How to get started? (Or, when to call it quits)

I've been a lurker here at HC for a long time, and the boards were a big help as a purached and set up a DAW and my home studio, which I have always dreamed about.

My problem now is, I rarely use the home studio---nearly two years after setting it up. I hear whole pieces of music in my head, and I can commit everything to paper, and I can hear things fine on paper. However, when I start recording and rendering to MIDI, it gets so involving and sounds so bad, I just sort of don't get anywhere.

I spent a lot of time learning how to use the programs and hardware, so that's not an issue. But, just for instance, getting a basic beat down. It doesn't quite sound as I want it to at first. I go to tweak it, I tweak it some more, I forget what I wanted it to sound like in the first place, I get really bored. Then, I realize that my simple beat is really a drum part that will vary considerably over the course of the song, and I imagine how long it will take me to program. Then, I say forget it, and I quit (20 minutes later). Happy to be away from the computer. BUT, very fustrated that the music in my head is not created.

About twenty years ago, I used to play guitar for a living, and I did arrangements and composing/songwriting, too. However, I worked with a live group of people, and I worked/wrote on paper. I never programmed drums, for instance, because I had a drummer who worked with me. I wrote bass parts really well, but I never needed to program them. I wrote for horns, and I played the clarinet, too. But, now the DAW horns I have, while "good quality", sound so uninspiring and blah, and I just can't use them.

With a wife and toddler and day job, I have limited time these days. It seems like for ever hour I spend coming up with music (fun), I need to spend 15 hours at the DAW programming and tweaking (not fun at all). I don't have a group of musicians anymore that I work with, and I'm disconnected from the music scene locally (no time).

For right now, all I really want are good quality renderings of my arrangements/songs to share with friends and circulate on the Internet. Also, it would help me feel "satisfied" artistically/musically, if you know what I mean.

Any advice? I feel like I've wasted a whole lot of money and that I'm just not cut out for the solo-recording-with-DAW thing. Then again, maybe I'm just going about things the wrong way.

I think you have to look at what is relatively easy to do on your DAW as well as what is relatively quite difficult.

A full, great sounding recording that sounds like a big, tight studio band, complete with bands and elaborate arrangements is a tall order for a newish recordist with his first DAW rig.

My old man used to watch me tackle a new project (not music, I didn't play as a kid) and he would often caution me to make my goals easier to realize, that it's best to work out the basics on basic stuff so that, when things don't go as well as we'd hoped, it's easier to get at what's not right.

It was a lesson I absorbed fitfully -- but my experience with recording over the last three decades has strongly reinforced that lesson.

I would scale back my ambitions until I had some really basic projects that I could get through, tinkering, fixing, and learning, until they were basically right. NOT perfect, mind you... perfect is for down the road. But acceptable-to-good... successful enough that you feel like, even if you didn't nail everything, you learned what you needed and you can drill in your practice as you proceed with the next, slightly more ambitious project.

I would also investigate tools to automate at least some of the production process.

For instance, I've been sequencing drum machines since the beginning of the 80s, and I got pretty good at doing it 'by hand.' But after scores, probably hundreds, of sequences, the romance is pretty much gone... it's a job that you would offload -- with no guilt -- to your drummer, if you had one. Knowing that I can and have programmed loads of sequences, I feel not the slightest twinge using whatever robot or whatever I want to come up with drum patterns quickly so that I can move on with life. Now, robots are, you know, robots, so I also tend to tinker my drum parts to a fair extent... but the crucial early stages -- the stages where momentum is almost everything -- that I hand over to the robot (often I use the homely and oft-misunderstood Band-in-a-Box to lay out a basic rhythm arrangement, since I can plug in the chord progression and quickly work out a scratch arrangement and, if I want, have it play bass and keyboards, too -- which can really speed things up. You can think of them as scratch/guide tracks if you want.)

We all work differently, of course, but in every case, there is some strategy that will work best for a given individual and circumstance.

As someone who's been recording for a long time, it definitely pains me to see someone in your position who went into this with the best of intentions, proceeded with ambition and discipline, but ended up frustrated.

As I suggested at the top, I recommend dialing back the scope of your projects until you are comfortably completing them as you go along.

Great advice from Blue. And...

Record the song bit first. Don't start tweaking drums. Grab a guitar or piano or whatever your choice of weapon, a mic for your voice, and track the tune to a shaker rhythm. This will/can be thrown away. But you need to get to the meat of the matter early on. The song. Not the hi hat pattern.

Once you go there first, everything else will serve the song. Maybe that initial "guide recording" is all you need. And maybe it will be re-done after you finalize your tweaks on the bagpipe arrangement. And the strings, and metals guitars... etc...

But if you cut to the chase right away, the process will be more intuitive, and ultimately more enjoyable.

Not to tag team with Lee but, yeah, I got a little focused up on the drums thing but, really, I think it's better to start even simpler. A good solo guitar recording. A good vocal and guitar. An acoustic project featuring overdubbed parts, etc. Build on what you've got working...

probably an echo of what blue and lee are saying, but here's my version

it sounds to me like you are trying to build a cart and you have no idea what a horse looks like.

if you are simply trying to write songs, just write them, record them simply, get to know them, enjoy that whole birthing process.

