Artist vs. Engineer

[dahkter]

What up fam.

Wondering how people deal with the following scenario:

Basically, we all have responsibilities to our family/work/school/etc.
Outside of that, you get to put in some time on music.
Now, we all realize the quest is the reward, you're always learning, you can always improve your chops. However if you spend too much time on this, you can go years without completing a project.
Another fact is that nowadays, most people have their own home studios, and most of us are the artist (or producer/beatmaker/etc) and the engineer. So you can be in the middle of making a beat, then get sidetracked installing plug-ins, defragging the computer, fixing a cable, etc. Add on marketing/promotions/legal/etc, and finishing projects can be a difficult thing to accomplish.

How do people on here stay focused and productive?
Any tips/thoughts/feedback appreciated.

 

[NobleWordz]

Why are you installing plug ins while you are producing?

You have to prepare for your session before you start. Just because you're in a home studio doesn't mean you cant be professional.

"For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned."- Benjamin Franklin

~NW~

 

[MOZART]

yeah that shit is difficult to deal with. in a home studio you have to split your time in half, try to focus on the beat at hand and when your finished with that aspect just get the track mixeddown and worry about getting it to sound good to your ear and you basically have a beat thats ready to be mastered\ vocals..etc just try to take it one track at a time and stay focused on getting the job done..

 

[thedreampolice]

I am an engineer/Media producer by trade and find I have to find time to make beats lol. Learning to be a good engineer takes years and is a full time job. When you are working on music focus on that dont worry about anything else. If you are the engineer focus on the client.

 

[dahkter]

Why are you installing plug ins while you are producing?

You have to prepare for your session before you start. Just because you're in a home studio doesn't mean you cant be professional.

"For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned."- Benjamin Franklin

~NW~

Nice Ben Franklin quote, agreed.

As far as installing plug ins, don't tell me you never got caught in the same thing. These manuals are 200-500 pages long for each piece of hardware, plus there's always updates/fixes, new plugins/vstis people send you and tell you to check out. Agreed that preparation and focus is the key, it just gets difficult sometimes. One wrong step and you're out an hour...

 

[NobleWordz]

Nice Ben Franklin quote, agreed.

As far as installing plug ins, don't tell me you never got caught in the same thing. These manuals are 200-500 pages long for each piece of hardware, plus there's always updates/fixes, new plugins/vstis people send you and tell you to check out. Agreed that preparation and focus is the key, it just gets difficult sometimes. One wrong step and you're out an hour...

Oh yeah I get cough out on a regular basis, but as long as you learn from it then you haven't really lost out.

~NW~

 

[StressWon]

How do people on here stay focused and productive?
Any tips/thoughts/feedback appreciated.

it's tideous no doubt. I think you need to divide your time on what you want to accomplish. Sometimes I spend certain days doing different things. One day recording, the next mixing, the next sequencing beats. If you try too much in one session it will sound like shit. This is what keeps me from completeing alot of my own work. I have many projects for other people plus my own. It's all a matter of planning ypur day and focusing on one thing at a time. (Plus alot of weed)

 

[Relic]

Well being that its a home studio , its alot easier for me becasue travel time is nill and I work whenever the mood strikes me.I only work with a small crowd of folks who's schedules are more hectic then mine so scheduling hasnt been a problem as of yet...
Working on the marketing production engineering beatmaking learnin about the net and movin music on it, has deeply effected my ability to get out in to the real world and push the stuff out there..
Hell I think someone else honestly ought to be doin that part if Im doin all the other shit but se la vi.But yeah you end up sacrificing time one way or another..
I wouldnt have it any other way tho..If I had a huge studio, Id just move a bed in it..

Good point Stress, I just take like a day like iono, today, to defrag, gives me PS2 time or w/e.

 

[open mind]

How do people on here stay focused and productive?
Any tips/thoughts/feedback appreciated.

u gotta love it.enuff said.

 

[dahkter]

u gotta love it.enuff said.

note to self, spend less time on the internet LOL

 

[open mind]

note to self, spend less time on the internet LOL

oh really? well, i respond via PM to keep this threat clean and to respect rules.here we go hehe!

 

[dahkter]

oh really? well, i respond via PM to keep this threat clean and to respect rules.here we go hehe!

Yeah bro,
It's all good, I'm just saying I get your point, I see the irony in a thread about engineering vs. writing music that spending too much time talking and surfing the web is an equal (or greater) danger to trying out fifty different plug ins when you should be making music...

