Home set up - help me

MagicPigDetective

Ok, I have a Katana 100 and a few pedals. I’m just not getting anywhere, I just widdle away, it may sound nice but I’m not achieving much, in terms of practice or song writing. I come up with ideas everytime I pick up the guitar, but find it hard to translate this into songs, I forget all my ideas. My dreams of playing with a band....... not likely.

I’ve got an ipad and a focusrite interface, but find it hard to get into this arrangement, I’m not keen on garageband on the ipad, its just not working for me. I’m on the verge of buying a new laptop and a hx stomp. What I want is to:

record song ideas 
play along to songs on apple music or youtube, and record 

I assume the use of Reaper for the above ? 

I’m thinking that a windows laptop/ monitors/ hx stomp combo could cover all my needs, plus I can use some of my pedals too. I need to let go of unrealistic fantasies of playing in a live band- let’s face it it’s not happening, and focus 100% on home playing. I’ve got some nice pedals but on their own they are getting me nowhere.

My main query is with a HX Stomp into an laptop, how easy is it to play along to songs?
Any thoughts about a traditional set up at home vs embracing the new tech? 

I’m drowning in a sea of uncertainty and options. Am I just pissing away more money or what? 

andy_k

I'd say, you will be pissing it away, I use a Katana head, which I think sounds awesome for just widdling. It might be the tiny speaker that works better in a home setting, I have a combo that I use live, but love the cuteness of the head in my room.
I have the footswitch, so I have that set for 4 sounds-plus the panel setting, and the update doubled that, so thats 9 sounds to inspire me. I can play along to any other source happily that way, but for capturing ideas, i like to use a Line6 Backtrack-which I dont think is made anymore, you can find them on Ebay, and I bought a second one for when my current one pack in (they do eventually )
If I am having a particularly good idea, I just plug it in and turn it on, it records a DI of everything I play, which I can then put into a Reaper project for editing. You could just leave it on all the time, but then you have a lot of searching to do-as it captures everything. There is the facility to 'Mark' recordings as you work, but I prefer to just use it when I am ready, I think it was a brilliant idea, and the only thing that came close to it was the Gibson guitar lead version-which does the same thing in a different-more clunky way.
I'd like to see a revised version of either-as I think they are good things to have to hand.

Lodious

If you went the Helix Stomp route, would you have the Stomp on the floor or the desk? If it's on the floor, that would mean the monitor output volume control was on the floor. Personally I would not be happy with this, as you could accidentally knock it with your foot. If you accidentally create a feedback loop and you need to kill the output to the monitors quick, having it on the floor is not ideal. 

Personally, if it were me, I'd try to borrow or buy a laptop and use it with headphones and your Focusrite interface with a free guitar amp VST to learn a bit more about the recording process?

How are you monitoring backing tracks at the moment, or are you just playing solo?

Branshen

What is wrong with your ipad setup? A laptop setup might not be better depending on the issues you are facing. 

Musicwolf

MagicPigDetective said:

Ok, I have a Katana 100 and a few pedals. I’m just not getting anywhere, I just widdle away, it may sound nice but I’m not achieving much, in terms of practice or song writing. I come up with ideas everytime I pick up the guitar, but find it hard to translate this into songs, I forget all my ideas. My dreams of playing with a band....... not likely.

I read that first paragraph and the last thing that comes to mind is "this guy needs to buy more tech".

I can very much relate to being in your position (albeit a very, very, long time ago when dinosaurs roamed this Earth).  I can also remember that I struggled over that first hurdle with nothing more that an acoustic guitar and a cassette-radio (I told you that it was along time ago).  There are things that you can do.  Working with others is probably the most powerful but you can also do things like set yourself time limited goals to finish things.  What is holding you back is you.  Accept that your first efforts are going to shit, because nobody starts off being good at whatever they try, but that isn’t a reason not to develop and complete songs.  Looking for a tech solution is just procrastination.

Hattigol

Musicwolf said:

MagicPigDetective said:

Ok, I have a Katana 100 and a few pedals. I’m just not getting anywhere, I just widdle away, it may sound nice but I’m not achieving much, in terms of practice or song writing. I come up with ideas everytime I pick up the guitar, but find it hard to translate this into songs, I forget all my ideas. My dreams of playing with a band....... not likely.

