TO Dusk:
yeah, exactly the same as you on this one. really struggle to find comparitive worth in my tracks compared to ones i think are good. but i find it more just makes you want to improve than gets me down. but its better to be critical of your work than just think its great when its not at the level you'd like it to be.
Do you ever feel inferior when you hear outstanding tracks?
So many great, thoughtful responses. Thank you all. I felt stupid after posting that, but I'm glad I did.
I suppose Steevio is bang on (as usual), those tracks I referred to , those that make you jealous, are usually those borne out of freakish good fortune, or a truly unique moment of inspiration. But I'd just like to create interesting music, even if it's not as anally engineered, tweaked and arranged.
I can give a concrete example of where I fall short; alot of people struggle with basslines, and I know I do. I usually program a deep FM bass, or layer some toms (standard), and just end up programming a syncopated pattern aroudn the kick. This eventually creates a "nice" energetic groove. But we've all heard "nice" energetic grooves like this; a million times; it says nothing. But then I heard this track, it's a tech house number on Dubfire's label, and the bass was this simple, deep, rising and falling sine bend. It was so catchy and earthy, the producer didnt need to add much else except a tight rolling beat and a fx sound. It just *worked* and was instantly catchy, modern and distinctive.
It's like I produce the life and soul out of my music. I guess we've all got to be bold, take risks, do things different every time, and just *leave* those sounds a bit messy.
I suppose Steevio is bang on (as usual), those tracks I referred to , those that make you jealous, are usually those borne out of freakish good fortune, or a truly unique moment of inspiration. But I'd just like to create interesting music, even if it's not as anally engineered, tweaked and arranged.
I can give a concrete example of where I fall short; alot of people struggle with basslines, and I know I do. I usually program a deep FM bass, or layer some toms (standard), and just end up programming a syncopated pattern aroudn the kick. This eventually creates a "nice" energetic groove. But we've all heard "nice" energetic grooves like this; a million times; it says nothing. But then I heard this track, it's a tech house number on Dubfire's label, and the bass was this simple, deep, rising and falling sine bend. It was so catchy and earthy, the producer didnt need to add much else except a tight rolling beat and a fx sound. It just *worked* and was instantly catchy, modern and distinctive.
It's like I produce the life and soul out of my music. I guess we've all got to be bold, take risks, do things different every time, and just *leave* those sounds a bit messy.
I happened to catch your music before you removed you myspace link ( why did you remove it? )
Amazing is a word that first comes to mind.....
You make better music than I but I feel your pain, you want to get more 'underground' and maybe more dissonant in your musical output?
I have been there ( still am ) I initially started out in electronica with progressive House but have leaned further into 'other fields of electronic discovery' so to speak.
Anyway, the stuff you have on your Myspace is dying for release, we have a small label which is ( early in terms of birth ) trying to take on quality output, we'd like to get those tunes out there.
Drop me a PM for more INFO. Take care bud...
Jay.
Amazing is a word that first comes to mind.....
You make better music than I but I feel your pain, you want to get more 'underground' and maybe more dissonant in your musical output?
I have been there ( still am ) I initially started out in electronica with progressive House but have leaned further into 'other fields of electronic discovery' so to speak.
Anyway, the stuff you have on your Myspace is dying for release, we have a small label which is ( early in terms of birth ) trying to take on quality output, we'd like to get those tunes out there.
Drop me a PM for more INFO. Take care bud...
Jay.
-
solconnection
- mnml newbie
- Posts: 39
- Joined: Fri Feb 09, 2007 6:10 am
such a familiar mantra.
I cant imagine the amount of amazing music that will never see the light of day because the artist has talked themselves out of sharing it because they thought it wasn't good enough.
Ive had big problem with my confidence, and not feeling creative also
Off the top of my head, there are a few things that i am slowly starting to realize that are helping me.
* It's not a competition. And we all learn/grow at different rates. If your doing the best you can then thank yourself instead of putting yourself down.
