Re: Five string bass

[Maribeth Back <mbb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

As an novice audio engineer years ago, I was told that "it takes five 
years to learn to hear" -- by which my mentors meant, learn to distinguish 
what's happening in the soundscape of a multi-track mix. This could be 
anything from a pop on the tape (yes, tape -- 2" tape for 24 tracks, some 
of you remember that I bet!) to overcompressed bass or vocals, to a mike 
that's slipped off focus on the snare. Or which channel is getting just a 
wee bit distorted.

The way it was taught to me was to listen to the whole frequency spectrum 
almost like a piano keyboard, and to pay particular attention to different 
frequency segments where typical problems (pops, e.g.) happened.

This became very useful later in life when I started losing my hearing -- 
I can still distinguish way more than I "ought" to be able to according to 
the charts, because I learned to hear at a finer granularity.

--Maribeth


On Tue, 6 Feb 2007, [iso-8859-1] Ole Kühl wrote:

> Dear Roy
>
> A musician's "ear" is a metaphor for the whole faculty of hearing. Of course 
> musicians are not able to surpass biological constraints, but training does 
> develop hearing (if not, all ear training in conservatories is wasted). 
> Anyway I agree with you that more research in this area would be welcome.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Ole Kühl
> kyhl@xxxxxxx
> www.cogmus.com
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Roy Patterson" <rdp1@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: "Ole Kühl" <kyhl@xxxxxxx>
> Cc: <AUDITORY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 2:52 PM
> Subject: Re: [AUDITORY] Five string bass
>
>
> > Ole Kühl wrote:
> > > Possibly, musicians with their highly trained ears are simply capable of 
> > > hearing more than non-musicians?
> > It is unlikely that it is the ears that are trained. It is more likely to 
> > be the brain, or the use of words to describe perceptions. But to begin 
> > with we need to understand just what it is that trained musicians can do 
> > with low notes that the rest of us can't.
> >
> > Do you really think they can reliably make finer pitch discriminations?
> > I understand that they think they can, but is it true of the population of 
> > trained musicians? And if it is true, is it a big difference?
> > If so, someone should try and demonstrate just how much better they are.
> >
> > Regards Roy P
> >
> > >  Ole Kühl
> > > kyhl@xxxxxxx <mailto:kyhl@xxxxxxx>
> > > www.cogmus.com <http://www.cogmus.com>
> >
> >
> > --
> > * ** *** * ** *** * ** *** * ** *** * ** *** *
> > Roy D. Patterson
> > Centre for the Neural Basis of Hearing
> > Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience
> > University of Cambridge
> > Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EG
> >
> > http://www.pdn.cam.ac.uk/cnbh/
> > phone: +44 (1223) 333819 office
> > fax:   +44 (1223) 333840 department
> > email rdp1@xxxxxxxxx  or
> >   roy.patterson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx