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FA Outage and some words from our dear community member Onic
9 years ago
Looking for a place to chat? Join us at #composers on FurNet!
Hey guys !!!
Have you might have noticed (Of course you do. We furries are addicted to FA), FurAffinity has been restored to a backup ~older than a week.
Every note, submission, commentary or shout made the week before the outage is LOST.
I invite you if you tried to contact Composers to renew your attempt so I can sort all your messages.
And now I'm leaving you on those wise words by
onic Show him some love, he's a great fellow and both his music and him clearly deserve it ! :D
Take care and keep up the great work !
karuno
The music scene here on FA's main page often causes me great distress. I have been increasing my efforts to click on the latest submissions in the audible category to see what I discover, in the hopes I can find some new artists or maybe have a conversation. What I find instead is a maelstrom of excuses of every kind.
"Sorry the quality is so bad"
"I'm not really good at this"
"This isn't finished so don't judge"
These are just a few recurring phrases I see in the descriptions of many submissions. Here's what I say in response:
Own your craft.
We are all artists here in some way, and the last I checked most of us do not come looking for apologies. We look for craftsmanship and the products of imaginative hearts. So make bad music, unfinished projects, low quality recordings. If you truly love what you do, just share it with us. Don't apologize for its shortcomings. Don't excuse yourself from perfection, strive for it! Ask questions about how you can improve rather than bemoan the lack of quality in your work. Take yourself seriously. Think of ways to expand, to make the best of what you have, and then actually do it.
Love what you do and own it. It's yours.
A musician should never apologize for their performance before giving it. To do so establishes the audience's expectation that they are not receiving the top performance. How much more impressive would it be to say "Yeah, I'm not really in my groove today" after the audience has listened and been impressed? They think to themselves, "That was great! He must be even better when he's on his game!"
If you're covering a song, great! You're learning from other musicians.
If you're voice is a bit pitchy, great! You're not letting your ego stop you from singing.
If you're still trying to wrap up a song ending, great! You're opening yourself to (hopefully) constructive input and broadening you're musical horizons.
Whatever you do, don't allow your excuses to stagnate your work. How can you hold yourself to a standard as high as perfection without working toward it? There will be ugly, odd, awkward moments along the way. You'll wonder what you are thinking, to open yourself up to ridicule by posting these incomplete melodies or unmixed song files. In short, there will be bad days. But you will grow as a musician and we will all benefit from the process of listening and interacting until we can each achieve our personal masterpieces.
Thoughts? Opinions? I'm all ears.
PS - This journal is not directed at any singular individual by any means. I have a desire to see people motivated and creating, and any obstacle to that goal is a personal enemy.
Original journal
Have you might have noticed (Of course you do. We furries are addicted to FA), FurAffinity has been restored to a backup ~older than a week.
Every note, submission, commentary or shout made the week before the outage is LOST.
I invite you if you tried to contact Composers to renew your attempt so I can sort all your messages.
And now I'm leaving you on those wise words by
onic Show him some love, he's a great fellow and both his music and him clearly deserve it ! :DTake care and keep up the great work !
karuno
The music scene here on FA's main page often causes me great distress. I have been increasing my efforts to click on the latest submissions in the audible category to see what I discover, in the hopes I can find some new artists or maybe have a conversation. What I find instead is a maelstrom of excuses of every kind.
"Sorry the quality is so bad"
"I'm not really good at this"
"This isn't finished so don't judge"
These are just a few recurring phrases I see in the descriptions of many submissions. Here's what I say in response:
Own your craft.
We are all artists here in some way, and the last I checked most of us do not come looking for apologies. We look for craftsmanship and the products of imaginative hearts. So make bad music, unfinished projects, low quality recordings. If you truly love what you do, just share it with us. Don't apologize for its shortcomings. Don't excuse yourself from perfection, strive for it! Ask questions about how you can improve rather than bemoan the lack of quality in your work. Take yourself seriously. Think of ways to expand, to make the best of what you have, and then actually do it.
Love what you do and own it. It's yours.
A musician should never apologize for their performance before giving it. To do so establishes the audience's expectation that they are not receiving the top performance. How much more impressive would it be to say "Yeah, I'm not really in my groove today" after the audience has listened and been impressed? They think to themselves, "That was great! He must be even better when he's on his game!"
If you're covering a song, great! You're learning from other musicians.
If you're voice is a bit pitchy, great! You're not letting your ego stop you from singing.
If you're still trying to wrap up a song ending, great! You're opening yourself to (hopefully) constructive input and broadening you're musical horizons.
Whatever you do, don't allow your excuses to stagnate your work. How can you hold yourself to a standard as high as perfection without working toward it? There will be ugly, odd, awkward moments along the way. You'll wonder what you are thinking, to open yourself up to ridicule by posting these incomplete melodies or unmixed song files. In short, there will be bad days. But you will grow as a musician and we will all benefit from the process of listening and interacting until we can each achieve our personal masterpieces.
Thoughts? Opinions? I'm all ears.
PS - This journal is not directed at any singular individual by any means. I have a desire to see people motivated and creating, and any obstacle to that goal is a personal enemy.
Original journal
And I wholeheartly agree with that message.
Do not be afraid when posting something. You post things to BE seen. If you feel like something is so imcomplete/bad/unworthy listening to, then DON'T. It does not help to put yourself down in the vain hope of people telling you that it's "not that bad". That is an easy way to fuel your self-esteem and burry your worries, but certanly not a way to approach your goals. You can have thousands telling you a piece is fine, but at the end of the day, YOU have to like it.
Never stop trying ~
Furries and "artists" in general ALWAYS make excuses for their work to cover for whatever it is that tells them what they just posted "isn't the best". Just make what you feel or see and go with it.
Flow. Let your art flow. Juuust like dis...
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/19513211/
V.
Looking back on my oldest recordings before I could afford a decent microphone, before I knew anything at all about mixing and effects (which has been my area of focus as of late) I'm honestly kind of surprised I had the guts to post any of it at all. I'm damn sure I have songs that were recorded with an old RockBand mic in Audacity, and my voice sounded all nasally and unrefined.
Right now my gallery is like watching a little kid grow. The first song I ever posted - the first thing I ever posted - is still at the end of my gallery. It sounds nothing like me now...and I've fought with myself about taking those old recordings down so I can more accurately represent myself as I am, not as I was.
But then I realize that in the last 8 years I've gone from this
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1290609/
To this
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/20027847/
There's a footnote about the mixing, but it's because I'm legitimately inviting critique and suggestions because I know I want to be better at that.
I'm going to be taking
Some of the best music I've heard on this site has been made with cheap instruments, bad recording equipment and by people who still aren't sure of themselves. All it takes is someone to remind them that it still sounds good beneath all of that.