That's your martyr act again. I suggest you just drop it and look at this from a fresh perspective, without all the baggage. Nobody here is doubting your musical chops, as you have been told numerous times, one way or another. Wag, people respect you for the musical talent you have, and you have actual tasteful compositions to prove it. Full stop. Your actual music isn't unlikeable, it's good, and you aren't unlikeable either. I hope that piece of information can get through, to the core of your being, there somewherewagtunes wrote:almost 40 years of writing music (which goes to show you that if you don't have any talent it doesn't matter how long you work at something)
. The fact that your musical side is so developed, and you have devoted so much time to it, is a testament to the benefits of actually using considerable amounts of time on something, instead of the opposite.There's no use going into that "wahh I don't have any talent and that's why it doesn't matter how long I work at something" mode again, just to hear one more time how you, indeed, do have talent. You do, and that should be clear by now. You have said you don't want anyone's sympathy, but that's exactly how it comes across when you are confronted with these things; going into the "fishing for people's sympathies" mode.
This is the important bit, and instead of rejecting this please give it some honest thought. When you're dealing with something like the One Synth Challenge, or ANY context where the end result is an actual production, a finished stereo mix of a piece of music. When you're presenting the finished audio as the work itself, not (for example) the sheet music. When it's about that, there are other elements at play, important ones, in addition to the abstract composition side. And when people keep telling you, you should use more time to learn those aspects, track after track, to realize your potential and carefully finish and polish your works, it's the whole package they are talking about. The whole production.
You remarked, not that long ago, that you didn't even know how a compressor actually works. A month ago it turned out you didn't know how to automate synth parameters in your DAW. Not a special case, but literally, you didn't know how to hook any parameter onto an automation lane, and draw an envelope into the arrangement, or how to copy/paste bits of that envelope along with midi events on the timeline.
Then, at the same time, you say things like "I don't traditionally spend countless hours on anything. I don't have that kind of patience", and moan about how you don't stand a chance against the ones who can do things better than you. What a surprise, someone who can do something better, and knows how to routinely use even the most basic production features of their DAW, will do better
. Fancy that.The only way you can get better is by LEARNING it, and DOING it. That's how they got there, and there's no way around that. You have used so much time to let your composition skills develop, but you are a relative novice on the production side of things. Either fully accept that and actually put in those hours, or stop worrying about it altogether. In any case, it's not going to change all by itself. You're very good at some things, and you absolutely suck at some other things. Do something about it, anything, instead of doing this act month after month.
Depending on the OSC round, there are something like 30-80 people participating here every month. All kinds of styles, all sorts of skill sets, lots of creativity and tastes. And in the end, somehow, peeking into the threads, it seems it's so often just about you. Why on earth? Out of all those people, it's soooo often about you, and your hardships, yet you reject the things that could actually benefit you. If you don't change your approach, many threads like this will be ultimately futile Wagtunes motivational threads even years from now. And I think, somehow, on some level, that's what you want. It's weird, and it is what it is.