I read that first paragraph and the last thing that comes to mind is "this guy needs to buy more tech".

I can very much relate to being in your position (albeit a very, very, long time ago when dinosaurs roamed this Earth).  I can also remember that I struggled over that first hurdle with nothing more that an acoustic guitar and a cassette-radio (I told you that it was along time ago).  There are things that you can do.  Working with others is probably the most powerful but you can also do things like set yourself time limited goals to finish things.  What is holding you back is you.  Accept that your first efforts are going to shit, because nobody starts off being good at whatever they try, but that isn’t a reason not to develop and complete songs.  Looking for a tech solution is just procrastination.

Couldn't agree more.

It's hard writing songs, really hard. And like anything else, you have to practice at it. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. There's no shortcut for that.

In summary, Effort in = Results out. 

Tech isn't part of that equation in any way.

What you should do if you think tech would help is maybe set a target/goal - i.e Once you have recorded X number of songs, you can buy yourself a Y?

Musicwolf

Hattigol said:

What you should do if you think tech would help is maybe set a target/goal - i.e Once you have recorded X number of songs, you can buy yourself a Y?

Oooh, I'm liking that idea.  I just happen to have a couple of half finished tracks here where I need a good kick up the arse to get them finished.  Carrot is sounding much better than stick.

spark240

Well I tend to agree with others, but it sort of depends what your ultimate goal is.

  More tech may boost your enthusiasm for a while ...but then you may come across obstacles and get fed up again.

And what quality are you looking for....most basic digital devices can sound quiet pro nowadays.

Have you tried some Colab stuff to try and expand on your riffs etc and boost interest ?

MagicPigDetective

Thanks all, you talk much sense and given me much to ponder. I wrote the OP after a bottle of wine, things seem a little clearer now.

My goal is simple, to write a complete song and record. 

Yes I agree, tech and gear is not always the answer. I have mental blocks holding me back, procrastination, lack of confidence. I just need to complete a song, no matter how bad or unoriginal I may think it. I’m too self critical. And then keep going to the next song. Your all right, no amount of tech will sort this out. Perhaps less tech would help, acoustic guitar, write down chords/riffs, like I used to do many years ago.

I'll give the ipad/focusrite/garageband another go. I use headphones, perhaps the garageband amps would sound better through monitors (doh more tech). I may be getting a laptop anyway, not just for guitar reasons. A helix stomp would be OTT for me. 

Good ideas about the target/goals.

In terms of playing along to things, I play thru the katana and play songs with the ipad, sometimes mes I plug it in to the amp’s aux in. I also use a looper. 

Musicwolf

If it helps.............

I find that I suffer from a certain amount of ‘creative inertia’ by which I mean that I find it quite hard to get going but, once I do, ideas just keep coming and I find myself racing to keep up.  I don’t think that I’m by any means alone in this respect.

Just get that first song down, by which I mean written rather than a production masterpiece, and move on to the next.  My first complete song (tune and lyrics rather that just a chord sequence or a riff) was quite naive but it got me started and I proved to myself that I could do it.  I actually revisited it recently and, whilst it was cliched as hell, it wasn’t without some charm.

TheBigDipper

MagicPigDetective said:

Thanks all, you talk much sense and given me much to ponder. I wrote the OP after a bottle of wine, things seem a little clearer now.

My goal is simple, to write a complete song and record. 

Yes I agree, tech and gear is not always the answer. I have mental blocks holding me back, procrastination, lack of confidence. I just need to complete a song, no matter how bad or unoriginal I may think it. I’m too self critical. And then keep going to the next song. Your all right, no amount of tech will sort this out. Perhaps less tech would help, acoustic guitar, write down chords/riffs, like I used to do many years ago.

I'll give the ipad/focusrite/garageband another go. I use headphones, perhaps the garageband amps would sound better through monitors (doh more tech). I may be getting a laptop anyway, not just for guitar reasons. A helix stomp would be OTT for me. 

Good ideas about the target/goals.

