Going into the studio? Hold these competing thoughts as true.
- Any given take is trivial – if I make a mistake, I can just take it again.
- This is the most permanent archive I’ll have of my current music-making; I want to get it as perfect as possible.
(If you want, you can add: 3. Time is money, so be as fast as possible.)
If you focus too hard on #1, you might not end up with good results. (Complacency in the studio will leave you with takes you won’t like next week.)
If you focus too hard on #2, you might not end up with good results. (Perfectionism in the studio is a huge momentum-stopper.)
You’ve got to have both.