edit: which actually has got me in the bad habit of messing with tables and wav synths while driving on the freeway. dont be like me

Saskrotch wrote:

figure out what I like / don't like without actually sitting in front of it and watching it happen.

This. I think watching the music happen as you make it links what you hear to what you see and affects how you experience your own music. Seeing how the bread is made. Takes some magic out of the listening experience.

edit
plus one for the John Cage quote

This is so true. Sometimes I'll throw on my wireless headphones and go on about the house doing whatever and ideas will pop into my head that I wouldn't have gotten while staring at the computer screen.

figure out what I like / don't like without actually sitting in front of it and watching it happen.

This. I think watching the music happen as you make it links what you hear to what you see and affects how you experience your own music. Seeing how the bread is made. Takes some magic out of the listening experience.

edit
plus one for the John Cage quote

I only listen to my own music because it's the only thing worth listening to.

pretty much this

John Cage has a quote about doing something repeatedly until you don't find it boring anymore. A teacher of mine warned that looping on the sequencer is like this, so it is better to record to tape or write on paper than to hear things repeating until you think your riff is good just because you don't remember what anything else sounds like.

I agree on that. I try to write songs devoid of any instrument or tool, just recording myself humming / beatboxing the idea. It frees you from getting stuck with a sample or melody or chord progression that might just be 'what you know'. Then you can go back and say, how do I make that mouth-wobble sound I made in my scratch recording..instead of settling on the sounds first. Also, if you think your song needs a change or chord shift, a great thing to do is listen up to the place where the change would go and then hum what you think would come next. I find this sometimes takes my songs in unexpected directions that still sound like part of the same song.

On the subject of John Cage, I'm making a chiptune remix of 4'33!!!

John Cage has a quote about doing something repeatedly until you don't find it boring anymore. A teacher of mine warned that looping on the sequencer is like this, so it is better to record to tape or write on paper than to hear things repeating until you think your riff is good just because you don't remember what anything else sounds like.

Therefore, when you work on a piece until it grows better, it is not a nostalgia effect, unless you haven't done anything to improve the song. For me, especially in chipmusic when working in a strict format, it is more like sculpting.

If I end up just listening to a track on loop for ages, and I don't make any changes because I think it's good, I realize that I'm probably just used to the way it sounds, and that the way it sounds, may not be good. I'll often just go and listen to some other music, be it chiptune or anything else that I like, then come back to my song, and re-listen to see if I can improve it, or if I'm genuinely happy with it.

Therefore, when you work on a piece until it grows better, it is not a nostalgia effect, unless you haven't done anything to improve the song. For me, especially in chipmusic when working in a strict format, it is more like sculpting.

Yeah, me too.

when i listen to the same song over and over on a loop changing bits adding bits for hours/days i start to lose all concept of whether is is good or bad.
its nice to share it with irl friends or wait a week before carrying on

Either I have this same issue, or I whip out the whole song in 2 exhausting hours where I forget to even relax my arm muscles and I know its a good song…it's like 50%  / 50% , I never know which way its going to be..

If I'm not diggin the short loop so much after a few days, I usually just scrap it and don't expand it, but sometimes I really like one but I can't think of what I want to do with it! It's sometimes frustrating, but hey, art's a struggle right?