[KEROUAC1957]

Just wondering if anyone else gets this problem. When I get a song idea I can quite often "play" the song in my head and hear it like a finished recording. So I then start recording the various parts and trying to translate what I can hear, which is very difficult to replicate.

The problem is I then play back the recording in progress and the new version kind of blurs my memory of the original idea. It's hard to explain it but I have the original version which is intangible and which I can't document and the new version which once played creates a new "image" in my head.

Is it just me? I wish I could just plug my brain into the laptop and download the song 

[Sunfighter]

Is it just me? I wish I could just plug my brain into the laptop and download the song 

Give it 50 years you might be able to.

I know what you're saying.  Several times I've tried to write a song which, to a certain extent, imitates another artist's style.  But my lack of writing or recording skill means it never ends up sounding like that artist, or what I originally intended!

I suppose that way you get something that sounds like you.

[tone]

I totally empathise with this problem.

But I think there's another way of looking at it (lack of recording/ arranging/ producing/ mixing skill notwithstanding)

Is it really possible to get the sound of the 'record' in your imagination into the real world? I'd argue that the 'record' you hear in your mind's ear isn't nearly as well formed as your brain tells you it is. Can you hear every drum fill, note by note? What about the variation in the bass parts? Does the acoustic guitar drop out on that last bridge?

I think whatever comes out when you're trying to actualise your song is exciting! It might not be what you imagined, but it might be better - or more fitting, or just different.

There are hundreds of ways to arrange your song, so why get bogged down with a single idea.

Some of my best recordings have been the ones where I've just followed my nose. Have no idea how it should sound other than the acoustic guitar & vocal. Just start adding stuff, and if it works, keep it. If not, bin it. There aren't many better ways to spend the day in my opinion. And it's all great practice.

Just my tuppence there...

[KEROUAC1957]

Yes you are probably right Tone and I probably can't "hear" every detail of the imaginary version. It probably also would help to have more recording/mixing/performing skills to translate what I "hear".

I do also like the "spontaneous" approach

It probably also doesn't help that my production and guitar solos far outshine Spector and Clapton....in my mind.  

[GTB]

Yeah, I did one recently that sounded like Foo Fighters in my head, came out sounding like McFly when I recorded it - gutted

I've started writing notes with the lyrics now trying to describe exactly what my brain is 'hearing'; e.g. 'bass like Budgie', 'chords like Angus', etc,  It's not copying in my book, as long as they're my lyrics and progressions.

GTB

[Neil C]

And don't forget songs have a mind of there own and sometimes they just determine where the tune, arrangement and production end up.
And as we can all read in the reviews now persons Foo Fighters is another McFly and vice verse.
So I'd just go with the flow as Tone says.
  Neil