My Music SUX !!!!!

[robogone]

Maybe you're settting unreasonable expectations. Maybe you should stop expecting your music to require the approval of others before it can be considered pleasing to you.

The reason why people don't listen to or buy the music of 100% of musicians is that only a tiny percentage make music that pulls in a large enough audience. It's not a sign of failure to be outside of that tiny group - music should have its own rewards.

Stamp collectors rarely throw in the towel because their collection doesn't make it into a museum; people who knit don't give up because the sweaters they knit don't get worn by celebrities - your hobby should be an enjoyment in itself, and if you set conditions of others feeling the same as you about it then you have a good chance of feeling disappointed.

We all live with it. Some would like a career in music, some not, but I think most of us just enjoy playing.

Forget what anyone else thinks, and don't try to make music to please others. Just play.

[V0RT3X]

In reply to the OP.

Most of mine does too, but i don't stop making music because I know I'm constantly learning. Quite often I'll make a quick song and feel that it's good but I'll often feel torn about it later after i listen to it again and again. Eventually I often start to realize the stuff I've made is pretty basic, but now i am starting to know why and it often comes down to me not putting enough effort into it.

I regularly share my work in progress experiments here quite often and sometimes i get feedback and other time's I don't which is fine. I used to really let the feedback get to me, and if i got criticism that was in the least bit useful or offensive i would get upset about it. In some of the worst cases it made me want to quit making music all together and a few times I sold off my stuff and tried to do that. However i kept coming back to making music on the computer because it's a incredibly rewarding experience for my soul.

Now when i do get feedback i think most people want me to turn it into a full blown track but i often never go that far with my stuff which is something i am working on. I know other musicians on here who spend months and months on one track and they just keep returning to the track which always impresses me, because i never put that much time into my stuff. I think it's this kind of personal insight that is something i would consider personal progress.

Most of my recent songs have all been made in a day in Ableton live using the clip mode which is basically a giant loop player where you write your parts as loops. It's very rare where i use logic or the session mode and play my parts in as small pieces. It's fun to write like this for me because i can put together a very very fast mockup of what i would like to make as a full blown production piece. It's now taken me years to finally nail a nice balance between real time playback and sound quality and i think I've found it with my current setup. However i am working towards a workflow that works for me and i don't think there is a right or wrong way to make music.


A bit about plugins and GAS

When i first started out with plugins i wanted everything! I actually ended up buying so many plugins that i started running into feature overlap and it made me feel guilty because i knew i wouldn't end up using that particular plugin because i already had similar or better functions in another one. Sure there were times when i would convince myself i needed 10 different synthesizers that all basically did the same thing because they all did that one thing differently.

So one thing i did that helped save me a load of money is do a bunch of research on tools that i knew i could get a incredible amount of value out of. This is in part mostly because i am not wealthy by any means, and if i can get good sound quality and an amazing amount of value out of a swiss army style plugin then I will buy it. One good example of this would be Reaktor which is absolutely incredible value for money. However this approach might not work for everyone because it does require taking a lot of time to learn how to use the tool.


A bit on the importance of hands on playing

So one thing I know, is that i need a much more hands on setup to work with.

Not too long ago I used to own a Roland A-800 Pro 61-note keyboard which was a wonderful thing to work with, as it let me play in the parts i wanted by ear. It gave me a ton of hands on control that really made a big difference in how i worked and i regret selling it.

As of right now I just have a AKAI LPK25 which is useful but not so much when I want to use more than a few octaves, so the next logical step for me is to buy a bigger keyboard.

I personally think having a proper midi keyboard to jam on is very important! Actually having a instrument of any kind, be it a guitar or violin is just incredibly useful because it can help you be way more expressive than you would ever get with just a mouse and keyboard.

Here is my very amateurish take on writing music.

I still don't have a very good knowledge of musical theory, and I know i have a lot to learn when it comes down to song structure and knowing how to write certain pieces. Actually it wasn't too long ago that i clicked in a sequence of notes where i had this wonderful but incomplete chord progression. It just sounded absolutely amazing but it was missing the last chord in the sequence and it was very frustrating to try and find it. Now if i had known a bit of classical music theory i would have no doubtfully nailed that progression and knew exactly what it was that i needed to do.

From what i can tell writing good catchy songs often requires a fair deal of trial and error, but I also believe it requires a certain amount of musical knowledge and expressive performance as well. Actually one thing I've noticed which seems to stand out for me in every piece of electronic music I hear is the humanization factor. I mean if you actually take the time to play the parts out with an instrument it really can make a world of difference in your music. After your done writing the part you can go in and robotize it with quantization if you want, but that isn't going to necessarily make it better unless the genre your working in demands this such as EDM. I guess it's because this approach lets you capture the emotion versus just clicking the notes in.

