90+ recordings and I'm not happy with them

[BluesKing777]

Probably time for a new challenge and I have one for you..easy peasy and you will probably have another track ready to go sooner than you think.

Sing!

All humans can sing - it is something genetic. That doesn't mean everyone wants to hear everyone else, some sing brilliantly and others....well.... But the point is, everyone can sing. Just do it.

You have a massive advantage over the average person in the street - you play guitar! So start simply by adding some singing to a simple strumming tune....there are millions of chord/lyric things on Chordie.com. Over the next unspecified time period, start adding bits of fingerpicking...use that rag background to come up with something 'extra' and your own thing that is 'organic'. Do less of everything and vocal plus guitar equals= humanity! FEEL!

I uploaded 2 tracks this week - both had 'red light fever' starts and mistakes and missed bits and are in no way perfect, but they have...'feel'....

https://soundcloud.com/bk7-3/cantdothat777b

and I just tried a ballad with some gadgets:

https://soundcloud.com/bk7-3/coolchange-lwd-td77


BluesKing777.

[Caddy]

Originally Posted by N+1

But at the end of all this, the recordings remain just downright poor. A LOT of the fun disappeared at times, and the whole thing nearly ruined the fun of playing my beautiful guitars, to be honest. So I gave myself a talking-to, as follows:
1. Did I ever want to be a recording engineer? No.
2. Do I love playing the guitar and writing songs? Yes.
3. Would it be worth having at least some sort of recording, even a dodgy one, of each song I write, that would at least preserve the song? Yes.

So that's where I've reached. I've abandoned the quest for a studio-quality recording and have accepted that I'll have to be satisfied with a homespun recorded-in-the-kitchen quality instead. Most importantly, I've decided to accept that my main love is for playing, not for recording.

Exactly where I am. Mainly just wanting some recording of the songs I have written for the benefit of my friends, family, etc.

Hi guys,

thanks again for all the input. I took down 30+ songs from my soundcloud account yesterday. I feel better about what is up there now. The tunes are not perfect but not totally embarrassing either. I plan on eventually re-recording some of the removed tunes at some point since I feel I'm playing them much better now than when I originally recorded them. Following advice I'll be letting new tunes steep for a good long while before attempting to record them.

Re singing: I have recorded some vocal pieces in the past and posted them but I'm not crazy about my overall performance while singing. I can sing in tune thankfully but I don't have a strong voice anymore. It is something I can work on though since I know people prefer to hear singing.

Re getting my groove back: I spent 3 hours with the J-45 last night playing through some repertoire and working on my latest tune. Outside of a couple of "how does this go?" moments I enjoyed myself. In fact I worked through some trouble areas successfully which is always a bit of a boost.

I'm feeling better in general due to all of the kindness and support. Thank you.

[BJ9RW]

You are not alone, Doug. Recording is a different kind of playing field. Every wart is recorded for posterity, and you yourself more than anyone else can hear every single one of those warts. And that makes the process of recording excruciating, because once you pluck a wart, you want to stop and start over.

I just went through this yesterday, when I recorded two new videos. I started each song dozens of times but I only got two complete takes of each. Very frustrating. When I edited them, every flaw -- in the playing, singing, video image, sound recording -- made me wince and want to throw the whole thing away.

But in the end, I think they're OK, even though my singing is totally pitchy on one song, the ending is sketchy on the other song, and I think I look weird without my beard. And I haven't even played what I really wanted to play in the sense that every time I struggled to make through a particular passage I simplified it a bit, throwing away moves that I really wanted to play.

The problem is that we are trying to record single-take, single-track "live" performances. The one song I recorded with someone using a pro tracking system who knew what they were doing, the whole process was so much simpler and the end result so wart-free. I recorded two complete takes, warts and all, and then we went through and corrected the mistakes one by one, dropping in the corrections in place of the mistakes.

Anyway, that's my take on the matter, we'll never get a clean recording just doing single live takes.

As for you personally, I've heard you play in person and I listen to your recordings. You are an excellent guitarist, obviously I love your choice of material since it overlaps mine so much, and I personally don't see much difference in your live playing vs. recording, at least not in the end result -- either way, as I said, the playing is excellent.

Yes, I can hear some of the warts, but they're OK. I get used to my own flubs after a while. I will say, that I do if necessary go in and correct some. My recording of Big River Blues and Blue Railroad Train, after umpteen takes to get through a mash-up of three songs that lasts nearly ten minutes, I finally got a very good take with no fatal errors, until The. Very. Last. Note. It was a single harmonic E on the 12th fret, and I totally missed it. Thunk!

Well, no freaking way was I going to throw away that good of a take over one note. So I spliced in just that one split second from another take. You can't tell that I did it, it's totally clean. Mind you, there are a couple of big errors in that take -- twice I flubbed that start of the turnarounds in Blue Railroad Train. But like Jorma says, you just keep going. You can hear the flubs, I left them in, there was no way to fix them seamlessly without the pro rig, but it doesn't kill the take. That harmonic, though, had to be fixed.

Moral of the story -- it eases the painfulness of the recording process if you know when make an error that you can correct it in the editing, should you choose to do so. I hate doing it, I've only done it a handful of times, I really want to get single complete live takes start to finish, but sometimes, it's the best option.

Personally, selfishly, I want you to keep recording, because otherwise I would not be able to hear you play and keep up with what you're learning except every other year or so at the Ranch, should we schedule workshops at the same time again. So please, keep it up. We're not just being polite, we like it!

Dubi

[DesertTwang]

OK, so I've checked out a few of the OPs recordings, and all I can say is this: I wish I could play like that, so I'm going to chalk the issue to a case of perfectionism that is getting in the way of enjoying the music.

