Does being a studio engineer affect your enjoyment of music?

trackmixstudio

I find myself analyzing music rather than listening to it and this really affects my enjoyment of music in a negative way.

Discuss

old gregg

Wow, this is uncanny. I was thinking about this exact topic during lunch time today and was going to post the same question this afternoon.
Looking forward to what the studio pros have to say.

PMI

It did but I got the love back....

I found myself no longer to be able to listen to a track/song without disecting it technically.

I try to not do it now but it creeps in every now and then but usually when something special I would like is going on, for example:

Pink - Just Like A Pill....

I fell in love with the snare ?!? weird and was so caught up in analyzing it that I kinda shut out everything else :P ha

Seziertisch

Yeah, definitely. There was nothing like hearing a piece of music as a child and not having a notion of how it was played/recorded. Just immersing yourself in its pure unadulterated awesomeness. It's a bit like being at a magic show and knowing how the tricks are done.

Heathen

I have a similar issue with ads/ jingles/ sweepers on radio as i have produced a lot in my time, so i examine every bit for faults, and sometimes for pure originality

but can be the cause of may "oh shut the f**k up" type arguments in the car though haha

PaulBrewer

I listen to a lot of my music of internet radio on my laptop, or even the iPhone speaker.

That way you certainly ain't worrying about no Kick sound - for me it doesn't insult me like a cheap stereo with exaggerated top and one note bottom does.

So that leaves only the 'music' to listen to, not the 'sound'.



I have found being around engineers all the time that heads need to be slapped often on what to remain focused on in a session - the 'music', not 'the snare' .....

I just bought a heap of CDs from my local record shop secondhand - a mish mash of old pop singles and Robbie William's 'Rudebox' album and Jane's Addiction first album. All the pop singles sound shyt , but work as pieces - Rudebox sounds great, but doesn't work. (Jane's Addiction just sounds dated!)
Does that explain why the Hits were Hits ?



Certainly since cutting down on Engineering work I'm more focused on music as a whole 'thing' - I'm much 'clearer' on what matters to me.

I recall we had a discussion before about who actually listens to music - a lot of guys don't. Maybe that's why ?

BumbleB

old gregg wrote: »

Wow, this is uncanny. I was thinking about this exact topic during lunch time today and was going to post the same question this afternoon.
Looking forward to what the studio pros have to say.

Me too ! .I do find when I'm listening to tracks especially pop music .I listening to one thing at a time ,like vocals or kick or whatever .I think the ability to appreciate music as a whole is well and truly gone .

Bluebirdstudios

When sometimes a classic song comes on the radio I usually find myself blown away by first the music then the sound - So I feel i get a reminder every now and then why I'm in this business and its one hell of a high.

Example : recently I heard some DJ play " sometimes it snows in april " by Prince - it was a treat ,a fantastic example of emotional performance which is second to none !! I didn't listen to any instrumentation but heard a story instead.

Aridstarling

It can happen to me at times but really I'm a music fan first and foremost. Sometimes though, my favourite albums are the ones where I can't imagine how they were made, when the sounds intrigue me. Other times its understanding the sounds on the record fully that increase my love of a song or album. But if the songs don't work in the first place then all the skilled engineering in the world won't save it for me. Funnily enough, it doesn't apply the opposite way, I can ignore bad production work if the songs are good.

DamagedTrax

INITIALLY YES BUT THE LAST YEAR IM LEARNING TO IGNORE IT AND JUST RECOGNISE A GOOD TUNE AGAIN.. JUST FOR WHAT IT IS.



sorry bout caps, cant be arsed re-writing

bedbugs

nope.

madtheory

No.

henessjon

nope for me its always the song i listen to a lot of amateur stuff lo-fi as much as the pro stuff

you be amazed at how talented people can be

i definitely dont get get hung up on the production,

it dosent mean i dont want to improve my production skills -

time cost and ability are my downfall...

dav nagle

DamagedTrax wrote: »

INITIALLY YES BUT THE LAST YEAR IM LEARNING TO IGNORE IT AND JUST RECOGNISE A GOOD TUNE AGAIN.. JUST FOR WHAT IT IS.



sorry bout caps, cant be arsed re-writing

+1 A good tune is a good tune regardless

studiorat

I usually hear the song first and the mix second. Except if I happen to be listening to something I mixed myself. Then I'm like a dog with a bone, just can't leave it.. That's a butcher type bone, not the other one.;)

That said, I really couldn't think of the last CD I bought. I buy alot more books than I do CD's. And I wouldn't download an mp3 for anything, horrible things...

the_barfly1

This is actually a topic ive discussed with friends quite a few times! Im a musician who dabbles in audio production, and i really miss the way i used to hear music when i was younger!
All i hear when i listen to music these days is the individual instruments/production values, rather than the sum of their parts! I find myself dissecting songs!
Its a little frustrating but at least i still get my kicks from playing and listening to live music.

the_barfly1

And I wouldn't download an mp3 for anything, horrible things...

+1. MP3=Pain

studiorat

the_barfly1 wrote: »

+1. MP3=Pain

probably deserves a thread in it's own right, but George Massenburg did a very interesting talk recently in which he played a CD and MP3 together and flipped the phase leaving only the difference between the two. The outputted product was possibly the most horrible noise I've ever heard. I'll try and find the link and do a thread later in the weekend.

madtheory

Off topic:
320k mp3 is pretty hard to hear though, on the majority of sound systems, because most speakers are ported plastic cabinet rubbish. People prefer earphones because they're discrete, and unfortunately it's very expensive to build good sounding earphones. Headphones are better. AAC is even harder to detect. But it really does rob the music of a layer of emotion, and that is abundantly clear on good speakers even without any acoustic treatment on the room.

There's a site somewhere with pics of nulls of various bitrates against the PCM, and you can actually see the amount of musical information that is missing increase with lower bitrates. It's an easy test to do at home.

On topic:
I think this issue is highly subjective, which is why I just said "no" earlier.

I find that, if it's a really good piece of music, it "speaks" to me on an emotional level, and I enjoy it. If it's not so good, then I start breaking it into its components to see if I could "fix" it. I do the same with film. That is also enjoyable. I love listening in both ways. So I think of myself as lucky, I can derive enjoyment from music I don't "like", most of the time.

If it's music I've been listening to for years (say, the Beatles) then it's really cool to learn more about how it was done. It gives me a fresh perspective, and I can enjoy it more than before.

But I have to say that good stuff (such as Beatles) I enjoy now in the same way I did when I was less educated. Listening to the new remasters was like discovering them for the first time, all over again. It's a nice feeling.