This isn't going to be a popular comment, but when we put our music out on a forum and invite comments, are we looking for feedback... or, are we hoping for only positive comments? If we're looking for positive comments and not so interested in critical feedback, anything negative gives us a lot of self doubt. If we're serious about taking our music somewhere beyond the hobby stage, it would be wise to take specific advice and act on it.
I wouldn't say the guy's comments make him a jerk. The fact is that he seems to be following your postings and based his comments on your songs over a year's time. OK, he could have said it in a nicer way. It's possible that he sees potential in you and was hoping to see progress. He didn't knock your song, just the way it was recorded. There is some truth in his comment about few giving negative feedback. When I hear something on a forum that is flawed, I rarely give comments because it's safer that way - especially on the internet. If I give specific positive advice, I try to pick out things that I particularly liked about it - "great solo guitar tone - especially starting at the 2:10 point in the song. What guitar/amp combo were you using?"
Spend some time at the Home Recording Forum's MP3 Clinic. There are some real jerks there. The best feedback (and that is what we should REALLY be interested in) comes in specific advice from the serious people there: i.e.; too much compression, reverb... bass is muddy, etc. Posters there are looking for feedback on their recordings... not so much on song quality. Most of the positive feedback is real brief... "Nice work! I like it!" That doesn't help us much as far as improving. The comment that "Your tone sux!" doesn't help much either without specific advice on how to improve it.
Music - especially ORIGINAL music - is about as personal as it gets for us. Negative comments to us hurts. But, we have to get thick skin about it. My experience is that we aren't as good as our most glowing admirers tell us, nor as bad as our worst critics tell us. The "truth" is usually somewhere in between. the secret is to find the folks that know what they're listening to and trust them to be honest with us. That's usually NOT family and close friends - they're way too close to you and would never say anything to hurt you. If you think the guy was talking just to sound important, then ignore it. If there's a chance that he DOES know what he's talking about, why not reply back and ask for some feedback on how to improve? That goes against human nature... we tend to hate our critics and don't really want to acknowledge them. If his comments are mean-spirited and not specific, then maybe he is a jerk.
If you end up improving your recording techniques based on the guy's comments, that couldn't be a bad thing.
There's some good advice posted here about improved recording techniques. Unfortunately, serious home recording takes a lot of time and money. I've been at it for years and the learning curve is painful and slow. Rarely do we have the luxury of having a personal teacher train us. My advice is to do a ton of research about products and techniques and find one that works for you. BUT - if you thought GAS was a problem! GAS to home recordists stands for Gear Acq Syndrome. Recording interface, mics, preamps, plugins or hardware effects, stands, cables. It gets expensive and we make some poor purchasing decisions sometimes.
Good luck and keep plugging away!
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Rodger
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