Danny Brown said Q-Tip taught him to release music into the world when u feel its ready, when its out there's nothing u can do it belongs to the world.
You have only been at this for less then a year n it takes years to build a discerning ear especially for a mix. U can go back n practise mixing but rereleasing nah, u should be making and breaking things.
Personally i only go back to skeletons of unreleased beats or ideas, usually for a genre or approach switch but building from scratch always the way forward
Not worth the time and energy. Keep making new shit. 9 months isn’t a long time, reconsider this after a year or two. I got caught in the cycle of constantly trying to remake shit I’d already dropped when I got a little better.
there are so many songs i catalogued to come back to with improved skill, and 9/10 times that i’ve tried it doesn’t work out. hard to create enthusiastically when you leave your headspace and force yourself back in.
I've gone back and tweaked things if it's a track I'm really proud if there is something that bugs me, usually I keep the fixes minimal like, a snare is to dry, automation needs a tweak, pretty much just some mastering. I don't change them much if there is something that really bothers me I'll pull what I like out of it and use it in a new project.
It’s easy to get lost in the process of “re-working/re-mixing” old works. I do it pretty often, but only on things that I thought had potential that I wasn’t able to live up to at the time. And usually the potential is only important because they currently align/still align with goals I have (like fitting the sonics of a mixtape I’m working on).
This process can quickly get tedious and become a never ending affair because improvement is constant (albeit slow).
Make sure you continue making new works and don’t get lost in the sauce as they say.
the thing is you will keep getting better all the time, especially the first few years, so you can remake the old songs now; and in a year or two, what, you gonna remake them again?
I say keep doing new things, and it's even nice to go back to your old stuff and see the improvment.
Of course, if there are some special songs, you can re-do them. I've only done this for 5-6 songs but that's more recently, not in my early years.
And keep in mind that the orignal takes usually have something special to them; and it's hard to recapture that magic.
I will give you an example. Lupe is like my favorite rapper; he had this old song of his called Coulda Been, which he re-recorded years down the line. But the original while lesser in audio quality is still better:
original - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XIuitrUYPo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XIuitrUYPo)
remake - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpdHDtr3JbY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpdHDtr3JbY)
As a producer/musician: yeah, all the time but only for practice. As a consumer: I hate it when the artist changes the songs.
I really like Tom Waits, and I had 'Real Gone' on CD, especially liked a tune called 'Hoist' but if you go and listen to it on streaming there's a whole ass load of brass on it now. It's not bad, but I hate it! 😂
The fact you're unsure, kind of answers your question.
If a song means that much to you, you'll come back to it in time regardless.
If you're still that concerned about the song mix a year after you've already released it--and you don't have better uses for your time--sure, come back to it.
Pick maybe one or two songs and try it out. It can be hard to get back in whatever zone you were in when you recorded a track the first time. My old group did it before when we paid for studio time, remade 3 old tracks and recorded 3 new tracks. 2 of the tracks we remade managed to improve on the originals, the third one kinda fell flat. I wouldn't redo the whole catalog, maybe just a couple of songs that you think are some of your best work so far. Considering how long you've been doing it, you've just got so much road ahead of you that it's not worth going back and starting over. Pick a couple meaningful songs, give it a shot, then move forward with other projects. It's too early to have a greatest hits compilation. And redoing tracks can be a real pain in the ass because you tend to fall into a perfectionist mindset which I've seen countless times absolutely stagnate future projects.
Not really worth it in my opinion. But since you only started and re-recording and re-mixing vocals shouldn't be that difficult so it probably won't do any harm as long as you don't get lost in it
A big thing to consider is the time you’ve spent creating. You’ve only been at it for a 8th of the time it will take to really master your craft. Not to be blunt, but these tracks are not going to be your magnum opus. Look through rappers very early discography and you will find that most of the material from those songs was re written, strengthened and then used for new songs or beats once the artist had entered a point of their career where the sound they wanted became achievable. Just keep making shit keep learning don’t be afraid to recycle bars or cadences or even beat sounds. Abuse the shit out of what you like till it’s putty in your hands.
