Hearing isn't necessarily believing

[Bob Womack]

I've kept my eye on various listening psychoacoustic effects, such as differential hearing and steered hearing. HERE is an example of "multi-modal" sensory input that is fascinating: the McGurk effect. HERE is an explanation. There are other interesting examples: A famous study exposed an audience to two film clips with the exact same video and two different qualities of the same audio. The audience was asked to comment on the video quality of the two clips. Overwhelmingly, the audiences perceived that the video quality of the clip with beter audio was better. Hearing takes priority over seeing in this example.

There is also a recent study that demonstrates that hearing is not always stereo, it is often binaural, meaning the the mind uses one ear to listen to dialog and the other to listen to other material, and then reprocesses the imaging in the brain to localize the info back to its rightful place in the stereo field. Scary, huh?

So, next time you get all objective about your perceptions try to remember how much goes into processing the sensory data behind hearing.

Bob

[riorider]

I've been listening to all my old 33 1/3rds in reverse... my brain has been re-processing them and it's getting scary...




(I'm kidding... you'll remember the days!)

Phil

[Herb Hunter]

It is fascinating that knowing about the McGurk effect does not destroy the illusion. Try as I might, I could not prevent the visual cues from causing me to mishear.

[Ty Ford]

I didn't hear it as Da, I heard it as Ba because of the lack of the sound that happens in D when the tongue touches the hard palate behind the upper teeth. I knew it wasn't quite right, but it definitely wasn't Da.

If you want to get into voice sounds, check out the Lessac Method.
http://www.lessacinstitute.com/

When I mix, I usually spend some time listening with my eyes closed so I can hear better.

Regards,

Ty Ford

[Spieler]

I can't determine if you're messing with my mind, or it's more universal.

Perhaps my mind is messing with the Universe on a daily basis?

(This thread is secretly about guitars "opening up," isn't it.)

~ S.

[Ty Ford]

maybe for you.... Consider that the reality you know on a daily basis is like a big, totally surround, 3D drive-in movie screen. Were you able to poke a hole in it, the universe would be on the other side.

Picture a soup can on the 50 yard line at the Super Bowl. Your daily reality exists inside the soup can. The rest of the stadium, parking lot and freeway are the universe. Does that help?

Regards,

Ty Ford

PS There are guitars in all of those places, too.

[Spieler]

Originally Posted by Ty Ford

Picture a soup can on the 50 yard line at the Super Bowl. Your daily reality exists inside the soup can. The rest of the stadium, parking lot and freeway are the universe. Does that help?

It helped right up to the moment I heard the placekicker running my way.

Is that "God"?

~~

All in good fun! And yes, I appreciate the analogy.

I'm fascinated by all studies of perception, influence, etc.-- the ways we (I!) can be so sure of things that are either other than what I perceive and/or are the result of others' manipulations of atmosphere, stimuli, etc. (as per Dan Ariely's Predictable Irrationality).

~ S.

[Ty Ford]

no either Charlie Brown or The Devil.

Ty

[rick-slo]

I have posted this audio myths link before but for anyone who missed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYTlN...layer_embedded

[Bob Womack]

Here's another interesting little tidbit: I deal with combined audio/video editing quite a bit. The typical process for production editing is that a video editing team does the initial cut of both audio and video and that it handed off to the audio editing/mixing team to complete. I'll get edits all the time where video is running with an announcer talking over the sound from the video. In those cases, the editor quite often edits the shot/audio in the middle of a word because it is an opportune time visually. If there is announcer foreground audio happing at the instant of the edit, you can quite often get by with the truncated word. If the edit occurs with the background audio hanging out alone, it is usually jarring to the listener. In fact, if the announcer is talking at the instant of the edit, the audience usually thinks the word has been completed. The edit must be covered by foreground dialog, however, or the audience will probably be jarred by the cut and I will have to cast about to find a way to complete the word.

This falls in with Poppy's second example in Rick-Slo's link. It is also useful for those who assemble and mix music pieces via multi-track. A sound can often stop and resume or sounds can be switched as long as there is something in the foreground to distract the listener. I can't tell you how many times I've struggled and struggled with an edit in a musical soundtrack and found the point of the edit to be horribly obvious to me and at least noticeable to others. Quite often, if I place a quiet cymbal swell, a crash cymbal, or a continuous chord or note during the edit it completely distracts the listener and he can't tell there has been an edit from one point in the piece to another.

Bob

[rdm321]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

if I place a quiet cymbal swell, a crash cymbal, or a continuous chord or note during the edit it completely distracts the listener and he can't tell there has been an edit from one point in the piece to another.Bob

Valuable advice. Thanks, Bob

[flagstaffcharli]

cool thread!!!

[KevWind]

I also try to listen with eyes closed. In fact I have started to do this first. Listen eyes closed to the piece all the way through first, to hear if any thing pops out.
Of course everything I am doing is for me personally on my time frame.