Take 14

November 8, 2008 8:46 PM

How do you avoid recorder's block?

Lately the record button has been a kind of demon for me. Playing freely without recording, I stay in time, hit the notes, and sound as I want to sound. However, as soon as I am conscious that what I am playing is being recorded, I'll allow a slight mistake, become aware of it, then interupt the song and have to start over. This can become agonizing like a director saying, "Take 12, Take 13, Take 14, etc". Anyone have any personal approaches on how they manage this?
posted by ageispolis (11 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite

I think the more you record, the more you know just after you've made them which mistakes are egregious and which ones you can forget about and keep going. That's how it's become with me, anyway. As an exercise, though, I'd recommend that, when recording, just barrel through, no matter what happens. Sometimes the mistakes give the thing personality, or whatever you wanna call it. If, upon playback, you find it's something you just can't live with, maybe it's something you can punch in and fix! Or, maybe you have to start over again from scratch, which might be a drag, but it might be better than starting and restarting all the time, which can be a real psychological damper, and an energy drain.

In any event, the more you record, the better you'll get at performing while the tape is rolling. Record, record, record, that's my advice. Like the old-school rapper said: "and you don't stop!"
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:18 AM on November 9, 2008


I highly recommend doing full takes through a song, or at least full takes of whatever it is you planned to record.

A lot of DAW software has a record loop capability where it will just keep recording take after take automatically. Give yourself a measure or three of buffer on either side.

I find it especially useful when I'm trying to write a solo and don't want to miss a particularly inspired accident.

It's also helpful to do that when you want to do doubling tracks, because once you're warmed up and in the groove you'll tend to do nearly identical takes and doubling (tripling, etc) always makes for a bigger sound (if that's what you're aiming for).
posted by chimaera at 9:25 AM on November 9, 2008


I agree wholeheartedly with the barrel through approach - at least something to try. I know exactly what you mean, too, about the record button suddenly ruining my beautiful, free-flowing, unrecorded groove. I think, though, that it's sometimes in your/my head - I'll often think the recorded version isn't as good, but hearing something played back after you recorded it is probably never as good as when you heard yourself playing live... if that makes any sense.
posted by ORthey at 11:07 AM on November 9, 2008


I find that the best part about plowing through a single take is that often, after you make the first mistake, the rest of the track can't be perfect and it really takes the pressure off. If you make a mistake early enough in the track, it can really loosen up the rest of your performance.

Having to perform a part perfectly in a single take is really quite a feat (it's basically what a performer does at a recital!). Depending on your recording setup you should really look into punching-in separate takes. This can be hard on something like a solo acoustic guitar track, though...
posted by abc123xyzinfinity at 5:37 PM on November 9, 2008


Yeah, record constantly, even when you're just practicing or playing random stuff for fun. I have this same problem, and haven't completely gotten through it yet, but you just have to get to a point where you stop thinking "oh, I'm recording this and just made a mistake" and start not thinking about it until you have a great take and think "oh, hey, I recorded that, I hope it came out!"
posted by davejay at 8:58 PM on November 9, 2008


Usually, I'll try to do full takes, but a big mistake in the first 8-16 bars usually gets me to restart. Sometimes later, if I'm not feeling the groove. After that, I'll keep on going and punch later. Much easier to stay relaxed and feel the groove if you're not worrying about being perfect.

Most of the guitar solos I record are comps of three, four, ten takes (I'm just not very good). Vocals? Get em close, get the feel, then tune em manually. Late on a stab? Cut and paste! Miss the entrance on a key change? Punch it later! That's the beauty of digital recording.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:12 AM on November 10, 2008


I'll allow a slight mistake, become aware of it, then interrupt the song and have to start over

It is not completely clear from what you wrote, but I'm under the impression that you are recording yourself. If so, try to find someone else to "operate the controls", even if that means all that person will do is to press play/record/pause.

