I am a musician / songwriter - I play bass & guitar and engineer my own music using Logic Pro X and a Presonus StudioLive 16.4.2 (amongst other gear) with my band. I have worked on 6 albums over the last 7 years - 2 demo experiences in "professional" studios where I payed to record, a live bootleg, a live album recorded with my gear as well as two studio albums one of which I am still working on.
In my mind the only distinction between what I am doing with my own gear as an amateur and what I payed to have done at a professional studio is that I am not getting payed to record when I am using my own gear. I am forever glad of my experience that I gained recording at a studio - but am more happy with what I have produced on my own. The freedom of not having to book time to record, and not having the red light bearing down on performance is well worth the investment of both time and money.
Going forward with this article it is important that the term amateur is explained - an amateur is someone who works in pursuit of something without being paid and are often self-taught (autodidacts). As for how this determines the quality of the product of this work - it is no different than a professional. There are plenty of professionals across all fields who have performed miserably just as there are many amateurs who have done great work and vice versa. The only distinction between professional and amateur is money.
Recently I have been waiting for the release of Deus Ex Revision - a fan made remix/remaster of my favourite game of all time. Let me tell you - it has been an exercise in patience for me. But I have the benefit of understanding the balance of life commitments and creating art on an amateur level. I realize most people tend to try and distinguish the difference as real life against the project. I refuse differentiating my commitments in life as such - as I feel that to say my "real" life (work, survival, etc.) is more important is doing a disservice to the importance I place with my art.
I feel it is important to approach everything I do in life with respect and diligence - whether I am seeing money or not from the work I am doing.
So it kind of bugs me when I see people feel the need to balance missed targets with the excuse that real life came up. Other life commitments do come up - and when working on anything as an amateur those commitments will often take precedent. But the distinction to note here is that the other commitments are not more important - they are just more pressing at the time they came up. It is my experience that most artists understand this - but are often at the mercy of people who do not make art and do not understand the level of commitment. This is a generalization for sure - but as I said in my experience I have found this to be mostly true.
I am lucky in the pursuit of my own amateur art that I do not have a fan-base watching over my shoulder and poking me to get something done. So I don't have to explain "real" life to anybody waiting on me. But I don't think it is necessary for any project whether professional or amateur in nature to ever feel the need to explain the minutia of progress delays to impatient fans (myself included).
I am very excited for the release of DX Revision and wish the team all the best in getting it done - but I completely understand the pressure of having people impatiently waiting and questioning their progress. If anybody gets anything out of this long winded essay - I hope its that they understand the importance of learning patience.
Man, I wrote what I thought was a really nice reply and my browser crashed & I lost everything. : (
I'll try to write back tomorrow.
Bummer - I hate when my browser acts up.
I really enjoyed what you wrote about being amateur vs pro. I feel similarly. I will say however, working with a band, paying for studio time, the pressure is there to guarantee you’ll finish. I’m never 100% happy, though. Since I’ve been on my own, I find the ratio of projects I start compared to ones I finish are at least 10 to 1, probably worse. But that’s ok, I have nothing to prove, I can take my time, and I’m enjoying myself. It’s an environment I’m much more comfortable in, that’s for sure.
On to your questions:
Hardware:
I’ve been using the same out-of-production EMU 1820 Musiciansfriend.com for over a decade, I believe. I’ll be upgrading once it kicks the bucket, but it hasn’t failed me yet.
Also running an Art Tube MP preamp Proaudiostar.com
Mic: In addition to an SM57, SM58, I mainly use an AT3035 for vocals & acoustic guitar: Amazon.com
I also have a small assortment of acoustic & electric guitars, a bass, a keyboard… am I forgetting anything?
Software:
Cubase, Wavelab, Reason, Toontrack Ezdrummer, and many random VST plugins
My musical tastes have evolved over the years. I turned 36 yesterday, so I was a teenager in the 90’s and the sound from that era has been imprinted on me whether I like it or not. However, my childhood in the 80’s was spent listening to my parent’s favorites on the oldies station, so the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and anything from the 1950’s & 1960’s has had a strong influence. I was in 2 bands shortly after high school that weren’t very good. We did go into the studio, however, and did some 4 track recordings that really got me into it. From about 2006-2012, I played in a band called, “The Courtesy Line.” I did most of the songwriting, was lead singer & rhythm guitar player. We recorded, mixed, & mastered 2 EPs on our own. Our first album was recorded entirely on our own and I mixed half of it. The other half was mixed & mastered by professionals. Our last EP was recorded, mixed, & mastered by professionals at a somewhat low-budget studio. You can look us up on itunes if you’re interested. Here’s a video of one of our songs and our time at the studio I threw together: Youtube.com
Aside from that, I’ve recoded a ton of stuff on my own over the years. More than I could count. The most recent thing I’m working on right now is a cover of “Come Go With Me” by The Del-Vikings. The absolute hardest part of any of this for me is writing lyrics & the main reason I have a hard time finishing something. It’s not that I don’t have plenty to say, it’s just that I rarely have anything to say that’d make a good song. So I wanted to do something that would have a lot of vocal tracks and just be fun.
