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Perfection is Overrated

NYC Composer said:
I've gone on about this for a few years.

If one is not careful about the self questioning portion of "is this fantastic enough yet, maybe if I mix it for 3 more days it will be" one doesn't get much written or finished.
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A lesson I've learnt far too many times is that 3 more or 300 more days on my mix isn't going fix a flawed piece of musical architecture....

....which leads me to the question "what are you most trying be perfect at - composing, orchestrating, performing, mixing, mastering - everything?!"
 
All of this talk concerning perfectionism can be boiled down to simple science. There are four basic temperaments of the human personality: Peaceful Phlegmatic, Popular Sanguine, Powerful Choleric, and the Perfect Melancholy where the combinations of these four make up our individual personalities. The temperament that most composers and artists embody is the Perfect Melancholy in which the defining characteristic is perfectionism. For those who want more information on this topic, please look here: https://temperaments.fighunter.com/?page=melancholic
 
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I personally don't believe in striving to be perfect, rather just aiming to do the best that you can.

On the topic of imperfections, a quote from Good Will Hunting stands out to me:
"People call these things imperfections, but they're not. That's the good stuff."
 
In his thick German accent, the artist Bill Alexander [you've all heard of his protege, Bob Ross] always used to say, "There are no mistakes. There are only happy accidents." Those words of wisdom have translated well for me from art to music. I can't count the number of times I strove to come up with a "perfect" part, but ended up playing something unintentional, yet better. Over the years, I've incorporated a lot of those "happy accidents" into my repertoire. In theory, this is a growing process that will have no end, and to me, that's one of the thrills of being a musician and composer.

Happy accidents, however, do not translate as kindly to one's tennis game. :whistling:
 
The discussion is futile, as no human being is "perfect" in the actual sense of the word. Personally I try to do as good as I can, and then some. If this makes something "perfect", fine - and if it doesn't, then it just means that there's room for development.
 
Dietz said:
The discussion is futile, as no human being is "perfect" in the actual sense of the word. Personally I try to do as good as I can, and then some. If this makes something "perfect", fine - and if it doesn't, then it just means that there's room for development.
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If you want to know just how futile this discussion is, just ask the question "what is perfect music?" :whistling:
 
I love imperfections in music and even mistakes on live gigs. It's nothing wrong. We are humans we made mistakes. Im actually tired of 'perfect music'. Some songs sound like written and recorded by robots and it's especially audible with vocals: perfect pitch, no breath or any other noise between words, 1000 cuts and 1000 overdubs which makes vocals totally unnatural and washed from emotions... Add to this hard compression to remove dynamics and perfect quantization to grid. It's fine for electronic music but to do this with other genres is ridiculous.
I see tendency in music to hate all what define human. Idk are we at this moment that it's shame to be a human? Because it look like this, not only in music but almost every area of life. I hope it's a question of time when we bring back human element to music again.
 
Dietz said:
The discussion is futile, as no human being is "perfect" in the actual sense of the word. Personally I try to do as good as I can, and then some. If this makes something "perfect", fine - and if it doesn't, then it just means that there's room for development.
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You do pretty damn well, Dietz. I think kindly of your company every day I use VEP.
 
When it comes to sound libraries there's always this dilemma: most are not perfect and I can't analyze the amount of imperfections (no demo versions available) and with all the paid walkthroughs (just advertising to me) I can't be sure that the reviewer also notices the flaws or mentions them. I have to pay a high price and might get disappointed because the library has flaws and I can't even sell it (some developers are a big exception here). And topping this some devs sell their flaws as character and things of beauty. That's more than disappointing for me.
 
Rodney Money said:
All of this talk concerning perfectionism can be boiled down to simple science. There are four basic temperaments of the human personality: Peaceful Phlegmatic, Popular Sanguine, Powerful Choleric, and the Perfect Melancholy where the combinations of these four make up our individual personalities. The temperament that most composers and artists embody is the Perfect Melancholy in which the defining characteristic is perfectionism. For those who want more information on this topic, please look here: https://temperaments.fighunter.com/?page=melancholic
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...don't I know it! Why else am I up,at 1:30 am - and see the weekend as the Perfect time to get a lot of writing done without interruptions?
 
Karsten Vogt said:
When it comes to sound libraries there's always this dilemma: most are not perfect and I can't analyze the amount of imperfections (no demo versions available) and with all the paid walkthroughs (just advertising to me) I can't be sure that the reviewer also notices the flaws or mentions them. I have to pay a high price and might get disappointed because the library has flaws and I can't even sell it (some developers are a big exception here). And topping this some devs sell their flaws as character and things of beauty. That's more than disappointing for me.
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Time to start recording your very own library! It's easy! Get the best players with the best instruments into your favorite studio. Make it future proof by recording every microphone possible. Make sure that each note has commitment and real feel. Especially the "ppp" ones, which are hard to do with conviction, add vibrato and dynamics, figure out legato - and voila! A few million (!) dollars poorer you have the beginnings of something's acceptable...oh, and con Sordino can Not really be faked up. So that bringing them all back in for a week. Short notes? At least 8 dynamics (we are now at 64 - but we are mad) and staccatisimo to quaver, crouched,minim, semibreve marcato -at least eight velocities and 8 round robins.
Pizz, Col leg, sul tasto, sul pont... I started this in 1994. We are still at it. It getting somewhere, and sometimes I like it... it's lots and lots of work to do for the four full time employees in the sample department...
So, roll up your sleeve and get Exactly what you're after!
But perfect is boring....
 
Dietz said:
The discussion is futile, as no human being is "perfect" in the actual sense of the word. Personally I try to do as good as I can, and then some. If this makes something "perfect", fine - and if it doesn't, then it just means that there's room for development.
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VSL has always been pretty damned flawless as far as their process of recording sample libraries goes. Pristine is the word I'd actually describe them.
 
Rctec said:
Time to start recording your very own library! It's easy! Get the best players with the best instruments into your favorite studio. Make it future proof by recording every microphone possible. Make sure that each note has commitment and real feel. Especially the "ppp" ones, which are hard to do with conviction, add vibrato and dynamics, figure out legato - and voila! A few million (!) dollars poorer you have the beginnings of something's acceptable...oh, and con Sordino can Not really be faked up. So that bringing them all back in for a week. Short notes? At least 8 dynamics (we are now at 64 - but we are mad) and staccatisimo to quaver, crouched,minim, semibreve marcato -at least eight velocities and 8 round robins.
Pizz, Col leg, sul tasto, sul pont... I started this in 1994. We are still at it. It getting somewhere, and sometimes I like it... it's lots and lots of work to do for the four full time employees in the sample department...
So, roll up your sleeve and get Exactly what you're after!
But perfect is boring....
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An it STILL won't be as good as the real guys in the room, listening and reacting to each other in real time, assuming the writing is good.
 
Rodney Money said:
ll of this talk concerning perfectionism can be boiled down to simple science. There are four basic temperaments of the human personality:
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That's rather too simple to pass scientific standards. It's esoteric (or 'proto-psychological' to quote Wikipedia), not scientific.

If you look at this oxford definition for 'perfect': 'Free from any flaw or defect in condition or quality; faultless'. Now the question is, what constitutes a flaw in music, and what constitutes quality? I'd guess that we all have differing opinions about that, in which case everyone's definition of 'perfect' regarding music will be different.
 
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