Has anyone else experienced this?

[Sebby64]

Sometimes when I work intensely on a song for about 1 or 2 hours and make a lot of progress on it, I leave my computer feeling like my song is near perfect as it is. Yet when I return, lets say, an hour later to hear it again, all the new additions I made sound extremely jumbled and confusing. This happens especially with sequences with more than five instruments or when a melody contains mostly 1/8th and 1/16th notes. I don't know why this happens, and unfortunately, I often lose the optimism I initially had with my song. Though after playing the song over and over, it does start to sound normal again. But yeah, its a strange phenomenon. Does this happen to anyone else?

[Bob-Music]

At 7/22/08 04:29 PM, Sebby64 wrote: Sometimes when I work intensely on a song for about 1 or 2 hours and make a lot of progress on it, I leave my computer feeling like my song is near perfect as it is. Yet when I return, lets say, an hour later to hear it again, all the new additions I made sound extremely jumbled and confusing. This happens especially with sequences with more than five instruments or when a melody contains mostly 1/8th and 1/16th notes. I don't know why this happens, and unfortunately, I often lose the optimism I initially had with my song. Though after playing the song over and over, it does start to sound normal again. But yeah, its a strange phenomenon. Does this happen to anyone else?

Yeah I know what you mean, I think it's largely because when you have been working on it you hear it how you want to hear it and how you intended it to sound. When you return, you hear how it actually sounds. Try playing around with the volumes of each instrument you are using until you get it right, export it and then listen to it as an mp3 or wav file, it's easier to hear the bits that you don't like or that need changing

[Nav]

Yes, I call it the "Morning after" musical syndrome (lol) because it usually happens the night before. IE: You make something the night before that sounds totally awesome. You go to sleep. Come back next morning, and its a total piece of crap.

It happens to everyone. I reccomend that you not produce when overtired, and that you try to use a similar pair of monitoring speakers/headphones while producing, so you get an accurate picture of the sound, at least in your mind.

However, its not always a bad thing. Sometimes, I come back and say "this part is awesome, but this part stinks" and then I fix it, and get a coherent whole. Plus, some of my more interesting pieces stemmed from when I just sat down at 2:30 AM and made some chords.

In other words, its a weird event, it happens to everyone, and experiment with it, for you might get something cool.

[TjA]

i wrote something about this a while ago, seems people find leaving it and working on something new/old then going back to it better than forcing yourself to work on it.

[Chronamut]

ya I get that a lot - your ears become accustomed to whatever it is you're making - and then you go back - and you're like "wtf.."

mind you - it doesnt happen very often - but I do have a lot of unfinished projects that I basically just abandoned half done lying around my computer..

[Devastus]

Yeah, has happened to me too sometimes. However...

What's funny, more often to me happens it backwards, like, I totally think that the song sucks major ass when I'm making it, then I leave it at that, and the next morning I listen to it I'm like "Wait a second, this sounds awesome." :P

[ZENON]

I have never experienced this in my entire life.

[jrhager84]

........It's a form of listening fatigue.

[AloysiusRexford]

Sort of like if you were standing in a factory for a couple of hours. You get used to the gnarled sounds, then you come back and your like "Faaack". Then you get used to it again. Because its your job. and you have ear plugs...yeah.

I get this more often. I start working on a song, and i get real nice and far into it, it sounds great, im listening to my loops. Then i stop working on it and i try and come back to it later and i just dont feel like working on that anymore. Even though i was excited to finish it up or continue work.

[Bob-Music]

At 7/22/08 05:02 PM, Devastus wrote: Yeah, has happened to me too sometimes. However...

What's funny, more often to me happens it backwards, like, I totally think that the song sucks major ass when I'm making it, then I leave it at that, and the next morning I listen to it I'm like "Wait a second, this sounds awesome." :P

Yeah that is good, thinking you've ruined a song and you listen to it in a new light and realise it was better than you could have intended :0)

[DzGuy]

That happened with a couple of my recent stuff. It sounds great when I'm making it but when I come back I notice how crappy I EQ'ed it or something sounds off-key. This is particularly annoying when you're almost finished and you were planning on submitting it that day. -_-

[No1r]

Yep, it happens to me too..
Really often..

[TomBanks]

No, you're all wrong; you are all consistently excellent musicians regardless of fatigue and circumstance, but I sneak in and steal the quality out of your work while you're away.