Shame and Anger - Apologies to all Loopers

Feeling a bit uninspired I went back to listening to some of my uploads from 2024 thinking I might find some tracks on which I might practice some new mixing techniques.

The result: Shame and anger.

Shame in that roughly 95% of the uploads I listened to sounded like garbage. Small wonder, they are garbage. Timing issues, on some tracks more bum notes than correct notes, bass out of tune, all input tracks piled on top of each other, gain on the keyboards always set to max….garbage is actually too nice a term.

I won’t even speculate why I never noticed. Never mind. But why did I get hundreds of thumbs up for this stuff? Honestly, I`ve always said that you couldn`t find a nicer online community than Wikiloops. But, there are – I imagine – nice and friendly ways to drop a hint or two.

So, apologies to everyone whose time I robbed listening to almost anything I uploaded over the past 3 years and whose ideas and creative output I dragged through my personal musical mudbath.

I think, once I get over this depression phase, I`ll revisit some of the older tracks and try to make amends … emphasis is on TRY as I`ve lost a lot of trust in myself.

This years output wasn`t as bad as 2024 so there`s a least one positive thought to cling to but… nevermind.

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Well I'm not giving you a thumbs up for this post. No-one is perfect at everything all the time, some of us never are. The thing is, we don't all beat ourselves up about a few notes that may sound off to some nitpicking listener or whatever. Mostly we don't give a **** If we punnished ourselves like that we'd never post anything here :( Now I'll be the sorry one for shouting at you dear MySounds

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Respectfully no thumb from me either.
Bum notes, gain set too high, out of tune, you mean it's required for our tracks to be perfect? Hope whoever checks wiki tracks misses mine or I'll probably get banned for life :o:)
I guess we all get down on ourselves from time to time but fun over perfection is the safest objective in my humble opinion:)

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i think we all grow as we use the site, grow as musicians and how we process our music, as well as the tools we use. it's a great self-reflection MySounds :W i think most of us feel that way when we listen back at some of our older tracks, we're listening with today's ear on our older stuff...i certainly feel that way. it's painful for me to listen to my very first upload, it's a mess in many aspects, but also a nice reminder of some strides i've made in just recording/mixing/processing/etc :) by no means perfect, but improved from a few years ago :):W and the cool thing about it is i have many of my fellow loopers to thank for this process :)<3 keep rockin' MySounds :W:W

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Hmm I think you are overthinking it here a bit. Try to lighten up, enjoy the creative process, be happy that you have improved (at least what you feel). Truth is, we all enjoy listening to your stuff, and enjoy reading your posts, just keep doing it, even if you alone think it's below par. And remember, have fun on this site, rule number one :) P.S. I don't think I ever uploaded a track where everything was perfect, still looking for that holy guitar grail :D

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Thank you all for your comments. You are - as always - too kind.

I think what bugs me most is not how bad things sounded but simply that I didn`t notice it in the first place. Maybe too caught up in the fun of playing and recording but I should have noticed.

I did change my approach at the beginning of the year by recording less, spending more time listening to what I record and most importantly letting the results sit for a while before deciding on what I like or not.

So hopefully, this `taking a step back`to look at my stuff more from the outside rather than having it tainted by my initial enthusiasm for the initial ideas will help. And that might well be another great lesson taught by Wikiloops.

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I’m not technically able to say if what you’re doing is perfect or not. All I can say is that when it’s not perfect, it’s because it’s about life and human touch. And that’s what is the most important.
Let's go MySounds. <3

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I think in art perfection doesn't exist - nor should it. It's all about expression, feelings (which might change within the minute), and so on - so what would be perfect? What excites you might leave me cold, and vice versa.
Music isn't a numbers game like football or other types of sports - and I think the same applies for other types of art, like painting, photography, and so on. Look at my totally amateur pic of yesterday at https://wolfgang.lonien.de/2025/11/re-the-smile-in-photography/ - and still I dared to add the category of "art" to it ;)
You're a fine musician, no need for apologies. And I feel honoured that we already could play together.

(typo corrected)

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Your photos are beautiful Wjl. <3

Your life, a story of Cats, isn’t it? 🙂

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@MySounds Par Toutatis! Music is a temporal paradox that demands both the spontaneity of the shout and the strung chord, and the patience of diligent practice and the refinement of an almost organic slowness. Don't let your joy of playing fade; remain humble like a child in a hurry!

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May all your sins be forgiven — I once read that somewhere... :D

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It's perfectly normal to start hating something you've created, even you liked it first. That feeling will go away.

Perfection is boring in rock music, but I admit that it suits music made for clubs.

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Aaah, merci beaucoup Elisabeth! :) And yes, I'm the (s)catman :D

Joking aside, first we've had Tuna joining us in 2010 after we moved here, and after she passed away (RIP), in 2023 we took Bella in from an animal shelter, so she's our 2nd cat. And although she walked across the bridge of my upright bass already, I haven't been fast enough to capture that with my camera.

The nicest photo I ever saw (on Jonas Lohse's kontrabassblog.de) was an album cover of bass player Red Mitchell:

[img]https://www.kontrabassblog.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/RedMitchell-825x510.jpg[/img]

I only could get one of Tuna shortly after I bought my upright, and that's in my gallery here:

[img]https://www.img.wikiloops.com/galleries/53023/files/8a90380151abd4c7a0e24e58ceb594b5.jpg[/img]

But thanks again :)

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