[linux-audio-user] Some Random Thoughts

[Rob]

On Wed August 30 2006 10:54, Folderol wrote:
> To kick off with my own experiences, sometimes an idea comes
> at exactly the right time so clearly that I can work on it
> immediately and get it substantially complete in one day. More
> usually it develops slowly and may take weeks or even months
> before I am happy with it.

My ideas almost always come to me while driving.  The other times 
it's things like waking up from a dream, mis-hearing a melody 
line on TV and liking what I thought I heard better, or just 
daydreaming about a sound (arrangement, production, etc.) that 
I'd like to create.

> Sometimes it's a chord pattern that sets me off, other times
> it's a melody line. There seems to be no clear priority. Does
> anyone else find that an idea gets so bogged down you end up
> scrapping it completely?

Yeah, but usually I'll pick up a bit of it years later in some 
other project.

> Although my website is quite a recent innovation for me I've
> been recording my work in one form or another for about 15-20
> years now, and seem to find that I only *really* like about
> 10% of what I've produced. What about the rest of you?

About the same for me, I guess.  Of the clips I've put up 
publicly, I really like about 20% of them, but I have a lot of 
other clips I haven't put up and none of them is a favorite.

> I'm sometimes surprised by the opinions of friends, both
> positively and negatively. Some really go a bundle on pieces I
> produced early on that almost makes me cringe. Sometimes I get
> a negative comment on something I think is really good. I've
> found it impossible to actually predict the response of
> friends and family.

Yeah, I guess the context they would need to have is inside my 
head.  

My family just marvels at how it sounds so much like a "real 
record" when I'm aghast at how something sounds, and two friends 
of mine I used to bounce stuff off of regularly would have the 
exact opposite opinion of something I'd done as me.  Something I 
thought was overly tweaky they'd say "wow, that's awesome, you 
really put your heart into that one," and something I thought 
was totally awesome and fresh they'd say "You totally ripped off 
Genesis there, didn't you?"  

The net result of this is that I've only rarely put anything out 
on the net or burned CD's for anyone in the last 7 or 8 years.  
Even then, more recently, I've had a few friends and 
acquaintances tell me, "You're really brave to put your stuff 
out on the web like that."  Not sure how to take that, but hey, 
it's not my career or anything.

> The unkindest cut came from my brother a long time ago, when
> he described my work as "OK I suppose, but it's not as if it's
> real music."

One of my brothers has never commented on my music, but the other 
has been very complimentary in that "only a family member would 
like it that much" sort of way.

Rob