okay...what of the common man?

Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 10:28 am

Cucco wrote:

I would add that I bet if you replaced the strings with better samples or live players playing notes that made sense, your friends would sit up and take notice and compliment you on the vast improvement of the piece - even if they're not able to tell you what changed.

Yeah, and I might too, lol. Im gonna take a long hard look at this as I know, admittedly NOTHING about strings. But I think the jump up to a maj 7, then to a minor , etc, is the problem.I intentionally did that but I suppose it was too much.

Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2007 4:05 pm

Quote:

Yes, you are correct, the 'common man' does not critically listen to things that are in (or out) of phase, and understand what he hears.
The common man (or, friend) tells you everything's great because he thinks that that's what you want to hear, because he doesn't want to upset the only guy he knows who might possibly 'make it out of this place'.

On top of that, the "common man" doesn't technically (at the musical level) dissect the song -- He either listens to it and likes it, or dislikes it. He doesn't usually care why.

But if a song has "unmusical" qualities in it, the "common man" probably won't really care for it. No matter if the production quality is amazing or not. Contrast that with some really mediocre recordings out there of classic hits -- A lot of those recordings (generically speaking) from the 50's and 60's are crap by today's standards. But if the song kicks a$$, there you go.

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 9:43 am

I would add that life is a journey, and in order to improve, we must learn and re-evaluate everything all along the way. There's no shame in learning the craft as best as you can, and you lose nothing in the process.

What you thought was great when you were 10 might not be so impressive at 20, and so on. Your basic sensibilities may have been spot on from the very beginning, but you still refine things as you go along in life. That is called growth, and without it, we wither and die.

The "Common man" is only common if he/she chooses to never grow, never learn, never want to be any better than a passing, pedestrian observer in life, music, recordings, etc. You may as well try playing your music for sheep and cattle too. They may like it, they may not, they may simply roll their eyes at you. They will never rise above the "passing fancy" stage of listener. They don't know WHY they like it, (or hate it), but they do. That's fine for selling apples and pencils, and to some extent, even CDs. (We NEED common people for some things; if the world were full of experts, if EVERYONE could do it, what then??)

Yes, it's very commendable that you want to write & record something that simply "Feels" right, and hits any kind of person, regardless of their station in life, in an emotional way. (Wouldn't we all!) But aside from the few rare geniouses in life who could do this, (Beatles, Mozart, Bach, etc.) the rest of us have to put one foot down in front of the other, and do it the old fashioned way: With hard work and dedication.

Yes, it's a shame you'll have to lose some child-like naivette when you learn HOW frequencies work, how microphone patterns capture sound, wavelenghts of various instruments, distortion and level settings, but it's part of learning one's craft. Painters and Ballet instructors go through similar proceses, so do set builders and movie prop makers. Craft is as important as inspiration.

As an extreme example, look at any good magician: he never leaves anything to "Chance" (or real "MAGIC") - every trick is rehearsed, timed, and practiced to perfection. Sadly, the magician himself never gets to feel the joy or the fun of a great trick, done well, at least not the way the audience does. The audience, of course, goes bonkers over a great trick, and will try (only to a point) to figure out how it was done. Imagine how rotten a magician would be without planning, practice and timing.

A good musical performance can be similar; the artist has worked on the piece to the point where it cannot fail (even with a wrong note or two); the passion & the emotion is there intrinsicly, but he/she is too busy with the mechanics at the moment to enjoy it the same way the audience does. (Unless it's one of those rare moments of true communion with the audience where the artist is having as much of a good time as THEY are.)

Many people (including Jeremy, others here and hopefully myself) can toggle back and forth between the "Pro" set of ears, vs. the "Naive" or common man set of ears and simply enjoy something for what it is. That too can be learned, as long as one's mind is always open to how this whole thing works.

I don't think you have to separate the two, and I DO think you can have both, esp if you're going to try to make a living at this thing. I don't think there's any shame or loss by getting overly technical and learning your craft as best as you can. Sure, you may one day accidently write the ultimate emotional hit pop song that gets perfectly recorded and touches millions of people in a 3 minute ditty.

BUt most artists - even the biggest of them - will tell you it's 5% inspiration, and 95% perspiration.

Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 12:59 pm

Hey there!

I think your question(s) are totally on target. The thing I feel you have to be careful of is what one post mentioned and that is your friends saying it sounds great out of courtesy. However what I have found is this...the general public either likes it or they don't. They have no idea why.

My wife will listen to what I feel is a totally inappropriate song (we're Christians) with my daughter - I will listen to it and ask her if she heard what the lyrics were saying - she would reply, no I just like the music. So to her it's not about the lyrics it's the groove that she enjoys. Some it's the lyrics that they connect with. However sonically speaking people won't pin point what they don't like - they just don't. So does it matter if it's mastered to sonic perfection - ah, no. But if you are going back to back with a national release on the radio or the like it better be able to hold it's own - so mastering is probably a very strong idea.

With my music I have a decent ear and a pretty good room to record in. Will I ever desire to get signed - not on your life! The sacrifices are way to great. So mastering is not an issue with me.

As with most of these threads this is just one mans opinion Smile

God Bless!

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