[Deputy Dumbya Dawg[_10_]]

Opps Sorry about firing off that blank email.

Subscribe to Tape-op. The best magazine about recording out
there and free. Lots of professional producers talking about
that exact thing.
http://www.tapeop.com/subscription/index.html Recording ain't
a bad magazine either.

The answer in short is. Are your a finisher? If so you need
to start the project knowing how long you have and make the
decisions early on to get it done. If you let a million
options creep into your work process you will never finish
anything.

Can you get good results fast? Who knows but a lot of #1
records were made in the 60's that only took a day or two and
they are still some of the best records. And there are people
doing exactly that now. Recent tape op articles talk about how
someone like John Frusciante, Red Hot CHillie Peppers
guitarist made six albums in six months. One week in the
studio doing the entire record and three weeks getting the
songs together for the next one.

Anyone can work forever on an album. How long it takes does
not necessarily speak to quality.


"rakmanenuff" wrote in message
ups.com...
Deadlines really suck sometimes.

I've asked a few successful producers how long they usually
spend on a
track, and they don't generally spend any longer than 4 days
max. But
then you hear stories of a dance track that took months to
make etc.

If the aim is to be a "professional producer", then coming
up with the
goods quickly (but not too quickly) is probably a
requirement. When I
was younger I used to be involved in raw, underground styles
of music,
and we just didn't have the patience to fiddle around with
details for
hours. Plus, we liked it raw.

Small labels on low budgets sometimes abuse their engineers
by booking
2-3 days of recording/programming for a whole 14-song album,
then
another 2 days to mix the whole thing.
What are you supposed to do? 3 days without sleep and a
product full
of minor flaws....

Do those flaws matter? How much?

Left to my own devices, I'd work in a really scatty,
creative way. I'd
work on a track, then put it aside and move onto something
else, then
come back to it many days later, do a bit more work, then
leave it
again and come back to it again.
I'd have regular breaks from production to listen to cds,
practice
instruments and sift through my sound library. That way you
stay
fresh, but you can also get slightly lost in your creative
madness. On
the other hand, your stuff will sound pretty good without
sounding
boring or mass produced.

I'd love to hear other people's viewpoints or experiences.

[rakmanenuff]

Deputy Dumbya Dawg wrote:

The answer in short is. Are your a finisher? If so you need
to start the project knowing how long you have and make the
decisions early on to get it done. If you let a million
options creep into your work process you will never finish
anything.
Can you get good results fast?

In my particular case it's the frustration of having changed musical
styles just recently. This is due to market forces, but I don't know
the new style inside out yet, so I feel thrown in at the deep end.
People are not expecting me to experiment and find my footing, they
just want the finished mix by next week, obviously.

Anyone can work forever on an album. How long it takes does
not necessarily speak to quality.

Agreed.
In some types of music the lines between writing, practicing, playing,
engineering and production have become really blurred. All of it seems
like editing, maybe that's another issue.

[Deputy Dumbya Dawg[_10_]]

"rakmanenuff" wrote in message
ups.com...
Deputy Dumbya Dawg wrote:

The answer in short is. Are your a finisher? If so you
need
to start the project knowing how long you have and make the
decisions early on to get it done. If you let a million
options creep into your work process you will never finish
anything.
Can you get good results fast?

In my particular case it's the frustration of having changed
musical
styles just recently. This is due to market forces, but I
don't know
the new style inside out yet, so I feel thrown in at the
deep end.
People are not expecting me to experiment and find my
footing, they
just want the finished mix by next week, obviously.

I just ask them "how many times do you want me to listen to
your song/tracks before we commit it to stone?"

I explain that I can do it in one pass and your get what you
get for such and such a price. I ask it they think the final
product will be more suitable for what they are after if
perhaps they want me to listen to each track for crap and
perhaps remove the garbage that is not music then listen over
and over while I ballance the guitars during the various parts
of the song, ballance the vocals and ride the gain, then play
all the songs against one another and ballance them against
one another on the album. If they think that will result in
something that is more what they want, then guess what? It
will take more time and cost more. I also ask them if they
want me to rush now or perhaps let it sit a couple days and
finish it with fresh ears?

They can pick any two. Cheap, Fast or Good.

How well you can explain this and connect your effort with the
customers expectations will probably determine how successful
you will be in this business.

peace
dawg



peace
dawg