop to stretch out for several measures. In the end, I just sat down and played it like a pro – start to finish. Read more

I did something last night I never thought I’d do – I copied the lead vocal from the first chorus to the second chorus. In some genres, this is the normal, expected practice and a mandatory skill for the engineer. Other circles put emphasis on vague notions of authenticity and integrity, and duplicating a performance is seen as fakery. I usually relate to this more idealistic school of thought, but last night I broke my own rules. Read more

Don’t let it stop you – a great post over at the IG Blog about playing guitar that easily applies to all music makers. How much time has been wasted in front of the TV or on the net because we were too lazy to practice our craft? What would our music be like today if we had practiced instead?

A few weeks ago, I sat down to track a guitar part for a song my band is recording. It just wasn’t working – I spent a couple hours tweaking guitar sounds, switching microphones, and changing mic positions, but nothing was making the part fit with the tracks we’d already recorded. Then I realized the problem wasn’t my gear or engineering skills – it was the way I was playing the guitar. Read more

I added a new category to this blog, called Philosophy, because I want to start writing about the philosophical aspects of home recording. I think most of us who have little “home studios” got started because we wanted to record ourselves or our bands. Many of us are singer/songwriters, or have a desire to record our own original compositions. I think there are ideas worth exploring that go beyond gear reviews, how-to articles, and links to free plugins.

One of those ideas that has been on my mind lately involves what is known on the internet as G.A.S. – Gear Acquisition Syndrome. It is the driving need to acquire another piece of gear that will make your recordings better, and I think it is detrimental to recording music. Read more