* there is a *huge* audience for this sort of music and everybody has different taste, chances are there is someone who will love what your doing.
* Never put yourself down or say your not creative enough / good enough. It is not a constructive comment and can even become a self fulfilling prophecy...look in to ways of developing creativity (yes there are ways to do this...see the books linked below for a start)
* You are making art, the scene at large it quite conservative, taking less 'safe' options is usually a good way to go
* If you ever catch yourself saying 'I like it but i am worried that it is not minimal enough/cool enough/trendy enough/whatever ' about a particular feature you have just added definitely run with it thats you. What you are really saying there is 'I like it but it doesn't sound like everyone else'
* Creativity comes and goes. Trying to pressure yourself in to being creative is like trying really hard to fall asleep, the harder you try the harder it is. This may sound a bit vague but it is much better to let ideas 'come to you' than to try really hard to think them up. Anxiety about not being creative enough/good enough makes it hard for you to get in to this open state.
* Your music usually sounds 10 times better than you think it does.
* nobody cares about that hat you have been tweaking for the last 3 hours stop procrastinating. (I have huge problems with procrastinating on making musical decisions...probably related to having ADD)
have a nice day
-Dan
ps, some good books.
the listening book:
http://www.amazon.com/Listening-Book-Di ... 0877736103
what it is (it's actually meant to help writers but its awesome for anyone):
http://www.amazon.com/What-Lynda-Barry/dp/1897299354
I cant imagine the amount of amazing music that will never see the light of day because the artist has talked themselves out of sharing it because they thought it wasn't good enough.
Ive had big problem with my confidence, and not feeling creative also
Off the top of my head, there are a few things that i am slowly starting to realize that are helping me.
* It's not a competition. And we all learn/grow at different rates. If your doing the best you can then thank yourself instead of putting yourself down.
* there is a *huge* audience for this sort of music and everybody has different taste, chances are there is someone who will love what your doing.
* Never put yourself down or say your not creative enough / good enough. It is not a constructive comment and can even become a self fulfilling prophecy...look in to ways of developing creativity (yes there are ways to do this...see the books linked below for a start)
* You are making art, the scene at large it quite conservative, taking less 'safe' options is usually a good way to go
* If you ever catch yourself saying 'I like it but i am worried that it is not minimal enough/cool enough/trendy enough/whatever ' about a particular feature you have just added definitely run with it
thats you. What you are really saying there is 'I like it but it doesn't sound like everyone else'* Creativity comes and goes. Trying to pressure yourself in to being creative is like trying really hard to fall asleep, the harder you try the harder it is. This may sound a bit vague but it is much better to let ideas 'come to you' than to try really hard to think them up. Anxiety about not being creative enough/good enough makes it hard for you to get in to this open state.
* Your music usually sounds 10 times better than you think it does.
* nobody cares about that hat you have been tweaking for the last 3 hours
stop procrastinating. (I have huge problems with procrastinating on making musical decisions...probably related to having ADD)have a nice day
-Dan
ps, some good books.
the listening book:
http://www.amazon.com/Listening-Book-Di ... 0877736103
what it is (it's actually meant to help writers but its awesome for anyone):
http://www.amazon.com/What-Lynda-Barry/dp/1897299354
^^^^^
some wise words here
the one that always gets me is the procrastinating, but there must be a reason why many of us tend to do it.
we often forget as electronic musicians that we are doing the jobs of percussionists, bassists, keyboardists, instrumentalists if many kinds, producers, engineers etc etc. it's not as easy to produce a quality tune as many people seem to think it is.
sometimes its the fact that you moved that hihat into just exactly the right place that made the tune coalesce, and if you hadnt spent the time getting it right, the tune would just be another recyclebin job.
and everytime you move something even a tiny amount, it changes the whole feel of the tune, and you have to move other things to compensate.
its that shuffling around of the groove elements till they all fall into place that is the hardest thing to get right.
