EqD Music

Sports, politics, movies, videogames, questionable hobbies, photos from your family vacation, etc. Talk about stuff that isn't ponies or music. But do try to stay on topic and respectful of alternate opinions.

Re: EqD Music

Postby ph00tbag » 23 Mar 2013 00:08

Sometimes the failure to meet arbitrary standards of production (and make no mistake they are arbitrary) actually creates novel sounds and music. This is why I've never really taken much stock in using production quality as the first (or really anything but last) indicator of whether a piece of music is something I want to listen to.

That's not really helpful, but I'm tired, and maybe some other time I'll be in the mood to fight about what really makes music good. As it is, I'm satisfied with saying what I've said so far.
Image
User avatar
ph00tbag
Global Moderator
 
Posts: 769
Joined: 06 May 2012 16:19
Location: Cary, NC
OS: Windows
Primary: FL Studio
Cutie Mark: Blank flank

Re: EqD Music

Postby bartekko » 23 Mar 2013 04:26

ph00tbag wrote:Sometimes the failure to meet arbitrary standards of production (and make no mistake they are arbitrary) actually creates novel sounds and music. This is why I've never really taken much stock in using production quality as the first (or really anything but last) indicator of whether a piece of music is something I want to listen to.

this is the kind of shit that annoys me the most. You're gonna make a track for an audience full of varying sound systems (some people are gonna listen on laptop speakers, some are gonna use a big bass boosted system, and some are gonna use shitty ipod earphones) and then not give a damn to make sure it sounds okay on all of them. You see that's what production quality is about: Making the track listenable everywhere by everyone. Of course, dubstep first emerged because of bad production quality (SUB BAAAAASSS) but no one mainstream artist makes dubstep like they did in the 90s because besides production shenanigans, 90s dubstep was often boring, so stop pretending that production quality has little meaning because that is WRONG
[00:27:11] <@z0r8> you are voiced, now shut up
User avatar
bartekko
 
Posts: 1034
Joined: 14 Jul 2011 09:14
Location: Poland

Re: EqD Music

Postby CommandSpry » 23 Mar 2013 05:11

I'm sorry but we can't disregard production quality in order to feature "interesting" music. I talk about interesting music in a sense of being divert in genre and having interesting progressions; but that doesn't get you far. You guys seem to love to disregard production quality and just think about the melodies, but that's what sets apart great music from just "interesting" music. Interesting music can be brilliantly produced; Frozen Synapse OST is one of my favourite OSTs, it's very interesting but it's also very well produced, and that's why it stands out. Production quality is the least subjective thing we can vote on and we indeed enforce it; to say that interesting music cannot or in most cases doesn't have great production quality is either ignorance or laziness.

Let's face it; production quality is very hard to acquire because it's usually a boring process to get good at mixing, sliding bars and turning knobs for hours at a time, listening to tips on your works in progress which can be rather annoying if you were sure you had something right and then someone tells you to fix it; if you're gonna disregard this step, then you're either not passionate enough in the music you're doing or you're incredibly lazy.

And you talk as if the majority of well produced music is boring and the majority of not so well produced music is interesting. Are you kidding me? Do you know the volumes of boring music that's not well produced? And we were forced to MoTD these tunes because of Seth's policies. There are loads and loads of poorly produced tracks that try to copy synth for synth popular songs, whether it be growly brosteppy dub or just some house. It's you guys who have a bias towards "interesting" music instead of well produced, not vice versa. EqD prelisteners judge the objective areas the most, and then work towards the very subjective areas in order to eliminate bias towards genres, harmonies, styles, you name it.
Hey. Listen. I don't Care anymore. You hear me you Son of a Bitch? I'm old now. I have all the resources.
Hey. Listen. I don't Care anymore. You hear me you Son of a Bitch? I'm old now. I have all the resources.
Hey. Listen. I don't Care anymore. You hear me you Son of a Bitch? I'm old now. I have all the resources.
Hey. Listen. I don't Care anymore. You hear me you Son of a Bitch? I'm old now. I have all the resources.

hello I'm spry wobbler lol I'm
User avatar
CommandSpry
 
Posts: 777
Joined: 17 Jan 2012 16:03
Location: im here
OS: Horse OS 2
Primary: Not yet specified.
Cutie Mark: wobbler

Re: EqD Music

Postby ghelded_kultz » 23 Mar 2013 06:20

CommandSpry wrote:Let's face it; production quality is very hard to acquire because it's usually a boring process to get good at mixing, sliding bars and turning knobs for hours at a time, listening to tips on your works in progress which can be rather annoying if you were sure you had something right and then someone tells you to fix it; if you're gonna disregard this step, then you're either not passionate enough in the music you're doing or you're incredibly lazy.


