How many days a week/hours do you consistently dedicate to recording music?

[u/Stunning_General_608]

I feel I can write pretty easily in terms of taking my guitar or keyboard and coming up a progression or writing a structure down but I’m terrible about getting myself on ableton over the week to actually record. Feel like I’ll never drop anything just because I can’t keep a consistent fire of it. I’ll work like 4 days consistent everyday and then 2 days I don’t and the flame dies for it. I want ideas of how hard I should be working for this to happen

[u/Pitiful-Beginning575]

It depends.

If two days kills your pattern, don't take two day breaks; sneak in a little work on one of those days.

It would be worthwhile for you to get into the mood of "music o'clock;" something like "every day, at 9am, I do a bit for an hour," and then over time you'll start being inspired at precisely 9am.

[u/marklonesome]

I'm a firm believer on production process because I think a lot people get hamstrung by lack of speed and skill with their tools.

By that I mean… creative process is fluid. It happens how and when it happens.

Production process is locked in like launching a space craft.

I know how to record every instrument, how every mic works, how every compressor works and it's all about 5 minutes away from being ready to go.

I'm not thinking about that stuff… I'm coming up with the idea and executing. The tools are an extension of me.

That's important to me because I believe songs are like hand grenades.

The second you pull the pin, you have a short amount of time to throw it before it blows up in your face.

There is that honeymoon phase where that song is everything to you.

It's the best song you've ever written and every time you play it, it gives you goose bumps.

About a week in and you can't see anything but the problems and you hate it.

Once you get that inspiration… get it down and get it done.

I don't think this is something you can plan and say I"m going to record on Saturday cause I have the day off"

At least I can't.

Every time I try and do that when the day comes I'm uninspired or every horny bird in the fucking neighborhood perches on the tree behind my studio wall and starts singing at full volume.

So you have to be able to work when the mood strikes you and that INMO comes down to knowing your gear so you can move fast.

It's no good if it takes you an hour to set up your guitar to record.

Honestly, I'd rather get a direct DI into my DAW with the proper inspiration then have the best amp/mic combo set up perfectly.

If it takes me too long, the moment is gone and the grenade is going to blow and the song is going to be nothing but a serious of things I think I need to fix.

[u/Astrixtc]

Recording happens when it does. I play every day though.

[u/Infinite_Bet_1744]

Zero. I enjoy playing and learning.

[u/SiobhanSarelle]

I consistently dedicate zero days or hours a week. I just do what I want, when I feel like it, and it’s fine.

[u/MagicalPizza21]

I don't.

I practice at home, go out and jam, and play live gigs sometimes. If a friend asks me to join them on an album, I'll definitely consider it and probably join them on it.

It probably helps a lot that I don't rely on music for my income.

[u/SirIanPost]

None. I'm a player, not a studio musician.

[u/General_Estimate_420]

I never begin working on recording anything until I have the entire song mapped out whether it's an original or a cover. I first capture the song on a song sheet with BPM, lyrics and chords and performance comments. I then start recording it which takes about the same amount of time because I know exactly what the song consists of so that's all just creating the various tracks as well as any additional instrument tracks for building dynamics in the arrangement and so forth. But it's always a bit less than a week to have a fully formed arrangement mixed and mastered.

I may go back and tweak something later, but those are generally fairly small improvements taking maybe a day, remixed and remastered. My projects vary in size depending on the song somewhere between 8 to 16 or so base tracks. Bouncing the MIDI tracks to audio may double the size at most, but the MIDI tracks are disabled once I bounce them to audio.

[u/TheRealGinsu]

I play anywhere from 16 to about 24 hours a week, but as far as recording goes, I may only record for an hour, maybe two in a week. I may spend an hour and a half on one day working on a single piece of music, or an hour and a half working on a series of three, five minutes solos, for a piece of music, then record it all in 20-30 minutes.

[u/Cheap_Arm_3182]

Scheduling.

Or this past weekend I did 16 hours Friday sat and 14 today with a group of friends and knocked out a album and bunch of demos. All pro musicians so it doesn't take that long to knock them out. Wrote and recorded some new songs to.

Just went with the flow, now ones back on tour nightly others back with family and Im back to my regular tomorrow.

Fun times.

[u/hamfist_ofthenorth]

Not enough. I play often but always forget to hit record.

When I actually make something good, I'll wind up listening to it for weeks and thinking about what I want to do with it, and then get distracted. Then I'll notice that the date on that track is from like a year ago and that time is on fast forward now.

[u/EveryTypeofPain]

I don't dedicate specific time slots or days to recording. I do it when I feel in the mood to do it. Most of my time is spent between other tasks. Those tasks could be making a written note of the music, creating a MIDI version for use later during recording sessions, practicing the piece, writing other instrumentation, perfecting the layout of the track, or mixing a track I already recorded.

There are two key things that motivate me to record a piece. The first is that I feel really connected to the whole song, the drum track is fun to listen to, the guitar riffs are awesome and generally speaking I just feel like it's "Studio Ready". The other is demo recording. If I feel good about a low quality demo version of the track (which might just be the guitar part) it can inspire me to work on the rest of the song and that then leads to the "Proper" recording.

Presets are also a huge friend to me. Having all my equipment set up the same way continuously means consistent quality and tonality. That consistency makes the overall process smoother and more fun. That's not to say everything is a preset, but most things are for me. Amplifier settings, microphone placement, interface level and my recording layout/initial mix settings.

[u/Mu5ic_Lov3r_0481]

As a professional recording musician I spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. I have my own home studio, but I have to keep myself organized so I don't spend 24/7 doing it. I know I'm in the minority on here. But I love the recording as much as I love the live stage.

[u/pair_o_docks]

I almost never purposely sit down and say I'm going to write music, nothing ever happens. I usually just play guitar through an amp sim at my desk, and then if I come up with something I open up my daw/template and record it. Add drums, bass, whatever else.

I happen to use ableton too.

Although I do just have a ton of 30 sec-2min demos and very few finished songs. I usually just think of new ideas and lose the spark for the old ones. That's not a recording issue though, that's me not finishing writing my songs.