I think there’s a big difference when it comes to solicited and unsolicited feedback though. If you ask someone to give honest feedback, and they don’t like it , lots of people find it really difficult to be honest about that.
Best feedback I ever got, was when I thought I had made something pretty cool, and I showed it to a friend. His response was, “it sounds like music from the 90s, that was bad”. He doesn’t have the aforementioned problem.
I know what I like, and what I do that makes me happy.
I have honestly no clue what someone outside of my headspace would think, and it’s a little hard for me to figure out how to get any external feedback. With my neurosis, I’d like to think that I’d be more likely to work harder with negative feedback than silence? Not necessarily in changing things to be more to their liking, but at least to making the weird stuff more interesting and intentional.
Probably easier to get it out there into the world first and not hundreds of tracks spread out on multiple drives
Seeing as ‘good’ can kind of mean anything from ‘genuinely impressive’ to ‘well, it’s good that you tried/good by your usual standards which are terrible’ I prefer to thank people for their politeness but only take notice of my own impossible standards of perfectionism that lead me to never be satisfied with anything in this world. It’s the only healthy way.
If you find something very good, I think it’s important to let the other person know that you like it. I personally PM the persons when I find that their work reaches me, at least, here on Elektronauts.
With friends/family, I think it’s always slightly suspect. What’s funny is when someone tells you a track is good. Then they listen to something else you do and say, “Wow, this one was actually REALLY good.” Oh, yes, then what was that first one?
If I’m going to compliment someone, I usually try to pick out specific elements of the song I liked. So even if they don’t think I’m being genuine, they at least know I actually listened to the whole thing.
Ha it’s funny, if a friend tells me they like a track I know it’s really good! They don’t blow smoke up my arse…
Noooo, I totally get this but it’s a really negative mindset. Unless your perspective is that you have no room for improvements and that you are already perfect then that is an excellent compliment, even with that loading!
Good question, thanks for asking. In that case, I don’t say anything unless explicitly and personally asked directly to critique the piece, and then I will express my thoughts as best I can with the words I have and the feelings i get from the piece from my perspective as an artist, audio engineer. I will tell them what I like about it, what I don’t, the reasons why I do like or don’t like those things, and ways it could be improved based on my taste driven opinion.
I enjoy reading negative opinions when couched in “my preference”, because I like to understand how others experience the world.
I dislike reading negative opinions when used to belittle someone else on a forum, it’s absolutely the worst of narcissistic internet communications and webforum culture.
Thats a good response.
I’ve been on both sides of these situations.
To be honest, I’ve lied in the past and said something sounded good when it didn’t but in my defense, the guy asking was in a low place and I just felt it would’ve crushed him.
Since then I’ve made it a rule to neither ask someone to listen to my stuff or to listen and critique theirs when we are in the same space.
If they want me to listen and critique, I tell them I need to be alone and give it a real listen.
It’s not really a cop out either, I generally believe I can’t honestly listen unless I’m in my own space with my own thoughts.