Listening to your own music

[dingformung]

Do you listen to your own music? For the process of making it you have to, I know - that's not what I mean.

And maybe after it's done you want to check if it's a good one or not and listen to it from time to time for a week or so, sure - I don't mean that either.

But I mean do you listen to your tracks that are done and at a point that you certainly won't change anything anymore just for pleasure? I listen to what I made from time to time, especially the older ones because it's interesting how perspective on them changes and also how the style changed - not only technically but also emotionally. Sometimes I'm impressed on what I did years ago and enjoy tracks I considered throwouts at that time, sometimes I notice how I failed at making good music. :) It's fun

Maybe that's what brought me at making music - playing with sounds for my personal curiosity

How about you?

Edited October 5, 2016 by darreichungsform

[sweepstakes]

Sometimes, but I always feel like, this isn't real music, is it? Because all my music fucking sucks, just like my cooking. And just like my cooking, sometimes it really hits the spot, even though it's shite.

[TubularCorporation]

By candlelight, wearing a loincloth made of cheetah hide, while rubbing my body with assorted aromatic oils and musks,

[dingformung]

Not sure about the assorted oils and musks :D

 

But yes, it's like looking at a child's drawing: it's not exactly Dalí but reflects the child's thoughts/feelings. Like a diary

[sTeh B L]

Yeah, some of my tracks are thrown into playlists along with other music I listen to. Sometimes when one of my tracks come on, it takes me like fifteen seconds to realize that I made it years ago.

[modey]

I do.. but mostly after a couple of years. I spend so long listening as I write/record/master/rehearse that I get rather sick of my own stuff. But I occasionally chuck on an album of mine from many years ago. I tend to make the kind of music I like to listen to, so it's only natural that I'd want to listen to it every now and then.

 

Sometimes when one of my tracks come on, it takes me like fifteen seconds to realize that I made it years ago.

lol I get this too, but usually I'll randomly get one of my own tracks in my head and it'll take me half a day to realise it's one of my own.

[hello spiral]

yeah all the time, I refer to it as 'sniffing my own farts'

[Brisbot]

Well, most people make the kind of music they want to hear. If you're not then... I have no clue how you're still having fun.

[jaderpansen]

well yeah of course, i mean isn't that the point, really? if you don't enjoy your own music why should anyone? while doing so i quite consequently follow this fine old formula:

 

 

[Brisbot]

lovely

[Entorwellian]

All the time. You should love the stuff you make. I love listening to my stuff and its one of the reasons why I make music.

I throw my stuff in a car and listen to it over and over until I start to hear all of the problems and engage in thought exercises on how I can transform, remove or fix something. If I get bored of it pretty fast, or I am skipping over parts of it, then it's most likely not a good track.

well yeah of course, i mean isn't that the point, really? if you don't enjoy your own music why should anyone? while doing so i quite consequently follow this fine old formula:

 

 

Also this

[Squee]

Sure! It's the only way to know if your stuff is as good as you remember it being. Plus, I've made a couple of tunes I'm pretty proud of

[Guest]

I'm making to much new music to be listening to them shits afterwards  :*(

[qualitycontrol]

Yes.

 

However, the longer a track or album takes to make (i.e. the more I have to listen to it during production)... the less likely I am to listen to it later, it seems. Could be some burn-out. Happens more in a band setting than solo electronic stuff....

[colunga]

I usually get burned out and annoyed at my tracks, which is why they usually get ripe and half forgotten at the 1 year mark and thats when I can really feel which ones are shit or which ones are okay to share.

I did go thru a phase of trying to make a track a day and that was cool because i would forget them much faster

[Braintree]

I enjoy listening to my music. My albums usually encapsulate a certain time period, so they usually impart a general theme of what I was thinking about or how I was feeling at the time.

 

Going too far back can make me cringe pretty badly, though. I'll hear a ton of options that I didn't choose.

[purlieu]

Since I was a kid I've listened to music partially to explore kind of sonic landscapes - probably getting into bands like FSOL at a young age helped this. When I've made albums, it's always been about creating those kind of landscapey albums, but ones that I don't think anyone else is going to make - so effectively I'm making albums I want to hear, but nobody will make. So yeah, the main point of me making music is to make albums that I want to hear. I'm certainly not the best producer - I know my own faults, and although I try and fix them I know I'm naturally fairly bad at the engineering end of things so there will always be problems with my music that might not make it the most professional sounding stuff - but as long as it captures the imagery and / or narrative I'm hoping it will then I'll listen to it as much as any other artist in my music collection. 