In terms of playing along to things, I play thru the katana and play songs with the ipad, sometimes mes I plug it in to the amp’s aux in. I also use a looper. 

I started out using Garageband on an iPad. Then I upgraded to a Mac and Logic. Far too much choice. I'm back on the iPad these days. My goals are similar to yours. It suits me, and recordings can sound really good if you are careful about how you do things.  

I found Dan Baker and his YouTube videos on Garageband iOS quite motivating. 

LastMantra

I'm always a little concerned when people talk about trying to "take note" of their ideas. I think you can end up spending all your time mucking about recording little bits n bobs rather than letting ideas develop. Usually if something is worth developing it will naturally. 
Not that I'm saying you should never do it, or even suggesting that's what the op is doing. Just thinking out loud really.

Tex Mexico

I have a home studio, which is set up and ready to go at a minute's notice at all times.

I deliberately don't use it for practicing or sketching or whatever because I've found that if I do that I waste time trying to develop every fart and squeak into a produced song.

I practice in other rooms. If I have an idea for a song I use the voice recorder on my phone. I never listen back to anything I record on it because I remember the ideas I liked anyway.

If I want to jam along to a record I play the record on my stereo and jam along to it with my guitar and amp. All these gadgets for plugging MP3 players into amps or guitars into CD players or having amps that are also bluetooth speakers are all superfluous horseshit. They'll make you procrastinate more, not less.

Jalapeno

GarageBand is ideal for making demos - Good enough for Donald Fagen of Steely Dan fame.  Particularly on the iPad.

IMHO anything else will involve more expense & learning curve.

Maybe an old-fashioned paper notebook with or without Tab lines might be more immediate and better for recording your ideas ?

MagicPigDetective

Interesting to hear how you go about capturing your creative moments. I have actually recorded some ideas spontaneously direct to my phone, but have not done any more with them. So perhaps that's not been working for me. But, if I don't have a way of recording the idea, next time I pick up the guitar I will have forgotten it. Maybe going back to using pen and paper might work for me. And when it' s more developed, then try to capture if on garageband. Or even perhaps just record me playing the song an acoustic into garageband and overlay vocals.

I find that when I'm not really trying or concentrating, such as playing around with the tv on, something will just come out that sounds good. If I sit down and say, ok I'm writing a song now, well it doesn't seem to happen. Messing about with recording gear etc, seems to sap any creative juice.

Tex Mexico

MagicPigDetective said:

Interesting to hear how you go about capturing your creative moments. I have actually recorded some ideas spontaneously direct to my phone, but have not done any more with them. So perhaps that's not been working for me. But, if I don't have a way of recording the idea, next time I pick up the guitar I will have forgotten it. Maybe going back to using pen and paper might work for me. And when it' s more developed, then try to capture if on garageband. Or even perhaps just record me playing the song an acoustic into garageband and overlay vocals.

I find that when I'm not really trying or concentrating, such as playing around with the tv on, something will just come out that sounds good. If I sit down and say, ok I'm writing a song now, well it doesn't seem to happen. Messing about with recording gear etc, seems to sap any creative juice.

There's three distinct issues there. "Noodling with the TV on" is something I'm sure we all do to an extent and good ideas can certainly sometimes emerge from it, but as a reliable writing method it stinks.

You are also correct that messing around with recording gear can kill your creativity dead. That's because our minds don't easily flip between "create" and "record" modes. You can train yourself to make that switch easier and more fluid, but that's a bit further down the road.

Your issue is that when you sit down and say "I'm writing a song" it doesn't seem to happen. That's because songs don't "happen", they are built. It's a skill like any other, and to use that old cliché, it's 99% perspiration and only 1% inspiration.

To expand upon that, I used to be in a number of bands where I was the main, and usually only, songwriter. Occasionally another band member would bring in a song idea, and much to their dismay it would get shot down (by the other band members too, not just by me). The thing is that the twenty or thirty songs in our band's setlist were picked from the literally hundreds I've written over the years, whereas they had written exactly one song with the expectation it would pass muster.

