It sounds weird, but I don’t think of it as ‘my’ music. I guess I don’t feel enough ownership, yet. Perhaps it’s just not mature enough. But for me it’s generational, say, I reached a peak with being in bands, I reached a peak as a solo guitarist, and now maybe I’m approaching a new peak with electronics. So I don’t feel I am fully there yet, because the instrumentation is always changing. Or more that it ebbs and flows, and then, when I look back, yeah, I did make some cool stuff, but it was all so long ago. There was a time where I made a LOT of experimental electronic music, just any sound I could get out of anything. But that phase is kind’ve over, and a lot of that music is actually really bad. But it was a testing phase. Now I understand a lot more about synthesis, and while I could always learn more, I’m at a point now where I can exercise a great deal of control over what I want. So, my opinion about my own music is that it hasn’t happened yet, but it feels like it’s about to. This whole new suite of compositions and tracks, its basically what next year is all about for me. And I think, you know, when you are trying stuff out, its easy to fall into a genre, but really nice things happen when you just let go a bit and run with things in a spontaneous way. I hope I have something next year and my opinion of it is high enough that I might release it and share it with everyone here.
I admit, I do like my own tracks. 
But that’s because I only release things that I’ve put 100% effort into. I have a ton of unfinished pieces and half-ass loops. I think about putting them on SoundCloud sometimes as Works In Progress, but I guess I don’t see the point really. I like the album format. I like crafting and perfecting and honing a group of tracks until I’m certain I can’t make them any better. I like layering sounds, musical references, and field recordings almost like subliminal messages. Sweating over details for months and years that no one else will ever notice or care about, I’m sure. I like making the cover art, perhaps making a little promo video, website, etc. I want the whole release to be the absolute best I can do.
Why?
I guess perhaps, in part, due to working a day-job in a field where my little “creations” get abused, compromised, watered down and picked apart all the time. I’ve given up trying to find satisfaction or fulfillment creatively at work. So I need something that’s all mine, not attached to money or income in any way, that I can honestly say it’s my best effort and from the heart, even if the end result is deemed good or bad or mediocre when compared to other artists - well, the listener is the judge of that. But I am always going to be 100% satisfied with my tracks, or they wouldn’t see the light of day. That’s the deal I’ve made with myself.
I also don’t want to look back when I’m old and wish I had tried harder. Regrets, if only, etc. If I “fail” I know it’s not from lack of effort - it’s because I just didn’t have it in me. And that’s okay. So I’m not Aphex Twin. Not everybody can be Lebron James either but it doesn’t stop people from playing basketball on local courts every day with all the passion and intensity they can possibly muster. Just because you’re not a “pro” doesn’t mean you shouldn’t push your limits and play as hard as you can.
Although, honestly, this approach does tend to lead to a bit of perfectionist stagnation sometimes. I think it’s good to push your limits on a big project at least once in life. Then at least you’ll know what you’ve got in you. But I also totally get it that some people just love to play casually and create looser style tracks here and there. Not saying there’s anything wrong with that at all! In fact, I’m thinking of having another musical persona where I release looser hardware jams, and save the fussed-over DAW-polished stuff for my Mt Indigo project.
I guess my take on it could be summed up - if you don’t like tracks you release, then it’s a signal to keep honing it? Something is nagging you about it. It needs to be cooked some more. Otherwise why release it? You should be proud of your work, for the most part, right? Figure out what bothers you about a track and fix it.
Absolutely my approach and philosophy as well. And SO FUN, to me, the pursuit of excellence and attention to the tiny details.
My only regret and one that I’ve just decided I’ll have to accept: I do get sick of my songs by the time they’re released. There are untold listens to the works in progress inherent to this process. And I enjoy this listening process as I’m always hearing some change or improvement, tiny or drastic such as re-tracking in another key. So I’m not necessarily burned out while this is going on as any change for the better simply reignites my passion for the track. But…when all is said and done I really am done with it. For at least a year.
So it’s a bit of a mind fuck, releasing something when you know it couldn’t improved on but being tired as hell of it. Cuz then with normal self doubt and insecurity, I have been know to ask myself whether it was worth it. But I know it is.
@William_WiLD Cool! 
@Zwolf Good points. Yes, fun, and exhausting afterwards.
