What is your opinion about your own music?

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

Hello people,
I know we all had this crisis in our life when the productivity and creativity took a downfall and we hit rock bottom. I had something similar couple of years ago. Somehow this turned out to be a good thing and i came back with more enthusiasm and joy when i turned my machines back on… Let’s say these crisis are a good thing.
What about when your opinion about your own music takes a downfall?
In the process of creating music and experimenting and playing with sounds it feels like nothing on this earth. When you finish your track it feels like you just made a new descendant. Then you listen to these tracks you feel wow i need to show this to everyone. I’m not talking about ego driven showing off but you really feel you have to put it out there. You feel that what you made is great and awsome and everyone should hear it. So you decide to make a beat tape or a cd or whatever… By the time you finish it you already listened to your tracks so many times not to mention you created every single sound from scratch so you know all the tracks inside out. Then something happens… I can’t explain it but i feel like every track is shit… Heard it to many times…
Hhhh, I know right?? What is that??

I know for someone who hears it for the first time it must be great experience, but where am I in this equation? I am ruled out as an artist.

So my opinion about my music is that when i finish the track it is not mine anymore. It transforms into something else that is from everyone and for everyone to experience.

I must say i feel better after writing this post.

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Do you like your own music?
#2

Well fwiw I’ve read that many world’s top mixers cringe after hearing their mixes on the radio. I guess it’s very common and a human thing to occur.

Personally, I need to give time for the music before listening to it. This way I have forgotten most of the processes a bit and feel like I can evaluate things more objectively, if that makes any sense. It is far more easier to evaluate what is shit/meh/good/great from listening to stuff made years ago.

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#3

I give it plenty of time before showing anybody else - lets me check it with a fresh brain before embarrassing myself too much.

#4

My problem is that i love it to make techno, and i appreciatie it, but i listen to satie, Frahm, chet baker, and other silent kinds of music. Since 10 years i dont do any techno party, like yesterday Ben Klock was in town and i was not there.

I decided to repair my piano this week and play that when the beats are to intense for me. Then the time comes to make techno again by itselves.

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#5

i guess thats pretty normal @Lemajik. the more work you spend on creating a track the more you feel that it has to be perfect. so you listen to the track, over and over again, trying to find parts where it still needs work. and you find so many that you could go crazy in the end. you have the feeling: what is going on? it sounded great as i started, what have i done? why does it sound shitty now? does it need something else? do i have to adjust that lead sound again? or do i need to work on the drums - again?? the answer is usually: no, everythings ok. its you.

its the same effect that we all know when listening to great tracks from others: you hear them first, they sound great to you so you listen to them over and over again because you like them so much - and after a while you are simply sick of em. the exact same thing happens with your own music if you listen to it for too long. i therefore try to create tracks as fast as i can. using the elektron machines helped me a lot with this. i hit record in the DAW, start the jam and hit stop. what i have is what i have :wink: the endless possibilities in the DAW can sometimes drive you crazy so you do more than you actually need to do. limiting yourself is a good medicine to fight the reach for perfection. what ive learned from my jams on my elektron machines is what i now try to transfer over to the DAW productions. and so far so good - it worked for me :wink:

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#6

That’s pretty common. Accept it

#7

Yeah it’s a tough one man. You go from liking things to hating to liking again.
And it’s impossible to be objective about it either, it’s your babies you know!

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#8

I go through this as well.
It’s not limited to music, yet with music I put more limitations on it than other things I create, for some reason.
For work I do animation, and work in a studio.
We have reviews with everyone, and smaller team reviews.
After you look at something too long, all you see is whats missing or whats not working well, and you can’t see a solution because you used everything you got to get it there.
You need fresh eyes on it, not your own fresh eyes, others eyes/ears.
For some reason I think this is harder for people making music than people who make visual art.
Not sure why, but most people I know making music struggle much harder when it comes to outside critique.

Anyways, if you want a solution, set up a critique session with people you trust.
There are people who tell me everything I make is amazing, I dont need them involved in this process.
I need critical, smart people ,who have an eloquent way with words who are capable of discussing solutions.
I need to show them my work, and briefly tell them what I am aiming for, and ask them directly what it needs, then I need to shut up and listen.
I dont need to argue with them, explain why I did certain things, or defend any of my choices.
All I need to do, is shut up, and listen to what they are saying very carefully.
THEN, I can decide what I am going to adjust, change, give up on, pursue, with the next pass on the piece in question.

Whats interesting to me is that if your in a band, or in art studio environment, you get instant feedback at multiple stages.
For example, if you write a guitar riff for your band, you play it and the band is either into it, or not.
I do a first pass on animation (limited poses and frames), then I get feedback from the team.
From there I move forward, getting rid of ideas and injecting things people have mentioned.

This forum can be perfect for that, post your work in progress, get input.
There’s something special about raw input like that, where you dont know people and they dont know you, and they give it to you straight.

