Jul 12, 2023Liked by Frank Theodat, Zack Grafman, Brady Putzke
I spent most of my young life in recording studios. I have to be able to hear every instrument and am interested in the playing method of each instrument--slapped bass vs picked base-- and the sound chosen for each one. I love to try and pick apart any layering, compare arrangements, scrutinize the vocal--how much effects, compression, etc. Unless I really love the song, I spend my time tearing it all apart and questioning both engineering and production.
I'm somewhat similar. I'm largely ignorant when it comes to actually producing and mixing music, but I can discern decisions that have been made by the engineers usually. I'm also always on a soapbox about using flat EQ equipment so you get as close to the vision of the engineer as possible. But I've heard arguments against this approach.
More broadly, huge occupational hazard in knee-jerk dissecting music without thinking about it. Even now sometimes I'm out with people and my attention zeroes in on the muzak and people just go "what are you doing?". Can't help it.
My education and a lot of experience is in jazz too, so you have to always have ears open to accompany and respond. By and large it heightens my enjoyment but it definitely makes you picky haha.
I do also go into "hearing" mode though, as I described in the intro. Oddly - odd because it is so "information rich" - I like Baroque music best for background.
There’s a process of analyzing classical music in a scholar way that if applied to highly processed works could also reward the listener. It’s not here yet cause the practice is so new we still don’t have the theory.
The fact that these are intuitive decisions does not disqualify them of rhetoric content:
there’s a lot to unpack through a reverse-engineering approach.
At any rate I find that it DEEPLY enriched my listening experience
Glad you had music appreciation classes, sorely missed in education imo. This was my attempt to bring some of that to light again and seems I succeeded. One need not be a specialist to dive deeper and get more out of music and looks like this article helped some folks do that.
And thanks on the playlist front. Definitely I've been going for that mix. Grab ya with some beloved favorites and force you to check out all my obscure metal obsessions hahaha.
Jul 18, 2023·edited Jul 18, 2023Liked by Brady Putzke
Timbre is a useful area for me to start to try to figure out how to explain what I like or don't like about various music, because I feel like all the other elements I can figure out and get behind but there's just certain _sounds_ I like and certain _sounds_ I dislike, of course muddled by context.
By the way, one simple beginner's guide to listening to music that you didn't mention and that I offer with no music knowledge, is literally simply trying to isolate in your own mind what each individual instrument is doing. Like first listen to the drums for a minute, then switch to the guitar, then figure out what the base is doing, then the keyboards, and see where they match and where they are doing different things. Vocals come last because they always feel 'top' or 'surface' to me and the music is the support structure or 'bottom' of them, the vocals can sometimes obscure the music.
Yeah timbral stuff gets complex and the deep dive is getting into waveform analysis and how they generate synth sounds. Essentially to make realistic synths, you copy the acoustical properties of a given instrument. But you can also invent them or add elements from others and you get all kinds of crazy electronic timbres. Some of that stuff is definitely over my head so I just tell people to learn to identify what they like.
And yes I did miss this. Above with FALST's comment he pointed it out too and you guys are correct. Following and identifying individual instruments is an excellent active listening practice. I would say use my little "repeat it back mentally" melodic exercise but committing to one instrument for a listen through a piece.
It may be timbral stuff I was asking you about w/r/t sound production design for film. It's hard to know where to start to generate and process certain sounds and which ones should better work together, though I'm sure the majority of the work is the common sense stuff: canned sounds, foley, and field recording.
Very good, I add something perhaps evident for us musicians is listening to separate voices.
In learning how to listen to music one should develop this skill as early as possible, to identify and follow separate voices.
Not only identify the instrument but also say in a choral following each melody separately, untangling them from the harmonic structure.
It starts very basic say with a rock band identifying the drums from the voice but also eventually the guitar from the bass, and then gets INSANELY complex when say a piano sonata overlays something like 6 voices for several measures.
This is a great point. I was going to miss things in the article no matter what, but I hope people read this comment. I think practically you would try to just follow one instrument or vocal line through a song and repeat and do it with another. Let's call this number 6 on my list above.