 

That said, it's interesting how many people here listen to their own stuff - largely because I come across interviews with artists who never listen to their own stuff after it's done all the time. To the extent that it seems the norm. So it's nice to know I'm not the only one! I will usually use the gap between completing an album and a label releasing it to have a break from the record, so I can come at it with somewhat fresh ears - usually 6-12 months - when it comes out.

[juiceciuj]

i queued some of my 10 yr old tracks the other day in google play and then forgot about it. they eventually came round in the queue after some really chill boc listening with the missus. just a wash of drills and noise that i was totally not expecting and was horribly embarrassed by. i scrambled to find my phone and the whole ordeal was over in a matter of seconds and my wife didn't notice anything at all.

 

but yeah every once in a while i'll listen to my old shit some of it's okay but none of it's finished because seriously who cares

[cwmbrancity]

for longer mixes of other people's tracks, absolutely

 

they help enormously for a program called Guided Imagery & Music, aka GIM, driving, cooking din-dins & general relaxation techniques

 

the demons need to feed, suppressing them leads to being overwhelmed, so a sonic interface or cocoon means that process is re-focused into creative outlets

 

used in conjunction with a technique called "Musical Breathing" increases the calming effects immensely:

 

http://web.b.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=10988009&AN=43982605&h=09IqD4NQfDXRFO%2bWBIu3PYjgvRRLZcZg9cXJc4NLQ3mYQdzLnG3a9KaeAzSFxklNEytb0LsGUtikwiHQAjGy%2bw%3d%3d&crl=f&resultNs=AdminWebAuth&resultLocal=ErrCrlNotAuth&crlhashurl=login.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dcrawler%26jrnl%3d10988009%26AN%3d43982605

[LimpyLoo]

 

I do listen to my stuff as part of the creative process (i.e. Generate a bunch of stuff, put it in a drawer for two weeks, then revisit it as a "listener" and continue working on it from there)

 

But mostly when i hear my stuff I just hear how certain of my skills are underdeveloped, and how I need to develop them...so for example if I hear an old melody of mine, I will notice how all the notes have the same dynamic or articulation, or how all the phrases start on beat 'one'...

 

And I sorta think that is a prerequisite to my improvement, almost by definition...like, if I heard a piece of mine and thought it was flawless/perfect, then why would I need to improve?

[Rotwang]

I've made a couple of tracks recently that I enjoy listening to a fair bit. Not because they're objectively that good but because I succeeded in making something I wanted to hear that wasn't just an inferior copy of something that already exists. So it's a yes from me.

[Guest]

Yes. 5% to 10% of them are worth repeated listens though.

[flacid]

Fuck yeah. If I'm particularly enamoured with a track I'll listen to it 10+ times in a row. 

 

I generally listen to new ones a lot and then older personal favourites. Specific tracks can act like bookmarks reminding you of a time or feeling. 

[ganus]

Lots of good wisdom in this thread.Yes, I create the music I want to hear, so I enjoy listening to it. I also like listening to with others to gauge their reactions to bits and tracks I'm unsure about. It is embarrassing sometimes, but super useful. I think it was Squee that turned me onto doing that a few years ago.

 

My albums and WIP albums (which I listen to the most) get their own folders on my phone, and recent A and B roll tracks get another folder that I sift through now and then. Stuff that didn't seem as ripe at the time, sketches, and forgotten tracks get gone through a few times a year on my computer for things with potential that I can put on my phone. If I'm not deliberately making an album all in one go, my WIP albums come together from making playlists of my A and B roll folder.

 

If you're making too many tracks to listen through them and pick the best ones, you're putting the burden on your audience to do the quality control for you. I lose patience going through others' mediocre tracks. Then again, this is coming from someone who is a perfectionist, and who's process is at least 70:30 listening to composing.

So if your hobby is more centered on banging out tracks, good for you. Just maybe have your friends do some quality control before you throw it up on Bandcamp. That's not a weakness; isn't that how ICBYD and others were put together?

[flacid]

Get what you mean dude but some of us just like to jam out tracks :)