Home Propeller Head Plaza

Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics.

Re: A very simple question

Obviously, Jim, there are things which we perceive - where we have guessed wrong. Such as touching something in the dark, thinking we identified it but found out we were wrong. Or tasting something without looking first, thinking we had identified it correctly but found out we were wrong !!

If you have read through what I had written and still do not have an understanding, then I am at a loss how to explain it differently.

>>> "You don't have to know that there's a piece of coloured foil on your wall etc .... in order for these 'tweaks' to improve the sound." <<< - your quote Jim.

No, Jim, you don't have to know that there's a piece of foil on your wall. But you go on to suggest that we believe that these 'bits of stuff work directly on our brains'. There is something you are not fully understanding and I do not know how best to describe it if you have not already understood. You have to 'throw an intellectual switch' and look at the whole thing differently and from a different angle.

It is not that the Foils etc are 'improving' the sound. You cannot add information that is not already there. What our treatments do, in the environment, is reduce an ALREADY hostile situation. The modern environment is a MESS - a mess for human beings !! The mess is already there, causing problems for us because we are not able to resolve the environment as a friendly place ! We are therefore under constant tension - but are not realising it - that is until we do something which gives us the reassuring signals which we are searching for - which we have been programmed by millions of years of evolution to look for. The more safe we feel, the more we can relax, the less stress we are under, the better we can resolve the information which is already there. So, our treatments do not IMPROVE the sound, they REDUCE an already adverse effect. But, the result is the same. The sound is perceived as having improved. The information giving greater height, the greater width, the greater depth, the better separation of the instruments etc has been there, in the room, all the time !!!

We are the result of millions of years of survival programming - to read/sense our environment every second of every minute of every hour of every day of our lives - searching for signs of danger/predator/intruder and, if this cannot be resolved correctly, then we stay under tension (on the alert) prepared for fight, flight or freeze !! So, in the modern environment, we are under persistent tension.

But, at the same time as being programmed to read/sense our environment for signs of danger, we are also programmed to read/sense our environment for signs of reassurance, signs telling us "Its, OK, you can relax, the danger has gone away."

Over 20 years ago, Peter, by chance, did something which completely ruined his sound. The story is well known and would take too long to repeat it yet again here. It was only months later that, from another field of science, the field of biology, that he discovered that the cause of the ruined sound was because he had used what is known in plant life as a 'stress chemical' and then, it suddenly dawned on him that it had been us (human beings) who had reacted to that 'stress' chemical and gone under tension - causing the (musical) information being processed by our hearing mechanism to be adversely affected. Recognise the description of "harsh, aggressive, shouty" sound , anyone ? Recognise doing something (some tweak or other) and hearing the sound be so much better ? Ring any bells ?
Regards,
May Belt.




This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Sonic Craft  


Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups


You can not post to an archived thread.