If you’ve got what it takes, help me find the full version (with better quality, naturally). No, I’m not talking about warezio. I know there’s at least a VHS version out, but I’m looking for a DVD or such. But if I’m completely out of luck… any sort of torrent would do.
James Brown live at the Beverly Theatre, Los Angeles, with B.B. King, Michael Jackson and Prince. Funkiest and sickest damn video I’ve ever seen.
Nice video byte… This is a very interesting subject that I feel is part of my life too.
I consider myself to be very perfectionist and that obviously slows me down quite often. What I find weird is how the perfectionist personally and the lazy personally kinda contradict themselves, but I still think I have both “problems”.
I notice that when I start a project that is not too big and that I work on it until its fully completed, I do get more satisfaction and results (mostly results) from it than from those bigger projects that I start but don’t finish right away. After a while, I simply lose interest and I think that’s normal… I have to work really hard to regain some interest in these projects. I realize that working with someone is also a good way to: 1) make things go faster and 2) keep interest in the project. This is a trick that I will try to exploit as much as possible.
I also notice that having a busy schedule also leads me to some kind of rhythm that helps me being active and motivates me to start projects.
Nonetheless, I still have to work more and I feel like I should clean up all these unfinished projects now in order to move on.
At the risk of sounding like an asshole: it just sounds like an excuse, man.
You need to finish things and have finished products to even start calling yourself a composer…until then, you arent really classifiable as anything. Maybe you're not even a perfectionist, it's just that what you do isnt all that great… (Please don’t take offence, i’m just adding the brutal alternative. I haven’t even heard your ideas!)
If this is the case, you need to DO IT MORE… practice practice practice.
Don’t give up and just say “I’m a perfectionist”…it’s a bit of a copout.
If you were a perfectionist you wouldnt even be sitting on this heeyar 4rum....you'd be sweating over an EQ. As a perfectionist, i think the initial hurdle of being a beginner would be very hard to clear... and maybe thats what youve had to deal with for 13 years…im not saying youre still a beginner, not at all, but you maybe hold the same habits of giving up on a song as the beginning-perfectionist-you had?
I spose what i’m saying is…maybe you’re more of a giver-upper.
Anyway Byte, I completely understand. I haven’t written a song in over 3 months! I simply can’t bring myself to do that [File - New] thing…everything SUCKX!!! BUT i know that all i need to do is get back on it…keep on doing it…and let it flow…
LET IT FLOOOOWWWWWW
EDIT: I agree with JBL too about the old collaboration. It takes the edge off considerably.
Moss: I found a logical flaw in your argument: If I was giving up, I wouldn’t still be producing. I certainly wouldn’t have been doing it for the last 13 years.
perfectionism is a good but also a very bad thing. i had the same problem years ago but now its gone  its important to finish tracks, good or bad doesnt matter. with every fished one you learn something new. its like walking. if you are a perfectionist as a child then you probably never learn how to walk.
you have to fall down, stand up and make small steps to learn how it works.
i can make a cool sounding loop in 20 minutes or less but building up a whole track with breaks etc is something completely different.
its impossible to learn the whole thing when you never finish a track. thats why i finish nearly 80% off my tunes now!
and since i do it, everything is getting better and better!
It’s a problem of hearing potential some times… not hearing it other times… and most of the time, hearing it in the first half of the track, but fucking it up halfway through.
I rarely give up on songs if I feel they’ve got potential… I just most often have NO idea how to finish them. I think half my problem is that I should be adding vocals to my tracks… once I get a good mic I’m going to try exactly that.
To me, lyrics is not something that encourages me to be productive. Often, lyrics don’t really reach me… but yeah, that’s me.
I find that having images (in my mind) for a song is something that helps me a lot, it makes me want to make the video that would go with the song and that encourages me to invest more time on the project, but at the same time, the project gets much bigger. I think I should aim that way instead of trying to make a whole ep of music videos… releasing a project of 2-3 music videos would be huge already!
I feel for you, I’m a perfectionist too. I’ve figured out a few things about the subject.
First of all, you’re overcomplicating matters. This probably stems from issues from your upbringing. I know that’s probably not the answer you’re looking for, but it’s more than likely the case. You might need some therapy, IMO processing some unprocessed feelings/trauma from childhood might be the key to letting go a bit.
Other than that, you need just to do it. Sounds lame but it’s true. Don’t think about being tired, don’t think about why you need to do it, why you should have done it already, how old you are, how tired you are, how good it will be, how much people will like it, how much you will like it, how good your chops are etc etc etc. None of that actually matters at all. When these thoughts occur, you’re going to have to take a deep breath, forgive yourself for getting side tracked, and then get back to work.