For whatever it’s worth, I’ve been working on 2 sets of music for over 2 years, and I hardly share it.
I share it when it’s time too, then I go re-work stuff.
I think it is though this process that you can truly achieve a feeling of “this is good work,” even if you still struggle with the fact that you’ve heard it thousands of times.
If I look back over the years, there are tracks I have made that I knew at the time were good songs.
Wether thats in a band, or by myself.
I know when I got something special, that reflects who I am, it has my style and it sounds good to me, I would buy it, listen to it over and over if somebody gave it to me.
It’s important that I break away from myself and judge it based on “if somebody shared this with me, would I play it again?”
If the answer is YES, then roll with, you’re onto something.
Thats as good feeling as your gonna get out of it, and it’s important to recognize in this whole process.

I often have this discussion with friends who create stuff.
We all agree on some level who makes great art, but do those people know they are making that, or do they feel just the same in the process?

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#9

i think its shit. i don’t know why i bother. i spent thousands on these toys… and still bobbins.

i made better ‘shit’ with an out of tune guitar, 3 cables, a zoom rack and a 4 track… jacked into my hifi.

that shit was proper shit as fuck. but better than the shit i do now.

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#10

I tend to like my own stuff. I’m a terrible engineer - I know nothing about recording, gain staging, mixing and stuff, and it shows in my tracks - and coherence is not a forte of mine.

Yet, when I listen to my stuff, the shit I make now and the shit I used to make, I kind of like it.

It helps that friends and family enjoy it too. Sometimes, my son comes up and says: “Dad, play one of your songs.” And I do, and he dances to them, and I’m thinking I’ve got a great audience.

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#11

I like my own stuff, as well. Every now and then, I’ll listen to it(somebody has to) and when I’m a bit delirious/distant/spacey and I’ll think “Man, THIS guy gets it” and then remember that it’s me.

But I understand why my music wouldn’t appeal to other people. I just recently came to the conclusion that my stuff typically is pretty mellow music but polluted with obnoxious sounds. Its hard to relax when you’ve got randomly affected field recordings roaring in circles around. If I took those sounds out, I might have an audience but I would lack my identity.

So whatever. No audience, but I love it. Its a guarantee that one person will connect to it profoundly, its hardly of any consequence that that person’s me.

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#12

Yer but its a lot of fun making that shit.

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#13

I think the length of time and attention to detail when listening has a big factor in how we perceive music. Too much and it causes fatigue of a sort. Some music demands your attention and gets you right away. Some is better in the background and/or takes time to grow on you. Some music is very calculated and some is spontaneous. So for me, my enjoyment of the music I make can vary depending on the project. I burn out easily on stuff that is too calculated anymore. I much prefer the improvised or loosely calculated stuff.

I have noticed that if I put on a track I have in progress and it doesn’t sound great, I start working on it, soon I am wrapped up in it and my ears get used to the sonic qualities I didn’t like at first. That’s a good time to listen to something completely different and regain a proper perspective.

I am also subject to neurotic mood swings about my music. What are my goals, what is the best way to achieve it, what’s cliche, what’s relevant or interesting, what I would release, what I would do by myself, what I would do with a group. It goes on.

#14

I know a track is done when I hate it.
Then I post it and I love it.
Then a day later I hate it until I’ve moved on to a new style. Then I listen back and wonder why I can’t make tracks as good as that anymore.

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#15

Nicely put.

you really ARE “cleverconqueso”

#16

you love your stuff, loads. and your ‘workflow’ too… you on about it all the time.
ands its real great that yr kids like it too

super

my kids say my music sounds like being fistfuckkked under a lead duvet.

i really do take that as an insult. i mean, how can i carry on ?

i have some great compressors and preamps for my microphones and when i say great i mean the BEST. there are so many nuances in my shit they cannot be lost with bad outboard.

But, fizztfukktt that is outrageous, don’t you think?

Im at a loss … i’m taking my belt off as i type.

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#17

Kids are the most honest critics :wink:
I don’t know that many people that create music or at least would give me some constructive comments. The ones i know often take a reference of some well known artists to show me how my music should be and what is banging and so on… It sucks… But they are my friends… The music i make is very dear to me. It defines me in most areas of my life. I sound the way i sound and that is me. I play live and i love playing live but i don’t like the ego squirting stuff that comes along naturally with some people. Maybe my self esteem is not that great in this areas so i soon feel that i don’t belong… Or that my music is shit. Hhh this helps making it worse since i know those tracks inside out :smile:

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#18

Thanks for the reminder. just changed my name from my dogs name, Clever, to Roy. Only posting so your post makes sense.

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#19

I think it’s best that i do my own thing and that’s it…

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#20

I don’t care if people don’t like my tracks, I like it when they enjoy it.
Tracks are milestones on my road to crafting music.
Never perfect, but always with a story…
Snapshots of my mind at that time.

Now little dandelions in the Internet…

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