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“When you record the hardware, do you record each instrument on its own or the whole set up at once? Also what part of the song comes to you first? The melody, chords, or beat? Thank you. You are an inspiring producer.”
Hi,
Well.. it changes and it depends. Recently, mostly everything is separate. On its own.
But it changes. Everything is an instrument, or a production tool. Even how you choose- or how you have to- record.
For example: sometimes I record an entire drum machine in mono on a single channel, and I process it outside the box: mono out of drum machine >>“otto boum” then rec. Super compressed, a bit distorted, a lot of dynamics. Or, when I started producing i only had a 2 channel interface and a mixer with 8 channels, so i would group all the low end on one bus, then all the mids and highs on another and record two “groups” only. i would mix on the synths themselves a lot, would record then listen back and then on the synthesizer tweaked the sound till it sat on a better place on the mix on relation to the other sounds, then record again. Only two tracks. Also, signal flow is a great tool, the order of things does change the result. I play a lot with signal flow until i find the sound i want… and sometimes is fun to commit fully to something and record everything so you have no option to change your mind later in the production, or sometimes i want a really clean prod and a lot of freedom, so i do everything pristinely separate, you know? It is an instrument. So my answer will be: the way i record depends on what the production wants, and what my context is, sometimes you are working in a laptop and a 2 channel interface in a cabin somewhere, so there are no options. The rule is there are no rules. And the rule is to experiment as much as you can, don't be afraid of anything as there is no wrong way to do it, what sounds good to some sounds awful to others, just experiment and find your own sound and your own process, just try, try try and choose what sounds better to you, and what makes you feel the most things. That is how I go about it.
And what comes first? Again, there is no rule, also changes all the time… “the only constant is change’ is a cliché for a reason right? All you have to do is pay attention, really, and sit down to do the work. But to give you a more straight answer… when im feeling stuck i tend to play chords to find some footing, i go to the piano or i go to a synth with keys, even if i end up muting them further down the line, chords and polyphony tends to be where i start -or go to- when i'm stuck.
: )
Ela.