Juggling Studio Roles, How to stay focused when doing it all? Options

[Bonzo3]

I've been wondering why it takes me so long to get from start to finish when making music – and in many ways the answer is obvious: when you're acting as writer, musician, producer and sound technician for the same song, of course it takes time.

However, I feel that one problem with performing all these roles is the difficulty in staying focused. I'm sure I can't be the only one who writes a song with a certain production or instrumentation in mind, and then gets bogged down mid-song by worrying about how I'm going to achieve that sound, rather than leaving this problem to someone else. I think this is particularly a problem when you use programming software as your composition tool, rather than just a production tool.

I'm sure that all of these roles get a little easier through pracitice and experience, but I'd love to hear from anyone how has tips on how to juggle these roles and take things a step at a time, rather than chasing your tail.

All the best,

Bonzo

[rickenbacker]

The more toys you have, the more time you waste comparing, say, 50 snare sounds. Best to keep in mind that cardboard boxes have been used as the snare on #1 hit records, so don't sweat the small stuff. A good song will shine through bad production and no one other than you will ever know that you chose guitar/synth/bass/whatever sound A over sound B - you know, that decision that took you 4 hours to finally make and you're still undecided.

Write a song, record it, write another song, record it. Repeat until you run out of songs! Forget chasing the myth of the "perfect mix".

For software, Live 5 is great for working out ideas on the fly and being able to keep, edit and time-stretch favourite bits and pieces as the idea evolves.