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blimix"I'm not motivated to do anything," I said yesterday. We had spent four days scraping and painting, my planned "down time" after Tuesday's dinner (fun pot-luck; we learned to play Hanabi) had been eaten up by kitchen cleaning, and I had utterly exhausted myself with martial arts Wednesday night. I didn't even have the mental energy to play computer games.
So I went upstairs, pulled out the guitar, and played a whole bunch of Jonathan Coulton songs. That doesn't require any motivation. Rather the opposite: I have to make an effort of will to stop playing. (The thought process usually goes, "My hands really can't take any more. Fine. I'll put the guitar down after two more songs.")
Just like that, I was recharged. I sat at the computer, loaded up the song I've been working on, listened to and took notes on twenty-five tracks of a half-minute kazoo instrumental, spliced together pieces of the four takes that didn't suck, and spent way too long fixing their dynamic range. I rearranged audio cables and re-recorded the MIDI, separating the instruments this time so that I could adjust and pan them independently in the mixing software. I tweaked some vocals by 30 ms. I experimented with reverb, which went much better than before (now that I know what "wet gain" and "dry gain" are).
And so, on a day when I was not motivated to do anything, I put in the work to finish a beta version of the song whose recording and mixing have been a pain in my ass for, well, longer than I care to admit. It's been the sort of project on which contemplating working suddenly reminds one that there is laundry to be done, grass to mow, and a cat to floss, so one should probably do those things, and work on the project tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow. Unless the birdbath needs cleaning instead.
I think the end might even be in sight, if I squint just right.
So I went upstairs, pulled out the guitar, and played a whole bunch of Jonathan Coulton songs. That doesn't require any motivation. Rather the opposite: I have to make an effort of will to stop playing. (The thought process usually goes, "My hands really can't take any more. Fine. I'll put the guitar down after two more songs.")
Just like that, I was recharged. I sat at the computer, loaded up the song I've been working on, listened to and took notes on twenty-five tracks of a half-minute kazoo instrumental, spliced together pieces of the four takes that didn't suck, and spent way too long fixing their dynamic range. I rearranged audio cables and re-recorded the MIDI, separating the instruments this time so that I could adjust and pan them independently in the mixing software. I tweaked some vocals by 30 ms. I experimented with reverb, which went much better than before (now that I know what "wet gain" and "dry gain" are).
And so, on a day when I was not motivated to do anything, I put in the work to finish a beta version of the song whose recording and mixing have been a pain in my ass for, well, longer than I care to admit. It's been the sort of project on which contemplating working suddenly reminds one that there is laundry to be done, grass to mow, and a cat to floss, so one should probably do those things, and work on the project tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow. Unless the birdbath needs cleaning instead.
I think the end might even be in sight, if I squint just right.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-05-23 06:48 pm (UTC)If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would ever get done.
--Beth