I recently realized what I’m doing here with all this 4 track and tape stuff, and why I’m doing it. The jump back to old school analog was about being stuck or stalled out with making acoustic music on a computer as a solo writer/performer trying to record myself.
So, I wanted to share some tips with you in case you find yourself in a stalled or stuck feeling with writing and recording music. The tips I’m going to give you come from a book I recently read, Hidden Potential by Adam Grant. https://adamgrant.net/book/hidden-potential/
What to do when you’re stuck, stalled out, or out of fuel:
Tip 1: Backup!
Grant says When you’re stuck it’s usually because “you’re heading in the wrong direction, you’re taking the wrong path, or you’re running out of fuel. Gaining momentum often involves backing up. When we reach a dead end, we may have to head back down the mountain”
How I backed up
When I ditched the DAW and went back to the 4 track from my early years, I didn’t realize I was going back down the mountain to find a new path. I’m so glad I did. It’s not that a 4 track is better (in any way!) it’s just that I was stalled out, out of fuel, and stuck with trying to record myself with a computer. But, it wasn’t always like that. When I first got a laptop I immediately started using garageband and was pretty productive with it. I didn’t know anything about eq, compression, effects, beyond guitar pedals, so I didn’t use any of that stuff, I basically just used it like a 4 track – plug in mics, play and sing, record.
The dead end came when I “upgraded” to Logic. There were suddenly all these plugins and surgical things I could do with the recorded audio. Then there were internet tutorials, videos, articles about using plugins and drilling down deep in those things. Then, there were all these third party plugins and forums with people screaming about why this reverb is great and why your “stock” reverb sucks and “shit! I must get better plugins because some guy on gearslutz says my reverb sucks!”
Then they continued to change Logic every year more and more towards electronic music and loops and how to create music without being a musician. Why do I need 60 gigs of loops to run a recording program? Then they changed the ports 10 times and I had to get all new cables each time. I could go on, but the point is, that got me stuck. So much time, effort, and money to just get the stupid machine to record audio. Fed up, I said “fuck it” how far away from a computer can I get to record simple acoustic songs. Bingo! The 4 track. Immediate results. More productive, simple recording process, some people saying “hey, that sounds nice but it’s not supposed to because my computer and plugins are so expensive.”
Tip 2: Trust the process, not the results!
Grant says: “Elite musicians are rarely driven by obsessive compulsion. They’re usually fueled by what Psychologists call Harmonius Passion – taking joy in a process rather than feeling pressure to achieve an outcome.”
Youtube videos about recording are usually some guy in a studio full of gear talking about why you should buy the newest tube mic on the market “This one emulates every mic ever made!” And, we buy into this kind of marketing because we really want our tracks to sound professional and polished and so we think, ok, get an expensive mic, and expensive preamp, expensive compressor, expensive eq, a tape machine, a computer, a patchbay, on and on and on.
What does any of that stuff have to do with songwriting and recording? It’s all bullshit being pushed by corporations wanting to sell you new gear over and over again. I’ve been guilty of falling into this trap. I bought all that stuff. None of that stuff is going to make your music better.
My advice – figure out what you love about the process. How good does it feel when a new idea starts to take shape? When you find that chord progression and melody that didn’t exist and now does. Are you thinking about what specific mic and preamp or are you just lost in the creative process? Right.
Tip 3: Minimum Loveable Product
Grant talks about the Minimum Viable Product that software and other companies use to get new tech or products on the market. The concept these companies use is basically, how can we get something to market as fast as possible.
Grant’s take changes “viable” to “loveable” and I think that is such a great idea and a better way to think about songwriting when you’re doing it for the love of it. We should just try to create things we love and then put it out there. Forget about what might come back. I was amazed when I uploaded my first video here with a song that I loved but that I figured would just get dismissed as amateur and comments would be like “oh, that 250hz frequency is masking the Bb on the guitar and this is just not acceptable. That didn’t happen. Instead, people sent me messages about connecting to the song and enjoying the simplicity and delivery.
If you can create something that you love, then don’t wait to put it out because you have a $99 dollar mic and not a $9,000 mic. It’s not going to change the song. That’s why I love demos more than produced tracks. The demo usually has the passion and the feel that the artists wants to communicate. Then when it does into production in a fancy studio, it just sounds like everything else. So that’s it. Minimum Loveable Product.
Bonus Tip. Practice relentless incrementalism.
Once you’ve backed up and are not stuck anymore, then practice relentless incrementalism. Make small improvements in your process, gear, techniques, playing, performances, etc. over time and with purpose. The compound effect of relentlessly trying to improve small things adds up over time.
So, if you’re contemplating a purchase of gear or instrument or whatever, ask yourself does this purchase align with improving my love of the process or making a loveable product? Preamps, compressors, eq’s, tape machines They’re not going to have the effect that you think. They’re just tools. Do you really need new tools to build something you love?
For example, I have a pretty sibilant voice. So, a small improvement was getting a hardware DeEsser for $85. This made an incremental improvement for me. When you have something you love, then maybe upgrading your tools helps incrementally. Identify the little problems and the little solution. Don’t be drastic with gear purchases because if you don’t love what your hearing with your current gear, chances are you’re not going to love hearing it with more expensive gear either. When you love what you hear with the gear you have, then you can start to make small improvements that, when added together, can polish up that turd a little.