I think that's part of the problem: Musicians are not supposed to master their own tracks. Producers master tracks. With regards to independent electronic musicians (I'm using the term broadly here, anything that is produced electronically is electronic music here) the line is often blurred and people need to function as both, but their is a difference. With Indie Music the composers are primarily musicians, not producers, so while they have lower production quality, they can spend more time focusing on the music itself. Of course music can be of high production quality and be of interesting composition, and I encourage everyone to improve their production as much as they can so they may produce what they intend to produce (we certainly still have a long way we need to go, but we are improving), but the question is which is more important: composition or production? I'm pretty sure most people would agree composition is more important, but as you said it can't be objectively measured, which is why a selection of things with mediocre production should still be available.

bartekko wrote:
ph00tbag wrote:Sometimes the failure to meet arbitrary standards of production (and make no mistake they are arbitrary) actually creates novel sounds and music. This is why I've never really taken much stock in using production quality as the first (or really anything but last) indicator of whether a piece of music is something I want to listen to.

this is the kind of shit that annoys me the most. You're gonna make a track for an audience full of varying sound systems (some people are gonna listen on laptop speakers, some are gonna use a big bass boosted system, and some are gonna use shitty ipod earphones) and then not give a damn to make sure it sounds okay on all of them. You see that's what production quality is about: Making the track listenable everywhere by everyone. Of course, dubstep first emerged because of bad production quality (SUB BAAAAASSS) but no one mainstream artist makes dubstep like they did in the 90s because besides production shenanigans, 90s dubstep was often boring, so stop pretending that production quality has little meaning because that is WRONG


The thing you don't seem to get is that sometimes music is supposed to be mixed differently for artistic effect. Some music simply isn't meant to played on shitty earphones or big bass systems. People should not be forced to compromise their artistic license in order to appeal to shitty headphones and clubbers. The fact is you cannot please everyone, so don't comprise your vision in trying to do that.

-Soft D. String DeHooves
"Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating." - John Cage

Trolls and makers of bad music, thats us!
http://soundcloud.com/ghelded-kultz/tracks
User avatar
ghelded_kultz
 
Posts: 426
Joined: 03 Aug 2012 08:36
Location: Stallion Dimas

Re: EqD Music

Postby bartekko » 23 Mar 2013 08:19

People should not be forced to compromise their artistic license in order to appeal to shitty headphones and clubbers.

Translation: People should not have to be making music for mainstream audiences in order to appeal to mainstream audiences. - I'm sorry the world just doesn't work that way.

The thing you don't seem to get is that sometimes music is supposed to be mixed differently for artistic effect. Some music simply isn't meant to played on shitty earphones or big bass systems.

Definitely that's true. But there is a difference between making a horrendous mix because you suck at mixing (no namecalling) and making a horrendous mix because you know what you're doing (sci, zovi)
Garage rock may have been popular once but we're many years later.

Musicians are not supposed to master their own tracks. Producers master tracks.

So you don't know the difference between mixing and mastering, a record producer and a sound engineer. Yeah you totally know who should do what

which is more important: composition or production?

People assume, that composition can exist without production. But in reality, from a non-objective, broad viewpoint, A musician is like a chef, where Production is cooking and composition is choosing the right ingredients. What is more important, what the food is or how was the food done? If you do one thing wrong the other will suck anyway, even if you reassure your client that this overcooked pie is artistic license. [03:29:35] <bartekko> I was thinking about Ratatouille when making that doctor who reference
Last edited by bartekko on 23 Mar 2013 08:47, edited 1 time in total.
[00:27:11] <@z0r8> you are voiced, now shut up
User avatar
bartekko
 
Posts: 1034
Joined: 14 Jul 2011 09:14
Location: Poland

Re: EqD Music

Postby MYCUTIEMARKISAGUN » 23 Mar 2013 08:47

CommandSpry wrote:
MYCUTIEMARKISAGUN wrote:it does not take the human brain long to decide whether song title/genre/artist is interesting and whether or not said song is enjoyable once Play is clicked.


It takes at least 20 seconds in order to determine if you like the song or not, and that's a very generous estimate. With 20 songs a day, that's over 6 minutes of just determining if you like something or not, without even hearing much of any of it, especially if it's vocal since the vocals don't start until like 20 seconds in.


This straight-up warrants a "nigga please" in my book.

Freewave wrote:Why are you guys wanting to kill MOTD if it works as designed?


ikr? I mean I can understand why Seth would want to kill it come hell or high water, but the other guys confuse me. o_O

CommandSpry wrote:If you want to complain about labeling, complain to the people submitting.


If they can't mention a damn genre, label it "Techno". :lol:

ph00tbag wrote:Sometimes the failure to meet arbitrary standards of production (and make no mistake they are arbitrary) actually creates novel sounds and music.


*hugs his copy of "36 Chambers"*

CommandSpry wrote:I'm sorry but we can't disregard production quality in order to feature "interesting" music.


bartekko wrote:this is the kind of shit that annoys me the most. You're gonna make a track for an audience full of varying sound systems


See, are we talking about mere competent mixing, or are we talking about that ready-for-pressing-by-Interscope ish where...alright, you know what, fuck it, I'll just pay HMage to do it I guess.

CommandSpry wrote:I'd love to see these people from MoTD that release very interesting stuff improve their production to the quality that we can consider to be EqD worthy


I get what you're trying to say here. I really do. I appreciate it and respect it.

But still....

>EQD worthy

Image
Last edited by MYCUTIEMARKISAGUN on 23 Mar 2013 09:13, edited 2 times in total.
Image
onlybuilt4ponylinx.tumblr.com

SADFKLJASFJ;KLFDSAJKL;VJKL;FDSJKLIJKL;'WOIJ[RWIJR
User avatar
MYCUTIEMARKISAGUN
 
Posts: 319
Joined: 13 Nov 2011 18:57
OS: Windows 7
Primary: FL Studio 10
Cutie Mark: A GUN, obviously

Re: EqD Music

Postby Freewave » 23 Mar 2013 09:02

I'm really not understanding what you mean as interesting Spry, because to me that's a good quality, that means you're doing something a little different, and that mean nothing in regards to quality.