First off - Happy B-Day!!!
I watched your video - that was a good song, good mix and the video was entertaining. Was the studio you threw together using mostly the gear you outlined?
I don't have anything up online anymore of my own stuff - but was on iTunes for a while and had a bunch of videos on youtube and a couple of free albums for download at one point. But I've taken it down for now while I work on other projects.
I understand the thought that pressure equals progress - but I've always found that I can pressure myself to get something finished provided I want to do it and found that when my money was on the table it had the reverse effect of making me question the progress I was making. I recently finished remixing/remastering a live album I recorded last July for no real reason other than I wanted to hear what my new speakers sound like. I am currently about 60% done a studio album I started 3 or 4 years ago (100% tracked, just mixing it now) and I'm on pace to have it finished by the end of summer. Again no pressure - I just want to be able to listen to it.
I'm in the last years of my twenties (28) - and the nineties definitely left an imprint on me as well (mostly the TV Shows, lol). I really got into 60s/70s music (The Band/The Doors/Paul Simon/Frank Zappa/etc.) when I was a teenager and later into 80s music (Talking Heads/Oingo Boingo/XTC/The The/etc.) in my early twenties. Recently I've really taken towards listening to country music like Jerry Reed which is funny as I avoided it like the plague growing up in Alberta Canada, lol.
However I find what influences me the most is not other music - but other art, books, movies, etc. - when I read about Burroughs cut-up method some years ago it had a complete influence on how I approach music production both tracking and mixing.
As for lyrics - I know what you mean. I have difficulty writing them too, but found a trick listening to some Paul Simon demos that helped me. He abstractly sings gibberish/sounds until he gets a melody that he likes and fits lyrics around that predefined melody. It has helped me a few times - although I'm not the primary lyricist/song writer in the band. I've also taken to writing down my abstract thought patterns when they cross my mind and am later able to cut them up into usable lyrics.
Anyways thanks for responding to my post and sharing your music and gear - its always good to meet someone who is into the art of making music!
Hey, thanks for the happy birthday and for the compliment. The gear I outlined is the stuff I have at home. The studio in the video is actually a pro place. It just happens to be in a house basement.
I think I'd me more on the same page with progress if I didn't have a 2 and a half year old. Once the kid came, it became really hard to carve out time for anything. That's the main reason I'm not really finishing much, to be honest (and why it took so long to finish neon struct). Do you have kids? The drummer from our band had a kid, then the bass player, then me. That's pretty much how we ended up stopping. I get together from time to time with the keyboard player and lead guitar player, but time's in short supply these days.
The lyric writing process you spoke of is pretty much how I've been writing songs since I first picked up a guitar. I always just start "finding" the melody by singing gibberish. Then it's like a puzzle to figure out the words/syllables that best fit. Sometimes it flows naturally in minutes and other times, it's a hell of a struggle. Inspiration and creativity are funny things. For example, I just got off the phone with Amazon customer service because their "guaranteed" delivery of A Beauty & the Beast book for my daughter did not arrive. I was frustrated. I picked up the guitar and in 20 minutes had 2 new song structures just about worked out, including vocal melodies. No lyrics of course. You never know when it's going to hit and it's just getting harder to strike while the iron is hot. But hey, as long as I can pick up a guitar once in a while and hit record, I'll be fine.
Take it easy
That'll do it for sure, I've got a couple of friends who just had kids/got married and it is definitely a life changer - I myself don't have any commitments beyond 40 hours (sometimes more) a week of work and then just normal day-to-day living stuff.
I get what you mean about inspiration - that's why I just notate to my phone or write down anything that passes my mind in the moment. 70-80% never gets used but there is always a gem in there and I'm always constantly rewriting using material I've already written down. It is funny you mention being frustrated - as I find frustration is one of my greatest inspirations/motivators.
You are lucky to have discovered that method of writing early - until I heard Paul Simon doing what he was doing I approached lyrics and melody in such a literal way that my songs would almost always be to wordy and with a melody that I always felt was grafted to the song rather than being part of it. I am much happier with my melodies and lyrics after switching to this more natural way of writing.