Cataloging Guitar Riffs??

[ThunderKyss]

Do any of you guys have a tip on how to catalog your guitar riffs?

I'm thinking of buying a sampler, an MPC or something cheap off ebay. I want to be able to quickly record a riff I come up with. If I don't come up with anything to go with it at the time, I want to be able to save it some place I can come back to it from time to time when I'm hard up for ideas.

I'm thinking with an MPC, or an MV8000/8800, I can save it to a disk. Then when I'm looking for ideas, I can power up the MPC/MV scroll through a bunch of licks & if something comes to me, load it into the machine & start building a song.

I know you guys have got to do something like that.

I've got Sonar, been using it for years, but it isn't easy to make small samples. I can record the riff to a track, then mute it and move to another track to record another riff, then go to another track.... but to do all that, I've got to load up the software, open a project, set the track up, then hit record. If I want to go back to a collection of riffs, they'll be saved in all kinds of different places & I'll have to search through my computer to find them.

I've got pro tools LE 7.4 now, have had it for a while. But never really used it.

So, what do you think? Is there an easy way to do this?

[Muzza_Boogie]

I've recorded ideas on my iPhone.. including jams.. doestnt sound to sh*t hot but the idea is captured with next to no fluffing around.
Hate it when I have a cool sounding riff and by the time I've tried to boot PT, reboot the mac so it can see the 11r yadda yadda I can't bloody well remember the riff exactly!!

[udamann88]

I have a Pro-Tools session titled "Licks & Ideas"........

I open it up & record ideas to be used at a later point in time.........(Sometimes I even bounce them to an mp3 & put them in a set folder)

That way I've got the Rig saved (embedded) too........

My boy Mr. Mark Tremonti uses a cheap digital recorder & saves ideas into different folders as well........Like "Intro ideas", "Verse ideas"...etc...etc..etc...& uses them when he needs them......

I use to do that as well..........fwiw

Good luck!

[Grey]

Pro tools....

i do the same as above...I have a Template set up for just ideas, record everything

keep whats good, then bounce to disc for itunes, ipod, iphone or cd for the car

[udamann88]

Originally Posted by Grey

keep whats good, then bounce to disc for itunes, ipod, iphone or cd for the car

Oh yea......This is another thing I do & great tip there Grey........

Bounce ur $tuff to a disk & take a drive w/ your new lick, song or solo.......It's great to hear the mix in a different context......

+10000

[CoiLive]

What is do is:

Sit in front of my iMac (this is also where my eleven rack is), just playing around. Then when I play something I like, I just launch quicktime and make a movie recording. This way I can also see how I'm playing it, capos, give some verbal and non verbal comments etc :)

[udamann88]

Originally Posted by CoiLive

What is do is:

Sit in front of my iMac (this is also where my eleven rack is), just playing around. Then when I play something I like, I just launch quicktime and make a movie recording. This way I can also see how I'm playing it, capos, give some verbal and non verbal comments etc :)

I'm going to try this (nude of course)!

Jokes aside....This is a very nice tip.......& I never would have thought of it.....well.........excpet for the nude part...... lol

Great idea!

Thx CoiLive!

[singtall]

i use sonar also. when i come up with a riff that i think is good, i force myself to record at least that riff and render it as a mp3 file, then i post it to soundclick for cataloging in case my pc goes down. if the riff is really good (to me) i will go through the process of double tracking the guitars, adding bass, and doing some drums via keyboard. once i get a quick mix going i upload it to soundclick.

the value of soundclick to me is that i can let those riffs simmer for a while, then check back to see how many listens it gets. the ones that get the most listens and comments are the ones that i consider for a full cd project.

[ThunderKyss]

Originally Posted by Muzza_Boogie

I've recorded ideas on my iPhone.. including jams.. doestnt sound to sh*t hot but the idea is captured with next to no fluffing around.
Hate it when I have a cool sounding riff and by the time I've tried to boot PT, reboot the mac so it can see the 11r yadda yadda I can't bloody well remember the riff exactly!!

I like this idea, & need to start doing it.

I don't have an iPhone, but I do have a sound recorder.

I don't always have my guitar with me, but I can at least hum it & work it out later when I get my guitar.

Thanks.

[ThunderKyss]

Originally Posted by udamann88

I have a Pro-Tools session titled "Licks & Ideas"........

I open it up & record ideas to be used at a later point in time.........(Sometimes I even bounce them to an mp3 & put them in a set folder)

That way I've got the Rig saved (embedded) too........

My boy Mr. Mark Tremonti uses a cheap digital recorder & saves ideas into different folders as well........Like "Intro ideas", "Verse ideas"...etc...etc..etc...& uses them when he needs them......

I use to do that as well..........fwiw

Good luck!

I was thinking about getting an MPC so I could do that. Mainly because I can save the riffs (samples) in different folders that I can name.... intro, verse, outro, etc.... then I can preview the riffs before I load them when I'm in song writing mode. I can load the samples onto different pads, stretch them if needed to match tempos, then I can work out the arrangement.

Then I saw this video & I think this is what I'm going to do. Looks like I can export my regions (samples) to the different folders, then preview them pretty quickly when I'm in song writing mode.

I didn't know you could do that with Pro Tools.

So... what can I do about working out arrangements? I should be able to beat detective the samples right? get them to match? then just copy & past them around..

what do you think?