CommandSpry wrote:I'm sorry but EqD should feature the best of tunes, not the most interesting, if such a category ever existed; interesting is such a personal term and you use it as if it's set in stone; you find some artists that get in MoTD interesting; how do you know anyone else does? I listen to most of the music sent to EqD and I hear interesting things but most of the time MoTD is just the same bland, unimaginative music minus the extra effort to produce it well.

And you're talking as if the well produced music can't be interesting. All these guys who create interesting music should push towards gaining production quality as well; and production quality, compared to creativity, is very very hard to improve because it's not such a joyful, interesting process, it involves a lot of knob turning and careful listening and experience, which can be quite uninteresting. But it's what sets apart the great from the interesting. EqD's stance is to feature great music, so that an EqD feature is something worth improving for, and we're looking to improve audience reception with the much smaller amount of tunes (of greater quality) introduced.


I don't envy the fact that EQD listeners have to listen to 25 tracks a day and I'm sure many are poorly done, bland, unimaginative, clear eq flaws, or bring nothing new to the table. But I've seen a lot of really good tracks by myself and some friends make MOTD that i hope aren't rejected now. If they make an expanded music feature that's a good thing as they are not bad music and still deserve to be seen. If you're talking about rejecting now all that has made it onto MOTD so far that's a bit crap as there was some really good music in there as well as some real filler, lets be honest. Again it's where you guys make the cut off that's going to be the key and if that is production only and not originality, a pony theme, or a fresh idea then we're gonna get more boring well polished tracks as features and the overall respect of EQD music will suffer. You also have a duty to turn down tracks by well known bronies who normally get features on their 4 hour music projects because they know production better. A half-assed track is evident even if its well produced. A track that isn't influenced by MLP that has an image slapped on is evident to the rest of us as well. I just hope you guys really stick to consistently good standards, not unreachable ones, and don't production over track concept.

I've gotten on there several times before motd and several after but it's always been frustrating process before MOTD. I think MOTD really dialed back the growing resentment towards EQD so if you're reversing what Seth did to stop that you may have the flood gates broken down with compliants again.

CommandSpry wrote:EqD is once again, not a music blog, and it would be interesting for a music blog to get big, but it all needs to start somewhere.


Well let me correct you here. EQD is an all things brony site. Music, fanfiction, art, merchandise, ep news, you name it. That was it's goal. That's why people sort of called it a monopoly is that really it did EVERYTHING well, doesn't hand off to other sites that specialize in brony music, and does music in real time, and has the large staff to do it. Nothing else has the same level of community support. If the pre-listeners want Seth to cut out 85-90% of the entries they are making more drastic cuts then another facets of brony community. Musicians could really drop their support for EQD as a site if the balance is all off.

Here's this day's drawfriends (which is on EQD) which has 45 images in it for the day. I won't like all of them on here, and few are GREAT, but they are all at least good or acceptable, no garbage, all worth posting. So you guys want to make music a different level, only great and tossing out the good? Not let people hunt and pick through but just have 3 tracks a day hand-selected from which to pick from instead of 10-20 good to great tracks via MOTD with a variety of musicians, genres, topics, and themes to choose from? I just don't get it. Your going to make EQD a place that doesn't DO music well if that's the case. If Seth's EQDMusic doesn't pick up that slack and work well it's going to leave a huge gap in this community and a whole lot of pissed off musicians.
Last edited by Freewave on 23 Mar 2013 09:18, edited 2 times in total.
Links for my music: YouTube, Bandcamp, and Tumblr
Check out the Brony Music Directory and FimMusic. A portal for all pony music
Image
Support the 20+ Musician Maressey Project currently underway.
User avatar
Freewave
 
Posts: 3193
Joined: 29 Nov 2011 12:33
Location: Denver
OS: Windows 7
Primary: Fl Studio 10
Cutie Mark: X$X

Re: EqD Music

Postby MYCUTIEMARKISAGUN » 23 Mar 2013 09:12

Freewave wrote:Here's this day's drawfriends which has 45 images in it.


its ok, we won't need drawfriend anymore once the alpha version of EQDart is ready
Image
onlybuilt4ponylinx.tumblr.com

SADFKLJASFJ;KLFDSAJKL;VJKL;FDSJKLIJKL;'WOIJ[RWIJR
User avatar
MYCUTIEMARKISAGUN
 
Posts: 319
Joined: 13 Nov 2011 18:57
OS: Windows 7
Primary: FL Studio 10
Cutie Mark: A GUN, obviously

Re: EqD Music

Postby ghelded_kultz » 23 Mar 2013 09:41

bartekko wrote:
People should not be forced to compromise their artistic license in order to appeal to shitty headphones and clubbers.

Translation: People should not have to be making music for mainstream audiences in order to appeal to mainstream audiences. - I'm sorry the world just doesn't work that way.



No, that's not the translation, because you are making the erroneous assumption that someone is going to necessarily target a mainstream audience. Sure, if you are going to try to make you music be listenable on all sound systems than you should do that, but if you are not then you shouldn't limit yourself in those regards.


The thing you don't seem to get is that sometimes music is supposed to be mixed differently for artistic effect. Some music simply isn't meant to played on shitty earphones or big bass systems.

Definitely that's true. But there is a difference between making a horrendous mix because you suck at mixing (no namecalling) and making a horrendous mix because you know what you're doing (sci, zovi)
Garage rock may have been popular once but we're many years later.



