By building tracks on OP1 I overdub to more or all four tracks to my liking and mix the incoming levels while going. Then, coming back some time later with fresh ears, I hear the unbalances and failures in loudness I did. But in the moment I record them, they seem right to me, probably due to some ear fatigue effect as you hear the loops over and over while building them.
So, as they are then baked into the tracks I can’t change anything which means I have to get better beforehand to be able to make the right decision upfront. But how can I do that? I don’t think it’s just a taste kind of thing, because It sometimes really sounds off when I listen to it later. On the other hand I really like getting lost in the the music while creating it, so I don’t want to take breaks all the time to refresh my ears but then fall out of the process.
Any recommendations on how I could get better in finding the right amount of input level or loudness by adding sounds on one track and get the right balance for the sounds on there?
That’s part of the magic, and unfortunately a limitation. Some things I do.
The obvious- always lift and drop so you have something to revert back to if overdub goes south. Understood this isn’t necessarily a very efficient approach if you are revisiting a day later (listener fatigue).
You can only work on (1) 4 track reel at a given time, is your song a full 6 minutes? If not, treat that reel as more of a working space - enough room on there to make a redundant backup, etc.?
Other things-
Do you use album at all?
Do you ever bounce tracks down and out into sampler?
For all the limitations, I do think op-1 is very efficient/ quick moving audio around from tape, sampler, album, thru effects, gain staging and back/forth.
yea i agree
i think u just have to embrace it more than u might like to
and embrace the other tools at your tips as well
to get where u think u are heading
for better and worse
i will say tho
the more i gave in
and the more i practiced overdubbing, resampling, etc
helped me be more mindful of what i was laying down
the better my mixing skills got
the less time i was spending after the fact trying to fix things etc
really helped me change my mindset and approach to music making
maybe life in general too