My take on Sound design.

As soon as i get the money i will be buying a decent recording setup so i can use real recordings in my stuff, because i think it will be a very good logical step in increasing my production value. Why when i can use sample library X or Y?

Well it's pretty obvious for myself that i take quite a bit of interest and joy in doing my own sound design and i think I've been somewhat fortunate in the fact I've learned over the years how to do basic sound design. Using sample libraries is something i often leave as a last resort if i can't do it myself or I have time constraints.

It's not that i don't think they are good enough because there are TONS of amazing libraries available, it's just that I am a control freak when it comes down making sounds. Maybe this is why i collect more semi-modular and modular synthesizers than sample libraries these days .

I think a huge part in creating any piece of music is, in making it yours 100% and that means designing the sounds from the ground up. I'll admit that i use presets quite often but i think my best stuff is done when i design the sound from scratch. It took me a while to learn how to do sound design and a large part of it was trial and error! The most valuable moments for me in learning were when i took the time to read up on the concepts behind the thing i was learning about. It's much better to spend 1 week in a class room learning the fundamentals than spending a year learning the same thing doing trial and error. However sometimes experimenting is equally rewarding! It really boils down to what you want to get out of your education.

Anyhow enough of my rambling! Your not alone, and many people are equally frustrated, but the most important thing is coming up with a way to find a solution to it. I guess i could have said really simply that one of the best things about learning, is knowing where you need to improve and how and then turning that into action.

[RunBeerRun]

I prefer actual playing rather than listening to my recordings, I like them about once, then it gets old. There's not much life in a static recording that can't respond, if you were hungry, would you eat a picture of a pizza?

Youtube helps in that-live shows get costly, although sometimes the camera work is really bad.

[fese]

I am also often frustrated when I don't manage to recreate the vision I have in my head in the DAW. That sucks. I am frustrated because I am not a skilled instrumentalist nor singer and I need to spent hours of editing to make it sound halfway agreeable to my ears. That sucks. Due to different constraints I only manage to create two or max three songs per year. Sucks. Also got my expectations too high and compare myself to all the people better than me. Sucks. I am a perfectionist who is far from perfection. Sucks.

So despite all this sucking I still continue because, like others here, I have to. I want to make music. And when I listen to stuff i made ten twenty years ago, I see progress, not as much as I like, but still.
I rarely play my stuff to others because I haven't yet learned (like Vort3x) to not let negative feedback affect me but I have learned to listen to my songs without always being annoyed by all those mistakes I made, and I actually like to listen to them. Even in the not-so-good stuff there are some nice ideas here and there. Sometimes I actually think I am pretty good...

And I am pretty sure that even the most successful musicians share some of those feelings of frustration and inadequacy. There is always someone better than you but nobody ever reaches perfection.

[chaosWyrM]

an oldie but goodie:

[Kevin Deas]

I had no idea that my OP was going to garner the responses it has. I realize now that making music is a joy and a struggle for so many artists out here. It is frustrating and as full of pain as it is pleasure. I have gained so much from every reply. It's funny how some have all the technical skills and music theory down pat but still lack inspiration. Then there are those that don't have a clue and don't read music yet they are able to tap that primal gift for coming up with music that moves the masses. I don't seek fame or fortune or even the approval of others. I just want to satisfy me, and I'm my own worst critic. Sometimes I think I have no choice in the matter and the music calls. In the end if it sucks I guess it's entirely up to me to do something about it or not. Thanks again.

[deastman]

Music, and art in general, should never be about the end product. Being an artist means that you engage in a creative process. Enjoy that process, find pleasure in it. You may or may not like the art- the by-product of that process- but that should never get in the way of doing something creative.

[V0RT3X]

[Hink]

Hey, at least you finish your songs. I have this nasty habit of hardly ever fully finishing a song once the main hook sounds good.

me too until this fall, the answer for me was clear...stop fussy songs to death. One song I finished (the first since 2006) this year I have used to try new gear on and have been playing for years. Literally the amount of takes is over 2K...I finally finished it with the idea of sending it to Frenzel amps but I dont like the song enough.

