Gearslutz.com - View Single Post - Anyone here ever made a whole album alone?

faramita · 22nd October 2008

I do experimental electro-acoustic music. Done about 15 releases completely myself, few collaborations with others. In my geographical area (rural Ireland) it is not easy to find like-minded musicians with adequate skills. I happen to play a number of instruments. It's a long process sometimes, on the other hand, less organizing and explaining, and I can work whenever I like, 24 or 48 hours if i feel like it. Not so easy with bands, at least in my experience. Sometimes it helps to leave a project, song or a track for a few days and come to it fresh to minimize endless nit picking of details which you might not even hear a week later. Also a like minded friend with more experience is invaluable in the beginning - someone to advise on your mixes, it's very hard to be objective in the beginning. Learn to erase tracks you are not happy with straight away, I used to have five or more takes of the same thing, but you have to listen to them all next day again!
It's fun to learn to play new instruments (I do not use samples as they generally sound sh*t to my ears) and surprisingly easy to sound quite good these days. Most music (apart from classical and some good jazz) is not terribly technically difficult. You do not need to be of a concert standard on everything because you can spend a few days to learn say a trumpet part and make it sound good, though you might not be able to play 2 hour gig. I assure you it will sound a lot better than any trumpet sample on a keyboard. I cannot understand idiots spending money on things like tambourine samples, where it is much easier and cheaper to get a tambourine and play it. After a few tracks you get quite good at it and it's much more fun than fiddling with samples.
Doing things yourself let's you experiment as much as you like. On some Buddy Holly recordings drummer used cardboard boxes for drums with a bunch of keys on a "snare" box - it sounded better than his kit.
Disadvantage is that I do not think it is possible to get as tight a band sound as say early Stones or Beatles for example, but they only got like that by playing lots and lots of gigs early in their careers. Which is pretty well impossible these days anyway. (To prevent arguments about this, Beatles played up to 11 hours a day in Hamburg and lived in one windowless room. Try to suggest this to any band as a career move!)
Good luck and have fun and confidence!

22nd October 2008	#41
faramita Lives for gear Joined: Nov 2007 Posts: 2,578	I do experimental electro-acoustic music. Done about 15 releases completely myself, few collaborations with others. In my geographical area (rural Ireland) it is not easy to find like-minded musicians with adequate skills. I happen to play a number of instruments. It's a long process sometimes, on the other hand, less organizing and explaining, and I can work whenever I like, 24 or 48 hours if i feel like it. Not so easy with bands, at least in my experience. Sometimes it helps to leave a project, song or a track for a few days and come to it fresh to minimize endless nit picking of details which you might not even hear a week later. Also a like minded friend with more experience is invaluable in the beginning - someone to advise on your mixes, it's very hard to be objective in the beginning. Learn to erase tracks you are not happy with straight away, I used to have five or more takes of the same thing, but you have to listen to them all next day again! It's fun to learn to play new instruments (I do not use samples as they generally sound sh*t to my ears) and surprisingly easy to sound quite good these days. Most music (apart from classical and some good jazz) is not terribly technically difficult. You do not need to be of a concert standard on everything because you can spend a few days to learn say a trumpet part and make it sound good, though you might not be able to play 2 hour gig. I assure you it will sound a lot better than any trumpet sample on a keyboard. I cannot understand idiots spending money on things like tambourine samples, where it is much easier and cheaper to get a tambourine and play it. After a few tracks you get quite good at it and it's much more fun than fiddling with samples. Doing things yourself let's you experiment as much as you like. On some Buddy Holly recordings drummer used cardboard boxes for drums with a bunch of keys on a "snare" box - it sounded better than his kit. Disadvantage is that I do not think it is possible to get as tight a band sound as say early Stones or Beatles for example, but they only got like that by playing lots and lots of gigs early in their careers. Which is pretty well impossible these days anyway. (To prevent arguments about this, Beatles played up to 11 hours a day in Hamburg and lived in one windowless room. Try to suggest this to any band as a career move!) Good luck and have fun and confidence!