Perfectionist Syndrome

[peppertree]

I think if you can generate sound waves someone (even, and especially, yourself) wants to hear twice, you've succeeded in making music.

[DJR]

I totally empathize, but some of my most creative junctures have been built around what I origianlly thought of as a mistake. I also purposely put a mistake in every take, just to get over my tendancy to seek "perfect"; not glaring, just there. Also, listen to early rock-n-roll and you can hear myriad mistakes, but the feel, the heart, the attitude convey so much, often more than today's overproduced and over-perfected offerings. Record the take, give it a shake, if it's real, not fake, then make no apologies...

[obiwan177]

I agree, dissonance itself may not be wonderful, but once it resolves it adds so much. If you have a song that never resolves because there is no tension, it would be boring to listen to.

[DonaldM]

Originally Posted by DonaldM
That would depend greatly on how one defines music. If you take the broad definition that music is sound organized in time, then even dissonance can be musical. It may not suit everyone's taste, but then neither does Mozart.

But bad pitching or experimental chords won't get your clients song on the radio. The circle of fifths will.

Oh,I don't know, I doubt if Bob Dylan ever hit an accurate note in his life, and he made the air waves plenty!

It would be an interesting discussion to ask "What is music?"

That would be a good discussion for the guitar owners forum.

I thought you were going to say the drummers forum!

[RiF]

Hi Scooby_Dooby, glad to hear that I am not alone
I guess it's called the "unable to commit"-syndrome. There are songs that I am working on for like 5 years now and there is some progress but I have no clue when it will be finished... One reason is, that I don't know where the finish line is. It has to be defined up-front, so you know when you have reached it. This is easy to say, but hard to do (at least for me).
To remedy ear-fatigue and "lying" monitors, I usually record and mix in the evening and check back the mix the next morning on my way to work in my car. Usually I end up thinking after about 4 seconds into the song: "What did I think? This is crap!"... and start over...
Regarding sound commitment, I always have reference tracks of commercial songs which sound the way I want my song to sound like and A/B-them as often I can to re-calibrate my ears.
My newly purchased Axe-Fx does make commitments even harder, because it has so many options and so many sounds that all sound good to choose from. Decisions... decisions...
To sum up, I guess it's the commitment thing. You have to have a goal and if you reached it, you stop (but then you get a new plugin, guitar, amp, mic and want to start over... aaaahhhhhh...
I know that I am not of any help for you, but maybe you feel better if you know that you're not alone

It has all been easier back in the days, where you had to book a recording-studio for like 4 weeks and you have to be finished then, no matter what.

[peppertree]

Originally Posted by RiF

It has all been easier back in the days, where you had to book a recording-studio for like 4 weeks and you have to be finished then, no matter what.

Those days can still be here.

(In fact, for nearly all successful artists, they are. Why is that? )

[RiF]

Originally Posted by peppertree

Those days can still be here.

(In fact, for nearly all successful artists, they are. Why is that? )

Like Guns'n'Roses, huh?

[scooby_doobie]

I hope I don't end up like guns and roses! It's been really interesting to sit back a watch this thread grow. Some very good and useful ideas.

It's hard to explain, you record a track. The performance is okay, few or no mistakes, but your not done. Something in your head says "nah, you can do it better". so the cycle begins.

[peppertree]

If Axl Rose had a home studio he'd be dead rather than broke.

[tha]-[acksaw]

Originally Posted by scooby_doobie

It's hard to explain, you record a track. The performance is okay, few or no mistakes, but your not done. Something in your head says "nah, you can do it better". so the cycle begins.

And this my friend is why you save EVERYTHING! With this new ProTools 8 comping feature I really just record takes until I'm sick of playing it. I set myself up to Loop Record. Highlight past the beginning and end of the song, move over to the live room and just record. Over and over and over. Sometime I play an arranged part over and over, or sometimes I just go off. Either way, I'm left was enough options to peak my creativity as well as replace bad parts.

Now I know these Nashville cats can get it in one take. But me, I'm a four + take, comp track wizard! LOL This is of course only for more musical stuff. If I'm HipHoping, gosh darn it if I don't just Elastic Audio everything to work the first time around. HAHA!