It doesn't matter if garage rock isn't popular anymore, there is still an audience for lo-fi music. Anyway, I agree you should try to improve your production quality within reasonable bounds so that you can make your music do what it's supposed to, but there is no hard rule for production in all situations.


Musicians are not supposed to master their own tracks. Producers master tracks.

So you don't know the difference between mixing and mastering, a record producer and a sound engineer. Yeah you totally know who should do what

I know what the difference between mastering and mixing is, thank you very much. Anyway, no, I don't no the specifics for all the roles, but here I'm using producer in the general sense, referring to both mixing and mastering and all other effort used to change the raw tracks produced by the musicians to the final product. Traditionally that is not done by the same person.

which is more important: composition or production?

People assume, that composition can exist without production. But in reality, from a non-objective, broad viewpoint, A musician is like a chef, where Production is cooking and composition is choosing the right ingredients. What is more important, what the food is or how was the food done? If you do one thing wrong the other will suck anyway, even if you reassure your client that this overcooked pie is artistic license. [03:29:35] <bartekko> I was thinking about Ratatouille when making that doctor who reference



Yes, if you produce something bad enough it's going to be crap. However, the same thing goes the other way. If you polish a turd it's still going to be a turd. For Motd things are middle ground, they have at least okay production and composition, and I believe the most people do not find the production quality between Spotlights and Motd to be significant, I haven't seen anyone complaining about it in the comments, and at that level they care more about the actual contents of the song.

-Soft D. String DeHooves
Last edited by ghelded_kultz on 23 Mar 2013 09:50, edited 1 time in total.
"Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating." - John Cage

Trolls and makers of bad music, thats us!
http://soundcloud.com/ghelded-kultz/tracks
User avatar
ghelded_kultz
 
Posts: 426
Joined: 03 Aug 2012 08:36
Location: Stallion Dimas

Re: EqD Music

Postby Mesogears » 23 Mar 2013 09:46

Ok, just to clarify, I am NOT one of those people who thinks production quality is meaningless (because it isn't). I'm not saying that everyone should just stop trying to get better. I'm just saying that there's times where people get so wrapped around those elements that they can't enjoy the song as a whole. I'm not targeting anyone in particular, and I definitely don't mean to offend anyone; that's just a general statement.

I mean, I really liked Eurobeat Brony's and H8_Seed's earlier stuff, despite the subpar mixing.
"Melodyne is the glue that holds our vocals together."
~vladnuke
https://soundcloud.com/mgmusic19/vision-of-before-featfritzybeat

Skype: bmcrae19

For clarity's sake, Mesogears = The Lunar Conspiracy
User avatar
Mesogears
 
Posts: 246
Joined: 26 Sep 2012 19:26
Location: Illinois
OS: Windows 7
Primary: FL Studio 11
Cutie Mark: Drums

Re: EqD Music

Postby Freewave » 23 Mar 2013 10:29

Mesogears wrote:Ok, just to clarify, I am NOT one of those people who thinks production quality is meaningless (because it isn't). I'm not saying that everyone should just stop trying to get better. I'm just saying that there's times where people get so wrapped around those elements that they can't enjoy the song as a whole. I'm not targeting anyone in particular, and I definitely don't mean to offend anyone; that's just a general statement.


I agree. If all you are doing is looking for production flaws you're not listening for the good things in a track, the artistic elements. Hell most music needs a few listens to even rate as good or bad. Not to mention if you've become so jaded you hate everything you likely just need a break. Production is very important but it's not the only thing to judge a track on.

Mesogears wrote:I mean, I really liked Eurobeat Brony's and H8_Seed's earlier stuff, despite the subpar mixing.


I hear that Omnipony guy used to make popular music before other musicians kept telling him he was no good. How does someone have 30,000 subs if they suck so bad? The average brony on the street does not focus on production as much as EQD listeners. Should he be making music for them or for his fans?

During the golden age of brony music production wasn't the most important thing. Hell almost half of the top brony songs of 2011 were from Toast Beards!!! I think this rush to be respected as serious musicians have taken a lot of the fun and comradery that this scene used to have. That's sad.
Links for my music: YouTube, Bandcamp, and Tumblr
Check out the Brony Music Directory and FimMusic. A portal for all pony music
Image
Support the 20+ Musician Maressey Project currently underway.
User avatar
Freewave
 
Posts: 3193
Joined: 29 Nov 2011 12:33
Location: Denver
OS: Windows 7
Primary: Fl Studio 10
Cutie Mark: X$X

Re: EqD Music

Postby MYCUTIEMARKISAGUN » 23 Mar 2013 10:55

ghelded_kultz wrote:It doesn't matter if garage rock isn't popular anymore, there is still an audience for lo-fi music.


well first of all, lo-fi does not necessarily mean badly mixed. If you're AIMING for it like say, Dirty Beaches, crafting that lo-fi sound is like building a model ship inside a bottle:



That's different from music that's lo-fi because the artist was using cheap equipment...







...and its consequently MORE awesome as a result, because it makes it sound gritty and badass.

(btw for all 3 of those artists, their music slowly declined in artistic quality as their recording equipment and audio quality improved. yay hip-hop!)
Image
onlybuilt4ponylinx.tumblr.com

SADFKLJASFJ;KLFDSAJKL;VJKL;FDSJKLIJKL;'WOIJ[RWIJR
User avatar
MYCUTIEMARKISAGUN
 
Posts: 319
Joined: 13 Nov 2011 18:57
OS: Windows 7
Primary: FL Studio 10
Cutie Mark: A GUN, obviously

Re: EqD Music

Postby Navron » 23 Mar 2013 11:07

Nobody has even come close to what mixing really is.

