I've been lately cramming through my own songs and realized that I mostly have a more negative feeling towards a lot of my songs. I seem to find minor imperfections in my music that basicly runs it. Wether it's a mixing misstake or a song structure that I don't like I often feel bored by my own music. Interestingly I don't feel this way about a lot of albums where I even like small misstakes or rough production because they often seem to add to the charm of the music.

Anyone else feeling this way ?

 

For me this is a Evolution Process. You set your own Standard everytime you produce something. If i listen to my older Stuff there are things i didn't know back than etc. and would have done diffrent nowadays. Also sometimes it depends on your Feeling when you listening and what it was back then.

Do you have an specific Example?

 

Technology has allowed people with no knowledge or talent to make music.
Their music reflects this fact.
Of course, you can be successful as such, with proper marketing (hype).
That's why I view popular music as toxic wate.

 

For example I would often experiment with various impulse responses and VST's when it comes to my guitar tone.
In many productions I often have the feeling that certain "bad frequencies " in the guitar give the whole song a certain character

 

I'd say most composers/producers are hardest on their own tracks judgement than in others ones.

 

I would not say that most popular music is certainly bad but often the intention of making money with music leads to uninspired recycling.
There are also some pretty decent popular artists in my opinion like Bon Iver or Eminem

 

Yes there are a lot more depending on which Grene you like. Eminem has Musical expierience since 1992. I unterstand the Point of @Kluster but for me that's the wrong way to go at some Point everybody was a newbie and i love to share my knowledge and learn from others

 

I think you need atleast an certain amount of understanding and talent to actually make "good" music.
Because if you have no clue what you are doing most people will be easily able to hear that in your mixing and composition.
Producing has certainly become much easier but I would not classify it as a bad change

 

No. At some point, eventually, you will actually like it or at least the idea of it but nobody else will.

 

even if your talent is less than average if you work real hard and study you can make better music in about 10 or 15 years.

 

Problem is what is "good music" that's in the Ear of the Listener. There is many Stuff out there which is not good for me but got Millions of views and the other Way arround there is Stuff which got like 20-5000 Views but its Dope as Hell. So it depends on who you ask.

Here in Germany there was something like that some Weeks ago. An Young Emo Rapper which has an #1 Hit recently did an Fullplayback Show and not even caring to do so but look at the Young Crowd they Love him. (Even this wired Name Creations Emo Rapper whats that for me he is an Emo which uses Auotune and teaches the Kids how to take Drugs in his Songs for me its real Bad and he probably doesn't even know the Real Culture and Stuff like that and i think a lot of you will agree in this Point).

 

Last edited: Aug 25, 2022

Oh yeah absolutely. It's taken me 20 years to be really happy with what I am doing, production and especially mastering wise, but even now I strive to improve a bit every track.
I can't listen to my own stuff without a critical ear, but that is what makes you improve.
The grass is always greener is not just a saying, so other people's music you will always view with more respect than your own.

The standard of production is so much higher now than when I started producing, about 2003ish, I am not saying that all of the music is good, just that the production quality is a pretty good standard.

 

Yes, I feel the same way sometimes, but not always, you shouldn't make the mistake of changing or deleting anything.

This negative feeling should also be questioned and not taken for the absolute truth. Our brain thinks up a lot of nonsense.
For you as a creative person, this can mean not sticking to the old ways, but breaking new ground and making new music.

So leave the songs behind and listen to them again next year. You probably turned what you really wanted to do
into music and the music is ready, the topic closed. Therefore, there is no real joy in his own finished music.

So the next project is already waiting, the information is available somewhere in the cosmos and is waiting to be implemented.

Keep evolving. If you don't like it, other people will probably like it. So make your old songs all public.
Because that's what music is for, to make others and yourself happy, and music is also very healing for our soul.

 

That's something every perfectionist (we) have to deal with on a daily basis. The solution is to become aware that perfectionism is an illusion, it's nothing a human being can achieve.

 

I think that popularity is not necessary an indicator of good music but it will certainly help.
Personally I find the song "crashen" actually quite catchy because I like stuff by Lil Peep.
The lyrics are trashy but that kind of adds to the charm for me.
The guitars are memorable and the beat has a nice vibe. The vocals on the studio take sound acceptable to me but for sure not like a good vocalist.
His live performance is obviously pretty garbage but you can already tell that they set him to a very low volume.
The backing track itself sounds good and is ment to elevate his live performance since he is off beat and total shit live.
Most of the people that attend to this concert are mainly pretty young and just want to get wasted and party.
The vocalist is probably pretty talentless but the production behind it and arrangement is not.

