In an attempt to get this subforum chatting a bit, I'll ask a question. What are some interesting things that you always do when getting involved with creating? Is there anything ritualistic that you do, or anything that you find yourself relying on a lot?

A couple people have been surprised that I always mix/produce/master everything in Audacity. It is a limited program, but considering I don't like squeaky clean production or thousands of buttons, I think it fits for me. You liberate yourself much more too by adding plugins, and there are tons of great but odd VST's out there that let you toy with your sound.

As far as writing goes, I think I'm well diversified as a guitarist but I'm picky about drum patterns. I love throwing in (thrashy) breakdown sections and adding d-beats and tempo changes. Not too creative with the sanre though, I need to get out of the habit of just accenting the 2 and 4. I also love blast beats but seldom find myself using them. Anyone else do the same thing?

I hum. Not loudly or anything, most of the time it's close to inaudible. But it is really helpful for me. My songs all usually start with a melody, chord progression and a lyric that just pop into my mind fully formed, but they are always tenuous and ephemeral. Just hearing a song on the radio can sometimes knock away the thread of inspiration. So I hum until I can sit down at my piano and play what I hear in my head.

Once I've played something it stays with me, especially if it's something good I'll remember it without any trouble. But I've had tons of songs come into my mind and then fade away before I had a chance to get something down, so humming is really useful for keeping that idea intact. I figure other people probably do similar things.

I guess something odd is even though I record using Reaper I actually mix and master in cool edit pro2.0. I've been using it for years, I know all the shortcuts, and I just find it far more easy to manipulate to get what I want or need. Plus it seems to get that nastier sheen over it all.

Actually I think it’s common enough (especially among electronic producers) to use one DAW for composition and recording and then do mixing and mastering with something else.

Don't know how odd this is, but rather than doing what most bands do which is to record in parts, punching in where necessary, I like to record the entire song in one go and then punch in where necessary to fix mistakes. If more than 3 or 4 are needed, it's a bad take so I redo it.

I also like to put aside a pick (I use dunlop tortex 1.3mm) which is the 'special recording pick'. I season it just enough to be nice to play, then I put it aside and use it only for guitar tracking.

If I'm writing by myself, I can usually go with the flow of the song and complete it within a day, with only a few cuts for each track, although sometimes it can take a week. But when we record for Merihim, which my bandmate is the primary songwriter for, he gets me to punch in EVERYTHING. We write songs probably one riff at a time, which is terrible for the song flow, but for some reason, trOO satanikk blakk metvl fans eat that shit up. I always ask him if he has the whole song ready to record before we schedule a session, to which I always get a 'yes'. But at soon as I pull up my DAW and set levels and everything, we get one riff in and then I'm hit by "What do you think we should do now?". It is the biggest turn-off ever. The best songs we wrote were written by either of us alone, not by constantly asking the other "what now?".

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I guess I walked into that one.

Wasn't aware of that since just about everyone I know and read about doesn't.

I've never heard of it, but it makes sense to me. Some programs are just better for simplicity, recording, and mixing, while others have a plethora of tools designed with flexibility and advanced sound processing in mind.

Maybe it’s really only electronic producers that do that. I know a bunch of people who will compose and program in FLStudio or Reason and then bounce everything out to Logic or Protools to mix and master.

it might be, corpse. I def didn't think it was unquie to me by any means. I just figured it was rather uncommon. but yea Mono that pretty much hits the nail on the head for me.

Oh no, I was just passively referring to a band mate I have worked with. He would always say that "over the weekend I'll definitely jam on some stuff and get some ideas so we can finish the song". ..... the next time we rawk comes around and the first thing he would say is "Sooo... where do you guys think the song should go from here?", and saying he didn't play his instrument at all.

I think we've all had pain in the ass experiences like that.

I once played with a drummer who didn't understand what 3/4 ment. No seriously. I played him Axiom Heroine by Beherit to get the idea. I was like "you get how you only count to three before each new beat?" trying to explain it as crudely as possible. He just kinda stared blankly at the screen for a second. After five minutes of practicing he did it right. Then when I tried to jam it with him he just went 4/4 again. What the fuck dude.

The guy who is 80% responsible for keeping tempo and timing with the band during rehearsal can't play 3/4 time sig? Where's the emoticon of the guy killing himself?

And yea John, that shit happens all too much. Hell, I'm guilty of it also. I just don't boast about having all these ideas before next jam session when I don't.

Someone should revive that "worst experiences with band members" thread again. I once auditioned a drummer who could (barely) blast but that was far from the best part. The worst part is him not being able to play a beat in one of our songs that was essentially a fucking snare paradiddle which even ME THE FUCKING GUITARIST COULD DO, GODDAMN YOU SUCK YOU SONOVABITCH.

Yeah, that thread was truly gold. Plus, then I can complain about the bassist who auditioned for a brutal death metal band, arrived, was baffled to find that 'this stuff sounds kinda like death metal!', tried to convince us to tune to E standard, and then finally admitted he actually didn't really like death metal.

Yea had a few of those experiences. had a bassist come to jamout with me and my drummer. we were doing some spastic hardcore type of stuff mixed with a bit of dirgy numbers. he smoked a cig after cig and literally hit his bass once. he was wearing a nin shirt so I should've known he was going to be worthless. the drummer had found him.

had a few people to jam with 54R on guitar, none knowing that grindcore was, none that played as fast as I wanted, just as in trill picking because I figured I would be able to shape them... one didn't even play with a fucking pick. he used his finger as a pick strumming it that way. None of those people I found... all the singer's doing.

Yeah, speaking of drums, I tend to write full drum parts along with my songs, because I heavily rely on dynamics in the drums to push my songs, so I need them to make sure my riffs are doing what I want them to. I had a drummer who hated that, he was a guy who wanted to jam everything out and not actually compose outside of practice. The thing is, we always had like two hours a week to practice, NOT enough time to write power/thrash metal songs even with competent musicians, but he also had a tendency to completely space out when he jammed, not paying the slightest lick of attention to what was actually happening.

The other guy said he'd prefer to let me do all the drum parts, but then will take two months to half-assedly learn them. Yeah, drummers.

That's goddamn terrible. only time I'd space out when I was jamming while drumming if we are running through our set for the 2nd time. Usually with most practices... I insisted to run through the set first off to warm up, then write and then to end the session if we aren't making a ton of headway writing was to go through the set again with the songs in reverse or random order.

But yea that's shamefully halfassed.