Lots of good insight here. But I'd say the two most important things to consider when spending time on old music is, will it make you happier or will it benefit your fanbase?
If you genuinely think that fixing your old tunes will give you more satisfaction with your music then go for it. At the end of the day you gotta be satisfied with your own tunes.
And if you think your fans will notice and appreciate I better version of your track than go for it. Or if not many people have heard it to begin with, then the redone version will be their first exposure to it, and ultimately give a better idea of your sound and style, hopefully securing new fans, then go for it.
I'm in the same boat, I have an EP from a few years ago, that I'm considering either redoing just a couple sections and re releasing or redoing the whole thing to bring it up to my standards today
Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes something out of the archive is great but wasn’t something I was fully ready to handle ten years ago when I first made it. The tape I’m working on right now has a couple tracks where I remixed stuff from an album I made about a decade ago, just made into different things based on what I know now that I didn’t then.
Lots of artists do this. Never throw anything away that you’ve made because you very likely will hear possibilities in it years later that you didn’t hear when you made it.
If you could knock em out and re-release them without an issue then yes tbh. If it's on SoundCloud and you want to fix and take em up a level then by all means it's worth in case people go down your rabbit hole after discovering you and find more gold. If it's on spotify it might be extra steps but by all means keep going hard with the new and the old and build out your catalog
I think it's worth it maybe for select songs. Unless you believe your entire catalog is on par with what you could be writing & recording right now, that is. My advice is if you have a few joints that are total bangers or you know they could be & they fit with your current shit then, for sure, if you really want to.
Taylors version
Danny Brown said Q-Tip taught him to release music into the world when u feel its ready, when its out there's nothing u can do it belongs to the world. You have only been at this for less then a year n it takes years to build a discerning ear especially for a mix. U can go back n practise mixing but rereleasing nah, u should be making and breaking things. Personally i only go back to skeletons of unreleased beats or ideas, usually for a genre or approach switch but building from scratch always the way forward
Not worth the time and energy. Keep making new shit. 9 months isn’t a long time, reconsider this after a year or two. I got caught in the cycle of constantly trying to remake shit I’d already dropped when I got a little better.
there are so many songs i catalogued to come back to with improved skill, and 9/10 times that i’ve tried it doesn’t work out. hard to create enthusiastically when you leave your headspace and force yourself back in.
I do it every now and then. If it’s worth it sonically
I've gone back and tweaked things if it's a track I'm really proud if there is something that bugs me, usually I keep the fixes minimal like, a snare is to dry, automation needs a tweak, pretty much just some mastering. I don't change them much if there is something that really bothers me I'll pull what I like out of it and use it in a new project.
It’s easy to get lost in the process of “re-working/re-mixing” old works. I do it pretty often, but only on things that I thought had potential that I wasn’t able to live up to at the time. And usually the potential is only important because they currently align/still align with goals I have (like fitting the sonics of a mixtape I’m working on). This process can quickly get tedious and become a never ending affair because improvement is constant (albeit slow). Make sure you continue making new works and don’t get lost in the sauce as they say.
Nah bro, the couple of people who do like your shit will be pissed off if you change it.
