Listening your own noise

[ConcreteMascara]

I was hoping to comment on this topic sooner but here we are 6 months later...

I can and do listen to my works for pleasure now. The earliest works unsurpisngly come with a substantial cringe factor, but on those earliest works I try to listen for the good ideas that maybe never got proper expression, or just try to enjoy things for what they are. I find that I am surprisingly satisfied with the execution of my material released after 2015.

I also typically listen to my original masters rather than the released versions because sometimes labels or duplicators have made changes to the master prior to duplication, against my wishes, in a way that can radically change the sound.

Because I generally record live and do minimal editing after the fact, I'm spared the tedious and enjoyment sapping process of putting unfinished works together on the computer for very long periods of time. and because my hearing is normally ravaged after recording I typically don't start whatever editing I might do until a few days after recording.

I find that, much like visual art, sometimes you need to walk away from the project for a week or so and come back to it with fresh ears or eyes.

Taking regular breaks from recording or working on something is mandatory, it's called quality control. It's even more important during the mixing phase of a recording.

^^^ This is my experience. But I also find there are times were I'm just in the zone working on the audio or visual side of a release and wind up doing a lot of good work fairly rapidly. There's no 100% rule.

I can say that there are several tracks and whole releases that I still listen to regularly. I feel like they have no equivalent or similar release out there and they deliver exactly what I want to hear. Whether it's earned satisfaction or narcissistic fantasy, I feel like I'm in a place where I make the music I want to hear better than most. As a result I feel like I have the privilege to be more discerning with what I buy and less easily satisfied by stuff. But maybe that's because I'm getting older and crankier?

[NaturalOrthodoxy]

Yeah, that's a good balance. A kind of earned appreciation of your own work after years of honing.

I find this an interesting point-

I also typically listen to my original masters rather than the released versions because sometimes labels or duplicators have made changes to the master prior to duplication, against my wishes, in a way that can radically change the sound.

My work has only ever been released on tape and I take this into account when mixing. I enjoy the "detrimental" effect that dubbing to tape has on my material and I see that as the final stage of the process even after mastering. When I revisit those works I therefore listen to the tape as it feels like only that is the finished product.

Maybe because most of my noise education is bad rips of long sold-out tapes from the 80s and 90s

[ConcreteMascara]

I also typically listen to my original masters rather than the released versions because sometimes labels or duplicators have made changes to the master prior to duplication, against my wishes, in a way that can radically change the sound.

My work has only ever been released on tape and I take this into account when mixing. I enjoy the "detrimental" effect that dubbing to tape has on my material and I see that as the final stage of the process even after mastering. When I revisit those works I therefore listen to the tape as it feels like only that is the finished product.

Maybe because most of my noise education is bad rips of long sold-out tapes from the 80s and 90s

So typically my masters are really loud because of the way I record, master, etc. When I've had pro-duplicated tapes done, the duplication place has done some very minimal adjusting to get the most accurate representation of my master on the tape, sent me a test tape, and when it's okay they duplicate. That's wonderful. When I duplicate my own editions I check every tape to make sure it's recording at the right level and sounds ok after I've recorded. I do it at 1:1 speed so it takes forever but keeps it consistent. I dub some releases louder specifically to get that more blown out or distorted sound, and others quieter. Obviously if you have a bass heavy recording and you record it all the way in the red it'll sound like mud (which isn't my goal at least). The problem is if someone else dubs a recording too loudly and it distorts it beyond what I anticipated, it's can get fucked. Fuck one label didn't even dub all the songs or had them in the wrong order sometimes! I can't even comprehend how that happened. And one of my CDs clearly had the volume levels lowered prior to/at duplication, I assume by someone at the duplication plant. It's a CD so I'm not sure why the fuck they would do that and the volume was adjusted differently per track so it was very surprising and aggravating when I got my copy.

So I hear you and I do take that into account. I try to work with labels I can trust and have faith they'll do with my music what I'd like, but sometimes the label or even the duplication place fucks that up. And as part of my listening habits I have to check post release to see if it went okay. That act of faith, and the occasional breach of it, is the reason I've moved to just releasing as much of my own material as possible.

[Mieczko K.]

I was hoping to comment on this topic sooner but here we are 6 months later...

Same thing here !

I listen to my own work quite often. And the more I release new material, the less I listen to other projects actually. The main reason I've started to release noise was to make something that would satisfy my own taste. I've succeed.