Originally Posted By: eddie1261
Originally Posted By: Guitarhacker
As a song writer home recording enthusiast, I set out with 2 similar but different goals.

1. Get the music coming out of my studio up to the quality needed to stand side by side with professionally recorded and engineered studio quality stuff.....in other words, produce Broadcast Ready material. <edited>

2. Write better songs. <edited>


You may be trying to become both a sprinter and a marathon runner here. It is rare that the songwriter or performer is also the whiz kid engineer. Every good songwriter I know can turn out so/so production. Every good producer/engineer I know writes acceptably well, but not "Grammy Winning Song Of The Year" level. You may find it a far less frustrating path with much more attainable goals to either pick one or the other, or settle for 50/50.



Then...... just a bit further on, you mention all the things you do and are good at..... working with wood, fixing cars, computers and some other things too IIRC.....

No Ed, these skills are not mutually exclusive and I can point you to a bunch of folks who excel at both.... drop in to the Cakewalk Songs Forum and have a listen to some of the music written and recorded there. Heck, for that matter, visit my web site, have a listen and then you decide. Listen to the PG Showcase songs. There's lots of folks who are good at both skill sets. My goal is not to be a Grammy award winning recording engineer. It is simply to produce radio ready music both from the production POV as well as the writing POV. It's totally possible to do both. I know many folks who do. I'm still learning and improving my skills and chops on both.

To Dan's comments...... that big post was a fun read.....and accurate in some ways. I've played with a few folks who have forgotten more about music than I will probably ever know. And all the major music hubs are filled with such folks....all playing and singing on streets for tips, and on demo sessions for a few dollars an hour to pay the rent in a dump of an apartment they share with a few other similar situation starving musicians. Years back, you could get Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks to sing on your demo for $20/hr..... and the situation in Nashville is very similar today. Just go set in Tootsies and grab a beer and listen to the guy playing on the 5 foot square stage beside the door for tips.

Originally Posted By: Dan
I swear most of you have no idea of what I'm talking about here but I'll keep trying to get through. The top music schools in the world are cranking out unbelievable monster players by the thousands. Add them all up for the last 30 years since the schools started expanding their music departments and there's tens of thousands of musical killers walking around who would make you burn that guitar and take up knitting.

Treat it like the fun hobby it is and forget about doing something that's going to impress somebody working at a big studio in NY, LA or Nashville. I mean forget it, man.

How do I know none on this forum are that good? Because if one of you is that good you wouldn't be writing the stuff you post here. In other words you would be way above us mere mortals.


I don't know that I would have said it quite that way. That is downright insulting. People here are enjoying writing and creating music. And we have people here from all skill levels, beginners to pros. Personally, I think there are several writers here who do write marketable music. One thing I have learned in the decades I have been in the music business and playing at all sorts of levels and with some amazingly talented folks...... it's not necessarily how talented you are on a given instrument that determines if you succeed or not, or that you can write really good songs. It's more about who you know and who owes you a favor, and the luck of being in the right place at the right time. Talent is important, but it's not the most important thing in determining who makes it and who doesn't. There's a bunch of really, really, talented folks playing street corners and gigs for tips in NYC, LA, and Nashville. Most of those, sadly, will never make it.

And really, what you are describing is not unique to the music business. It applies to every business and every profession. Two guys start two plumbing or electrical, or car sales businesses. 20 years later, one is running the biggest business of it's kind in town and the other guy is working with 2 helpers in a small business or has gone into something different.

I understand, from having been in it for decades, that "making it" in the music business, is not easy, and most folks never will. I personally, do not write and record my songs for you, or anyone else for that matter to hear. I don't write and record thinking about a Grammy winning song or the fortune and fame that might come. I write and record because, and I suspect like the others here, and writers all around the world, I enjoy the creative process of writing, and I'm writing for me. I write and record because it's what I enjoy doing. I write and record because there's something I want to say, or a story I want to tell in the song. I write and record because it's FUN. If...and that's a big "if"..... if I ever get a major name cut, well, that would be the icing on the proverbial cake.

While I'm waiting for the next "Garth Brooks" to record one of my tunes... cool .. excuse me while I go and have some fun.

Last edited by Guitarhacker; 12/09/14 03:57 AM.
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