Getting tired of projects

[macrae11]

Anybody ever just get tired of working on a project? I often hit a wall at about the same time. Usually it's around vocal editing(coincidence? I think not.) It just seems like the last thing I want to be doing is working on this stuff. This isn't just limited to music stuff either. Also I'm a terrible procrastinator, so once I get to doing something else(like surfing the web ) it's hard to get back at it.

What do you guys do when you just need a brain/ear break?

[Mathieu Benoit]

You could start by giving me your vocal edit workload...

I like to distract myself for an hour or two with one of the following:

Movies
Nap
Sex

In that order.

The difficulty is that sometimes deadlines do not allow for it. But over-saturation doesn't help the project either.

[Scott DeVarenne]

Brian Eno, deep breathing and stretching.
Or
1 or 2 episodes of your favorite sitcom/cartoon.
Laughter is a great re-energizer.

[Malcolm Boyce]

I agree with Scott about the humour.

The thing is to give your mind a break from what you are doing.

I like to completely remove myself from the workspace, usually for a walk with my dogs. Fresh air, and a little physical activity completely away from the job at hand does wonders.

Also, some social time interacting with friends takes the mind off the gig and allows you to feel like you're starting back at it fresh. Great excuse to get away from the task that has you burnt out.

Sometimes it's a case where you feel like you're at a dead end in the job, mixing, comping tracks, something where it starts to sound like you're making things worse, not better. You've gotta get away from it to get a fresh perspective.

"Surfing" can be a quick break between tunes or something, but if you've really hit the wall, getting out of the room is what I have to do. I have noticed that a lot of folks use the net, and specifically forums, to break up the monotony of solo studio work. Some busy producer/engineers are online more when they're working, than when they're not...

[Alain Benoit]

I just go do a shutdown.

[oddioguy]

I merely throw the master switch and walk away for 7 years or so.

[Mathieu Benoit]

7 years ago? I was a fetus...

[oddioguy]

7 years ago? I was a fetus...

Yup. I have unfinished business from that far back.

U1176 is right, I need to get hammered and jam.

[Jef]

If you find yourself working on a project that you know is going to take a while, and you know you're going to get bored with it before you're done, you may want to consider sharing the workload. The initial repetitive processes that don't require critical listening such as removing silence, cleaning up extraneous noises, normalizing tracks, and whatever other pre-mix processes you might want to do could be delegated to an assistant. If you leave only the more complicated tasks for yourself, you may not get tired of it quite so quickly.
If you can't share the workload (for whatever reasons) then I would have to agree with the rest of the replies. Shut it down and walk away. You'll just end up wasting time second guessing yourself after you've heard the same vocal line for the 200th time. Leave it for a while (completely), get everything out of your head and come back the next day. You'll see things in a whole new light.

[macrae11]

I am very lucky to have a full time assistant, but it seems most of the time he's so busy doing double duty tracking keyboards or percussion while I'm editing that he doesn't have time to do all my dirty work. For future projects after we get through this busy period I'll probably get him on more stuff like this. It was great doing the Ken session with Matt there to do my bidding whenever I needed him.

I think taking a walk/exercising/stepping out for a minute is the best advice and works well for me. Unfortunately with the deadlines I'm facing right now, there's not a lot of time for putting it away for a day and coming back to it. Luckily I have two other great guys to help me out or I'd be going insane.
We have two Christmas albums that have to be out by the end of next week and we're still doing tracking!!