"It doesn't matter if you're the greatest cook in the world. If you put it on a dirty plate and hand it to the customer, they aren't going to see you're the greatest cook in the world."

Mixing is not just about balancing your mix and making it sound good on multiple speakers. It's also about being a guide for the listener. You bring up the levels on important parts of the song, and lower them for others. When you approach mixing you should be asking yourself, "How should I organize these tracks so I can deliver the biggest emotional impact that I can?"

Contrary to what others have said here, I find a lot of MotD songs, and even some that were rejected, to have a very balanced mix. EQ's good, levels are good, etc. Where they fall short is in their emotional impact, and a lot of the time it's a couple tracks that need to be brought up in level, instead of being balanced between all the instruments. An orchestra would be very boring if all the instruments played their parts at forte the entire duration of the song, yet with many submissions, that's exactly what every instrument of the song is doing. Mixing is a separate art in itself, in which you are the conductor. You tell your tracks when you want them to come in, when to play loud, and when to play soft. Your job as the conductor is to keep everything together, and weave the story for your audience. A mixing engineer's job is to keep everything together, and weave the story for the audience.

When people skip this step, or don't focus much time on it, they aren't just skipping out on some arbitrary process of getting their songs to 0dB. They're skipping out on their entire song, like a conductor abandoning the orchestra, expecting people to enjoy the music as is.
DAW: Cubase 6.5, Ableton Live 8
Preferred Genre: Industrial/Trance
Hardware: Schecter Diamond Series Bass, Yamaha Acoustic Guitar, BP355 Effects Pedal, Keystudio 49K Keyboard, Akai APC40, Korg nanoKEY2 25k Keyboard
User avatar
Navron
Global Moderator
 
Posts: 955
Joined: 14 Nov 2011 21:28
OS: Windows 7
Primary: Cubase 6.5

Re: EqD Music

Postby Freewave » 23 Mar 2013 11:30

^^^
I agree with this a lot Navron. But is EQD talking about that as something they judge? Spry hasn't even been talking about that.

People listen and judge music differently. That's why music is a personal thing. I may rate Ok Computer a 5 star album and some dubstep kid gives it 1/2 star. My Bloody Valentine's Loveless is loaded with distortion and yet Pitchfork says it's the second best album of the 90's. What I'm saying is that what i like and what you like are 2 different things. Music is made by different people and for different audiences. Taking people outside their comfort zone isn't a bad thing.

That's why MOTD worked is because it let the listener judge what was good from the music of the day that was made by the musicians in the community. It took the downright bad stuff out and gave the listener control. All i hear from EQD listeners is that they put their taste above everyone else's. That regular brony listeners can't do that themselves. That they can't look at the track as a whole and it needs to be about production first.

Again if all they wanted to do was up the quality OF the motd tracks it wouldn't be such a problem (and maybe a little more trimming would be a good thing). They have a right to vote out tracks that are boring, unimaginative, or thrown together! But getting rid of motd altogether and adding only radio quality tracks as features just ignores too many people. What's the point of having listeners if your default answer is going to be no and you reject the mass of everything this community produces?
Links for my music: YouTube, Bandcamp, and Tumblr
Check out the Brony Music Directory and FimMusic. A portal for all pony music
Image
Support the 20+ Musician Maressey Project currently underway.
User avatar
Freewave
 
Posts: 3193
Joined: 29 Nov 2011 12:33
Location: Denver
OS: Windows 7
Primary: Fl Studio 10
Cutie Mark: X$X

Re: EqD Music

Postby CommandSpry » 23 Mar 2013 11:51

I saw that you used the term interesting music to label "good music"? No, good music should actually be called good music.
And we did spotlight a lot of tracks because they were interesting! But they were also well produced. These tracks didn't have perfect production value, nor was their production the best thing in the song, but they were on a satisfactory level. We just can't ignore production quality and focus on something what, unusual?



This track doesn't have amazing production quality; it's kinda muddy and squashed, and it's like there's some white noise all throughout the song, but don't you think it's an interesting song? I like the bassline a lot (even though it isn't the best nor clearest). And ghelded, you just argued everything about mastering. We don't care for mastering; we expect unmastered stuff. Not mastered does not excuse bad mixing. Production quality, on the other hand, has so much more to do than just mixing/mastering.

What do you find interesting? You never defined it. Interesting is a very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very subjective term and if we start forcing it then people in genres will complain because EqD prelisteners don't have a hive mind, everyone finds other kinds of music more interesting than the other. I'd fucking love pony reggae but someone else might find it bland and uninteresting; if you tell us to vote on whether it's interesting or not, one's gonna pass it and one's gonna reject it and it's gonna be rejected. If the track itself is well produced (which, for a trained ear, is not hard or subjective to judge), then taking that into account even the person who dislikes reggae has to give the author credit and feature his track.
And some tracks that would usually go to MoTD will be featured but these are tracks that were on the border of spotlight and MoTD, not a lot of these tracks, but it does occasionally happen. And if we're gonna talk dynamic range and all that jazz, typically we all have our preferences but we don't take it to heart when a track is not too dynamic. We do hate to hear -1dB RMS almost white noise (which is usually featured in rock/metal submissions) with horribly distorted guitars (emphasis on the word horribly, not distorted).

