Now that I've gotten a little bit of recording underway, I have to say that knowing the tools you use whether for recording, composition, or any thing else in between is paramount. Case in point: I decided to try and record demos of the songs and then take what poetry I have and convert it to lyrics, then I'll try to shape the demo based on vocals and record a drum track from these basic demos. While doing this, I'm ever thankful for Mixcraft 6 and my GT-100 pedal board. However, there are problems with recording using the pedal board: random peaking. This doesn't register in the DAW as a peak, but it's very audible and there's some high-frequency fuzz that seems to come out when using it for bass. Again, know your tools people and they can help you! My failing here is that I probably haven't figured out the right on-board levels to keep it from peaking. This doesn't bother me as much because I intend to half-ass these demos only so I can get an overall idea of the sound and how it's going to change when I do this or that. But I plan on fixing this when I sit down to actually work everything out with the drum track. Bottom line: if there's a problem, consult the manual or find a book/forum, the solution is out there!
With that said, I would now like to take a moment and plug a very good tool for composition: Band in a Box. This tool is great for generating ideas, however my suggestion would be not to overtly copy anything from it as it has a tendency to produce very generic results. All the same though it's a great little tool with tons of styles and components I have yet to even break into. The earlier versions aren't too expensive either and seem to give very similar results to later versions (as far as I can see).
On to the next bit: rhythm. I know I've stated quite a few times that rhythm is king in the process of writing a song, but even then I have understated its value. Rhythm (along with other factors pertaining to the style) can turn just three chords into something bluesy or jazzy or funky or punk rock or whatever! This is great news, because by just changing the rhythm of something, even to a small degree, you can add a different feel to things. However rhythm can also be a curse when you get locked into certain patterns. There's nothing wrong with that of course, but similar rhythms can contribute to your material sounding the same. Yeah sure you take a band like the White Stripes and you hear Meg playing just about the same rhythm everywhere, but we could just as well say that that's an element of their style. Whatever it is, if you're having problems coming up with something interesting or something "new" try a change of rhythm here and there. Instead of a half note, hold the chord out for a whole note, or just play the chord on a quarter or eighth note. You'd be surprised how much room this frees up to add something in! You'd also be surprised how much better something might sound if you took a few things out and made it more simple! Either way, this is a problem I experience and I hope to overcome, so I wish the same to any of you also experiencing this problem.
As usual, good luck to all your endeavors, any and all anonymous readers and thank you for tuning in.