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Sounds great in the club, crap after the download . . .

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  • August 11, 2012 at 1:02 pm #1009525
    Jona Menasso
    Member

    Hi there Reason808
    I’ve stumbled uppon that “problem” too many times..
    But in the end, i thougt that it didn’t mather that much, it’s just that those tracks you bought under a certain mood are not bad… There ain’t no bad music (not literaly speaking, of course there is bad music… ya know :x) theres only people who say so.
    What should mather is that that those tracks mean something to ya… like when you were feeling really “down” and the track/song gave some of it’s “energy” so to speak…
    And when you get that feeling again, and it will happen, that track will rise up on you again to make you feel better…
    Dont just think about it for the club… music is a pretty much “personal” thing i believe…

    Don’t know if you get what i’m trying to say, don’t know if what i wrote has something to do with what you were sayin’, but tell me if you need me to explain better.

    Just trying to help people ya know.

    1 Love brotha
    😉

    August 12, 2012 at 3:59 am #1009572
    Steelo
    Participant

    I have often found kinda the opposite. I listen to a track and i’m not interested in it but then i hear it out and it sounds awesome or gets me pumped. Save all your potential tunes in a shopping cart/crate and leave them there for the night. The next day have a listen again and discard any that aren’t so great, before you buy. Whilst music is a personal thing (as stated above) if you think a song will send the dancefloor in to a frenzy (and you won’t hate yourself for playing that tune) then go for it.

    August 12, 2012 at 9:16 am #1009579
    Terry_42
    Keymaster

    I had this loads of times. This is why I only put stuff on my wishlist, listen to the preview a week later (iTunes new 1:30 previews really help) and then decide… or if I got it from my pool, then I just delete it if it is bad…

    August 12, 2012 at 5:20 pm #1009592
    Jona Menasso
    Member

    Yeah.. that also happens to me sometimes… i mean if the tracks are really bad…
    I guess sometimes a song is good but not so capable of fitting in many sittuations, and therefore you might consider it bad…

    Maybe I’m really asking about guarding against your inner fanboy in your music selections. Being a genre fanboy might not be a bad thing, but I notice when I’m listening to one genre for a while, I tend to like it a little more. So I might pick a mediocore filter disco track because I was listening to lots of soulful house.

    I think it depends of what you are looking for and what you like and/or maybe need.(just my point of view).
    I try not to retract my “inner fanboy”. In my case that is what makes the definition of my sound, i dont look for genres so much, i usualy listen to artists, those artists look for other artists, and so on. A track that pleases you but does not please as many people as you think hasn’t necessarily to be bad.
    Maybe it’s about defining what you hear and like, and in which context it might fit.
    Take a look at Nicolas Jaar Essential Mix Show on BBC1. It’s up on SoundCloud.
    I believe i had never seen e set list like that, simple yet tight. On a radio show so widely listened.
    Maybe it’s not a “mix” for everyone, but i still love the way it delivers a variety of flavours.
    I don’t believe that mix would do very well in many clubs, or party’s.
    Being broad works for me. Listening to local radios helps me getting a feeling for what other people might be hitting on right now, Live Sets and mixes also helps. I usually listen more than once, and when some track starts “making sense” to me, I try to look it up on google or YouTube as it might give a longer preview of the track (that isn’t a crime is it?). Sometimes it’s some guy i never heard of, sometimes it’s some “famous star”.
    Sometimes i also only download mixes for personal listening, and sometimes i just listen to other artists, like pop, Rap Rock, some Stitched up dubstep remix…

    As the song says “Music is the answer”. =D
    And that’s how it works for me.

    August 13, 2012 at 6:46 pm #1009654
    D-Jam
    Participant

    reason808, post: 25688, member: 831 wrote: How do you guys avoid getting hypnotized by circumstances and buying bad music? Any tips?

    First check out this old school tune:

    [media=youtube]5ADoBW0c-18[/media]

    This is an anthem to many, but to some it sounded a bit “weak”. Part of the reason is Gerald Simpson had mixed and mastered his tune to sound amazing in one place, the Hacienda:

    I never had the chance to go, but I heard the club was cavernous and didn’t have the best acoustics. Hence why Voodoo Ray sounded great in there when other music might not have.

    The point I am making here is sometimes music you buy will sound only good in a club. You need the loud space, echo, thumping, etc. Over headphones off an iPod it might not carry.

    This is one big factor of what turned me back on to tech house. I liked how it sounded great in a club, despite how it didn’t carry well outside of the club. I’ll be selective now on what I buy to make sure it carries the energy I want over normal headphones.

    One tip would be to add some reverb when you play a tune for a demo mix or something. Give it that “big club fullness”.

    August 17, 2012 at 1:34 pm #1009875
    Prude leRude
    Participant

    Just make sure you listen to everything LOUD. So many tracks I’ve listened to quietly at my computer and thought they were boring then heard them on a good system and wondered what the hell I was thinking. Now I only listen to previews of tracks in my headphones on a decent level

    August 18, 2012 at 3:46 am #1009909
    Reason808
    Participant

    Been away from this thread for a few days, but thanks for the advice / comments guys.
    Good tips and new sources of inspiration. Cool tips on the loud.
    @Jona: I think we approach our music selection process the same way.
    Maybe its time to let the inner fanboy run loose!

    August 18, 2012 at 12:39 pm #1009915
    Jona Menasso
    Member

    Yeah,why not let the fanboy run? You love music after all don’t you? And LOUDER is better. x) just dont hurt your ears

    August 22, 2012 at 7:44 am #1010066
    Dalton Black
    Participant

    I get a similar ‘what was I thinking’ vibe sometimes. I download just about every song when I’m looking through beatport, music blogs, etc. and at the time of download, I always think ‘wow, that song is amazing, I can’t wait to play it for people’ but the moment I throw it in a mix and it’s too late to turn back, I get the feeling that the song is terrible and have to quickly try to transition out of it. I think most of it is due to my habit of downloading every song I think is decent.

    September 8, 2012 at 4:10 am #1011824
    Reason808
    Participant

    I came up with a geeky solution to this problem for now, maybe others will find it useful:

    Any songs I’m having second thoughts about I put the keyword GiveItAChance in the comments section in iTunes

    Then I made an iTunes smartlist to keep track of these tunes. I can review the smartlist every few weeks/months and decide whether to toss or keep.

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