Ever get this weird rhythm perception effect with songs

nyarlothothep · 15-04-2011 08:30PM #1

You hear a song one way with the drums and other instruments sounding out of sync, then you pause it, play it again and it all syncs up. Here are two examples.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbpqZT_56Ns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVDSdDoD4Sg

Sinfonia · 17-04-2011 04:34AM

Can't check the youtube links from here, but if this is what I think you're talking about, it happens to me with 'Wake Up' by Arcade Fire, before/after the drums kick in at the beginning, and also in the X Files theme song.
It's pretty much down to where my ear has decided the downbeat is..

Nailz · 17-04-2011 10:47AM

Didn't notice anything off rhythm about that radio head song to be honest, but I know where you're coming from. Doesn't happen too regularly with me, though, I play rock and metal based instruments so I probably won't be deceived by the songs as others may.

JerryHandbag · 17-04-2011 12:20PM

I find it impossible to play along and keep in time to Radioheads Pyramid Song, if thats what you mean. Just 3 chords but they have so many time signatures mixed together, there has been much debate about what the pattern acually is!

nyarlothothep · 17-04-2011 01:10PM

Nailz wrote: »

Didn't notice anything off rhythm about that radio head song to be honest, but I know where you're coming from. Doesn't happen too regularly with me, though, I play rock and metal based instruments so I probably won't be deceived by the songs as others may.

I do too but that beat type tends tricks me, have to pause it and listen to it again so that it all syncs up

Nailz · 17-04-2011 04:12PM

Well I should iterate that I play lots of math based music, Math Metal, Mathcore, Progressive Jazz, Avant Garde, so it's something I'm used to. That type of beat is easy to come over if you think of it like if one instrument starts comes in half way through the bar with a half riff, easy peasy. A similar beat is Gigantic by the Pixies.

Nolanger · 17-04-2011 08:32PM

They don't start off the riff on the first bar so when the beat comes in it sounds off and you have to readjust the listening. Oldest trick in the book. The minimalist composers from the '60s have built careers out of this stuff!

nyarlothothep · 17-04-2011 11:35PM

Nailz wrote: »

Well I should iterate that I play lots of math based music, Math Metal, Mathcore, Progressive Jazz, Avant Garde, so it's something I'm used to. That type of beat is easy to come over if you think of it like if one instrument starts comes in half way through the bar with a half riff, easy peasy. A similar beat is Gigantic by the Pixies.

I've found a lot of prog rhythms like what Meshuggah, Animals as Leaders or TMV would do easier to digest than the offbeat drum guitar sync up which I can sometimes and sometimes not sync up in my brain, its like the audio equivalent of the revolving lady illusion.

Nailz · 18-04-2011 09:52PM

Yeah, that's because songs like the ones being discussed have instruments coming in and starting mid-rhythm, that's the hardest thing to percept about it, if they had common start points on the bars then there'd be no problems. The thing about Meshuggah is that despite having polyrhythms all over the ****ing shop their base rhythm always seems to be in 4-4 and the structuring has normal start-off points. Animals As Leaders, I find, don't use many off rhythms at all, a lot of the riff work sounds massively like Meshuggah, but the rhythms aren't quite as all over the place.

Ever get this weird rhythm perception effect with songs

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