In October I finished a song (in my sig), I was working on this song for about 3 weeks...said song, review and an explanation of the killer amp system I had Jim Frenzel build me and how I use it is now below the description of one of my amps. (really, one of my amp as one of my amps is the actual amp on his page)

I realize songs will never be done by my standards, so there is a middle ground which does not mean settling. I always felt settling was a weakness, instead of settling I am working on acceptance and it seems to be working

[Hink]

I have loved music my whole life. At a young age I took fife, bugle, and guitar lessons. We were dirt poor. No father raised on welfare, basically a ward of the state, but my mother found a way to buy me instruments and stereo equipment. She was a hell of a singer. She sang at church until they ran her out for having seven kids and no husband. She was artistic and musical and some say I inherited it from her. I never finished any of the lessons. I did everything half-assed. Had a grant to go to Mass. College of Art, dropped out after two years. Sang or played in a few bands, always ended up quitting. 2001 I discovered computer assisted music. For awhile I thought I had found a way to make the music that lived in me. First loops and eventually VSTi's ,but I knew I wasn't a musician or composer or even a producer. It felt cheap and phony. 2006 cancer hit me. Stage 4 incurable. Pain, depression, just waiting for the inevitable. My Therapists encouraged my to find solace in my music. Disabled, unable to work I had lots of time to try to make music. Living on SSI disability left me without the means to afford proper equipment or software. Freeware filled the void. One thing was inescapable. My music sucks! My wife and kids, friends and family completely ignore it, too polite to be honest. I post my work, but only these four walls hear it, no one listens. Can't blame them Computers allow anybody to make music but they can't provide talent. I used to enjoy music, now it's just one more thing that I failed at. I thought the cancer would solve my problems. The joke's on me! I have survived far longer than the doctors thought I would. Well I guess the time has come to stop kidding myself. Time to let it go. My music sucks and I know it.

first I dont think your music sucks, but in fairness I haven't put those words together for years and years (music and sucks). I once had a friend who said every song deserves to be heard.

I have followed some of your posts and I know you have a tough road to travel, me too but nothing compared to you. IMO what you need to do wont be in a monster post (what no monster post from Hink) though many have posted at great length and some good advice at that...but not me.

Dont worry about whether people like it, dont even worry about whether you like it. Simply ask yourself, "what is it doing for me?" I am sure that whether your music is great or terrible (not things I subscribe to) I have no doubt there have been many hours in your life where your music did for you what nothing else could do for you and even more important I bet most of the time it's when you needed it most to be there for you and it was...that's the gift

[Lotuzia]

Dont know if it will help, but sometimes I just spend a couple of hours playing ..... other people's music. Can be Aa good old standard, trying to get the exact groove, or a stupid song that I like, trying to play both bg chords and melody and to tie both in a kind of new thing. This is a GREAT rest for the mind. You get rid off beeing creative, beeing successfull, invent something, beeing so much yourself, and you just are in immersion in other people music. Very refreshing. And in the end, I also now know that it will give me fresh ideas as well in the future for my own music. Yep, double bonus.

[JJBiener]

Kevin, I have read the other posts and I like the encouragement and some of the suggestions. I am going to try something different. I am going to tell you what I did and why, and maybe that will help you create something more pleasing to your own ears.

When I first started creating music with the computer, it sucked. It was so bad, I thought there was something wrong with my equipment. I wasn't newbie to music. I had been playing piano and writing music for 20 years, so I was sure that wasn't the problem. I wasn't a newbie to technology either since I had been programming computers for nearly as long as I had been playing.

To solve this problem, I did what I always did when faced with a vexing problem. I went into full analyst mode. I read voraciously everything I could find on recording and recording technology. I analyzed the music I was producing. I analyzed music like what I wanted to produce. I actually did this for years.

Then I started reading about creativity. Finally something clicked in me. Everything I was doing to get me closer to the music I wanted was taking me farther away. Creating music wasn't about analysis and procedures and technology. It was about letting go. It was about letting my creative voice come through unimpeded by thoughts of what I should be doing. Instead of trying to record perfect tracks with all the pressure that implies, I just recorded whatever came out. Instead of constantly thinking that everything I was doing was going to be judged by posterity, I just played knowing that there was a delete button that could always be used if things went too far off the rails.

What I quickly learned is that after 3 or 4 tries, I had a track that worked. Perfect? No. But workable. I then went on to the next track and then the next. I also learned that simplicity is a virtue. I didn't 80 tracks to express an idea. I can almost always say what I want in under 10 tracks. That meant, in under 2 hours, I could have all the parts recorded and be ready to start mixing and editing. The creative work was done, and I could turn my analyst brain back on and tweak the details.

Obviously, this takes practice like anything else, but nothing else I tried got me to where I wanted to be. Think about it and see if there something here you can apply to your situation.

[arkmabat]

^^^ Great reminder on creativity. Thank you.

[ghettosynth]

Dont worry about whether people like it, dont even worry about whether you like it. Simply ask yourself, "what is it doing for me?

That's good advice Hink.

[deastman]

Dont worry about whether people like it, dont even worry about whether you like it. Simply ask yourself, "what is it doing for me?

That's good advice Hink.

I can think of many a late night sitting here with headphones on, playing guitar with an ebow through a massive delay and reverb, and being moved to the point of euphoria.