Too much thinking, writing, reading, talking, not enough action, it's related to this topic (and I am definitely guilty of that from time to time)

 

[Fury]

in a session i set up my aux track and have the tracks bussed out to the auxes so the plug ins take effects while recording it makes the recording sound better and its alot faster to have a mix at the end of a session so ur happy cuz u dont gotta take more time for bs and the artist is happy cuz he dont gotta wait and keep having to pause what hes doin ..time is money so dont waste time

 

[Ash Holmz]

fuc plugins ... who needs em ... i dont even use them shits at all... I have a basic "instant master chain" that i throw on beats i shop around just to give them volume... alot of people here praise my mixing skillz but im not using any plugs whatsoever except for a buss compressor/limiter 99% of the time. As for projects.. just get them shits sounding right using minimall plugs ... then when u are finished with the ENTIRE project go back and mix or pay someone else to it ... dont try to "finish" every song before u go to the next .. u wont get things done that way.

that being said u gotta do one thing at atime ... first pick beats and stick to them. the problem is that as a beatmaker u keep cranking out beats and u wants to replace old trax wiht new beats that u just made. Our smash brothers project had that problem too. It never gets done cuz u keep replacing trax. I learned my lesson tho.FUC that. GEt a solid amount of tracks and stick to those trax. Save the heat ur making now for the next album. Once u got ur beats then record them shits. dont worry about mixing them. just get ur takes in. Then after that mix them down either urself or pay someone. then promote it or pay someone for that too lol. The point is u cant wear all the hats at once or else nothing is gonna happen at all. Do each thing step by step . If ur recording dont worry about promoting/mixing etc. cuz ur not upto that point yet.

hope that helped... i completely relate to your situation tho i know that feelin

 

[Icemanbeats]

jus dont get tempted/distracted too much by other stuff, put the work in, dont fuck around too much and u will b focused

 

[Ominous]

This is a great post.

Very good question. I thought this was a thread about having an issue with your engineer. Which I am sure we all have stories about. I was ready to light that topic up.

Crossing the finish line keeps me focused.

All of the people who were with me in the beginning have dropped off the project because of creative differences. So now I am doing everything by myself. So bascially I have to have the CD cover artwork done, the website and myspace page redone as well as all the other business issues that come with releasing something independently. You do get side tracked but the anxiousness of getting it done just makes everything fall in place.

I think ASH hit the nail on the though.

Now if you guys can come up with a way to making it harder to surf for porn, I can crank out an album a week. It is just too easy. Searching for snares and kicks, 2 seconds later, searching for boobies.

 

[Fury]

fuc plugins ... who needs em ... i dont even use them shits at all... I have a basic "instant master chain" that i throw on beats i shop around just to give them volume... alot of people here praise my mixing skillz but im not using any plugs whatsoever except for a buss compressor/limiter 99% of the time. As for projects.. just get them shits sounding right using minimall plugs ... then when u are finished with the ENTIRE project go back and mix or pay someone else to it ... dont try to "finish" every song before u go to the next .. u wont get things done that way.

that being said u gotta do one thing at atime ... first pick beats and stick to them. the problem is that as a beatmaker u keep cranking out beats and u wants to replace old trax wiht new beats that u just made. Our smash brothers project had that problem too. It never gets done cuz u keep replacing trax. I learned my lesson tho.FUC that. GEt a solid amount of tracks and stick to those trax. Save the heat ur making now for the next album. Once u got ur beats then record them shits. dont worry about mixing them. just get ur takes in. Then after that mix them down either urself or pay someone. then promote it or pay someone for that too lol. The point is u cant wear all the hats at once or else nothing is gonna happen at all. Do each thing step by step . If ur recording dont worry about promoting/mixing etc. cuz ur not upto that point yet.

hope that helped... i completely relate to your situation tho i know that feelin

ur talking from a producer standpoint with ur beats but Reverb on vocals sounds dope u can say u dont use plug ins but the fact is reverb on a good mic nice and crisp sounds better than no reverb at all..number one its creates more of a stereo sound in the mix which means more presence in the mix

 

[Ash Holmz]

im talking about the beats not the rhymes ....i DO use plugs on vocals and instuments too but I was just stating that u dont need plugs to make a beat or record a track... u wanna concentrate on one thing at a time. I would rather record 2 tracks in one session than record one and mix it in the same session. In the long run it will save time to do all the recording at once and all the mixing later. I wasnt saying dont use plugins I was saying that u dont NEED them at that stage in the project. If u are having trouble finding time to do evrything it is because you are trying to do evrything lol

 

[Relic]

in a session i set up my aux track and have the tracks bussed out to the auxes so the plug ins take effects while recording it makes the recording sound better and its alot faster to have a mix at the end of a session so ur happy cuz u dont gotta take more time for bs and the artist is happy cuz he dont gotta wait and keep having to pause what hes doin ..time is money so dont waste time

thats not a good idea recording with fx on...lol
its faster tho agreed...

 

[thedreampolice]

"thats not a good idea recording with fx on"

I disagree, engineering is all about making decisions the faster decisions you can make the better. Commit to something. These days its to easy to leave all your effects in the virtual world, keep all your takes and even change your instrument sounds last minute. For god sake commit to something. If you like the compression print it and move on! I used to edit on tape and thats how you had to work, sometimes I miss those days.