When do you stop?

  • Thread starter Thread starter odinnshred
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odinnshred

Wireless Wizard!
One of the main problems when making music is that you can't listen to it in the same way you'd listen to anything else; someone's new track, a friend's track, music in the background etc. This can lead you to either overthink the amount of detail needed or underestimate the impact of something you're proud of.

How do you know when there is enough detail in your track? Do you manage to properly detach yourself as the creator, or do you have other people listen to it and give their input?
 
I know what you mean. You just got to try and not over think it. For me I just make what i think is dope. I don't care what commercial tracks sound like except when it comes to sound quality. If people like it that's cool if they don't that's fine to. If you go around trying to make music that everyone else likes or whats hot at the moment you won't ever be satisfied or happy with what you created. Put your feelings your thoughts your emotions into your tracks and all of the details will work itself out. Hope i helped a little. Keep doing your thing mane.
 
If you feel you're unsure if your track is too detailed or lacking something or just perfect, leave it for almost a week or so and then check it again.
 
Fresh ears. You wait at least 48 hours then listen to it in a new context.
 
What steffeeh said works.

Don't bother asking friends for feedback or on forums.It's not always the case but 90% of the time friends will tell you that they like it even if they don't because that's what friends do.And on forums such as this one,people will tell you what you want to hear just so you can return the feedback on their own songs.I apologize if I offended anyone on this forum but this is true.

An important thing is to spend as little time as possible on the composing portion.Perfect your composition skills so that you can do it as fast as possible while still maintaining quality.

Because the more you listen to a track over and over again it's gonna start to sound bad and you will start doubting yourself and changing things even though it might have sounded perfectly fine in the first place.Taking frequent brakes helps to keep my ear fresh.
 
Keep version files.

Every time you change something after the initial composing session should be saved as a new version, e.g. project-name-date-vsn-999. This way you can always go back one or more steps in your process and compare the results of making or not making certain changes.

As for being finished, it has been said elsewhere here that art is never finished it is abandoned - i.e. there comes a point where you just have to leave it and move on. To that maxim I would add this from Dilbert "Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes; Art is knowing which ones to keep".
 
As others have said, try letting it sit for a while. Take off the headphones, go watch a movie, do some jumping jacks, and just don't think about it for a while. If you've been thinking "Is that horn line emotional enough?" for the past hour, maybe you should instead try thinking "Mmmm, roast chicken ramen tastes good." You'd be surprised. Once, I got so annoyed with how terrible one of my scores was turning out, I just quit writing for a few days and did other stuff. Then I came back to it and realized: "Dang, that sounds pretty good."

---------- Post added at 06:02 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:01 AM ----------

Dangit, now I want ramen :\
 
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