No, I don't have a problem with that... the analogy is cooking. It's based to some extent on past experience. You don't just keep adding salt. At some time the musician should be better off to feel more like they're cooking some dish for his family and friends or theselves... people start getting scared and they don't leave it alone; it can take all the cheer out of it.
- Jah Wobble:30 Hertz Records
For me, the answer depends on the piece (nice, definitive answer, right?
:) ). In order to get the correct answer, however, time is required.
That's why, when I believe a piece to be finished, I try "living with it"
for a while, just to see how it holds up over time. A piece that's more
structured, like "Veil of Lake Snow" from To the Shores of Heaven, was a
piece in which I spent a lot of time constructing and a lot of time
refining. Until I could listen to it without getting the "cringes", it
wasn't done. On the other hand, "Beyond and Within", from the same cd, was
done the moment I was through recording it- and I knew it. But I STILL
applied the "time test" to that piece, just to make sure it was truly
finished.
- Jeff Pearce: ambient guitarist
With digital downloads, we're at the point now where a piece never need BE
done...one can now release an initial version of a piece and then work on
it some more and release a later version, yielding snapshots of the music
over time. A piece would be done only if you became bored with it.
- Sara Ayers: ambient artist
I know when a piece is done by listening to it and having that
"just finished a great meal, head to the couch and undo my pants"
feeling... Ahhh.....I guess it's my Italian heritage ;-)
- Dino Pacifici: Music-Language of the Spirit
It depends on the piece. Usually the music just reaches a point where it
satisfies the particular craving that led to its creation. By the time
anything is "done" I've subtracted all the elements that bother me, and I
begin to realize that it's as close as it's going to get. It's like a
sculpture - beyond a certain point you'll just overwork it, but you have to
make sure that every detail gets the attention it needs.
- Robert Rich:Soundscape Productions / Amoeba Music
If in doubt, let the public decide.
- Nigel Ayers: of Nocturnal Emissions
It's pretty clear.
When It says what I want it to say - it's done.
- lk: (audiochrom)
more of a problem is getting even near to the 'say when'
stage. I have this stage about 2/3 through writing something where I get
sick of a track, no matter how much I initially liked it, and I start to cut
bits out of it and write new tracks and start messing with other things..
sometimes I never finish the original. At the moment I'm doing a lot of
'work' on tracks... really concentrating to get them finished. A lot of the time
I work on them without actually listening and do everything visually thru
notation...
That's why short tracks are soooo good. less time to get
bored.
- aspen: www.involve.co.nz
A piece is done when I can't sit through a listen without being somehow
"absorbed" by it. For the tracks on /Planetary House Nation/, for example,
I kept adding on layers of processing (sometimes four or more) until it
achieved the desired effect (staring at the wall and drooling).
- Seofon: member/producer with Ambient Temple
of Imagination and The
Archipelago
I don't think that I have any set way of knowing when a piece is finished.
Of course I could go on tweaking forever, but I suppose you have to make an
educated guess when to stop. I usually look for the emotional presence a
track has, if the emotion is there it must be about right. The other thing
that I have found useful is time. Leaving a track for a day or so and then
coming back to it can reveal a lot!
- Maitreya: Ambient Artist @ Council of Nine
Most of the times I don't really have problems with finishing a piece
musically but I feel that the mixing process is one of the most difficult
and complex parts of creating a piece. By altering the levels of each
particular track it can change the atmosphere entirely. The mix gives you
access to several related but relevant different versions of one piece and
sometimes in the middle of producing an album I really need to step away
from the work in order to get myself focused again. Mixing a piece is
important and deciding which way to go essential so a good mix will reveal
whether the piece itself will work or not.
- Vidna Obmana: ambient/electronic artist
When I can save something up, then come back to it a couple of weeks later
and listen to it without any alterations suggesting themselves.
- Michael Upton : (a.k.a. Jet Jaguar)
Knowing when to walk away is one of the more difficult
tasks facing any artist. It would appear that, like so many facets of the
creative process, it comes with maturity. Although it has taken me many years
to do so, I now trust my intuition implicitly. For me, there is an undeniable
sense of knowing when a piece is either completed or it is time to move on.
Leaving a piece unfinished is not a crime. There should be no sense of
failure in leaving an idea behind. On the contrary, staying with anything too
long be it a lover, an emotion or a song, is not a sign of fortitude and
commitment. It is, instead, a sign of immaturity, weakness and lack of self
confidence.
- Richard Bone: ambient /electronic artist
The piece itself generally tells me at the point at which it needs no
further work, although in the past other indicators have been a lack
of additional mixer inputs or tape tracks, a dwindling of recording
budget, an unrelentingness of schedule, or simply the end of my own
patience in the recording process. It is rather easy actually for me
to get done with a piece, although I have noticed that the addition
of the computer and sampler as characters in the production saga does
tend to put at a far greater distance the completion of a piece.
Having once spent over a year on an album, however, I have learned
the dangers of keeping the patient too long under the general
anaesthesia of the studio environment.
- Joshua Maremont: Thermal / Boxman label
This can be a problem from time to time. Every now and then there is
one of those compositions you just keep wondering, "does it need one more
synth pass or percussion or ... do I need to take something out ?"
The cool thing about working in a collaborative environment is that you
are never at a loss for advice and a second set of critical ears. Chris and
I have many different areas of this music which are often times more
important to one of us than the other. Usually if one of us is dead set on how something sounds or should sound
we will run with it. If we both agree on an edit or a sound or a
compositional passage, then we know that we are really onto something.
Actually this system works great for us. It is very easy to get wrapped
up in a piece of music or get too close to it. This can often lead to a lot
of second guessing and you can get over or under critical. A second set of ears often allows you to listen with a new perspective.
That killer track you thought you had may ... not be finished, and yet a
passage that you are struggling with might not be as far off as you thought.
It takes a lot of respect and trust to work this way, especially when
music is so highly personal. Chris and I have learned how to be very blunt
with each other. Maybe it is our "art school" education. We will never let
the other person settle on "its good enough."
Usually a song will dictate to you when it is done, and yet sometimes it
takes another person to make you hear it.
- Paul Vnuk Jr: of the Tribal / Space duo Ma Ja Le
I usually go by intuition which is how I go about 99% of my music. I compose a
piece and listen to it in its skeletal form a few times. Then decide if it
needs more garnishment perhaps a bit more rhythym or a melody. Sometimes I
think a piece is done right after an improvision session. There is something
mysteriously exciting about improvising and not adding to it later. The moment
is captured and sealed in time.
- Gregory Kyryluk: of the Alpha Wave Movement and Open Canvas
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