And mycutiemarkisagun, you're laughing at EqD's music quality, yet when we try and raise it, you say "no, MoTD is great quality"? Sort your mind and then write.

And for the last time, do not tell me interesting music can't be well produced. An EqD rejection shouldn't mean you suck, but it means something in your track is lacking; and like I said, my skype is there if you want to know why. Good musicians with good intentions to improve will recognize this and work hard to address the complaints instead of deciding that his music is the new experimental genious and immediately going on a rave about how unfair it is that popularbronymusicianX got featured instead. Like I said, Seth autoposting popular tracks is an unrelated issue we're resolving alongside MoTD.

And you're talking as if all we're looking at is production quality? No, we ask for good enough production quality; the melodic content is also a primary thing to consider, and with a diverse team of people from various genres listening in, we get a collective opinion on the song. It's not that we think our music taste is better than everyone else's, it's that you think your music taste is better than ours, since you complain so much about what songs we reject and how they are more "interesting" than spotlighted music..music taste is incredibly subjective and that's why we put emphasis on both melodic content and production quality.
Hey. Listen. I don't Care anymore. You hear me you Son of a Bitch? I'm old now. I have all the resources.
Hey. Listen. I don't Care anymore. You hear me you Son of a Bitch? I'm old now. I have all the resources.
Hey. Listen. I don't Care anymore. You hear me you Son of a Bitch? I'm old now. I have all the resources.
Hey. Listen. I don't Care anymore. You hear me you Son of a Bitch? I'm old now. I have all the resources.

hello I'm spry wobbler lol I'm
User avatar
CommandSpry
 
Posts: 777
Joined: 17 Jan 2012 16:03
Location: im here
OS: Horse OS 2
Primary: Not yet specified.
Cutie Mark: wobbler

Re: EqD Music

Postby ph00tbag » 23 Mar 2013 12:17

CommandSpry wrote:Interesting is a very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very subjective term and if we start forcing it then people in genres will complain because EqD prelisteners don't have a hive mind, everyone finds other kinds of music more interesting than the other.

Yeah, it's subjective, but is your goal to ignore subjective qualities because it's too much work not to, or is your goal to try to accommodate as many definitions of the word interesting as possible?

The latter is more work, but if I wanted EqD to be a truly representative blog, then I would go with that. And yes, I would sacrifice mastering entirely, and even a degree of mixing and sound design if I had never heard anything like that track before. Because there are a lot of people who read EqD, and some of them are bound to like it.
Image
User avatar
ph00tbag
Global Moderator
 
Posts: 769
Joined: 06 May 2012 16:19
Location: Cary, NC
OS: Windows
Primary: FL Studio
Cutie Mark: Blank flank

Re: EqD Music

Postby CommandSpry » 23 Mar 2013 12:22

Indeed is melodic content a very important thing! I assume it's melodies what you speak of when you say interesting. That's why we have many people that enjoy different genres vote on the songs, to get different opinions. But in the end, if it's undecided as to whether a song is "interesting enough" or not, then the production quality is going to decide it. Some tracks might have amazing production quality but be very bland and unimaginative, in most cases we tend to say just that; and reject them..but if people are torn on it's melodic stuff, the cool production quality will push them forward. People on the other hand don't usually disagree on production quality because it's much much much much much less subjective, and that is how we avoid biases towards a genre or another.
Hey. Listen. I don't Care anymore. You hear me you Son of a Bitch? I'm old now. I have all the resources.
Hey. Listen. I don't Care anymore. You hear me you Son of a Bitch? I'm old now. I have all the resources.
Hey. Listen. I don't Care anymore. You hear me you Son of a Bitch? I'm old now. I have all the resources.
Hey. Listen. I don't Care anymore. You hear me you Son of a Bitch? I'm old now. I have all the resources.

hello I'm spry wobbler lol I'm
User avatar
CommandSpry
 
Posts: 777
Joined: 17 Jan 2012 16:03
Location: im here
OS: Horse OS 2
Primary: Not yet specified.
Cutie Mark: wobbler

Re: EqD Music

Postby bartekko » 23 Mar 2013 12:30

Freewave wrote:During the golden age of brony music production wasn't the most important thing. Hell almost half of the top brony songs of 2011 were from Toast Beards!!! I think this rush to be respected as serious musicians have taken a lot of the fun and comradery that this scene used to have. That's sad.

During the "golden age of brony music" there were not that many musicians, so production quality didn't have to have that much significance.

We don't care for mastering; we expect unmastered stuff.

Important

No, that's not the translation, because you are making the erroneous assumption that someone is going to necessarily target a mainstream audience. Sure, if you are going to try to make you music be listenable on all sound systems than you should do that, but if you are not then you shouldn't limit yourself in those regards.

I'm making this assumption because you're targeting EQD's audience and it's a mainstream one.

Yes, if you produce something bad enough it's going to be crap. However, the same thing goes the other way. If you polish a turd it's still going to be a turd.

If you leave a diamond rough it's gonna suck too tho
[00:27:11] <@z0r8> you are voiced, now shut up
User avatar
bartekko
 
Posts: 1034
Joined: 14 Jul 2011 09:14
Location: Poland

Re: EqD Music

Postby Freewave » 23 Mar 2013 12:59

Spry you keep ducking out on most of my points and questions. How much of the community's material are you going to cut out now? Is everything that was making it on to MOTD now going to be ditched? Is there nothing in those posts that would qualify as highlights in this new setup? The amount of tracks spotlighted have gotten smaller and smaller and the tracks that have been put on MOTD (i guess as a landfill according to EQD listeners) have grown.