The more you do this, the more momentum you will gain, the better quality of focus you will attain. There’s no instant cure, you just have to do it. Keep finishing tracks. don’t worry about albums or whatever. just do something. keep moving forward. you will get there.
like i say, it’s possible you may have some deeper issues that need to be attended to, but looking at it the way i’m suggesting might help.
Ofcourse I don’t know anything about your approach, process of tune making, etc… But what stops you from removing all you added, up till that halfway-through-moment-of-despair? Kill those darlings! I think it was you who told me “less is more”, an advice I hold dear. Perhaps it will suit your needs as well? At what point can you tell “this can rock my socks off”? That point is the Point of No Return, from where you build the song, that kinda ‘decides’ the direction of the song? I can only speak for myself obviously, but at this point, I often have a beat and a bass going on… if I find nothing I add, adds anything to the track, I unleash my ‘perfectionism’ on what I have and make it work. Like many before said, it’s vital you FINISH the track, for your own satisfaction, to clear your head to make room for the next idea… The more I rant about this, the more I realize how personal this is, and how much it matters in what state of mind you produce music. Practically, hearing potential in a track I work on, triggers the inspiration needed to finish it. It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy! Also, I think a good idea is the basis for hearing potential in the first place, or at least, I’m not able to “just make music” and let it turn out good. I need a good idea in my head to get started, then need to hear the potential to let it trigger the inspiration to finish it. As for MOTIVATION, hell… I consider myself a musician because I love making music. What more motivation does one need? Maybe you need to ask yourself if you still enjoy making music? If not so, STOP. If so, is it even REALLY a problem you don’t FINISH tunes, as long as you ENJOY your time behind a tracker…? Maybe Foo also has a point, I know quite some people who “simply” drop some MDMA or cocaine to get the musical blood boiling.
Perfection in this thread is as abstract as the music we love. There’s nothing wrong with aiming for perfection, even if it’s an illusion. Besides, if you are psyched about a finished track, isn’t that because, at the moment, it is perfection in the ear of the beholder?
Well, if it’s about perfect music. Someone will always school you.
I once had long arguments on the sound and timbre quality of a reese bassline with a very technical minded producer, only to realize that they had no context into what I was trying to accomplish, no training/education in the history of music or media, and was not concept oriented. The guy was obsessed with “Reece” and “Liquid sound”, I cared about “media arts” and a third guy (also hanging out, with his own opinion and style) cared about “melodic progression.”
As far as I cared what he was doing wasn’t good enough, and vice versa.
The guy with the Reece had the most perfect sound (and he’s a well respected d&b producer with many releases on many labels), I was ardent that music is media and that it needs to encompass a message; and the third guy was all about the live show and odd time signatures.
I feel this thread is about validation but everyone is hiding behind “perfection” which is ludicrous because perfection implies the understaning of all contexts, and having credibility (which you earn, not blog) for all aspects of everything. This is impossible from behind the internet with no peer group or scene. Nor is it possible to transend all of them, cuz unless you are post-human then you’re busy with one thing at a time.
Music is social. People confusing solitude with lack of output is a dangerous prospect.
So yes, I agree: The beholder it is. Quantity is not a measure of progress. This also applies to releasing stuff. Just cuz you don’t release doesn’t mean you aren’t getting better. Perfect? Never.
I think ‘perfection’ is being used in this thread to explain to eachother what our goal is: being satisfied with our hard work. I doubt anyone in this thread actually believes perfection in any sense is something achievable, that it even EXISTS. I understand your point, but hey… what’s in a word, anyway Especially since not many are native English speakers on this board.
As for quantity, I think people are saying (or at least, I am) tracks should be finished because that way, you can accept what you have done, indeed validate your doings, give the techniques a ‘place in your mind’. Obviously I can again only speak for myself, but unless you make music for a specific goal, the process itself is most important, and therefor emphasized. My guess is this goes especially for people on this board, as it is ALL about the process of making music, rather than the results (with exception of the songboard, perhaps).
But then again, I’m not sure. Perfection to me is all about the ear of the beholder: MY ears, as I’m also a narcisist
Check… and Check! I’ve looked back over my most complete songs and found that, invariably, these are the ones with more organic input from me rather than pure keyboard tracking. When in doubt, get out all of your controllers and intstruments and jam! like buggery! Make a duplicate of the song if needs be so you can fuck it up if you have to.
I’ve been having lots of fun introducing some signal follower flava to my older songs as of late…I diverge
