December 20, 2011

Trick #64: Start a musical daybook

It’s a new year, a new beginning. You’ve got a clean slate — what are you going to do differently this year?

My suggestion is to try making a musical daybook this year.

What’s a musical daybook?

Think of it as a diary where you can work out whatever musical or artistic issues you’re grappling with.

It can be a place to store little technical tricks that you might use (or reuse) in the future. Or reminders of things that worked. (How you got that perfect guitar tone, for example.) Or a place to store how-to information from web sites, books, and magazines that you’ve come across. Or a mish-mash of all of the above.

If you’re ever feeling a bit creatively lost, or if you want to see how much (or if) you’re growing as an artist, it can be illuminating to look back at older entries.

Besides, after keeping a musical daybook for a while — like, say, ten years — you never know if there might be enough material in it to turn it into a blog one day. (Hint: you’re reading it :) )

December 8, 2011

Trick #56: Stickers everywhere

Does your DAW have a lot of shortcut keys that you sometimes have to look up?

Make stickers for the most important shortcut keys and stick them directly on the keys.

For example, I use Reaper and have a sticker for the word “SPLIT” on my “S” key, “SOLO” on my “O” key, “PREROLL” on my F9 key, and so on.

An additional trick: use standard mailing labels in a printer to print out the stickers. Then put a piece of clear packing tape over everything you printed. Then cut out the stickers and put them on your keyboard. The packing tape will prevent the sticker text from getting smudged (and your fingers from getting inky).

December 6, 2011

Trick #55: Never take more than two days off

When in full-blown creating mode, sometimes you need a break. This is normal.

Take a day off to recharge.

Or take two days off.

But don’t take more than two days off.

For some reason, it’s very easy to lose momentum on a project if you take more than two days off. But one or two days always seems to be fine.

Go figure.

December 3, 2011

Trick #53: Adjusting the sensitivity of an insensitive wah-wah pedal

If you have a wah-wah pedal that has no adjustment for sensitivity (like the original Jim Dunlop Crybaby pedal), try this:

  1. Put a piece of Velcro against the base of the wah-wah pedal — the spot where the pedal touches down.
  2. Cut a small, relatively thin (1/4″) piece of wood. Put the complimentary piece of Velcro on it.
  3. Shove the wood into where the pedal touches down, connecting the Velcro that’s on the base of the pedal.

Now the pedal cannot move the entire way down and you have a more limited range with which to sweep. Your wah-wah pedal now sounds darker as a result.

Use pieces of wood with different thicknesses to change the sensitivity.

November 27, 2011

Trick #50: Microcassette vocal mic

Use a microcassette recorder as a “vocal” mic.

The built-in compression on these devices is usually so crazy that it lends an interesting character to whatever you record into it.

I used this sound for the scratchy response vocal in the chorus of “Really Really Weird“:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Record onto the cassette, then play the tape into your DAW and line things up at the proper place in the mix.

Or, for a slightly cleaner sound, put the recorder into record mode and connect the headphone out jack into your DAW input. Then you can truly use the microcassette recorder as a real-time “mic.”

November 26, 2011

Trick #49: Editing demos for maximum progressive rock-ness

Progressive rock trick: the band Yes used to edit together their demos and learn the songs that way. Then they would record it for real.

November 24, 2011

Trick #48: Another use for microcassettes

Use a microcassette recorder as a source for lo-fi beatbox loops.

Record a beat by tapping directly on the recorder. Play back the result into your DAW, then mangle the sound to your ear’s delight.

October 27, 2011

Trick #32: Style objectivity

Take mental notes when you listen to others’ work for the first time — especially work that you have no personal or emotional connection to.

Look through music sites on the web and listen to a random track from someone you’ve never heard. (Try to find an artist working in a similar genre as you.)

When you listen, ask yourselves these questions:

  • What are they doing right?
  • What are they doing wrong?
  • What’s succeeding?
  • What makes you feel embarrassed for the artist?

Then turn the questions around on yourself.

What similar good and bad things are you doing in your own music?

October 22, 2011

Trick #29: Bad intonation fix

Intonation problems with an instrument on your mix?

Don’t want to autotune it?

Can’t get the musician to replay it?

Fuzzy up the instrument’s intonation by slapping a chorus effect on the offending instrument.

Then the instrument’s actual perceived pitch will be… kind of near where it was played, but possibly pleasant enough that it doesn’t sound out of tune with the rest of the mix.

October 18, 2011

Trick #27: Punchline rhymes

When writing rough lyrics, come up with phrases.

Then look for what I call “punchline rhymes.”

If you’re going to have a zinger or a lyrical insight, the best place to put it is at the end of a rhyme.

Just make sure that the last word in your punchline rhyme can easily be rhymed. (For instance, don’t end your observation with the word ‘orange.’)

« Older Entries