Are you going to have an expanded spotlight section to accomodate the extra volume of music that is sent to you that is made well or are you guys going to pretend its the Winter of 2012 and feature such a small portion that rejects 90% of what you get and people start raging all over EQD and Seth again? MOTD was started because of that problem and if you're going to pretend that that's not going to happen again I think you all are fooling yourself.

I also think that handing your skype id to personally discuss why with every single brony musician that gets rejected is a similar thing. I remember when Overkilius and Glitchhog did the same thing and then a month or two later ducked out out on all attempts on what they promised people in skype chats.
Links for my music: YouTube, Bandcamp, and Tumblr
Check out the Brony Music Directory and FimMusic. A portal for all pony music
Image
Support the 20+ Musician Maressey Project currently underway.
User avatar
Freewave
 
Posts: 3193
Joined: 29 Nov 2011 12:33
Location: Denver
OS: Windows 7
Primary: Fl Studio 10
Cutie Mark: X$X

Re: EqD Music

Postby CommandSpry » 23 Mar 2013 13:21

Freewave wrote:Spry you keep ducking out on most of my points and questions. How much of the community's material are you going to cut out now? Is everything that was making it on to MOTD now going to be ditched? Is there nothing in those posts that would qualify as highlights in this new setup? The amount of tracks spotlighted have gotten smaller and smaller and the tracks that have been put on MOTD (i guess as a landfill according to EQD listeners) have grown.

Are you going to have an expanded spotlight section to accomodate the extra volume of music that is sent to you that is made well or are you guys going to pretend its the Winter of 2012 and feature such a small portion that rejects 90% of what you get and people start raging all over EQD and Seth again? MOTD was started because of that problem and if you're going to pretend that that's not going to happen again I think you all are fooling yourself.

I also think that handing your skype id to personally discuss why with every single brony musician that gets rejected is a similar thing. I remember when Overkilius and Glitchhog did the same thing and then a month or two later ducked out out on all attempts on what they promised people in skype chats.


CommandSpry wrote:And some tracks that would usually go to MoTD will be featured but these are tracks that were on the border of spotlight and MoTD, not a lot of these tracks, but it does occasionally happen.

Learn to read, mate (:
I've addressed the points about interesting (a load of times), the volume problem, why MoTD was a bad idea in the first place, why prelisteners don't support it.
And I've been doing the skype thing since december, and all the people I've spoken to were very nice in their inquiry as to their submission. LoreRD spoke about this to me through skype and we resolved any issues in about 40 minutes. He hasn't posted since.

The volume will be brought down a lot with these changes; but rest assured that quality stuff will get posted. I encourage people to complain if they feel like their songs were rejected unfairly, but not with the mindset that EqD is 100% wrong. I work with people who listen and then I listen back (and vice versa!).
Hey. Listen. I don't Care anymore. You hear me you Son of a Bitch? I'm old now. I have all the resources.
Hey. Listen. I don't Care anymore. You hear me you Son of a Bitch? I'm old now. I have all the resources.
Hey. Listen. I don't Care anymore. You hear me you Son of a Bitch? I'm old now. I have all the resources.
Hey. Listen. I don't Care anymore. You hear me you Son of a Bitch? I'm old now. I have all the resources.

hello I'm spry wobbler lol I'm
User avatar
CommandSpry
 
Posts: 777
Joined: 17 Jan 2012 16:03
Location: im here
OS: Horse OS 2
Primary: Not yet specified.
Cutie Mark: wobbler

Re: EqD Music

Postby Freewave » 23 Mar 2013 14:09

Alright fair enough. I just hope that you and Seth get this situated out as he's planning to have his buggy little new site replace MOTD in all his posts about it and its not really designed to or been functioning well yet. He's also the site owner, then one who instituted motd (which by your own admission you didn't support), and then one who's going to handle all the complaints when all the rejects (or lack of rejects, lets face it the biggest problem is you guys won't send a track rcvd email OR a reject letter) start right back up AGAIN. You've also promised to step up and have Seth stop auto-approving junk sent in by the big names that you guys say you won't include now. I just hope you guys can get your site figured out from an organization standpoint as it makes little sense to me how you guys run things.
Links for my music: YouTube, Bandcamp, and Tumblr
Check out the Brony Music Directory and FimMusic. A portal for all pony music
Image
Support the 20+ Musician Maressey Project currently underway.
User avatar
Freewave
 
Posts: 3193
Joined: 29 Nov 2011 12:33
Location: Denver
OS: Windows 7
Primary: Fl Studio 10
Cutie Mark: X$X

Re: EqD Music

Postby CommandSpry » 23 Mar 2013 14:13

EqD music was a site being made even before we argued MoTD to be removed. I myself and other prelisteners like Thorinair spent entire days arguing with Seth to remove MoTD; Seth would like nothing more than to keep MoTD, his blanket of safety, to remove complaints. I told him to feature my skype on the site so I'm more accessible (and some other people who also agreed to give feedback!), I dunno why he hasn't yet, it would save him much hassle. We kinda reached an agreement that MoTD will stop as soon as EqDmusic goes out. The skype feedback is what's replacing MoTD, in order for musicians to recieve useful feedback and get better to be featured on the improved standards of EqD. EqDMusic was always a side project that was pushed in so Seth wouldn't have as many complaints.
Hey. Listen. I don't Care anymore. You hear me you Son of a Bitch? I'm old now. I have all the resources.
Hey. Listen. I don't Care anymore. You hear me you Son of a Bitch? I'm old now. I have all the resources.
Hey. Listen. I don't Care anymore. You hear me you Son of a Bitch? I'm old now. I have all the resources.
Hey. Listen. I don't Care anymore. You hear me you Son of a Bitch? I'm old now. I have all the resources.

