how do you quality control your tracks?

  On 2/4/2010 at 5:56 AM, Ramses said:

Quality control ideas:

 

Try to bring a track to completion in one sitting. When you have a burst of creativity, only stop to gather more inspiration for moments. Turn your internet off. Turn your phone off. Just commit yourself. After you have left the zone, you will find yourself not wanting to twist anything about- but maybe go back to add adornments. Maybe you would like the track to carry out a certain section a bit more. Maybe you would like more of this synth and less of that drum. Or, just as importantly, more of this frequency and less of that one.

Although this isn't really a quality control issue, I'm gonna have to agree with it as a matter of getting a good song. It's more and more important for me to sketch out my ideas immediately, while I am still feeling the initial essence of it. The track is simply not going to offer me the same possibilities and ease of writing when I approach it the next day. My best works are more often than not derived from short intense creative sessions that I do in one setting. I'm part of an ongoing project to discipline myself and remain focused in anything I do for this very reason. That means, not answering calls, turning my airport off on my computer and concentrating.

Typically I would work on something for fifteen minutes at a time, get up and walk around and then come back five minutes later to give myself a new perspective. I must say, having known Braintree has given a certain amount of inspiration to putting in huge amounts of concentrated work after he alluded to some of his work habits. I'm always interested to hear about other people's creative habits.

If you play your tracks for a friend you'll be able to hear what works and what doesn't. As soon as you press play you'll hear your track in a whole new way. I don't know what it is but you listen to your own tracks differently when there's a crowd listening as well. Anyway, when you listen to it with a friend you will hear what works and what doesn't.

I don't agree that Squee's statements are a consistent science, I know that in my beginning 5 years of recording sometimes the tracks that were best(and that people begin to agree were one of my few classics after a while) were the ones that made me most vulnerable, nervous and not so confident about when I first showed them to people. A good track that is personally ground breaking can make people really silent and weirded out to were you cant tell if they are amazed or think its ricky retardo.

i listen to it in the car or just any other stereo.

next i listen with someone else in the room, awkward moments in the song get amplified that way.

  On 2/4/2010 at 3:21 AM, Blanket Fort Collapse said:

  On 2/3/2010 at 10:31 PM, Masonic Boom said:

I don't think it's actually humanly possible to *ever* be more than 99% content with anything you've created.

 

It's the nature of seeking perfection that one only ever ends up hearing flaws.

 

Yes but also in the nature of seeking perfection is the desire to be able to look at things from different perspectives for maximum understanding. A good artist not only is never completely satisfied with his(women don't make art)((at best they sometimes are themselves art))(((you can only be half pissed off at my sexist statement))) creation.... lol.. an artist optimally should also be able to disconnect, not be an artist but a mere interpreter that can experience their output as unbiased as possible to fully learn from and appreciate their effort:in which it is possible to be 99.69% content... IMHO

WTF? I can't make head nor tail of this post.

If you want people to take your arguments seriously, you really shouldn't start with such a total logical fallacy that the rest of your statement is rendered meaningless.

That's kind of like starting a maths dissertation with the statement "2+2=5" or a discussion of ornithology that begins "there are no black swans." Assertions that are easily disproved by evidential and experiential data in the premise will simply invalidate your entire argument and discredit you.

I'm not trying to win the debate team science fair decathlete competition championship

I was only half serious, for one the sexist statements I made were an outright fictional joke. Decipher my posts how you must, I care not... or do I??!!!11111

so I make my songs and listen to them a hundred times and then I mash them all up in a blender and strip everything I got bored with while listening and add new bits and then theyre done and people couldn't care less, most likely because the tracks are shit but I like them so I'm satisfied with this process and will probably never change my ways.

  On 2/4/2010 at 6:58 AM, Wall Bird said:

  On 2/4/2010 at 5:56 AM, Ramses said:

Quality control ideas:

 

Try to bring a track to completion in one sitting. When you have a burst of creativity, only stop to gather more inspiration for moments. Turn your internet off. Turn your phone off. Just commit yourself. After you have left the zone, you will find yourself not wanting to twist anything about- but maybe go back to add adornments. Maybe you would like the track to carry out a certain section a bit more. Maybe you would like more of this synth and less of that drum. Or, just as importantly, more of this frequency and less of that one.

 

Although this isn't really a quality control issue, I'm gonna have to agree with it as a matter of getting a good song. It's more and more important for me to sketch out my ideas immediately, while I am still feeling the initial essence of it. The track is simply not going to offer me the same possibilities and ease of writing when I approach it the next day. My best works are more often than not derived from short intense creative sessions that I do in one setting. I'm part of an ongoing project to discipline myself and remain focused in anything I do for this very reason. That means, not answering calls, turning my airport off on my computer and concentrating.

