Listening to your own music

#1

When you listen to your own music what is your reaction…

Do you listen to critically evaluate it and to analyze weak spots for improvement…or do you listen for enjoyment…

Ive done both…

Some tracks of mine that im particularly proud of are
“musings of reincarnation”… and
“the ambivalence”… and idmimdbdnb

because those three tracks are like a culmination of years of studying and trying to figure out how to make the music inside my head into actuality…

Even though they may not be everyones cup of tea i wouldnt be ashamed of those three tracks.

But yeah so if you do listen to your own music…why do you…and what do you think about your own music…

#2

Good question. I’d say current work up to a few months old, I listen critically and look for how to improve. But by about 6 months old, I’m enjoying a song as a product of a different time for me. Though bear in mind, I just released a song last month that I started in 2019, so when I say a different time, I mean I’m putting out stuff now that was inspired and started on before anyone knew we would live through a pandemic. They really are the product of a different time.

And certainly older stuff, I cringe sometimes, but overall those songs are really the product of a different headspace. In a way, listening to my old music is like reading a journal I was keeping around the time it was made. There are songs I really like that I made while I was still in school or while I was a temp before I landed my current job, and those songs make me think about those older times a bit.

#3

I’m only ever hyper critical of my own music. I hope that someday I’ll build a few dance tracks that I’m happy with. Even having played my own stuff in public in DJ sets and seen that my tunes didn’t clear the dance floor I can’t stand listening to them in retrospect.

Strangely, I will happily bump my own DJ sets. Even ones with mistakes in them. I guess after seeing Skrillex make an absolute trainwreck of an Ableton Live laptop set in front of a substantial festival crowd (and frankly, it could have been a behind the scenes tech that screwed something up, those big DJs often have their sets timed to all the visual/SFX stuff) and everyone cheering at his self-deprecating joke about it a few mistakes here and there in a DJ set don’t bother me as much.

I don’t really have many insights on why any of this is. I know I’m hyper self-critical from being in an arts program.

#4

I’m usually overly-critical and way too analytical about it to really assess it clearly. This happens in the mix phase all the way to at least a year plus on out post-final-mix. I can only ever hear things in a less distorted manner after about a decade or so, and even then I know I’ll never be able to assess any of it properly.

I’d also never be able to pretend to ‘master’ anything I make without totally ruining it for the same reason (of being way too close to / invested in it), so I just let the final mix stand as the finished product most of the time because it’s the best I can really do.

I essentially quit releasing music for this reason, so I don’t suggest doing it. It’s a real passion-killer.

#5

I make music. Then i release it to the world. So called. Then i plan to make new. This is the plan.

I think my music is the best thing i ever listened.

#6

I’m finding that as time goes by I’m getting more critical/analytical about my music, yet I’m getting happier with my more recent music. I’m not sure if that means I’m just getting more comfortable with it, or maybe getting better? lol

#7

When music is ok it’s ok pleasure to listen.

#8

It’s a bit of both. I like to listen to my tracks to hear how I’ve improved over the years. I will try to ascertain whether that improvement is in regards to the composing/arranging, mixdown, mastering, etc. But I also sometimes just listen to my music for pleasure, as it reminds me of the time period in which it was produced.

#9

Sometimes I listen to my old tracks because I hear how much I improved/how shitty is that track/damn how good one I made.