hello I'm spry wobbler lol I'm
User avatar
CommandSpry
 
Posts: 777
Joined: 17 Jan 2012 16:03
Location: im here
OS: Horse OS 2
Primary: Not yet specified.
Cutie Mark: wobbler

Re: EqD Music

Postby Freewave » 23 Mar 2013 15:49

CommandSpry wrote:EqD music was a site being made even before we argued MoTD to be removed. I myself and other prelisteners like Thorinair spent entire days arguing with Seth to remove MoTD; Seth would like nothing more than to keep MoTD, his blanket of safety, to remove complaints. I told him to feature my skype on the site so I'm more accessible (and some other people who also agreed to give feedback!), I dunno why he hasn't yet, it would save him much hassle. We kinda reached an agreement that MoTD will stop as soon as EqDmusic goes out. The skype feedback is what's replacing MoTD, in order for musicians to recieve useful feedback and get better to be featured on the improved standards of EqD. EqDMusic was always a side project that was pushed in so Seth wouldn't have as many complaints.


Honestly you really owe it to people to have your skypes listed out there if you aren't going to send rejection letters. If you don't, then expect people to be frustrated wiith you guys. It's like having a major business without a customer service department. If you do feedback on rejects through skype then you have one positive out of this whole mess. We've been asking for that for close to a year now and all we heard was you guys were too busy to make that happen. Stick to that promise at least.
Links for my music: YouTube, Bandcamp, and Tumblr
Check out the Brony Music Directory and FimMusic. A portal for all pony music
Image
Support the 20+ Musician Maressey Project currently underway.
User avatar
Freewave
 
Posts: 3193
Joined: 29 Nov 2011 12:33
Location: Denver
OS: Windows 7
Primary: Fl Studio 10
Cutie Mark: X$X

Re: EqD Music

Postby MYCUTIEMARKISAGUN » 23 Mar 2013 17:10

CommandSpry wrote:And mycutiemarkisagun, you're laughing at EqD's music quality, yet when we try and raise it, you say "no, MoTD is great quality"? Sort your mind and then write.


1) actually I was laughing at the layers of inherent silliness packed into the phrase "EQD worthy" but w/e

2) MotD is loved precisely because it isn't at the complete mercy of the personal biases of Philosopher Kings pre-listeners who ahem ahem ahem may not be well-versed in jazz or rap or ambient or (INSERT NON-TECHNO* GENRE HERE). You pre-listeners need LESS power, not more. What a shock that a pre-listener would disagree with me there, eh?

3) YO SON DON'T EVER TELL ME WHAT TO DO WITH MY MIND EVER AGAIN OR I WILL CLAP YOU MUHBUCKA AND SORT YOUR FACE, U THINK DIS SHYT A GAME??? Image

* - hurr durr all electronic is techno now let me judge your electronic music guise

CommandSpry wrote:EqD music was a site being made even before we argued MoTD to be removed. I myself and other prelisteners like Thorinair spent entire days arguing with Seth to remove MoTD; Seth would like nothing more than to keep MoTD, his blanket of safety, to remove complaints. I told him to feature my skype on the site so I'm more accessible (and some other people who also agreed to give feedback!), I dunno why he hasn't yet, it would save him much hassle. We kinda reached an agreement that MoTD will stop as soon as EqDmusic goes out. The skype feedback is what's replacing MoTD, in order for musicians to recieve useful feedback and get better to be featured on the improved standards of EqD. EqDMusic was always a side project that was pushed in so Seth wouldn't have as many complaints.


Oh. I see. I had it backwards: Seth is actually on the side of the Angels, and this is actually all YOUR fault. You Fiend~! You Vaudevillian~! You Malcontent~! You DOPE PUSHER, using your fame as a DJ, to sell DRUGS!!!

lmao @ skype feedback "replacing" MotD.....Lauren fucking Faust on a stick. :roll:
Image
onlybuilt4ponylinx.tumblr.com

SADFKLJASFJ;KLFDSAJKL;VJKL;FDSJKLIJKL;'WOIJ[RWIJR
User avatar
MYCUTIEMARKISAGUN
 
Posts: 319
Joined: 13 Nov 2011 18:57
OS: Windows 7
Primary: FL Studio 10
Cutie Mark: A GUN, obviously

Re: EqD Music

Postby Freewave » 23 Mar 2013 18:31

Sorry lost my temper, apologies all around.
Last edited by Freewave on 23 Mar 2013 20:43, edited 1 time in total.
Links for my music: YouTube, Bandcamp, and Tumblr
Check out the Brony Music Directory and FimMusic. A portal for all pony music
Image
Support the 20+ Musician Maressey Project currently underway.
User avatar
Freewave
 
Posts: 3193
Joined: 29 Nov 2011 12:33
Location: Denver
OS: Windows 7
Primary: Fl Studio 10
Cutie Mark: X$X

PreviousNext

Return to Off-Topic Discussion



Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests