Recording - November 2013 - 46

We’ve assembled here because we care about you. It
has become clear to the friends and family in this room
that your avoidance of technology, in the name of artistry,
has negatively impacted your songwriting. Despite your
obvious passion for music, you’re continuously blocking
your own path of creativity by acquiring several bad
habits that we intend to address here today.
Fueled by your natural ability, you may have started out
writing songs pretty effortlessly, but in order to advance
further, you’ll need to streamline your creative process and
take advantage of some of the latest tools available.
De-mystifying your music
We’ve heard the phrases “I’m not inspired”, “I have writer’s
block”, or “I don’t feel like writing” too often to remain silent
anymore. What other profession is reliant on inexplicable cosmic fate in order to produce results? We know it may be hard
to hear, but if you don’t know how to write songs on demand,
then you’re hardly a professional, but just someone who stumbles upon a decent song by accident.
Even if you don’t have real aspirations to become a professional songwriter, we don’t think there’s anything
wrong with becoming really proficient at it. We’re not suggesting that you become an emotionless songwriting
machine per se, but there are a lot of ways to improve
your craft, starting with educating yourself on precisely
what a song is.
A song in its most simple form is melody and lyrics. It can
be difficult to separate the arrangement and production
from the song itself, especially when you’re overly concerned about its presentation before those fundamental

building blocks are in place. Some writers need some level
of production early on in order to be “inspired” to write,
but reducing this dependency is important if you aim to be
versatile and more original in your writing. It all starts with
a better way to capture your raw song ideas.

If you’re truly into your craft,
tirelessly research the latest options
to make your life easier in your studio.

Don’t let them get away
The greatest songwriters are both blessed and cursed
with a compulsion to create songs absolutely anywhere,
any time of day or night. There’s absolutely no excuse not
to be well equipped with a portable audio recorder at all
times. Using the voice recorder in your smartphone is an
obvious choice, but be cautious with any device that isn’t
100% dedicated to one task. Ideas can come while driving or even when you’re talking on your phone; all it
takes is a split second to lose one of them while you’re
fumbling through app icons looking for your recorder app.
Portable digital audio recorders come in many different
varieties, but considering you’re employing this to be a
more reliable extension of your brain, we’d suggest the
following features:
46

RECORDING November 2013

~ Intuitive navigation and fast bootup time
~ Reasonably rugged but small and lightweight
~ Clear, high-quality sound
~ USB connectivity and/or SD card storage so it’s
easy to back up often
Remember that the primary purpose of your portable
recorder is to capture raw melody and lyrical ideas
effortlessly. Other bells and whistles on the device can
make this process more confusing, and tempt you with
premature production features that ultimately distract
you from what’s most important in this phase: the unfiltered, bulk download of ideas from your brain.
Don’t beat yourself up
Writer’s block often comes from being too self-critical
too early in the song creation process. What hits your
voice recorder should be viewed as casting a net into
your subconscious, as opposed to anything that really
resembles a song quite yet. As you sift through the contents of your recorder, you can start to become a little
more judgmental, unearthing song-worthy contenders.
We always recommend resisting the urge to dive
head-first into arranging or producing until you have
the bare-bones song written. The more you can define
the lyrics and melody before introducing additional harmonic and rhythmic support instruments into the mix,
the better you can assess what accompanying elements
are truly necessary. It’s too easy to use them as a crutch
for weak melodies or as a mask for subpar lyrics. It’s a
good sign when a vocal line hangs together well with
a single instrument such as an acoustic guitar or piano.

Building a better demo
So you’ve managed to nurture an idea into something
that holds together with a voice and a single instrument?
Great. At this point it’s now appropriate to start thinking
about building up the production on the song.

The end result is to become
a better and more effective songwriter,
which is a win-win for us all.