Just get the song down and fix it later!

The OP sounds very much like me. I get an idea for a song I want to do, but the execution of that idea is usually a lot of work, and not very much fun. It's exciting when I start to hear results, but up until that point, it's a lot of hours, and a lot of tedium, trying to do it all yourself. I haven't yet found a method of making it go any faster.

But Lee Knight's suggestion is a good one. Get to the heart of the song first. Typically, the way I work is that I put down the main accompanying instrument (usually piano) and a (very) rough drum track. Then I'll get the lead vocal down early on. So even if I don't get any further than that for a while, at least the main idea is captured. Then I'll build around it. That way, I can hear how the music works with the vocal, and make adjustments, rather than trying to fit a vocal on top of an already dense backing track. Even if your music doesn't have vocals, I'd say it's easier to start with the main element, and work from there, rather than trying to shoehorn it in.

Also, keep in mind that what you think sounds good in your head may not actually work when you hear it in reality. That seems to be where some of your frustration is coming from. Unless you're an musical genius (which you may very well be, for all I know), your mind can only perceive so much musically. Sometimes you may actually have to hear what you've done played back to know for sure whether it works or not. You may still have to chip away at some of the parts, in order to get everything to all fit together. At least that's been my experience. A lot of times, it just involves listening and making adjustments as you go, as well as a lot of patience.

I knew this board would be a good place to come.

I can kind of see it now. It's like, I used to do blueprints a lot. I know how to use a power saw (I read the manual closely). So, I set out to build a house on my own. I start by getting the kitchen cabinets just right, which is tough, craftman type work. Meanwhile, the kitchen itself leads to a big hole where a room should be, and there's no roof...

I think with the DAW, now that you point it out, I think I'm definitely being too ambitious. I guess it's like learning all the notes on a piano, and then sitting down to play Beethoven and getting frustrated. There's a lot of practicing and learning to do.

This is probably key for me right now: "...really basic projects that I could get through, tinkering, fixing, and learning, until they were basically right."

One of my other problems is probably...definitely...mixing up the writing and recording process. At this stage in my experience, it probably makes sense to keep the two seperate. I have plenty of music I've written that is simple, or I can simplify, to work on my recording skills. Even just solo guitar over a simple rhythm. I've never even bothered doing that. and it's a very logical starting point.

Thanks for the advice---everyone. Honestly, I'm starting to feel better about the whole thing.

I'm going to try to keep things simple (for now), enjoyable, and not force my energy.

There's a lot of truth to what you're saying. I do definitely get frustrated when it comes to mind-music vs. the reality of what I'm hearing.

It does make me remember though: On the plus side, the few DAW recordings I've managed to finish, I notice they sound better---just generally---when I play them in my living room and I'm just sitting around, versus when I was working on the song in my little studio. It's a frame of mind. In my living room, I'm not listening over-critically. I'm just relaxing and hearing the music.

That's a very good point, and it brings up something else that I think is very important: often, the breaks are just as important as the work. Doesn't necessarily make things go any faster; however, when you're sitting there for hours, it's very easy to lose perspective. Sometimes, the best approach is to step away from it and take a break for a while, even if it's just an hour of listening to your favorite CD, and letting it inspire you. Then you can get back to work with fresh ears.

I'm trying to decide between SONAR Home Studio 7 ($100 at GC) and Band-in-a-box (I'm on a tight budget).

I don't know how to choose. Is Band-in-a-box pro sound quality like SONAR?

Which is the best for a guitarist and singer who wants to be able to create songs with bass and drum parts?

What do you prefer?

thanks!

And.......don't expect to get what was in your head at first. Instead just record what comes out and work from there.

You may surprise yourself with something satsisfying if you just let it flow a little.

BIAB is designed more as accompaniment software, whereas Sonar is a recording/midi digital audio workstation. The line is somewhat blurred by the fact that you can record in BIAB, and Sonar has softsynths and midi capabilities (although it has focused more on the console DAW design for the last several releases). If you want to record what you're playing and don't need or want midi accomp., Sonar is a better choice although I don't know a lot about the 'home' version.

There is also a program called Reaper that is getting very good reviews. It's a DAW like Sonar, but it's basically free, or I think a $49 donation if you want, and suggested $200 if you make money with it. It's an active project with frequent updates.

Reaper isn't free, its $225 or $50 for non-commercial use. It's still a great alternative to the expensive bloated packages out there.

oops, you are correct, my bad. You are allowed a free evaluation period which is not time limited, but as posted on the reaper site ( www.reaper.fm ):

REAPER is provided with full functionality, and will not expire after any period of time. We trust that you, the user, will obey the license agreement and purchase a license if use continues.

I haven't actually tried it myself, but I keep meaning to. Really, for 50 beans you can't go wrong.

all I use is an old Roland 1880. I usually write the tune and then get the song down with me and my acoustic guitar. I do set a tempo map most of the time.

Then I add stuff bass and eletrics and see what I have, go back and redo voc if need be. If I think it's a keeper I set up my drums, mic up the kit and add them.

I do have a drum machine and know how to program it, but it's not fun to do.