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A question of integrity...
 

offline Ceri JC from Jefferson City (United States) on 2003-12-20 17:43 [#00999943]
Points: 23533 Status: Moderator | Show recordbag



... I've just done a fairly minimal repetative track, but
one that I really like. It's finished as far as I'm
concerned, however for the first time ever, I find myself
tempted to change it to make it more "interesting" or
complex (what I'm trying to say is, appear better to other
people). I've never had this before and it's not a road I
intend to go down... How do other people deal with this
temptation? Perhaps you laugh at such thoughts and are pure
in your creation of "art". Perhaps you don't- maybe you make
133bpm 4/4 kick drum beat house in your craving for
acceptance of your music? Either way, we'd like to hear from
you... (UK viewers may of noticed I sent up kilroy/trisha in
that last bit but the message was a serious one)


 

offline Key_Secret from Sverige (Sweden) on 2003-12-20 17:44 [#00999945]
Points: 9325 Status: Regular | Followup to Ceri JC: #00999943



it takes ages for me to finnish tracks...
but I always to them the way I'd like to hear them (that's
why it takes so long) or to try something out...
do what you feel like. it's the final track that counts :)


 

offline qrter from the future, and it works (Netherlands, The) on 2003-12-20 17:44 [#00999946]
Points: 47414 Status: Moderator



I sometimes do want to make something more interesting, but
more because I find it to be boring myself.


 

offline tibbar from harrisburg, pa (United States) on 2003-12-20 17:44 [#00999948]
Points: 10513 Status: Lurker



well, sometimes doing 2 versions is valid, if you feel there
are virtues each posses in and of themselves...

and of course, continuity is nice on an album, thematically.


 

offline corticalstim from Canada on 2003-12-20 17:47 [#00999959]
Points: 3885 Status: Regular | Followup to Ceri JC: #00999943



i make whatever my heart desires.

all of my MUSIC (that doesnt include tracks written for
educational purposes) comes straight from emotions and
thoughts i have - i never add anything for anyone else or
take anythign away for reasons other then my own.

i guess thats how i write noise tracks one day, piano
sonatas the next, minimal/ambient ones later that week, and
then a funky idm track that night.


 

offline Ceri JC from Jefferson City (United States) on 2003-12-20 17:48 [#00999960]
Points: 23533 Status: Moderator | Followup to tibbar: #00999948 | Show recordbag



Yes- the two version thing was something I was considering.

I suppose my real problem is this- if you're going to make
music you like less in order for it to be more popular, why
not go the whole way and spend all your time making mindless
commercial dance and at least maybe make some money out of
it? I think artistic integrity is an absolute value- you
either have it or you don't...


 

offline qrter from the future, and it works (Netherlands, The) on 2003-12-20 17:51 [#00999964]
Points: 47414 Status: Moderator | Followup to Ceri JC: #00999960



at this level there is absolutely no point in making music
you don't completely like yourself.

unless you really need the attention.


 

offline Ceri JC from Jefferson City (United States) on 2003-12-20 17:54 [#00999968]
Points: 23533 Status: Moderator | Followup to qrter: #00999964 | Show recordbag



Yep, I agree.


 

offline X-tomatic from ze war room on 2003-12-20 18:16 [#01000032]
Points: 2901 Status: Lurker



The music that is exactly my taste is always made by someone
else, but I can understand when you make a minimalistic
track you would be tempted to add stuff.
I wouldn't however, do it so other people won't be able to
criticise it for being too simple. Good music doesn't have
to be complex, although that does seem to be the general
standard of thinking on this board.


 

offline ecnadniarb on 2003-12-20 20:57 [#01000139]
Points: 24805 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



I've never had the problem of wanting to make stuff that
other people will accept because I have never had the
problem of finishing a full track. However I have never
felt the need to make stuff to get acceptance anyway as a
lot of people who have listened to some of the shite I have
posted will confirm :D


 

offline weatheredstoner from same shit babes. (United States) on 2003-12-20 22:38 [#01000189]
Points: 12585 Status: Lurker



Ever think about something in your head, and you understand
what you're thinking... however when you try to explain it
to someone else they dont understand what you're thinking,
so you have to go into greater detail and explain to make
the image more vivid and detailed.


 

offline ecnadniarb on 2003-12-20 22:41 [#01000190]
Points: 24805 Status: Lurker | Followup to weatheredstoner: #01000189 | Show recordbag



Yes...like these voices...they tell me what to do, but
people don't understand. They think that I don't realise
what they are thinking. But I do. They will all learn that
i know what they are thinking. All of them will learn.


