Home studio productivity blog.
Free time is a moving target. Sometimes it stays in the same place for a while, but it always moves again. Especially in the early days of my son’s life, it felt like there was a new “season” happening every two months. We’d get settled into a routine of sorts and then the next milestone would happen and turn everything on its head. During the first year or two, my son would typically wake up…
If you're producing music solo, you know what it’s like to feel like you’re not making progress even when you’re putting in the time. You're doing everything yourself. You're doing it in your spare time, so you can't exactly knock out big chunks of progress in a single sitting. And a lot of the work is invisible until the song is done. So even when you're making real, consistent progress, it's…
There. I said it. I’m not too proud to admit it. Everything in my studio is totally sufficient (and even a bit overpowered in some cases) to make the kind of music making I want to make. And yet… I can’t help but think that if I just had a slightly different interface or guitar or channel strip, my shortcomings would magically disappear. If I just had this plugin or virtual instrument, I could…
Do you ever feel like you spend more time learning about music production than actually producing music? I have. Over the years I’ve become a serial information gatherer. Which isn't a bad thing in and of itself. Being curious and wanting to learn more is a valuable trait. Where it becomes counterproductive is when you just keep amassing knowledge without putting it into practice. I’ve heard it…
If you're struggling with consistency in how you approach your sessions or it feels like a slog to get new projects up and running, part of the reason might be that you're building every session from scratch. That’s like building a new car every time you want to go for a drive. It’s exhausting and totally unnecessary. Templates aren’t just for power users or people working in commercial studios.…
There are days that don't go to plan. Sometimes the hour I thought I was going to have turns into 20 minutes. Or I've been sitting at my desk all day and just can't stomach the thought of sitting back down at the computer to work on music. It's easy to say "screw it" in those circumstances and just do something else. I've done that plenty of times. But I've got a lot of music to work on, so I…
In my last post, I talked about the mental clutter that comes from piles of unfinished music, and how cleaning up your project folder can clear more than just hard drive space. Maybe you tried it for yourself. Maybe you got some clarity and some direction. But now you’re staring at a list of unfinished songs thinking: Now what? Finishing music is a different beast than starting it, and if you’ve…
When it comes to music, I’m a chronic starter. I have the tendency to open my DAW, write something on guitar, build a drum groove, maybe layer some parts... and then save the session, shut down my computer, and never touch it again. Because starting is fun, and finishing takes focus. Rinse and repeat that for 15 years, and what you end up with is a hard drive full of half-finished songs and a…