I spent most of my young life in recording studios. I have to be able to hear every instrument and am interested in the playing method of each instrument--slapped bass vs picked base-- and the sound chosen for each one. I love to try and pick apart any layering, compare arrangements, scrutinize the vocal--how much effects, compression, etc. Unless I really love the song, I spend my time tearing it all apart and questioning both engineering and production.
I'm somewhat similar. I'm largely ignorant when it comes to actually producing and mixing music, but I can discern decisions that have been made by the engineers usually. I'm also always on a soapbox about using flat EQ equipment so you get as close to the vision of the engineer as possible. But I've heard arguments against this approach.
More broadly, huge occupational hazard in knee-jerk dissecting music without thinking about it. Even now sometimes I'm out with people and my attention zeroes in on the muzak and people just go "what are you doing?". Can't help it.
My education and a lot of experience is in jazz too, so you have to always have ears open to accompany and respond. By and large it heightens my enjoyment but it definitely makes you picky haha.
I do also go into "hearing" mode though, as I described in the intro. Oddly - odd because it is so "information rich" - I like Baroque music best for background.
There’s a process of analyzing classical music in a scholar way that if applied to highly processed works could also reward the listener. It’s not here yet cause the practice is so new we still don’t have the theory.
The fact that these are intuitive decisions does not disqualify them of rhetoric content:
there’s a lot to unpack through a reverse-engineering approach.
At any rate I find that it DEEPLY enriched my listening experience
Great description of “Imagine.”
Oh and everything else was well laid out too!
Brought me back to my music appreciation classes which really helped me understand music and broaden my horizons.
Your playlists have been wonderful to dive into.
It’s been a great mix of familiar and new for me.
Thanks, man.
Glad you had music appreciation classes, sorely missed in education imo. This was my attempt to bring some of that to light again and seems I succeeded. One need not be a specialist to dive deeper and get more out of music and looks like this article helped some folks do that.
And thanks on the playlist front. Definitely I've been going for that mix. Grab ya with some beloved favorites and force you to check out all my obscure metal obsessions hahaha.
This was fascinating. Thanks!
Thanks, man! Glad you liked it.
Timbre is a useful area for me to start to try to figure out how to explain what I like or don't like about various music, because I feel like all the other elements I can figure out and get behind but there's just certain _sounds_ I like and certain _sounds_ I dislike, of course muddled by context.
By the way, one simple beginner's guide to listening to music that you didn't mention and that I offer with no music knowledge, is literally simply trying to isolate in your own mind what each individual instrument is doing. Like first listen to the drums for a minute, then switch to the guitar, then figure out what the base is doing, then the keyboards, and see where they match and where they are doing different things. Vocals come last because they always feel 'top' or 'surface' to me and the music is the support structure or 'bottom' of them, the vocals can sometimes obscure the music.
Yeah timbral stuff gets complex and the deep dive is getting into waveform analysis and how they generate synth sounds. Essentially to make realistic synths, you copy the acoustical properties of a given instrument. But you can also invent them or add elements from others and you get all kinds of crazy electronic timbres. Some of that stuff is definitely over my head so I just tell people to learn to identify what they like.
And yes I did miss this. Above with FALST's comment he pointed it out too and you guys are correct. Following and identifying individual instruments is an excellent active listening practice. I would say use my little "repeat it back mentally" melodic exercise but committing to one instrument for a listen through a piece.
It may be timbral stuff I was asking you about w/r/t sound production design for film. It's hard to know where to start to generate and process certain sounds and which ones should better work together, though I'm sure the majority of the work is the common sense stuff: canned sounds, foley, and field recording.
Very good, I add something perhaps evident for us musicians is listening to separate voices.
In learning how to listen to music one should develop this skill as early as possible, to identify and follow separate voices.
Not only identify the instrument but also say in a choral following each melody separately, untangling them from the harmonic structure.
It starts very basic say with a rock band identifying the drums from the voice but also eventually the guitar from the bass, and then gets INSANELY complex when say a piano sonata overlays something like 6 voices for several measures.
This is a great point. I was going to miss things in the article no matter what, but I hope people read this comment. I think practically you would try to just follow one instrument or vocal line through a song and repeat and do it with another. Let's call this number 6 on my list above.