 

offline weatheredstoner from same shit babes. (United States) on 2003-12-20 22:49 [#01000192]
Points: 12585 Status: Lurker | Followup to ecnadniarb: #01000190



well, maybe you should try letting us know about these
voices in hopes of understanding you.


 

offline ecnadniarb on 2003-12-20 22:55 [#01000196]
Points: 24805 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



When I was young my mother told me not to look into the
sun...


 

offline ecnadniarb on 2003-12-20 22:56 [#01000197]
Points: 24805 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



So I beat the bitch to death with a hammer for telling me
what to do and treating me like an idiot.

I was two at the time.

Will you be my friend?


 

offline weatheredstoner from same shit babes. (United States) on 2003-12-21 00:16 [#01000260]
Points: 12585 Status: Lurker | Followup to ecnadniarb: #01000197



sure, why not?


 

offline Ceri JC from Jefferson City (United States) on 2003-12-21 04:40 [#01000376]
Points: 23533 Status: Moderator | Followup to ecnadniarb: #01000197 | Show recordbag



Ha ha, I watched Pi a couple of days ago :)

X-tomatic: Yes, I suppose it's a case of not wanting it to
be technically too simple as people will think I can't do
anything more complex. Tempting to put some incredibly anal
drum programming in there just to show off :P


 

offline japes from Suriname on 2003-12-21 06:06 [#01000427]
Points: 520 Status: Lurker



The argument that stuff comes from YOUR emotions and YOUR
ideas, so no one has any influence is bollocks. You can
listen to a track someone wrote when they were sad and then
feel sad. Someone writing a tune while sad may be influenced
also by other sad tunes. There's no such thing as complete
originality, we're just adding to an already intricately
patterned tapestry.

Some tracks I just rattle off in a few hours and never touch
again, but the best ones I keep going back to and adding and
subtracting. Sometimes I'll make different versions of the
same track and then decide which is my favourite out of all
of them.

Basically I don't really pander to people's tastes, although
occasionally I'll make a track for someone and try to keep
it steady and decent so that they'll like it. But even then
I'm pleased. As long as one person on earth likes it a lot I
don't care.

If I don't care about the track I'm making, I stop making it
and junk it. I don't waste time with stuff that I don't find
powerful in some way. At the end of the day, you'll always
be proud of what you do and if you're not, then you might as
well forget it.


 

offline Ceri JC from Jefferson City (United States) on 2003-12-21 06:15 [#01000437]
Points: 23533 Status: Moderator | Show recordbag



One the subject of the track that caused me to make this
thread, I have just mastered it and rendered it to wav. I
started another version, but it ended up sounding like a
poor cyclobotnia/mood bells rip off so I abandoned it. The
original version stays :D

Having slept on it, I think the best thing is to just make
lots of tracks you like and just UL the ones you think other
people will like as well.


 

offline ecnadniarb on 2003-12-21 06:15 [#01000438]
Points: 24805 Status: Lurker | Followup to Ceri JC: #01000437 | Show recordbag



Are we gonna get to hear this new track?


 

offline Ceri JC from Jefferson City (United States) on 2003-12-21 06:17 [#01000442]
Points: 23533 Status: Moderator | Followup to ecnadniarb: #01000438 | Show recordbag



Hmm, okay, I'll post a link to it in here in a few minutes,
but I'm not making a new thread about it as I don't really
want to draw attention to it ;)


 

offline ecnadniarb on 2003-12-21 06:22 [#01000443]
Points: 24805 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



good good :D


 

offline Ceri JC from Jefferson City (United States) on 2003-12-21 06:28 [#01000444]
Points: 23533 Status: Moderator | Show recordbag



Despite what I've said about not changing it, comments are
welcome :) Curwen Data

(well, someone couldn't wait- this was played within about
20 seconds of me ULing it!)


 

offline ecnadniarb on 2003-12-21 06:35 [#01000447]
Points: 24805 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



Hmm I like the track a lot, good pace and mood, but the
audio quality is terrible. I think this has happened before
with one of your tracks I have listened to. I don't know if
it is the codec you use. The sort of pulsing synth is too
loud over the top and it is running into every other sound
and the whole thing sounds muggy...the phasing between
channels seems too great as well.

