Let's Try This

jtsuited

Right seeing's as there was a bit of argy bargy in the 'let's hear your music thread', I think we need a 'let's all help out each other or at least congratulate ourselves' thread.

Anywho here's my idea. It's a little bit 'HR department' but I think it'll be good.

In this thread we have to identify 1 of our music production strengths (and only 1), and 1 weakness (and only 1).

I think if people actually have to come out and say what their strengths and weaknesses are, they tend to make a more concious effort to a) play to their strengths and b)work on their weaknesses (or at least hide them efficiently).

Anywho I'll go first. It's important to finish on a high note so please put your weakness first.

Weakness
Rushing towards the end.
When I'm coming to the end of finishing a track, if I like it, I sometimes am just a little bit eager to get a finished product done.

This is mainly for playing out myself and sending to other djs etc., but the majority of the time I never come back and make revisions, send the track off the labels and then next time i'm playing it out i think 'man i should really make those minute alterations I had planned'.

Now realistically nobody's going to notice, and the tracks get signed anyway, but it's something I really want to work on.

I think it comes from being aware that it's very easy not to finish something, and even easier to tweak something for an indefinite period of time, losing any point of reference and basically driving yourself up the wall. I like to work with a sense of freshness so I tend to work fast but this year I'm going to try to find the balance of having the discipline to say 'it's done' and the tendency to say 'not just yet'.

Strengths
I'd say my main strength is my discipline. I have a fairly prolific output (if only the labels kept up to speed!), and I keep a regular working pattern.

On the odd occassions that I work with bands, it almost always works out with me awake working on a mix etc and them asleep thinking they'll never be able to handle another day of this.

I think that discipline is highly under-rated by musicians (especially in Ireland) who want to be serious about music.


Anywho let's hear y'all. And let's hear all y'all's recommendations for people's weaknesses.
Let the group building exercise begin:pac::pac::pac:

Welease

Weakness - I suck
Strength - I know it

PaulBrewer

Welease wrote: »

Weakness - I suck
Strength - I know it

Neither of which will necessarily be permanent!

i57dwun4yb1pt8

Welease wrote: »

Weakness - I suck
Strength - I know it

ha ha ! good one !

Savman

jtsuited wrote: »

Right seeing's as there was a bit of argy bargy in the 'let's hear your music thread'

And nobody PM'd me to let me know :eek::eek::eek::eek:

:mad:

jtsuited

Savman wrote: »

And nobody PM'd me to let me know :eek::eek::eek::eek:

:mad:

and I wasn't even involved!

fitz

Strength
I feel I've a good sense of what works and doesn't work in a given track.
I would say I'm a good arranger.

Weakness
I sometimes let myself work on something for too long and lose perspective. There's a fine line between the immersion in a track that helps you with production/arrangement and spending too long in it. Sometimes I lose sight of that line and end up spending time working ineffectively. Once I realise and step away for a while, coming back fresh is usually followed by nailing what I was trying to do.

Savman

jtsuited wrote: »

and I wasn't even involved!

Turned over a new leaf eh :D

dav nagle

jtsuited wrote: »

Right seeing's as there was a bit of argy bargy in the 'let's hear your music thread',

I put a lot of love into that section yesterday!

jtsuited

Savman wrote: »

Turned over a new leaf eh :D

haha no, just didn't get to the ring in time.

fitz

jtsuited wrote: »

Weakness

I like to work with a sense of freshness so I tend to work fast but this year I'm going to try to find the balance of having the discipline to say 'it's done' and the tendency to say 'not just yet'.

This is a killer.
Reminds me of a great quote I saw on a Logic forum:

"A mix is never finished, you just have to abandon it."

You'll always come back a week/month/year later and think of some new part that'd fit, or some new approach to a mix. It can always be better.

The way I get around it is that if I have a definite list of things to tweak or put into a song, I'm not finished. If there's some vague stuff you could try, or there's room for new ideas that you don't already have...you're done, move on. Otherwise you either just get stuck endlessly adjusting, or you get annoyed at yourself for not having put in that great little detail you came up with.

jtsuited

fitz wrote: »

This is a killer.
Reminds me of a great quote I saw on a Logic forum:

"A mix is never finished, you just have to abandon it."

You'll always come back a week/month/year later and think of some new part that'd fit, or some new approach to a mix. It can always be better.

The way I get around it is that if I have a definite list of things to tweak or put into a song, I'm not finished. If there's some vague stuff you could try, or there's room for new ideas that you don't already have...you're done, move on. Otherwise you either just get stuck endlessly adjusting, or you get annoyed at yourself for not having put in that great little detail you came up with.

yeah absolutely. i think i overfixed the problem now though, hence me trying to not sprint over the last few hurdles from now on.

oh and that quote is actually some big famous (probably dead) artist iirc. Well it was 'a book/play/poem/symphony/etc is never finished....'
can't remember for the life of me who it was though.

fitz

Yeah I can't place who it's from originally either, but it's a cracker.

PaulBrewer

fitz wrote: »

This is a killer.
Reminds me of a great quote I saw on a Logic forum:

"A mix is never finished, you just have to abandon it."

You'll always come back a week/month/year later and think of some new part that'd fit, or some new approach to a mix. It can always be better.

The way I get around it is that if I have a definite list of things to tweak or put into a song, I'm not finished. If there's some vague stuff you could try, or there's room for new ideas that you don't already have...you're done, move on. Otherwise you either just get stuck endlessly adjusting, or you get annoyed at yourself for not having put in that great little detail you came up with.

U2's quote is in the same vein ...

'U2 albums never get finished, just released'

Apparently it's the same for this time too.... 3 days before production ends they were starting re-recording a track in Olympic in London. The place they'd supposedly gone to mix the album at!

Jimbo808

Weakness

Kryptonite.

Strength

Only when there's no Kryptonite.

RealEstateKing

Weakness

(1) Forgetting that pre-production is the most important part of making a record.

I so love the process of recording and layering tracks and tinkering with little black boxes, that I am often in a rush to get recording, forgetting that actually working out your songs first is more important, something as simple as toning things down a little after the second chorus and then building up to a climax, can be so easy and natural to do as a band, but if you're in a hurry to record, you go in lay down your verse-chorus-verse-chorus-middle8-chorus-end, and then sit staring at Cubase, wondering whats missing, and trying a million layering tricks to get the same excitement, and it never works.

Aridstarling

Weakness

Lack of focus, or maybe I should say too much focus. I find it hard to work on one project too long, i.e. 2 days or more... I tend to get distracted and go off and focus on something else. As a part of that I tend to get distracted, tweaking something miniscule for hours when I should be looking at the bigger picture.

Strength

This one is taking a little longer to work out. I would say my writing, but thats just wishful thinking. Maybe versatility? Thats sort of a by-product of the weakness though. I guess I dont really know my strengths, if any. Depressing thought.