 

Typically I would work on something for fifteen minutes at a time, get up and walk around and then come back five minutes later to give myself a new perspective. I must say, having known Braintree has given a certain amount of inspiration to putting in huge amounts of concentrated work after he alluded to some of his work habits. I'm always interested to hear about other people's creative habits.

I agree completely. my biggest downfall in music making is that i give myself little breaks as soon as get the smallest task done. gaining perspective over time is one thing, but i think it's equally important to get the ideas and structure down immediately, and let the time-gained perspective happen naturally. it's nice to see this thought displayed so clearly, maybe now i'll actually start doing it.

  On 2/4/2010 at 9:37 AM, Squee said:

If you play your tracks for a friend you'll be able to hear what works and what doesn't. As soon as you press play you'll hear your track in a whole new way. I don't know what it is but you listen to your own tracks differently when there's a crowd listening as well. Anyway, when you listen to it with a friend you will hear what works and what doesn't.

so very true. it's amazing how much your song will transform when you are subject to judgement in person. that said, the initial listeners should have trusted ears and exposure/experience in the style of music you are making, IMHO.

  On 2/4/2010 at 6:58 AM, Wall Bird said:

  On 2/4/2010 at 5:56 AM, Ramses said:

Quality control ideas:

 

Try to bring a track to completion in one sitting. When you have a burst of creativity, only stop to gather more inspiration for moments. Turn your internet off. Turn your phone off. Just commit yourself. After you have left the zone, you will find yourself not wanting to twist anything about- but maybe go back to add adornments. Maybe you would like the track to carry out a certain section a bit more. Maybe you would like more of this synth and less of that drum. Or, just as importantly, more of this frequency and less of that one.

 

Although this isn't really a quality control issue, I'm gonna have to agree with it as a matter of getting a good song. It's more and more important for me to sketch out my ideas immediately, while I am still feeling the initial essence of it. The track is simply not going to offer me the same possibilities and ease of writing when I approach it the next day. My best works are more often than not derived from short intense creative sessions that I do in one setting. I'm part of an ongoing project to discipline myself and remain focused in anything I do for this very reason. That means, not answering calls, turning my airport off on my computer and concentrating.

 

Typically I would work on something for fifteen minutes at a time, get up and walk around and then come back five minutes later to give myself a new perspective. I must say, having known Braintree has given a certain amount of inspiration to putting in huge amounts of concentrated work after he alluded to some of his work habits. I'm always interested to hear about other people's creative habits.

Depends at which stage, to be honest.

I find that bursts of inspiration for songs often strike at really importune times. Like, when I'm out walking (the beat of a fast walking pace is almost the same as the perfect dance tempo) or on the bus, or when I'm in that half-sleeping half-waking state. Since it's almost impossible to get access to any recording devices when the actual inspiration flash occurs, I tend to write it down in a kind of modified Gregorian notation.

This is often the very first step of the quality control process, as, if I can recall the tune from a piece of paper scribbled while on the bus, (although I can read music, my sight reading is very poor) and have it return to my head in the same state, then I KNOW that it's a good i.e. catchy enough to want to work on.

THEN, when I get a bunch of stuff I want to work on - then I sit down at the desk with my scribbled bits of paper and try to turn them into tracks. When I have a good, clear stretch of several hours in which I try to take every precaution that I won't be interrupted - i.e. turn off the phone, disconnect my modem. Make sure it's after a decent meal so I won't be interrupted by hunger pangs (though I often don't even notice, and work through to the point where I make myself ill). Make and drink several cups of tea beforehand so I don't get caffeine cravings (though, that said, a break to make a cup of tea can give new focus on a track.)

Once I'm in this setting, I can work through until I'm done. Ideally, I like to sit down mid afternoon and work through until early morning. I often split sessions into two days, the first to work on the musical arrangement and sequencing, and then the second to add in vocals or live instruments as needed and do additional production and tweaking. (I do the live singing/instruments in a different room with different monitors and mostly headphones so things that need correction will become more apparent.)

The single most important thing in terms of quality control is listening to your track on as big a variety of speakers and settings as possible. Don't just listen to it on your perfect studio monitor speakers or your big noise cancelling headphones. Listen to it in the car, listen to it in the bath, listen to it on a shitty boombox with no bass, play it on an iPod with little earbuds, play it in a club (do it at soundcheck if you're not ready to drop it in a set).