I honestly can't be specific about the track because it is
difficult to make out what it going on in places. :P


 

offline Ceri JC from Jefferson City (United States) on 2003-12-21 06:39 [#01000450]
Points: 23533 Status: Moderator | Followup to ecnadniarb: #01000447 | Show recordbag



Yes, I've changed to razorlame to help eliminate this
problem, but there have been two or three track of mine
recently that sound far worse in mp3 format. I don't
know whether it's that I'm so much more familair with the
.wav version so the mp3 version's flaws are particularly
noticeable. The dodgy quality on the drums is due to a
distortion effect I used though and is intentional. If
suppose I could remove the distortion and key the drums up
an octave so they'd be easier to hear against the synth...


 

offline ecnadniarb on 2003-12-21 06:41 [#01000452]
Points: 24805 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



No the pulsing synth is far too loud. You need to reduce
that, seriously it is drowning out every other sound in the
track. The drums could do with being a bit punchier as
well.


 

offline joakimlinden from Skövde (Sweden) on 2003-12-21 07:29 [#01000488]
Points: 462 Status: Regular



Here's my crits:

Arrangement: Almost none existing, seems more random than
structured. To keep up interest (at least with me, and I'm
very very picky about the pace in music) you'll need to
really start thinking about arrangement, even if it's a
minimal type track there should be a sense of structure -
maybe not always but definatley with rythmic music.

Sounds used/mix: Almost incompatible but not neccesarily. As
many have pointed out the mix is askew. Try this: Whatever
the program you're working with you'll probably have a mixer
with faders, when you start to get a basic song idea pull
all the faders to bottom and reset the eq's (eq's are
optional). Now you should listen to something completely
different, pink noise should be good (can be generated in
Cool Edit). Find a level for the pink noise that is just
right - not too quiet and not too high. Now kill the noise
and start raising the channel you feel is most important for
the song (drums, a melody, some chords...it's up to you).
More to come in next post...


 

offline joakimlinden from Skövde (Sweden) on 2003-12-21 07:30 [#01000490]
Points: 462 Status: Regular



Don't overload the mixer (even a software one), try keeping
stuff within that noise level that felt comfortable.
Continue to raise the other channels. Try listening to them
in solo and look for things that might interfere with other
tracks. If you have a bassline with lots of sound in the
200-400hz range, try avoiding to put too much else there or
it will sound muddy and resonant. Try to tone down resonant
stuff in some instruments with eq - it often but not always
balances up the whole mix with little stuff like that.

Try to save different versions of the track with different
mixersettings (I never do that myself but it's a good tip)
so you can see if stuff really improves.

Distortion can be nice on drums, especially with certain
frequencies peaked, but the effect you added did very little
to enhance the drums, it made them more anonymous and
limited in freq range. The distorted melodies seems to lie
in the same frequency range as the drums, so what you end up
with is a frequency curve that is full of stuff in the
middle but nothing in the bass or treble - this is hard for
the ears since they are most sensitive in that region.


 

offline Ceri JC from Jefferson City (United States) on 2003-12-21 07:32 [#01000496]
Points: 23533 Status: Moderator | Show recordbag



Ta for the advice Joakim- I must admit I do tend to be a bit
lazy with my EQIng, even if when I take time with instrument
levels, reverb etc.


 

offline joakimlinden from Skövde (Sweden) on 2003-12-21 07:33 [#01000498]
Points: 462 Status: Regular



I hope you continue to make music for many years to come.
Keep up the hard work.


 

offline Ceri JC from Jefferson City (United States) on 2003-12-21 07:44 [#01000520]
Points: 23533 Status: Moderator | Followup to joakimlinden: #01000498 | Show recordbag



*Smiles* Thank you :)

I will keep at it... I've done it on an off for about 7
years now and solidly for the past 2. I've noticed a big
improvement which is what keeps me at it.


 

offline X-tomatic from ze war room on 2003-12-21 08:04 [#01000539]
Points: 2901 Status: Lurker | Followup to Ceri JC: #01000444



ok, so why is it you suppose I can't ever get any page
powered by "nubis" to load up?




 

offline Ceri JC from Jefferson City (United States) on 2003-12-21 08:11 [#01000543]
Points: 23533 Status: Moderator | Followup to X-tomatic: #01000539 | Show recordbag



What browser do you use?


 

offline marlowe from Antarctica on 2003-12-21 08:54 [#01000573]
Points: 24588 Status: Lurker



I'm about to put up a track whereby I refused to compromise
myself... it's called Antarctica Vs the World, and I'll
upload it later today!


 


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