Secret weapons

[leighelse]

I'm interested in learning what other Songcrafters think of as their "secret weapons" in recording songs. These could be habits, these could be equipment - whatever makes the recording process easier and more productive.

[leighelse]

I'll start the ball rolling by naming a couple of things I regard as "secret weapons".

• Wireless headphones I have Philips wireless headphones: a base station and two rechargeable headsets. They're not bluetooth - they have no latency. They're a bit dull at the top end, which I actually find an advantage as they're less tiring to listen to for long periods, and the recordings always sound heaps better when I take the cans off and fire up the speakers! Having two pair is great [1] if I have another musician in the studio and [2] if one pair needs recharging (the base station recharges one pair at a time).
• Preparation I know - this marks me as seriously anally retentive. But the first phase of every recording is generating three sheets of paper: [1] lyrics in an 18 point font (or whatever fits on one sheet of A4), [2] a track listing sheet so I can remember what I've recorded on each track of my two BR1600s and [3] a bar-by-bar chord chart where I also mark things like tempo and time changes.

[Mach]

Secret weapons huh?

Well a bottle of Jack always helps to start things out. Then I just hope to be productive from there LOL.

I have no secrets I just have to get in the right mindset and be determined by something inspirational.
Every session is different for me as I pick and choose which instruments, outboard gear, and internal PC software
on the fly once the juices get flowing.

I tend to lean toward ProTools with my mics & preamps mostly, but I do like the way the MBR sounds for certain things. I just hit the red button and find a groove and let the chips fall where they may. I have tons of recordings I go through periodically and hopefully find something usable to create something from it.

Mach

[Johnny Robbo]

Don't know about secret weapons, but I do have certain things I'd struggle to do without. First and foremost is the Vox Tonelab... it's always delivered the goods when it comes to getting a great guitar tone... the only amp modeler I've ever used which has the touch-sensitive response of playing through a good valve amp.

Secondly, there's a plug-in in Cakewalk Music Creator called "Analogue Tape Sim" which adds a wonderful analogue warmth to the sound of every mix.

Another Cakewalk plug-in I couldn't do without is the Tiled Room reverb preset - I use it on everything from drums to guitars... in fact everything but bass & it just sounds so natural. It give a really "live" sound to a mix.

The other thing I find useful is good old Audacity... a free piece of software that does more than many stand-alone multitrackers from yesteryear did. I find it good for roughing out ideas & I usually record my acoustic into it, as Music Creator (for some reason) won't "see" my USB mic.

[Mike_S]

I think my secret weapon could be the time I have spent messing around with midi drum patterns in various software. Its well worth the time initially spent literally just shoving those wee blocks around finding good drum patterns and at the end of any of my songs I normally go back and spend time adding suitable drum fills, cymbals, etc. I find it makes the world of difference rather than just playing over a looping drum pattern.

[Blooby]

Scotch.

I resisted moving to a DAW, but it has opened so many doors, I'm sorry I didn't switch years ago. I am also very fond of a reverb plugin called VintageVerb, but I guess I wouldn't call that a secret weapon.. 

Mostly, it's just time. When I'm not snowed under, I start thinking a bit more creatively.

Blooby

[Hook]

 

[Johnny Robbo]

Another resource which has helped me is this book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1860741983/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1860741983&linkCode=as2&tag=davidmeadnet-21&linkId=3LUKA75F6ZQOEFHX

A fantastic & accessible explanation of rhythm notation. Without this knowledge, I wouldn't have had a clue on how to do the kind of drum programming I do. This book was originally a series of articles in Guitarist magazine back in the mid-90s & I was messing around with a drum machine back then, beginning to get into home recording. I later bought the book just so I could have all the info in one place & not have to leaf through a year's worth of old magazines. Brilliantly written and informative... highly recommended if you're interested in learning to read music or understanding the way rhythms work.

[Flash Harry]

Space and Time. Without either i'm barren.

Currently without either.

[Hook]

I also like to keep a healthy amount of drama, conflict and misery in my back pocket at all times.