I guess there is a time where I know I’ve done my very best possible yet sick of hearing a song I’ve made. I will usually just shelve things and come back to them a couple weeks later. Sure doesn’t help speed up the release process, but I always find new things to fix when my ears have rested. I take meticulous notes when listening/mixing and fix all the issues I find. Then I repeat this rest-then-listen process until my page of “issues” gets smaller, smaller, and then finally disappears.
But yeah, I guess I get sick of hearing my stuff after that end-of-project listening/mixing process. But about 4-5 months down the road I can usually listen to the completed project on headphones at work, smiling a bit, enjoying it, and remembering all the effort that went into it.
But it takes me about a year as well, or more perhaps, for me to once again get into heavy production mode. I think I’m still exhausted from my last album - which is why I think I need a more casual side-project.
Yes, it is a mind-fuck! At the end, I ask myself is it truly done or am I just so tired I can’t continue tweaking? I think if you can shelve things a while before releasing, it’s a good way to find out. Luckily I can do this as it’s just for me, no record company breathing down my neck. 
Btw, the album sounds great to me. Very spacey, dreamy, dark, and deep. Some really nice funky synth basslines in there. Good funky beats (like on on Flenter)! I like the mix of breaks and percussion along with other classic drum machine sounds. Good pads and synth-work tie it all together (like on Blueberry Shake). Good arranging and skills at keeping the listener interested as the song progresses. Solid work, imo.
man I identify with this to the core of my soul. Spot on!
I think that music we make keeps us emotionally satisfied and if you make music just because you love making it and I think we all have machines that help in this regard, is something what humanity is craving for. It gives such meaning to my life. Even though sometimes my lack of self esteem and insecurity prevails. But only then when I step into a spotlight. I was always like this. But in the process of making music I feel like I’m travelling into other dimensions. I get so much satisfaction out of it like nowhere else. Let it be sad, happy, crazy or plain stupid. In comparison with breakdance that I used to practice and battle for 12 years, I never got this kind of kick like I get in my little studio at home when I make something come to life. I’m like banging my speakers and dancing like stupid. When that happens, when it clicks with me, this is the ultimate satisfaction. You cannot sell that. From that moment on, when I finish the album, is like I’m on the stage, spinning on my head in a huge hall with no people. I have to give it out there but not in a sense that I want something in return. I already got my satisfaction during the process of making it.
After writing this and again remembering my purpose of making music, I decided to make my album free as all the previous ones are. I cannot charge for something like that.
@Bwax Thanks for your kind words!
My musical style is stuck in the 90s. I really enjoy making the music I make though.
Is it ground breaking? No. Is is particularly original? No. But it sure is fun to make.
It’s like active meditation…as long as it’s fun, I’ll keep doing it and be happy with my 20 listens and 1 “like”
Thats a pretty casual attitude man, i like that But isnt there always a tiny little urge to improve on what you always did? To reach a broader audience? To get “better”? I think thats what drives mankind since its existence. I cant imagine that it is so different when we create music. We are humans in the end, right?! 
We like that music for the roots : and we always came back to the roots 
so … not a problem at all … when it’s modernized a bit
There are some nice thougths here that I appreciate and the original post resonates with me.
I am not a pro musician, so I focus on the process and what I learn with every piece I make. I enjoy this so much that I indeed like the things I make and feel the urge to share my happiness/track to make it real … only then to regret it later when I realize what I could have done differently and /or better. I then try to convince myself that I should not share the stuff because, afterall, I do this only for me and no-one else, just for the process of making music and what I learn on the way … But this is, of course, not honest as I want to share the experience and I like to engage with people through DJing and making music. While I want to be on my own making the music, I surely don’t want to be alone with it.
Interesting is also the question whether one can find the point when something is done, as in ‘perfect’. As someone who is still on a steep learning curve (and by design will propably always be …) I feel that it is better to finish things off, even if it not “perfect”. My Ableton trainer Keith Mill said, one should finish it when you feel your are 75% there. With regard to learning new techniques and tools, this strategy to move on, feels right to me … only that, inevitably, after a while, I do not feel comfortable with the material
Oh definitely! I’m always experimenting with trying different styles of music, tempos, etc.
This last weekend I put together a nice drum and bass beat and actually tried my hand at rapping over it. I doubt I’ll post that one on soundcloud though
I also just spent a week in New Orleans at Voodoofest over Halloween weekend and heard some amazing and inspiring music. On the plane ride home I tried my hand with some dubstep and basic dub using iMaschine. All that stuff has some influence on my music.
I’m always looking, trying and experimenting…but my true passion is in techno music.
My soundcloud page: https://soundcloud.com/djadonis206
That’s what I like to hear. Sounds like you are tapping into a very special place when making music. That’s a beautiful thing. Exactly, the satisfaction is in the process of making it. Afterwards, what happens, happens. Whether a wider audience appreciates it or not, I think it’s all worth it just to explore our limits and continue learning the craft/art. Best of luck with your album!
This is all why I prefer to work with other people.
They’ll rubber-stamp the stuff I’m not happy with and I’ll end up liking the stuff that they do, which initially sounds wrong.
There’s also an element of - well, that bit’s not my responsibility…
I feel like we have a similar attitude towards music making. I remember being 19 yrs old and me and my friends being unemployed, just jammed all day, recording the jams onto c-cassettes (with a crappy inbult mic of the tape deck no less!). We had a goal of “1 day, 1 tape” lol. Even to this day, I feel mostly the same about making music - it’s a goal in itself. Just playing what you wanna be playing, recording some of it if you feel like it, but not thinking “I’m really going to outdo myself this time, imma make the best album of my career” or anything like that.
To some people that might sound like lacking goals or vision, and I would agree. But why does everything need to have goals in life? I am going to be dead within the next 50 years most likely, and that’s going to be it. I am not gonna start stressing over shouldas or couldas, the meaning of life is not to be immortalized in the history books IMO, its about enjoying your time on this earth and loving people close to you.
It’s evolving, hopefully. Making it is my panacea. I’m not an active listener of my own music if it’s more than a couple years old, though it does get “discovered” by me rarely and enjoyed, and I can get past production faults if I really let myself. I strive to make some purely for myself and to also get paid, both works in progress. I love to learn, and have a pretty varied musical background, but given my working instrument choices, I guess I’m in the vein if some kind of “acoustic electronic tribal” I have no idea where it’s taking me, but I’ll always make music in some form or other. Many inspired comments here, thanks everyone.
Love to read this topic, a lot of different emotions. Sometimes spread across my mind, recognisable also from my earlier years but also in the present just enjoy making something from your mind, always searching for the perfect beat.
Wasn’t that Africa Bambataa 
I hear ya. I like the sentiment of your last paragraph. I can only speak for myself, but I find value in a lot of different approaches to creating art/music. And I certainly have no goals of being immortalized in history books. I don’t think it’s about getting rich and famous. I have about as much chance of going to the moon. But at least once in life, I thought it would be interesting to push my limits. It’s simply an exercise, a test, an experiment, to push one’s limits and make certain there is nothing else you can do better. No regrets, nothing left on the table. It’s a purely personal thing. It’s not like somebody should do that 100% of the time in all areas of life. I don’t think that would be too healthy!
I want to make 3 albums, a trilogy, as good as I can do. Might be dumb, or ridiculously and pointlessly ambitious, but it’s just something I’ve always wanted to do. While I’m at it, might as well be able to look back on them and say I could not have done any better, whatsoever.
I don’t think “everything need to have goals in life”, but having a couple goals here and there, pushing yourself more than usual, and completing them, can be a source of motivation, self-knowledge, and can lead towards a huge amount of learning and satisfaction. But hey, believe me, I am not one of these uber-achievers. In fact one of my favorite books on my shelf is The Underachiever’s Manifesto. Fantastic little book.
Like I said before though, I totally get the just jam and have fun approach.I don’t think either approach is better or worse. I am doing a side-project now like that. I will also probably “retire” from that perfectionist approach after the third album and from then on out just keep things simple and have fun. There’s no one right way. I say try them all.
Well put sir. I wasn’t implying that no-one should aim to do this nor that, just what I personally feel about things. The world would be a boring place if we all had same interests and views.
Also, I am not opposing the idea of challenging yourself and “getting out of the comfort sone” every now and then. Complacency in all areas of life can lead to stagnation. But for me, turntablism and working out at the gym are my current weapons of choice for that 
Next decade it will probably change into something else again. All good.
So I just did this, and really dig it but I think its more because of the work I put in to get the right sounds etc…
https://youtu.be/WlTr8sIM_Ao
P.S. not really a song, more a jam, well one last go of my Jomox Mbase 11, trying to sell it.