and as soon as you have more than 3 or 4 elements, the possible combinations become infinite.
if youre playing a physical instrument, you just do it naturally (if you're any good) but with computers..............
some wise words here
the one that always gets me is the procrastinating, but there must be a reason why many of us tend to do it.
we often forget as electronic musicians that we are doing the jobs of percussionists, bassists, keyboardists, instrumentalists if many kinds, producers, engineers etc etc. it's not as easy to produce a quality tune as many people seem to think it is.
sometimes its the fact that you moved that hihat into just exactly the right place that made the tune coalesce, and if you hadnt spent the time getting it right, the tune would just be another recyclebin job.
and everytime you move something even a tiny amount, it changes the whole feel of the tune, and you have to move other things to compensate.
its that shuffling around of the groove elements till they all fall into place that is the hardest thing to get right.
and as soon as you have more than 3 or 4 elements, the possible combinations become infinite.
if youre playing a physical instrument, you just do it naturally (if you're any good) but with computers..............
this reminds me of a friend of mine incredibly talented, able to work fast and very well. he was able to create original and imaginative tracks very quickly...solconnection wrote:I cant imagine the amount of amazing music that will never see the light of day because the artist has talked themselves out of sharing it because they thought it wasn't good enough.
but he didn't had any confidence in what he was doing! so he was always ending deleting his tracks cause he was never satisfied!
this situation was somehow frustrating for me: I never had his huge talent and I wish I could... but I always finish my track. seeing him deleting incredible pieces of music was making me ashamed of wasting such a talent...
so making music is not only being talented. it's also being confident. an external advice is always welcome to be objective.
I do believe digital distribution, internet, netlabels offer us the possibility to be listened and appreciated by at least a small amount of people.solconnection wrote:there is a *huge* audience for this sort of music and everybody has different taste, chances are there is someone who will love what your doing.
the old distribution scheme was (and is still) acting as a kind of filter: if the label owner didn't like your music, forget about it and get back trying hard to find somebody who would accept to release it.
but this has never meant some people won't like your music. just one person decided it wasn't good enough for his structure! maybe he's withholding some people to listen to your music.
hopefully today's internet diffusion has changed the situation. you can decide yourself to diffuse your music using sites like jamendo, archive.org, myspace... somebody will surely like your music. maybe a label owner you never thought of, we don't know...
because of this new situation, you bypassed this old filter... and you shared your music
Some very good points here, very morale boosting. I also suffer from ADD and i find it extremely hard to work on a track for extended amounts of time. If i push myself to make music when there are things distracting me i get to a point where i give up, say "this is sh!t" and delete project. I've just got to think "it's 10 times better than it sounds" and put it to the side until i get bored of something else. 4 out of 5 times it probably is a good tune. I normally get distracted and dance round the room for 10 minutes in excitement so it can't be that bad.solconnection wrote:
* It's not a competition. And we all learn/grow at different rates. If your doing the best you can then thank yourself instead of putting yourself down.
* there is a *huge* audience for this sort of music and everybody has different taste, chances are there is someone who will love what your doing.
* Never put yourself down or say your not creative enough / good enough. It is not a constructive comment and can even become a self fulfilling prophecy...look in to ways of developing creativity (yes there are ways to do this...see the books linked below for a start)
* You are making art, the scene at large it quite conservative, taking less 'safe' options is usually a good way to go
* If you ever catch yourself saying 'I like it but i am worried that it is not minimal enough/cool enough/trendy enough/whatever ' about a particular feature you have just added definitely run with it
* Creativity comes and goes. Trying to pressure yourself in to being creative is like trying really hard to fall asleep, the harder you try the harder it is. This may sound a bit vague but it is much better to let ideas 'come to you' than to try really hard to think them up. Anxiety about not being creative enough/good enough makes it hard for you to get in to this open state.
* Your music usually sounds 10 times better than you think it does.
* nobody cares about that hat you have been tweaking for the last 3 hours