And then THE MOST SINGLE AND IMPORTANT CRUCIAL PART...

Know when to stop. The best advice I ever got on creation was from my painting teacher when I was 15: you don't ever finish a painting, you just learn when to walk away.

You can be tweaking for the rest of time. You can ALWAYS find one more thing that needs to be fixed - and the awful thing is, if you tweak too much, you can actually spoil the spontanaity and energy that made the work good to start with. That's what I mean by you can never be more than 99% satisfied with a work.

But it's about striking a balance - I mean...

The biggest incentive to finish something is having your record company on the phone going "I WANT THE MASTERS ON MY DESK BY 5PM TODAY!!!!" and you're still trying to tweak it on the walk to the post office (metaphorically, these days.)

This can lead to disasters - there have been a couple of times when I sent something off in a hurry and then CRINGED when I heard some schoolboy error upon hearing the track on the radio. (It helps if you have a record company that aren't TOTAL IDIOTS and don't send the demo instead of the master to the BBC by mistake, grrrr.) But at the same time, I've been re-mixing the current album for A YEAR (nearly 2 years after it was recorded) at this point and I think I've actually given up on *ever* turning it on to the record company because I'm paralysed by the tweaking process.

Sorry this is so long argh sometimes I start talking and I can't shut up.

music is never finished, merely abandoned.

A/B against similar tracks I like

  On 2/4/2010 at 9:37 AM, Squee said:

If you play your tracks for a friend you'll be able to hear what works and what doesn't. As soon as you press play you'll hear your track in a whole new way. I don't know what it is but you listen to your own tracks differently when there's a crowd listening as well. Anyway, when you listen to it with a friend you will hear what works and what doesn't.

this says it best

All of my friends live on the internet. I'll have to play my tracks in public food courts for reactions.

Err, I play it for my friends and if they like it, it goes on the album.

i seriously dont understand why you guys what other people think. only you know what you truely love, your friends dont have exactly the same taste in music.

  On 2/7/2010 at 4:35 AM, messiaen said:

i seriously dont understand why you guys what other people think. only you know what you truely love, your friends dont have exactly the same taste in music.

it can offer insight and promote growth if your tracks are looked at by a trusted and critical individual on a similar wavelength.

yeah i cant empathize all my mates like fucking shit music

  On 2/7/2010 at 4:35 AM, messiaen said:

i seriously dont understand why you guys what other people think. only you know what you truely love, your friends dont have exactly the same taste in music.

  On 2/7/2010 at 6:29 AM, messiaen said:

yeah i cant empathize all my mates like fucking shit music

+1

  On 2/7/2010 at 4:35 AM, messiaen said:

i seriously dont understand why you guys what other people think. only you know what you truely love, your friends dont have exactly the same taste in music.

Because listening to your own music through other people's ears can help bring insights into what works and what doesn't.

Even if they hate it, something the mere process of trying to justify an aesthetic decision to someone else can solidify your belief in why that track *does* work, and why you love it and want to keep it that way.

  On 2/4/2010 at 10:34 AM, Blanket Fort Collapse said:

I don't agree that Squee's statements are a consistent science

Science? Holy shit!

  On 2/7/2010 at 4:35 AM, messiaen said:

i seriously dont understand why you guys what other people think. only you know what you truely love, your friends dont have exactly the same taste in music.

Because maybe one of your friends will have some kind of idea or give feedback that could better the overall cohesive work.

  On 2/7/2010 at 4:45 AM, sneaksta303 said:

 

it can offer insight and promote growth if your tracks are looked at by a trusted and critical individual on a similar wavelength.

It's also good to have someone that doesn't understand your genre give feedback. If you can impress someone who doesn't typically tune in to your sound, you've done a GOOD job.

Speaking of which, playing electronic music for people who don't listen to the genre is usually an interesting experience. Even a simple song can get a variety of "whoa, holy shits" & "whoa, what's this shits".

Some of my mates have terrible taste in music. Others have a good taste but no one ever has the same taste as you.

i only put out like a few songs every once in a while, but i have sooooooo many on the HD that are half-done/didn't make it through the QA phase. a lot of times i'll just put on a smattering of like 10 tracks and the ones i hate and never want to continue editing are usually the fan faves lol.

but every once in a while you know when you've got a keeper. usually happens for me when i find the perfect beat. after that i tend to listen to the songs a lot, like 2-4 times a day in real time, probably 10000 times in my head and come back and make some changes.