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Have you left your right brain?

Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 9:20 pm
by ogunslinger
I stumbled across this article that I thought was interesting, so I figured I'd share it here, as it could probably help someone:

Imagine you sit down to compose or mix a song. You’re in your creative zone, and you feel like nothing can break the flow. All of a sudden you come up with a brilliant musical idea, but you pause to think: “what do I need to set up to get this sound happening?” As soon as you find the right software, sounds, routing etc., your idea vanishes. Frustrating.

Right & Left Brain

I’m sure you’re aware that different parts of your brain are utilized for specific functions. I don’t know much about brain science, but have a look at the image below which lists certain actions that are predominantly left or right brain. This is something to be aware of, especially in a field like audio engineering/production where technical, analytical, and creative skills will be simultaneously expected of you.

Image

While in your creative flow (right brain), as soon as you stop to deal with left brain technicalities, you de-rail the freight train of your creative process. Of course sometimes you can pause, do the task and continue on, but personally, this often creates unnecessary anxiety and interrupts the creative flow. Worst case, you forget your idea completely, and lose the spark that sometimes only occurs purely in the moment.

Workflow

When recording, mixing, or composing, it may be helpful to take care of specific left brain tasks right from the start. By separating left brain tasks (technical things like naming tracks, routing, patching etc) from right brain tasks (more creative/abstract), you won’t get distracted or overwhelmed by attempting to do it all at once. Don’t give the technical tasks that come up the opportunity to interrupt your creative flow. By getting certain tasks out of the way from the start, you will no doubt have more un-inhibited creative moments and better workflow.

Chris Lord-Alge is notorious for having lots of his outboard gear already patched in and ready to go for his mixing sessions. He’s also known for his efficient mixing process (having good assistants can’t hurt either ;D ).

There are certain limiters that just stay patched into certain spots of the console — been there for a long time. And they work great because I always put my tracks in the same place.

One of the most important things about mixing is having a routine. That may sound boring, but it works. I don’t want to think about where the kick drum is on the console, or where the vocal is. They’re always going to be in the same place, and I can worry about the song instead. Because it ain’t about the gear; it’s about the song. If you don’t do the song justice, you shouldn’t be mixing. ~ Chris Lord-Alge

Modern Pitfalls

Modern 21st century human nature sadly has a “do it all at once” mentality; I am guilty of it daily. I catch myself simultaneously eating, tweeting, creating, reading, fiddling and surfing. Sometimes it’s important to focus simply on one single task at hand, and really be in the moment with it.

The “do it all” mentality can also cause anxiety with the mere thought of starting a large, overwhelming project or task. If you procrastinate composing or mixing (or anything) because you’re overwhelmed by all the steps involved in creating a finished product (or by your own self limiting beliefs), you should consider breaking up your workflow into smaller, more manageable bits.

I want to give you some tips that can help streamline your workflow, and allow for increased uninterrupted creative moments.

Tips:

Try creating templates for specific types of sessions (mixing, recording, composing etc.) These can be specific too, such as having a template for recording vocals.
Learn the import functions of your DAW (Logic 9 & Pro Tools). Importing a previous channel strip setting or specific instrument sound can really come in handy in the moment and enhance your workflow.
Take care of hardware patches, software routing, and troubleshooting before you begin mixing or recording.
For producers/composers: make sure your sample libraries & loops are organized and easy to access.
Load your sessions up with enough audio, instrument, and aux tracks for synths, reverbs, delays, summing etc. (whatever you inevitably end up using during your sessions)
Turn off the computer screen or close your eyes occasionally to focus on what you hear and not what you see.
Allow yourself to let loose and explore with no expectations of finishing a song or mix.
Give yourself permission to simply explore your DAW and learn new things. Experimentation and exploration is vital, and lowered expectations might be exactly what you need to learn something new, get started on a song, or just gain more confidence.
Get to know your hardware/software instruments and tools, and move beyond the presets. In the moment, it might be quick and easy to just scan presets, but giving yourself the time to explore and customize them will let you really get to know your tools and their parameters, which is extremely valuable!
Go through your samples or software instruments and create a ‘favorites list’ or even create and save your own presets.
Clean up your work environment. A cluttered desk is a cluttered mind.


Source: http://theproaudiofiles.com/have-you-le ... ght-brain/

Cheers :4: Happy New Year, it's a shame that we wont be around for long though, 2012. I kid.

Re: Have you left your right brain?

Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 10:30 pm
by StratosFear
Thanks for this, man. This just gave me the inspiration and reason to go sort through my sample libraries and such.

Re: Have you left your right brain?

Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 10:49 pm
by RT60
Good read. I like how in the list digital is on the left and analogue is on the right. made me chuckle a bit.

Re: Have you left your right brain?

Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 11:10 pm
by ChadDub
I've been organizing my sample library for the past three days. I had around 20K samples in all and so I went through all of them looking for kicks, then snares, then hats, etc. And I came up with about 200 usable samples in all. like 10 kicks, 60 snares, etc., small numbers like that. But now it's so much easier to start and make shit because whatever sample I pick I like it so I don't have to actually look for shit now. Really helps.

Re: Have you left your right brain?

Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 11:36 pm
by Pedro Sánchez
ChadDub wrote:I don't have either
Thought as much.

Re: Have you left your right brain?

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 12:20 am
by ChadDub
EDIT - Don't use language like that.

Re: Have you left your right brain?

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 2:12 am
by Ldizzy
no kiddin but ive been very attuned to the various sequences of my so called two brains... getting on this forum was a big part of the whole "lets work on the structured side "... lately ive been trying to get to work whatever mood i was in.. creative.. then just write melodies... rational... then just work on whatever new theory, concept, patch etc.. id like to include to my work..

but these theories are to be taken with a grain of salt...

Re: Have you left your right brain?

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 4:59 am
by jrisreal
Based on this chart, yes I have starved my right brain...there are probably 2-4 of the right brain qualities vs. almost all of the left brain qualities.

Re: Have you left your right brain?

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 5:09 am
by Ldizzy
right brained people are usually lefties :P the abstract thinking artsy ones :P

again.. with a big maybe on top of all of this :P

Re: Have you left your right brain?

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 5:11 am
by GhostMutt
Usually maybe.

Re: Have you left your right brain?

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 5:18 am
by Skrew
Ldizzy wrote:right brained people are usually lefties :P the abstract thinking artsy ones :P
I looked at the picture and right describes me. I''m a lefty and I took art and crafts class all through school.

Re: Have you left your right brain?

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 6:59 am
by Sharmaji
left handed ;)

but absolutely, being organized BEFORE you start the creative work is key. the right gear is patched in, the extra patch cables are NOT in the road box, tracks are labeled, the right project template is up for the project, etc. you can easily use downtime, or less-than-inspired time, to organize samples, sort thru presets, and generally clean up your workflow. the last thing you want to do is abandon a potentially-awesome project because you waste energy dealing w/ this crap.

Re: Have you left your right brain?

Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 1:52 pm
by Augment
This was a nice read, thanks :W: