Finding Analog Equipment Tricky
Is it just me or is producing with analog equipment quite tricky? I’m trying to write a bassline with my Sub Phatty and I’m finding it it difficult to get the timing on point with my kick. I can’t just highlight and quantize the notes I play. I actually have to do take after take of recording to get it right, and I still haven’t gotten it right.
Welcome to the oldskool! Thats how we did it lol. or at least we would of sent midi from the computer to the synth and audio back into the computer.
The other way you could do it is to record your take, say an 8 bar take, and make adjustments to that and just loop it in your daw
Yes, it’s kind of weird having to practice until you can play your instruments huh? 
I now no longer want analog equipment. 
Don’t try to get it too “perfect”. Make your playing fit a groove, not a grid!
No
Yes
Practice my man.
Why no? Maybe he doesn’t want to be a pianist, but he still has the chops to get down his ideas recorded? If he was planning to play live then yeah, obviously he would have to practice, but he’s just trying to capture ideas and and create music, not be a performer.
I think Chriswoods has the right idea as that’s exactly what I do. Just bang out some basslines, hooks, chords, and then go back and adjust to taste. Not sating you should lock them to the grid, but just go back fix any glaring mistakes.
I just view it as a cop out, mistakes are the greatest thing in music, why eliminate them?
Never said to eliminate them completely, but if you happen to miss one note and yet the whole performance besides that is solid, why waste it then?
Talking to people who get paid to produce songs for other people on gearslutz. Every single one of them says recordall your main sounds, if its not right, do a retake. Once you go in and edit the arrangement it will sound more grid like.
This is something that was covered in Sound City (the dave grohl doco) which was one of the parts of the film that I actually agreed with, they talked about the introduction of digital and programs like Pro Tools into studios, and how you could just pick the ‘best’ bit from that take and the ‘best’ bit from that take, and actually mash it all together. They felt like it was cheating, as they would just record a straight take, over and over and over again, and the one they liked the ‘best’ made the cut, and more often than not, it was the first one, the one with the most raw power, the one with the most honesty.
This is my outlook when using any instrument, digital or analog, don’t take shortcuts.
Recording a band and capturing a performance is way different from writing a dance track.
I don’t agree with this statement, but I could understand it, if the OP was talking about sitting at a computer with his mouse, clicking and clicking, but he’s talking about an Analog instrument, so I really don’t think their is much of a difference, infact, I don’t think there is any difference at all.
You need to experience some BC raves or something dude. They are one in the same completely. People playing guitars over someone playing a synth all while spinning a beat in the background.
art vs science (australian band) are a great example of live hard synths mixed with guitar and drums.
So I just figured out about Logic Pro’s “comping” when recording live instruments. What an awesome feature. I can do 3-4 takes and take the best of each part and integrate it into a single seamless audio region.
This exactly.
The sound and grit of analogue gear with the fast workflow of a digital DAW. Playing something over and over again is a frustrating waste of time, and an un-quantized bass can sound nasty