Is most feedback worthless?

[Electric_Head]

It all depends on who's is giving the feedback and why imo.
Feedback given for feedback sake is what I want not some knob that posts feedback in order to get me listening to his track.
I only give feedback if it is valid.

[Benji]

I think it also relies a lot on how that feedback is interpreted, you could give someone the best possible advice but if they just think you're being a dick then it's not going to be very useful

[gcraz]

idk if any of you guys follow mike monday at all (he's a producer creativity/motivation coach) but he talked about feedback and i think it's pretty spot on. i can't find the link but it resonated with me so i can describe my interpretation. he says that usually when we look for valuable feedback, or we send a tune out to a label or producer/dj, we've say something like

"hey check out my tune, i hope you play it out/like it/want to release it. the arrangement's kind of boring, and i'm unsure about some of the synth choice, the kicks a little too punchy at the moment, but it's defo one of my best tunes to date, and i hope you like it! let me know what you think."

or showing friends

"yooo this is what i'm working on, it's like still in the works, the bassline's not really that interesting, but the drums are doooope. this mixdown is like my best ever, and i don't know what to work on now." (maybe you should make the bassline more interesting)

ok i'm not explaining this too well, but basically the whole gist is, you are you're best source for feedback. it's just difficult to give it to yourself until you're in a position where someone else will be hearing it for the first time. so fake that experience! ive come up with great ideas to finish a tune (or fix a mixdown) by uploading a song on soundcloud, making it private, and listening to it myself. it usually sounds pretty different than when it's a project in the daw, and i realize stuff like "oh i gotta turn up the sub, or like shuffle up this break, and change this synth cause it's too repetetive." so yea, restating the point, the best feedback you will ever get, is from yourself. you just need to put yourself in a state of mind where you're outside of you're creative workspace.

now if we're talking about feedback from people, don't get feedback from friends who aren't production savy. they always love it, or have 1 small thing to change make them feel like they have good opinions. soundcloud is pretty awful source of feedback, since a comment/like can act as self promotion. get feedback from djing, or having others dj you're music. live shows, and yourself. thats all the feedback you need.

hope this helps

[wub]

Good shout on Mike Monday, he's got an interesting take on stuff, well worth checking out for anyone whose not heard him before;

http://www.mikemonday.com/

Lots of videos of this nature;


3 Mental Steps To Finish (and Send Out) Your Track Fast

[titchbit]

ok i'm not explaining this too well, but basically the whole gist is, you are you're best source for feedback. it's just difficult to give it to yourself until you're in a position where someone else will be hearing it for the first time. so fake that experience! ive come up with great ideas to finish a tune (or fix a mixdown) by uploading a song on soundcloud, making it private, and listening to it myself. it usually sounds pretty different than when it's a project in the daw, and i realize stuff like "oh i gotta turn up the sub, or like shuffle up this break, and change this synth cause it's too repetetive." so yea, restating the point, the best feedback you will ever get, is from yourself. you just need to put yourself in a state of mind where you're outside of you're creative workspace.

yeah I know exactly what you mean m8. when you go to ask for feedback, you've suddenly taken a look at the track from an outsider's perspective, and you are more able to identify what the strengths/weaknesses/etc of the track are. happened to me loads of times when asking friends for feedback.

[NinjaEdit]

It's not how big it is, but how you use it.

Saying that you assume your shit is good until being told otherwise sounds really narcissistic to me. I think you should take positive feedback on board as well as negative.

[BaasDNB]

I dont think its worthless, but it isnt worth MUCH. i havent gotten much good feedback over many years of trying out these feedback forums and i dont think it will change much anytime soon. youre communicating with text to a complete stranger, so how much can you really get out of it? maybe a little...

[hutyluty]

thing is the whole concept of good and bad rests solely on the opinion of the listener, so using that gauge to change your tunes isn't a particularly good method.

what it is good for is if you're just starting out and have no idea about eqing- and then only when you specifically ask people how you can improve the mixdown etc-- or when you ask people "where should i go from here" and they can make suggestions on how to progress a wip, but then its effectively a collaboration so idk.

[Soul_Of_Seun]

I agree to an extent that self-feedback is most important. To fix mixdowns, I for example, export mp3's to my Ipod, then listen intently to what elements need to be fixed. Even after I've put a public tune on Soundcloud, I'll still keep going back to fix little things that annoy me in a tune.

But getting input from others is important, especially if your goal is to release music IMO. If you want people to eventually purchase your music, it's kind of important that you can find people who can respect you as producer, let alone like it enough to buy. To me, it's all about WHO likes your music. It's make no difference if someone who only listens to top 40 doesn't like your music if your goal was to be on a respected indie label. But ideally, you want to cultivate a small following of people who are into your tunes, such as on Soundcloud, Facebook, some student cafe etc., to get your name respected as a legit musician. Or at the very least, you want label-heads and fellow producers to like your tunes. That doesn't mean they get to Taylor your tracks to their liking btw. For example, I've stopped playing tunes for my GF, because she only likes top 40 country, hates dubstep, and is pretty narrow minded when it comes to...most things entertainment IMHO.

So it's all about getting the right people to repsect your music. Isn't that the goal anyway, to be respected in the culture? Otherwise why make a track public, display it in your sig, play tunes out in sets etc. If feedback wasn't important? I figure most of us would just keep our tunes to ourselves if that was the case.

[legend4ry]

Depends who its from, so generally yes it is worthless.

If someone sends me a track I crit in in a certain way, mainly like this..

[*] Do I like the track? What I do/ don't.
[*] Hows the mix?
[*] If I made it, what would I change with the composition
[*] Anything else??

And I think anything less than that isn't feedback - its a subtle prod of you thoughts to the maker.

[travis_baker]

i always say nice.. i think the fact they gave it a listen should be most important.

[hutyluty]

Yeah someone saying big up always makes me feel good.

[safeandsound]

Professional technical feedback is definitely worthwhile, especially for those starting out, a few concise and razor sharp pointers can set a new producer off on the right track. Advice based on a linear acoustic and serious large format monitoring regarding a mix tone, balance and stereo image is invaluable if you want to make progress. You have to be a little judicious as to where you seek advice, thats the core of the matter.

Anyone can give advice, few can give advice that improves.

SafeandSound Mastering

[ChadDub]

That's why I only see a point in asking for crit on your mixdowns. I'm going to compose what the fuck I want but I wanna make sure my lower mids aren't too loud before I show people in the real

[Sugar Ape]

Question is: is YOUR OWN feedback usually worthless?

When you've spent time on something, you've got a completely warped perspective on it. You're bored of the bits that are good and oblivious to the bits that shouldn't be there

Most feedback is worthless, but I take 'Nice' as: didn't really do much for me, and I think that's what everyone really needs to avoid. Too much 'nice' stuff out there