In The Studio: The Secret To Overdubs

Time To Experiment

It always happens at least once in the overdub phase.

A musician plays something during warm-ups or plays something by mistake during recording that lights up the whole studio and the producer says, “Can you play that again, but do something different on the end?”

Or “Can you play it like that in this section instead?”

And then the chase is on to capture that lightening in a bottle and pour it over a part or section that was lacking before.

But things are never as simple as they seem, as the once-brilliant part is changed to fit the new section or tweaked to better serve the song.

A quick pass turns into hours, and before you know it you’ve spent the entire day working up this single part.

That’s usually the way these things go during overdubs. By the time everyone has worked out the perfect part, the player is too tired to perform it in a convincing manner.

During these times when an entirely new part is being worked out, I’ve found that it sometimes takes two sessions to really make things happen.

The first day you take that brilliant seed of an idea and work it out, and the second day is when the idea flowers and you can properly execute it.

Keeping this fact in mind can save you countless extra hours at the end of a long day: leave the idea alone and come back the next day when everyone is fresh. It’ll probably be performed perfectly on the first take.

When Artistic Block Hits

Sometimes you know the song or the part needs something, but no one can come up with a suitable idea. It’s easy enough to leave it for the next day when everyone is fresh, and chances are that a new idea will indeed spring forth.

But in those few times when everyone runs up against a total creative block, there’s always Oblique Strategies (see Fig. 1).

First published in 1975 and now in its fifth edition, Oblique Strategies is a set of cards created by U2 producer Brian Eno and artist Peter Schmidt that are used by artists of all types to get beyond artistic block or to find a new direction.

Each card contains a phrase or cryptic remark that can be used to break a deadlock or help resolve a dilemmatic situation.

Fig. 1: Oblique Strategies cards.

Here are a few examples of what a card might say:

• “State the problem in words as clearly as possible.“

• “Only one element of each kind.“

• “What would your closest friend do?“

• “What to increase? What to reduce?“

• “Are there sections? Consider transitions.“

• “Try faking it!“

• “Honor the error as a hidden intention.“

You can find out more about Oblique Strategies on their website. An online version of the strategy cards is available, as well as an Oblique Strategies iPhone app.