He is a drug addict but I think you should always differ between an actual Artist and the person behind it . I like to listen to Marilyn Manson's older Albums that doesn't mean that I like him because he seems to be an total asshole in real life .

 

here are my rambles.

I have somewhat contradictory thoughts on this, and obviously this is coming from my specific POV i have no idea how other people view their own music. I think there is kind of a feedback loop that forms. when I've got a song that's coming into shape I progressively have a more clear idea of kinda where I want/I feel it needs to go. I think this idea can act as a mental "maximizer" if you will, like maybe the vocals sound like ass right now but you know you'll put some FX on there down the road and they'll work, so you sorta ignore it.

it still sounds like ass of course, but kinda by nature you can only focus on a finite amount at a time, so my brain shelves things for later as I go about things. however when I sit back to listen to the big picture all of those shelved things come back at once, and that can be overwhelming either cause it's a lot of shit or maybe it's that last 2% of polish that's such a struggle. and now you're comparing all these flaws or missing pieces to the idealized finished version in your imagination... and the feedback loop.

so depending where I'm at in a song I either give it too much slack, or I'm hyper critical. that's why a good litmus test for me is playing it, or even just sending it to someone that I know will listen to it. before I push send the song is sitting in shrodingers cat box but after, it's like "oh yeahhh... I forgot I was gonna fix that part."

I've never sculpted but I think of music like that, you're carving out a clear shape from a hunk of rock, and going from sledgehammers to the tiniest chisel. easy to get lost in the fine details until you stand back.

someone mentioned how technology has given rise to talentless musicians. I mean yeah it's unarguable that technology has decreased the cost of admission, but it's also easy to point to a long line of "hack" musicians, which is of course subjective. I'll always find it funny Tchaikovsky was apparently thought Debussy sucked. spinal tap is hilarious because it's just one step past ten beyond being believable. new kids on the block, vanilla ice, milli and vanilli.... sorry I'm just listing some of my favorite artists. i haven't listened to much top 100 over the years, but I do find it hard to believe you won't find some talent behind those records- like I don't think Justin Bieber is cool but I wouldn't turn down working with his mix engineer ya know?

Kids liking music adults think is shitty is nothing new either, and I dont mean just style like mumble rap but actually sounding bad/harsh. like punk, grunge, hard style rave music, dubstep- that shit especially before it got big enough to be mixed by professionals is all shitty and distorted sounding, loud and angry music+teens=something.




how I view talent versus skill/knowledge. you've been playing a fighting game for years and a friend comes over who doesn't play video games much but every match is a nail biter. you assume they're just smashing buttons, but nope they're like "oh yeah it seems if you hit that button then it does XYZ and.." they happen to be talented, but it doesn't mean your skill is meaningless. Talent is great, and obviously the greatest musicians are dripping with it, but it seems to me that talent is more the hare and aquiring skills through grinding is the tortoise. and then there are hares who have trained for long distance running, try to make friends with them ha.

 

I Agree Production is good by Talented People. Back in the Day the Splash was for HipHop Heads today is like you said all about Party and Drugs.

But compare the Following Vid from Raphael Saadiq with T-Low (He got more views but musicwise there are Galaxies between both)

 

When we talk about beeing Genius in Something i like to quote Albert Einstein:
“Genius is 1% talent and 99% percent hard work...”

 

I think a lot of it comes from knowing on a deeper level what the song is a bout, how it was built, the mistakes you did, the whole process becomes way more personal. With other people's music, you never really know what the main idea really was in the artist's mind, so you can't really critizise that.

Then there's the personal touch. Maybe you listen to some music and think it's cool, but would you like to do that kind of music, or use that specific technique or instrumentation? if you deviate from that (which will very likely be the case to some extent), you're not really comparing the same anymore. YOUR music's flaws might not go well with YOUR music.

But in the end of the day i think the most powerful reason is very simple. The album you listened to was finished, you have no chance of going back and tweaking it, you get what you get and you probably don't know the process behind the production, so your mind is way more permissive. Like cake. If somebody offers you cake you fucking eat it and enjoy it and every possible flaw becomes a "feature", if you make your own did you add enough sugar? Is it soggy? Are you eating the one with cyanide or the one with regular almond?

 

I do. But it depends on how selfish are you or critical to yourself... So, again, this is something subjective.