I can say this outright and honestly, because I'm a recovering perfectionist myself.

My suggestion to the OP: Forget trying to make "the perfect recording" for a while. Instead, go out and try this: Share your amazing skills and musicality with people. Go play a solo gig somewhere and see if people come walking up to you and say, "Hey, man, that was nice, but not quite perfect. Please don't play here ever again," or if they come up and say, "ooh, that was sweet, do you have a CD?"

I think you know the answer to which scenario is more likely.

In the interest of honest feedback, I will say this, too: Perhaps the issue might also be that you record some tunes before they're ready for prime time? For example, I just listened to "April Kisses," which sounded to me like you don't have it down just yet. As a result it lacks flow and groove.

"Ragged and Dirty," on the other hand, is the opposite: It's got great flow and makes me want to groove along with it.

[BoneDigger]

I can certainly understand your concerns. I am nowhere near where I want to be in recording. But, to me, there is much joy in seeing progress. When I listen to my most recent recordings then go back and listen to one from a year or two ago, the difference in quality is staggering. I don't doubt that in another year or two I'll be better than I am now.

So, although having a good recording does make me feel good, knowing that I'm still learning how to record and make it sound good eases some of my pain when I make mistakes or sing off key, or the mixing/production is off.

In other words, enjoy the journey, not just the destination.

[Imbler]

Some people are more self conscious than others. I'm in your camp. I can play a song well, and then stumble through a recording. It is as if I have an audience (which also makes me stumble). I actually get an increased heartrate from adrenaline.

What I've started doing is "overlearning" I don't record when I can play a song, I wait till I can play it at a much faster than performance tempo, it is totally memorized, and I am at a zero tolerance level for mistakes when I practice.

I'm working on classical gas right now, and can play it in practice just fine. I probably need at least of couple more months of overlearning to compensate me for the distraction of recording.

Now this doesn't totally fix it for my recording, but it greatly improves it. And I think my technique is increasing because of the overlearning practice.

I'm not a high level guitarist, as I started after retirement, but I still want to make a decent recording some day, darn it!

Mike

Originally Posted by J-Doug

You've hit the nail right on the head.



It's my performances.



What gets me down is my performance while recording. I make mistakes, get lost, flub fingerings and my timing goes completely awry. When I record I'm totally stressed out and my performance greatly suffers. You'd figure this wouldn't be the case after 90 recordings but it still is.

[BJ9RW]

Originally Posted by J-Doug

I'll be letting new tunes steep for a good long while before attempting to record them.

This could be a huge difference maker. The more you play (rehearse) the easier it will be to get it down pat in front of a microphone. To take an example that we've both tried -- we each recorded April Kisses shortly after learning it from Woody. I definitely recorded it too soon -- I play it so much better now, after that many more iterations, so my video tape seems clunkier now than it did when I recorded it. I suspect you have improved it as well since you recorded it.

There is such great temptation to record a new tune right away, during the honeymoon period with the new song. There is also the danger of waiting too long and losing interest in the song -- you haven't recorded it but you stop playing and practicing it, or just grow stale with it, or have fallen in love with another new song. We have to find the perfect time when we've perfected it as best we can and haven't started to let it slip away.

You know this well, as you have your system of going through your list to keep each song fresh. But your list has got to be way too long now to get through the whole thing in one sitting, and still have time to learn new songs, which you seem to do at a prolific rate.

Dubi

[PorkPieGuy]

I primarily play drums, but the only recording I've ever been somewhat happy with is whenever someone else was in charge of the recording process. When my hands are off of it, the recording sounds better to me.

It may be something like food tastes best if you don't cook it yourself.

Originally Posted by BJ9RW

But your list has got to be way too long now to get through the whole thing in one sitting, and still have time to learn new songs, which you seem to do at a prolific rate.

Hi Dubi,

I find it takes minimum 5 hours to make it through all 90 songs in my repertoire which is just too much so I've split it into 2 parts. I'm considering splitting the repertoire into 3 parts though to make it even more manageable. For my practice schedule I play my repertoire from memory 3 nights a week and then work on new material afterwards. This usually takes 3-4 hours. On the other nights I just work on new material. This usually takes 1-2 hours. In total I practice 6 nights a week with Saturdays off. Seeing this schedule in writing really makes me doubt my sanity. And yes I am a happily married man with 2 kids, a house with a yard and a full time job. I just don't watch TV anymore.

[Br1ck]

I've recorded many ways. My last band did a recording that is a sonic masterpiece. I can't listen to it. All the feeling was sanitized out of it. Our guitarist who had control, his studio, his thousand dollar mics and three thousand dollar pre amps, just wanted to edit any little bit of humanness out of the recording. I mean it is lush, quadruple tracked each part of four and five part harmonies. Sonic wonder, zero soul.

Most recently, I hooked up with a mandolin player with really nice studio gear. We have played stuff together at an open mic, but most of my songs he had never heard. He set up some mics, I handed him a chord chart, we played it through, recording it. The second take was the keeper most of the time.

Now you can imagine there are some interesting vocal phrasings, he took solos on the fly prompted by my glance. The tunes have a looseness of feel and a sparseness out of necessity. The instruments' tone is revealed in all their glory. I couldn't have been happier. Yes, a standup bass and a fiddle could have been nice.

It has taken me a lifetime to come to terms with my voice, but I can sing in key, and as they say, sell the song. And it's taken me a lifetime to learn not to fight who you really are musically. I can do what I need to on guitar, have an instrument that fits me to a tee, and overcome the fear of revealing who I am.

Now if I weren't so old.......