Non Pro's: Do you prefer gearslutting to making music? (Pro's opine if you like)

[magnetic]

I am not a pro, but making music and acquiring the gear to make it sound good is what I seem to spend every free moment and penny in doing. I like my real job just fine, but nothing makes me pants-shi**ing-happy as getting a great sound.

My quest for a solid recording system has reached a plateau for now (at least one week). I finally have a chain that is of better quality than I could hope to test the limits of in a month of sundays. I have really loved the quest for gear. But I have found that now that I have it, it's time to get down to making music with it.

I kind of feel like a writer staring at a blank page. Except my blank page cost me thousands of dollars and hours of searching/reading/buying/selling/auctioneering/returning/testing/ab'ing/ etc.!

WTF?

I suppose I must discipline myself not to look for another expensive box that in my imagination will get me "that sound" I hear in my head. Instead it's time to just get down to business.

[Dave Martin]

It sounds like you're where you ought to be now with your gear - so go record something. That's when the real fun begins.

[zimv20]

ain't no fun if you don't use it

if you're feeling uncreative, invite some musician friends over and offer to record them. great way to get familiar w/ new gear in a low-stress atmosphere.

[eberrong]

I second the calaboration comment! I play in a cover band for fun and regularly have the guitarist over to write original music. He is great at coming up with a start for a song. I am better at adding to that idea til completion. It works very well for us.

Can I ask what gear brought you to your current plateau? I am still working to get there myself.

[alphajerk]

it SHOULD inspire you.... i know just putting a new set of guitar strings on the guitar makes me come up with riffs galore.

gearslutting isnt a good thing. you can make music with the lowest of the low end gear, its not the gear that makes music great. its the song and the performance.

[magnetic]

Well it didn't take long. plugged a bass into the GR-to-distressor and the hours flew by, a few solid song ideas started to take shape and here we go.


eberr: the primary pieces of gear that got me to a plateau are: PTHD2 + 192 i/o + GR Pre + Distressor w/ brit mod.

With this chain I can quickly get such great sounds out of all the instruments that I already have.

It's literally day and night compared to the stuff I was using previously. Art MP1, mindprint envoice etc.. Of course folks can make hit records with the art and mindprint, and it's not the tools it's the craftsman bla bla yada yada, but I didn't have the AE chops to make 'em sound good at all. I spent more time fighting the gear than playing.

Getting good sounds with the GR and the EL8x is like falling off a log.

I also must put in a word for the BFD drums. The software is a little rickety on my system, but hot damn the drums sound good. I mapped out the keys on my little Oxygen 8 to the BFD and was playing and tracking for a couple hours. Great stuff. A vast improvement over my previous setup of roland td-8 brain and frankenstein hart dynamics/v-drum electronic kit, which was good but nothing like the bfd sounds.

[Teacher]

Originally posted by alphajerk


gearslutting isnt a good thing.

Jules i think you should ban him for this or at least give him a warning

[bitrot]

I vascilate.

But I told myself a month ago that I was going to do the a/b test thing for 1-2 months to nail down my chain... and then get back to business. I'm done now and back in production. Tracking. As much and as fast as possible.

That said, I still find myself slutting. Recently, however, I've taken SaucyJacks' eno quote to heart "work fast and cheap, and get somewhere" (paraphrased).

After a/bing mics and pre's, going for that "perfect sound up front" thing for almost two months, I've had to step back and remember that fun can be had post-production with eq and compression, effects etc and I have to loosen up on spending 1 hour getting the perfect mic placement on my acoustic.

Just paying that quote some mind has gotten me back to the music.

So via Saucy, I'd like to thank Eno. It's my mantra these days. Track it as best you can, and then work it... but I'm done spending an hour on mic placement... unless it's a solo guitar peice.

I also find I can track more quickly these days because I know my gear so well. The time I spent a/bing exhaustively was well spent: I can almost guess which mic/pre combo (out of my limited selection) is going to do the best for a given sound... so the track fast advice should come with a caveat... if you know your gear.

So in the end, all that time gearslutting and comparing was time definately well spent. It's the hidden return on investment to the gearslut experience.

[dale116dot7]

I like both. Well, in order, here's what I like doing:

1. Mixing while fiddling around with the gear, trying to get a good sound out of something I already tracked.
2. Tracking a well-prepared artist or group.
3. Setting up to record drums.
4. Building new gear.
5. Trying out and shopping for new gear.
6. Tracking a not-so-well-prepared artist.
7. Doing the dishes.

Lately I've been trying to do more of 1 and 2 more than the rest.

[Saucyjack]

[RKrizman]

That's funny, I had the same thing happen to me when I put together my first 8-track analog studio years ago. A total block!

Recording other people definitely helped get things going. Just getting out there every day and messing with it yourself is good too. Now, 20 years and a writing and producing career later, I work it like a job. Forget about inspiration--just go to work and everything else will fall into place around you.

Stravinsky once said "Great ideas occur during the ACT of composing" (or something like that).

I don't know if that's where the "fun" starts, however. Barbecuing is fun, shooting hoops is fun, fooling around with preamps is fun. Putting it all together and creating something new and original is high adventure--thin oxygen, bruises, depression, exhiliration, darkness, fear, joy....

Have at it and good luck.

-R

[audiothings]

music is in my head even when i'm gearslutting
tho' must admit i've been lurking a bit too much over here... its a revealing, learning experience .
self.

[alphajerk]

Originally posted by Teacher
Jules i think you should ban him for this or at least give him a warning

im not saying buying gear is a bad thing. shit, how many times do you find something and go "SHIT! thats EXACTLY the tone i have been searching for?!?" and all of the sudden you have a brand new hammer ready to bang some tracks with.

but in all honesty, i would trade all my gear in for a mackie/adat combo with a clip of 57's [no outboard either] and be able to record some honestly GREAT music. the immaculate session.

[magnetic]

shit, how many times do you find something and go "SHIT! thats EXACTLY the tone i have been searching for?!?"

So far not yet. but soon...soon...

[Hans Hitmachine]

I find gear to be totally uninspiring. I'm at my creative best when I'm in a room with a crappy piano, a note book and a pen. Or in a pub digging the crowd.
Gear is so distracting.
I've come to the end of my gearslutting too. There are certain things that I need to buy in order to get the job done the way I want to, but as far as compressor/microphone addictions go, I'm just not interested anymore.
I'm not interested in throwing all of my money away for knobs and valves without a qualm, without thinking.
I used to have the same obsession with pirate lego when I was very little and with silk-suits last year and now gear. The silk suits was the only thing that made sense, because I really am the man wearing one of these.
But It has to stop somewhere and you don't need that many gear to make cool recordings.
I'm happy it's over, I hated the obsession and it didn't suit me.
Now it's back to things I used to do before and sometimes make cool recordings of what I come up with.
And learn about recording, making the room sound better etc.
Hell, I'm 19 and the sluttery lasted for a sorry 8 months!!
Those of you who are past their 40's and still dream of eq's at night, drool over Neumanns and call their wife Langevin by accident should meet a shrink right away.

o.k shoot me.

[solo-act]

NO

--E