I find it that having to be "comfortable" to play, stretching to press the "record" and then regaining the position to play can affect your playing, or your "concentration" to start playing. I know it sounds incredibly nitpicky, but I do think it makes a difference. If you can get someone else to record you while you focus on playing, it might become a little easier to be ready and "in the mood" when the song gets going.
posted by micayetoca at 6:40 AM on November 10, 2008


I find it that having to be "comfortable" to play, stretching to press the "record" and then regaining the position to play can affect your playing, or your "concentration" to start playing.

Exactly. As soon as you see that red light on and the soundwaves being captured in realtime its quite a different mindset then if you're freely just diddling around and being musical.

The cut+paste/punching in suggestions, while good if you're multitracking, don't bode so well when you're at the primitive stage I'm at with just a stock macbook mic and single track songs.

I think the more you record, the more you know just after you've made them which mistakes are egregious and which ones you can forget about and keep going.

I think, though, that it's sometimes in your/my head - I'll often think the recorded version isn't as good, but hearing something played back after you recorded it is probably never as good as when you heard yourself playing live.

I think these two points are key and complimentary of each other. So I guess it's not only practice, practice, practice, but record, record, record.
posted by ageispolis at 7:40 AM on November 10, 2008


I do one take straight through if I can, double parts if I want to keep but cover slight mistakes, or break one part in to several planned takes if there are particularly tricky bits. If I'm doing something I don't really care about I'll punch in and cut-and-paste rather than spend time trying to get one acceptable performance. A tape recorder can be almost a nerve racking as an audience or more so because it will never smile back at you. Recording nerves are real and you'll have to get over them the same way you get over nerves for playing in front of people. Like anything else performance related it takes practice.
posted by mexican at 8:08 PM on November 10, 2008


I bought one of those portable Zoom H2 handheld recorders a little while ago, which I actually find really handy for making music recordings. I'll set it in front of my acoustic guitar, for example, and loop whatever section I'm trying to record on my laptop (often as little as 4-8 bars). So essentially I'm looping a phrase on my sequencer but actually recording it to another source, so when I'm done I've got a single WAV file with a whole bunch of takes on it. Afterwards I'll upload the recording on my Zoom to the sequencer and sync up the WAV to the rest of the song. Then I'll isolate the best take from the track, sample it and duplicate it for however many repititions.

This is probably a fairly unconventional method (I started doing it in the first place because I found recording audio directly to my computer so frustrating, what with dealing with latency issues etc.). But I find I really like doing it this way, because you don't have to hit start/stop every time you do a take, and you can just play without having to think "okay, this time for sure!". Once you've played the same guitar part six or seven times without stopping, chances are it's going to be grooving pretty hard. And I really like having all my takes to choose from, rather than just the most recent.

This technique also helps save disc space as seperate takes are not recorded to your computer (this is beneficial if you are lazy like me and hate having to clear old takes off of song folders when you start running out of hard disc space).
posted by CarrotAdventure at 4:30 PM on November 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


Roy Acuff, speaking on Will the Circle Be Unbroken vol. 1: "A little secret of my policy in the studio ... whenever you once decide that you are going to record a number, put everything you've got into it. Don't say, 'Oh, we'll take it over and do it again' because every time you go through it you lose just a little something ... Let's do it the first time, and to hell with the rest of them."

Emmylou Harris, speaking on Will the Circle Be Unbroken vol. 2: "Years ago, I had the experience of sitting around in a living room with a bunch of people and singing and playing. And it was—like a spiritual experience; it was wonderful. And I decided then that's what I wanted to do with my life, was to play music, do music. In the making of records, I think over the years we've all gotten a little too technical, a little too hung up on getting things perfect, and we've lost the living room. The living room has gone out of the music. But today I feel like—we got it back."

You may say that's no kind of answer. But go listen to the tracks on those albums that immediately follow those quotes. They are remarkable.
posted by eritain at 10:48 PM on November 19, 2008 [1 favorite]


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