What I'm saying is that if you want to write songs, you have to get comfortable with the idea that the first few, or few dozen, or even few hundred you write probably won't be very good. It doesn't matter: what matters is that you're teaching yourself the skill of songwriting. How to come up with a bunch of ideas and pick the best one, how to expand that into a theme, how to arrange the theme into a series of parts, how to make the parts flow into each other, and so on. Of course there's art to it, but it is genuinely a skill, and that's what you need to learn. At this point, anything beyond your guitar, a pen and some paper is going to be a bit of a waste. You'll know about it when you really need more than that.

TheBigDipper

MagicPigDetective said:

Interesting to hear how you go about capturing your creative moments. I have actually recorded some ideas spontaneously direct to my phone, but have not done any more with them. So perhaps that's not been working for me. But, if I don't have a way of recording the idea, next time I pick up the guitar I will have forgotten it. Maybe going back to using pen and paper might work for me. And when it' s more developed, then try to capture if on garageband. Or even perhaps just record me playing the song an acoustic into garageband and overlay vocals.

I find that when I'm not really trying or concentrating, such as playing around with the tv on, something will just come out that sounds good. If I sit down and say, ok I'm writing a song now, well it doesn't seem to happen. Messing about with recording gear etc, seems to sap any creative juice.

If your phone is an iPhone, then you might try the free Music Memos app from Apple, if you haven't already. Recording is in mono, to a .CAF file (another Apple format, I believe). It has one button to tap to start recording and automatic recording levels, so nothing to do there. Just tap and then play. It isn't very good at recording loud bands into the built-in mic - lots of brickwalling and clipping. But for something at TV levels it's great. And you can drop the .CAF file into Garageband for iPadOS if you want to work on it later. Either to re-record or just use what you already have. 

The recording quality is a bit better than the Voice Memo app. 

TINMAN82

I use Helix Stomp, which sits on my desk connected to a MacBook for 90% of my guitar playing these days. I can play through headphones or the powered QSC speaker that sits on the floor next to my amp. It’s awesome for playing along to stuff and I’m enjoying GarageBand now too, also using Helix stomp patches.

This was recorded the other day into GarageBand using a downloaded backing track for drums, bass and vocals. I tracked 4 guitar parts using the above kit. Eventually I’ll put a “real” singer on for a lockdown duet (and add a solo in the middle). Good way of “really” learning a song too.

https://soundcloud.com/user-334006050/in-the-midnight-hour-demo-1-fake-vocals-07052020-1116

MagicPigDetective

TINMAN82 said:

I use Helix Stomp, which sits on my desk connected to a MacBook for 90% of my guitar playing these days. I can play through headphones or the powered QSC speaker that sits on the floor next to my amp. It’s awesome for playing along to stuff and I’m enjoying GarageBand now too, also using Helix stomp patches.

This was recorded the other day into GarageBand using a downloaded backing track for drums, bass and vocals. I tracked 4 guitar parts using the above kit. Eventually I’ll put a “real” singer on for a lockdown duet (and add a solo in the middle). Good way of “really” learning a song too.

https://soundcloud.com/user-334006050/in-the-midnight-hour-demo-1-fake-vocals-07052020-1116

Wow that’s cool, apart from the skill of songwriting of which I have much to learn, the combo of garageband, hx stomp, backing tracks, for practice and learning....... I like. 

Greatape

Even a basic looper is a good, quick, jot-it-down tool. Not the perfect solution, bit easy, cheap and if you don't write notation, at least gets the idea out of your head and into the world. 

C19 aside, is there any other reason you don't believe you could join or form a band?

MagicPigDetective

Greatape said:

Even a basic looper is a good, quick, jot-it-down tool. Not the perfect solution, bit easy, cheap and if you don't write notation, at least gets the idea out of your head and into the world. 

C19 aside, is there any other reason you don't believe you could join or form a band?

This is turning into confession time....

Several factors. Lack of confidence and sociability, shyness. Two young kids, work full time and run a b&b, limits time and commitment. And, I live in a rural area, not many opportunities, not many bands around, not many venues. Perhaps if I was really motivated I could find or form a band, or contact some on join my band. Pathetic I know, maybe when lockdown is over I will get the urge or balls to do something about it. 

Looper; actually I have a Boss RC10r, which can save loops, I have captured a few ideas on it.