Photo courtesy of Smeeta

April 22nd, 2010 – Today I decided to run a quick songwriting experiment. I picked up an acoustic guitar, turned on my digital recorder, and put a pen and piece of paper in front of me. From about half an hour of playing, I had a handful of ideas.

Contrast this with using a DAW to record ideas. The amount of time it takes to arm, record, determine the BPM for a click track (or even just the time it takes to turn on your computer and wait for your DAW to load), could be the difference between getting that ephemeral idea down, or losing it to the wind.

As much as DAWs have streamlined our production, they can sometimes slow down songwriting. Of course, this really only affects those who aren’t creating beat-based music. When finishing or fleshing out a song, DAWs are indispensable, but when you’re brainstorming new ideas, they can be a hindrance. The simplest and fastest set up will allow you to capture your ideas.

What’s your bare-bones songwriting set up?

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 at 6:12 am.
Categories: Featured Articles, Songwriting.

6 Comments, Comment or Ping

  1. Hugo

    I completely agree with you.
    Many times I start up my DAW just waiting for some inspiration and I always look at the guitar (while I’m waiting for it to open…) and pick it up to play some chords or tunes.

    The bare aspect of holding the guitar gives me the will to play and create.
    After that I go to the DAW and finish the songs…

    Cheers

    Apr 22nd, 2010

  2. Neil

    I definitely agree… I keep a USB mic on my desk, and I’ll just pop open Audacity for getting an idea down. Sometimes I’ll use my Zoom H2n, but as long as I’m home, it seems easier just to record it directly on my computer.

    However, once in a while I’ll load up a sampler instrument or play around with amp designer, just because using a different sound can sometimes help take you in new directions.

    Apr 22nd, 2010

  3. Vinayk

    I do best with the built in mic on the iPhone. Gets quick and dirty ideas down. I have a zoom h2 but it’s hard to playback ideas without headphones as there is no built in speaker. The iPhone doesn’t have that issue. I also seem to get less distracted (by knobs and presets out of my music room!)

    anyone got a good suggestion for a digital recorder with a built in speaker?too much fiddling to use headphones

    Apr 22nd, 2010

  4. Sam

    I use the iphone to and same as Vinayk I use to use the H2 but its way too fiddly these days i use the iphone its all ways on me.

    Also with the iphone is a gr8 app called everyday looper which alows 4 tracks looping where i can merge tracks together on the app then export the tracks to ableton live and re-create using software.
    Its great I’ve put down song idea’s while waiting in queues and in cinema’s during coming attractions and other places with ppl just staring it awesome.

    Apr 22nd, 2010

  5. Dave

    It’s sitting down at the piano for me. If I just want to get away from the tech. Otherwise pulling up a sampler in Logic and turning the click off works for me too.

    Apr 22nd, 2010

  6. Sean

    @Dave: Oh man, I wish I still had an acoustic piano kicking around but I just can’t fit one in my tiny apartment.

    May 3rd, 2010

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