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Playback Listening
Topic: Attitudes and results

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Posted by Romy the Cat on 05-19-2008

My interests in sounds are lately gone to next direction.  I became less care about the expressivity of sounds but rather about semi-masochistic subsiding of sound, almost at the level of sonic humiliation. I am taking about the state of intentional self-humiliation were the core of musical intention is expressed by other means and the sonic presentation of musical idea is handled by a harmony between a thrifty sonic expressivity and the program’s load.

Too many sounds and too much embellishment of own musical geniuses just annoy me. Nowadays I have difficult time to hear Mahler, Stravinsky and Mozart – too expressive. I more into nowadays in B/W music – I found there more colors in there. Schubert, Bruckner some Bach – this time of direction…

I would like to get out my playback even a one single note but the right one - the note that actually has meaning more important than just a pitch produced by my hi-fi.  How to get it? How to explain to those fucking capacitors, power cords and drivers that this specific legato in B5 should be without any demonstrable event and then tone should disrepair but also without the “event of disrepairing”?

It is my frustration with audio generally, with myself in particular or is it just my frustration with today’s electricity? I do not know.

Romy the Cat

Posted by el`Ol on 05-20-2008
Hello Romy!

When I listened to the Goebel NXT speaker I was impressed how it can reveal structure or the absence of it at levels where one would really have to concentrate on when listening to a conventional speaker, and I find, even reality. Of course a quasi-chaotically vibrating wood/synthetic sandwich board that destroys most of the phase information is much further away from reality than other speakers, so I suppose the partial destruction of structure improves the perception of it. My assumption is that this speaker would exaggerate at higher listening levels, but this can´t be tested, simply because it is not capable of handling them.

Do you listen at "original level"?


Regards,
Oliver

Posted by NBC on 05-20-2008
Hi Romy,

Interesting direction. Sounds like minimalism (though not necessarily in the typical musical sense, e.g., John Cage).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimalism

Neil

PS: Please excuse my being way under the 165 word 'minimum'.

Posted by Romy the Cat on 05-20-2008

 el`Ol wrote:
Hello Romy!

When I listened to the Goebel NXT speaker I was impressed how it can reveal structure or the absence of it at levels where one would really have to concentrate on when listening to a conventional speaker, and I find, even reality. Of course a quasi-chaotically vibrating wood/synthetic sandwich board that destroys most of the phase information is much further away from reality than other speakers, so I suppose the partial destruction of structure improves the perception of it. My assumption is that this speaker would exaggerate at higher listening levels, but this can´t be tested, simply because it is not capable of handling them.

Do you listen at "original level"?


I do not know the Goebel NXT speaker but if I understand you correctly they are the pleasantly resonating panels. The idea is good but the problem that I purely conceptually see is that those mechanical resonances would be equally presented with all kind of music as soon sound hits the right volume and right frequency. It might be off the subject of this thread but I would remind that I view that the key is to make the sound desirably-colored but only at the point where coloration do not start introduce masking effect on differences, when discrimination does not heat. It is very difficult and usually audio people, in some instances myself included, have very difficult time to found the right balance point.

It is very difficult to color the B/W sound. It is like using the old RGB silver film and trying to balance out gray tone – very-very difficult at certain level of demands. Each of the RGB layers has own deviation of contract. So, balancing the gamma of .65 is easy but try to do the same at full black and the full white at the same time. With sound is more complicated as we have very-very little means to control contract. To control contrast right along with colors and across the whole dynamic range is incredibly difficult task. Partially I get a good result with the Injection Channel that assures a wide dynamic range of the “tweak”. In case of the resonating panels I think it would be more complicated as they usually affective in very barrow dynamic and tonal region.

Still, it should be heard. Hot necessarily how it sounds but what the person is trying to accomplish and how it relates to what he is getting.

The Cat

Posted by el`Ol on 05-21-2008
 NBC wrote:
Hi Romy,

Interesting direction. Sounds like minimalism (though not necessarily in the typical musical sense, e.g., John Cage).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimalism

Neil

PS: Please excuse my being way under the 165 word 'minimum'.



I particularly like his work for prepared piano. Really an interesting play with sounds. But maybe as difficult to get into for Romy as romantics for me. Phil Niblock would be on the other side: Play with absence of structure. But beware: NEVER listen to it in an apartment unless with headphone!!!.


165 word minimum?

Oops.

Posted by el`Ol on 05-21-2008
 Romy the Cat wrote:

Still, it should be heard. Hot necessarily how it sounds but what the person is trying to accomplish and how it relates to what he is getting.

The Cat


I didn´t see him for long, but he seems to be as silent as his speakers.

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