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I have changed tracks based on opinions fed to me. However, it is not often, and the results of my "tweaking" off of feedback have only been posted a handful of times. However, I once posted a "half-baked" track, got some feedback off of it, and incorperated it in the final result -- that I later tweaked some more. However, by and large I take feedback from the track and take it to heart as constructive critique for my next track. There is no doubt that it has helped me.
As far as the "artistic vision" argument goes, I have two ways of going about it. I, too, can suffer from "producer's block" where I am suddenly more enthralled with production than with arrangement and musical quality. However, I attempt to make lemonade out of such a lemon by looking at what I created and saying: "This bassline would go really well with a 'x' synth patch, one that I have yet to create... I wonder what kind of melody I could conjure up with such a feeling". Sometimes, dinking around with a lead has inspired whole tracks. It's all a matter of working backwards or not.
The other extreme is "musician's block", where I toy around on my piano and come up with something that I cannot seem to recreate on my sequencer in what my mind envisions. Sometimes it is not even communicated from the piano, but auto-inspiration. That's a tough one when it's all in the noodle, and you have this cork that just won't pop.
It's almost as if being a producer takes more of the left side of the brain, while the musician part is the right side. It's makes perfect sense in that one is macro, the other micro... it follows the same psychology. When it comes to our line of hobby, the two are really inseperable unless you have some incredible form of organization and stack of pre-adjusted production tools.
It also depends on the music itself. If it's techno, where it's more about the detail placed in the groove, timbres, and automations, then being a producer-minded individual is what it is all about. Don't get me wrong, a techno-ist cannot go very far forgetting the artistic side, but it's stressed after the production quality.
Right now... I am stuck on a track that is production rooted, but has beeb riddled with artistic ideas that are being blockaded by the production scale. I cannot insert and idea when I just can't be satisfied with the timbres, and feel of the mix. It doesn't make me unhappy to work with the track itself... just a little time-pinched.
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...On college-driven hiatus...
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