Because the rest of the world seems incapable of suspending any disbelief when it comes to works in
progress, it’s best to leave little to the imagination when
you present your songs. Most of the people in this room
aren’t going to appreciate a song that’s not fully produced. Yes, even when sufficiently garnished with disclaimers, seasoned industry professionals have been
known to overlook underdeveloped genius. The good
news is that there are a lot of easy-to-use tools these
days to make your demo sound remarkably good but,
more importantly, they can do so without getting anyone else involved.
First off, you need to embrace technology, not begrudgingly, but rather find it within yourself to become a techhead of sorts. Hear us out on this one. Keeping up with



Recording - November 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - November 2013

Recording - November 2013
Fade In
Contents
Talkback
Fast Forward
Creativity And Community: A Chat With Kristian Bush
Reviewed & Revisited: Apple Logic Pro X
Write—Record—Release—ROCK!
Yamaha HS7 Monitors And HS8S Subwoofer
The Windup... And The Pitch
DPA Microphones d:facto II Handheld Vocal Microphone
Focal Spirit Professional Headphones
Songwriter’s Intervention
Millennia Media NSEQ-2 EQ For The Universal Audio UAD-2 and Apollo
Be Ready!
Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 23: Compression—Part 2
Readers’ Tapes
Advertiser Index
Fade Out
Recording - November 2013 - Intro
Recording - November 2013 - Recording - November 2013
Recording - November 2013 - Cover2
Recording - November 2013 - 1
Recording - November 2013 - 2
Recording - November 2013 - 3
Recording - November 2013 - Fade In
Recording - November 2013 - 5
Recording - November 2013 - Contents
Recording - November 2013 - 7
Recording - November 2013 - Talkback
Recording - November 2013 - 9
Recording - November 2013 - Fast Forward
Recording - November 2013 - 11
Recording - November 2013 - 12
Recording - November 2013 - 13
Recording - November 2013 - Creativity And Community: A Chat With Kristian Bush
Recording - November 2013 - 15
Recording - November 2013 - 16
Recording - November 2013 - 17
Recording - November 2013 - 18
Recording - November 2013 - 19
Recording - November 2013 - Reviewed & Revisited: Apple Logic Pro X
Recording - November 2013 - 21
Recording - November 2013 - 22
Recording - November 2013 - 23
Recording - November 2013 - 24
Recording - November 2013 - 25
Recording - November 2013 - Write—Record—Release—ROCK!
Recording - November 2013 - 27
Recording - November 2013 - 28
Recording - November 2013 - 29
Recording - November 2013 - 30
Recording - November 2013 - 31
Recording - November 2013 - 32
Recording - November 2013 - 33
Recording - November 2013 - 34
Recording - November 2013 - 35
Recording - November 2013 - Yamaha HS7 Monitors And HS8S Subwoofer
Recording - November 2013 - 37
Recording - November 2013 - The Windup... And The Pitch
Recording - November 2013 - 39
Recording - November 2013 - 40
Recording - November 2013 - 41
Recording - November 2013 - DPA Microphones d:facto II Handheld Vocal Microphone
Recording - November 2013 - 43
Recording - November 2013 - Focal Spirit Professional Headphones
Recording - November 2013 - 45
Recording - November 2013 - Songwriter’s Intervention
Recording - November 2013 - 47
Recording - November 2013 - Millennia Media NSEQ-2 EQ For The Universal Audio UAD-2 and Apollo
Recording - November 2013 - 49
Recording - November 2013 - 50
Recording - November 2013 - 51
Recording - November 2013 - 52
Recording - November 2013 - 53
Recording - November 2013 - 54
Recording - November 2013 - 55
Recording - November 2013 - Be Ready!
Recording - November 2013 - 57
Recording - November 2013 - 58
Recording - November 2013 - 59
Recording - November 2013 - Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 23: Compression—Part 2
Recording - November 2013 - 61
Recording - November 2013 - 62
Recording - November 2013 - 63
Recording - November 2013 - Readers’ Tapes
Recording - November 2013 - Advertiser Index
Recording - November 2013 - 66
Recording - November 2013 - 67
Recording - November 2013 - 68
Recording - November 2013 - 69
Recording - November 2013 - 70
Recording - November 2013 - 71
Recording - November 2013 - Fade Out
Recording - November 2013 - Cover3
Recording - November 2013 - Cover4
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