Hahah Passing Complexion is a masterpiece, by the way. That's why scissor shock covered it :)

As long as the quality doesn't affect the song then I don't give a fuck. If the music is good enough it won't matter.

I think about songwriting in the same way as I think about art in general.
It's the process of songwriting that's important - the thought, feeling and artistic expression that goes into a song begins to dissipate from the moment that the song is complete.
A song only has its full integrity at the time of it's first performance, after that it gradually loses its purpose until eventually it is irrelevant as a work of art.
I'm not sure that Albini sees his work in the same way, but I can understand what he's on about.

i'm the same. I'm not that arrogant to think people want to hear me moan about stuff.
That said i still love playing and recording, its just that when i listen back i rarely get a good feeling. I've also got no faith in my friends taste in music, or their ability to tell me somethings shit, so i've no real quality control other than myself. And i can be a stuborn fuck.

There's one track i've done which is kinda noisey. I really like it but no one else (in the band or otherwise) does so should i stop playing it? Should i dig my heals in or accept that its shit?

other than on here, natch

If i were a musician that's what i would have done. Maybe that's why i'm not a musician...

Steve Albini should only really feel guilty about the poor mastering of Big Black's stuff. I'm not complaining or anything, just that as a producer i'm sure it bugs him to hear all the hiss and crap

i am ocd and dont take my meds, nuff said

I actually have been diagnosed with ocd as well. Not on any medication though.

I'm not a perfectionist with the music I record, though I think this is because of my complete lack of production skills (Audacity is difficult for me). I've just recorded three tracks, which I've put on my Myspace page, but all of them have mistakes eg. on the "Like an Oil Spill" song, the only aspect I'm completely happy with is my vocal (though maybe it's too close to the original vocal). The guitar came out too distorted and the percussion sounds wrong, it was mixed too loudly, and I forgot to add lead guitar, bass and saxophone - I only realised when it was on Myspace. And on the "Piano in C Sharp Minor" track I play an obviously wrong note towards the end. But I'm to lazy to fix these up.

D&tM:
Try Cool Edit Pro 2.0 or Adobe Audition (They're the same program). Really
easy to learn, I personally prefer them to Audacity.

I was told to get Cool Edit by my singing teacher awhile ago, I was going to download it, but it cost a lot of money, so I was going to download the demo version, but it was going to take hours so I didn't bother.

You can find a good cracked version with a quick google search.

Okay, thanks.

yeah adobe audition/cool edit pro is god like.

i have it on my computer but haven't installed it WOW.

I think you're right, on both counts. The problem, I think, is that I end up seeing a lot of local live music, and I seem to have created a seperation between 'social' music and 'art' music in my head. If I don't know, or haven't seen live, a rock band, I'll tend to dismiss it unless its head is several legions above the parapet of 'good'.

big black rule.

that's a bit dogmatic

I find that when doing composed material, a lot of our songs need time to evolve a bit and mutate somewhat before they're ready to be performed at a show or recorded, which to me makes them a little "lesser" at their beginnings. They usually need to "grow up" a little bit.