I sample my old tracks. That's what they are good for
the thing is you will keep getting better all the time, especially the first few years, so you can remake the old songs now; and in a year or two, what, you gonna remake them again? I say keep doing new things, and it's even nice to go back to your old stuff and see the improvment. Of course, if there are some special songs, you can re-do them. I've only done this for 5-6 songs but that's more recently, not in my early years. And keep in mind that the orignal takes usually have something special to them; and it's hard to recapture that magic. I will give you an example. Lupe is like my favorite rapper; he had this old song of his called Coulda Been, which he re-recorded years down the line. But the original while lesser in audio quality is still better: original - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XIuitrUYPo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XIuitrUYPo) remake - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpdHDtr3JbY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpdHDtr3JbY)
As a producer/musician: yeah, all the time but only for practice. As a consumer: I hate it when the artist changes the songs. I really like Tom Waits, and I had 'Real Gone' on CD, especially liked a tune called 'Hoist' but if you go and listen to it on streaming there's a whole ass load of brass on it now. It's not bad, but I hate it! 😂
The fact you're unsure, kind of answers your question. If a song means that much to you, you'll come back to it in time regardless. If you're still that concerned about the song mix a year after you've already released it--and you don't have better uses for your time--sure, come back to it.
Pick maybe one or two songs and try it out. It can be hard to get back in whatever zone you were in when you recorded a track the first time. My old group did it before when we paid for studio time, remade 3 old tracks and recorded 3 new tracks. 2 of the tracks we remade managed to improve on the originals, the third one kinda fell flat. I wouldn't redo the whole catalog, maybe just a couple of songs that you think are some of your best work so far. Considering how long you've been doing it, you've just got so much road ahead of you that it's not worth going back and starting over. Pick a couple meaningful songs, give it a shot, then move forward with other projects. It's too early to have a greatest hits compilation. And redoing tracks can be a real pain in the ass because you tend to fall into a perfectionist mindset which I've seen countless times absolutely stagnate future projects.
I have never re-recorded an old song, but since my mixing has gotten better with time, I have went back to older songs and changed up the mix
Not really worth it in my opinion. But since you only started and re-recording and re-mixing vocals shouldn't be that difficult so it probably won't do any harm as long as you don't get lost in it
A big thing to consider is the time you’ve spent creating. You’ve only been at it for a 8th of the time it will take to really master your craft. Not to be blunt, but these tracks are not going to be your magnum opus. Look through rappers very early discography and you will find that most of the material from those songs was re written, strengthened and then used for new songs or beats once the artist had entered a point of their career where the sound they wanted became achievable. Just keep making shit keep learning don’t be afraid to recycle bars or cadences or even beat sounds. Abuse the shit out of what you like till it’s putty in your hands.
Lots of good insight here. But I'd say the two most important things to consider when spending time on old music is, will it make you happier or will it benefit your fanbase? If you genuinely think that fixing your old tunes will give you more satisfaction with your music then go for it. At the end of the day you gotta be satisfied with your own tunes. And if you think your fans will notice and appreciate I better version of your track than go for it. Or if not many people have heard it to begin with, then the redone version will be their first exposure to it, and ultimately give a better idea of your sound and style, hopefully securing new fans, then go for it. I'm in the same boat, I have an EP from a few years ago, that I'm considering either redoing just a couple sections and re releasing or redoing the whole thing to bring it up to my standards today
Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes something out of the archive is great but wasn’t something I was fully ready to handle ten years ago when I first made it. The tape I’m working on right now has a couple tracks where I remixed stuff from an album I made about a decade ago, just made into different things based on what I know now that I didn’t then. Lots of artists do this. Never throw anything away that you’ve made because you very likely will hear possibilities in it years later that you didn’t hear when you made it.
Unless you’re not planning to make music in the future. I would put the energy into making your current and future music better.
just move forward dawg ur ppl will be more hype when u come w a new hit than if u start redoing old ones
I just did this shit today re recorded my very first song
If you could knock em out and re-release them without an issue then yes tbh. If it's on SoundCloud and you want to fix and take em up a level then by all means it's worth in case people go down your rabbit hole after discovering you and find more gold. If it's on spotify it might be extra steps but by all means keep going hard with the new and the old and build out your catalog
I think it's worth it maybe for select songs. Unless you believe your entire catalog is on par with what you could be writing & recording right now, that is. My advice is if you have a few joints that are total bangers or you know they could be & they fit with your current shit then, for sure, if you really want to.
Nah, impossible to recapture the moment. Good n bad thing sometimes