clinton wrote:I think you're right Andrew. One more question. Am I being lazy here or should I suck it up and learn how to record on a PC?
Well that's a large question that's pretty tough to answer. Here's my perspective though, and you can tell me if I'm wrong. You're a musician not an engineer, and I'm guessing that's the way you'd like to keep it. In an ideal world you'd hire someone like me, Matt, Malcolm, or Sean Boyer to sit behind the computer/console all day while you focus all your energies on being creative. That's probably never going to be a feasible solution. In my mind the next best solution is to work at home on demos with whatever type of recording equipment you have, then take that product and flesh it out in a proper studio, again with someone else handling all the techno jibber jabber so you can create and perform to the best of your abilities. I know(believe me I know) that this often isn't feasible either, and you've also gotten accustomed to being able to record and create at home at your leisure.
The problem with this approach is that you're always splitting yourself. Everybody has a finite amount of time available to them, and the more time you spend on tech matters the less you have to put into creative endeavors. Now sometimes diving into the tech world can be a creative reprieve, which can lead to renewed creativity and new ideas. More often than not though I see it as a stumbling block for artists who end up getting frustrated with the issues that they aren't equipped to solve. I really think this is part of the problem with modern music, that artists are split to many ways and end up being less effective at artists, which is what they're meant to be, due to the competing interests they've been forced into just to survive. So much for the democratization of music production eh?
So that's the negative.
On the positive learning to do this stuff in a computer, or a proper studio with a large format analogue console, can be very much like learning a new instrument, with many of the same rewards. However, as you know, there is time and effort required to reap the rewards. It's certainly my instrument, but it's not as simple as learning banjo when you can play guitar. It's more like learning music theory from the ground up.
I disagree with Matt and Malcolm that it would potentially take as little as a few days or hours to really "get this working". Yes you could be making some sounds, but nothing kills a creative vibe faster than having to go and change buffer settings because there's a delay from what your hands are doing to the sound your hearing. And that's assuming you recognize what the problem is and how to fix it. Now hypothetically if you had someone build a working system and show you the basics of how to use it, you could get to work right away and build from there. Basically the equivalent of learning G,C, and D(which is maybe all you'll ever need).
For me, if I'm learning some new software it takes me 3-5 days working 6-8 hours per day for me to get comfortable enough to get "creative". So that's 20-40 hoursish, which doesn't sound like a lot, but the more I spread it out, the longer I find it takes, which I'm assuming you'd have to do. Also I have 10 years of experience playing with similar programs, so I know where to watch for the pitfalls. Learning a new paradigm(computer vs desktop recording) adds a whole nother level of work to do, beyond just software knowledge. I know what this feels like because I've been learning 3 new graphics programs which I started in October, and I'm just barely starting to be able to be comfortably creative in them. And I'm using them for work, and often for 4-5 hours at a stretch.