When I'm listening to music, I label certain sounds within the track as different shapes and colours in my head, based on how they sound. It's kind of scaring me as I'm noticing it more and more and would like to know if anybody else does this or if I'm just a freak.
Re: Is it just me...
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 1:49 am
by ENNO
I always do this...well since i started producing anyway. I'll break the track (all music not just dubstep) up into different parts in my head and notice things individually, Im starting to do it more naturally. There must be a name for this?
Re: Is it just me...
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 1:56 am
by mks
You're a freak............ jk
I don't do this but I just read an interview with a famous engineer/producer that said he does this. Sorry, I can't remember his name at the moment.
Re: Is it just me...
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 2:08 am
by narcissus
it's just you
Re: Is it just me...
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 2:10 am
by dankface
wut color is wobble?
Re: Is it just me...
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 2:31 am
by kaiori breathe
I see colours, textures and shapes in music too. Happens to lots of people. Well not lots of people, but a few - I don't finish a song unless it's green or blue.
This is a sort of representation of what I see when I listen to that track. Kinda hard to draw it though because the colours and shapes don't really stay still they drop in and out with the instruments playing them but this is kinda what that one looks like.
Guitar part in breakdown is a golden orange line, bells are blue fuzzy lines, pads in the background are a green grainy texture, piano part is like little green shiney droplets, and the oriental sampled part is like a weird orange fuzzy ball. Sub bass is a thick green line at the bottom. I'd be interested to know what you get on this one actually I don't get to talk to many other people who get this.
Cytowic calls sound → color synesthesia "something like fireworks": voice, music, and assorted environmental sounds such as clattering dishes or dog barks trigger color and simple shapes that arise, move around, and then fade when the sound stimulus ends.[3] For some, the stimulus type is limited (e.g., music only, or even just a specific musical key); for others, a wide variety of sounds triggers synesthesia.
Sound often changes the perceived hue, brightness, scintillation, and directional movement. Some individuals see music on a "screen" in front of their face. Deni Simon, for whom music produces waving lines "like oscilloscope configurations—lines moving in color, often metallic with height, width and, most importantly, depth. My favorite music has lines that extend horizontally beyond the 'screen' area."[3]
Individuals rarely agree on what color a given sound is (composers Liszt and Rimsky-Korsakov famously disagreed on the colors of music keys); however, synesthetes show the same trends as non-synesthetes do. For example, both groups say that loud tones are brighter than soft tones and that lower tones are darker than higher tones."
Sexy release is sexy - will buy next week when I have money.
Re: Is it just me...
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 3:22 am
by meer
I don't think of shapes or colors or other gay stuff like that, but I see narrative stuff like spaceships getting attack or people jumping out of helicopters...
Re: Is it just me...
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 4:01 am
by narcissus
never see stuff, but i gotta say.. hearing good music makes me feel like i'm right there in the artist's head.. makes me feel gnarly stuff that can't be put into words or colors alone... enough to make one laugh or cry.. has to be expressed with more sounds
Re: Is it just me...
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 4:18 am
by d1vine
It happens with me all the time ... and has happened for as long as i can remember. But i never thought it was synesthesia. I always thought that being synesthetic means that i would be really hallucinating all those shapes and colors in real time like a holograph, but i just see the images in my head like i am just imagining everything in my thoughts only.
And i think everyone associates music with some thought or images or feelings.
Re: Is it just me...
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 4:37 am
by kaiori breathe
meer wrote:I don't think of shapes or colors or other gay stuff like that, but I see narrative stuff like spaceships getting attack or people jumping out of helicopters...
That's almost the exact same gradient I see periodically. A lot us times (usually when I'm splifted) everything turns to purplish teal and faded tangerine. Happens with some other gradients too.
No really deep synesthesia though as far as I know. A lot of times I'll get impressions of shapes, colors, or movement, but I wouldn't say it's necessarily always from audio. I think my brain just quasi-randomly flexes its senses, sometimes in sync with other input. Hard to say for sure though because it's such a subtle thing. I would love to have a much stronger case of it if I could develop it further.
Although it would suck going clothes shopping while listening to Burial, then when you got home wondering why all these neon clothes looked much darker in the shop...
Re: Is it just me...
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 6:02 am
by faultier
mks wrote:I don't do this but I just read an interview with a famous engineer/producer that said he does this. Sorry, I can't remember his name at the moment.
i'm pretty sure aphex twin said he does this, might not be the guy u think about tho
Re: Is it just me...
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 6:04 am
by kaiori breathe
dfaultuzr wrote:
mks wrote:I don't do this but I just read an interview with a famous engineer/producer that said he does this. Sorry, I can't remember his name at the moment.
i'm pretty sure aphex twin said he does this, might not be the guy u think about tho
Yea, aphex twin said he has it.
Re: Is it just me...
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 6:22 am
by boko91
i def associate sound with colour
but only really when im changing the parts in Logic to colours
when im making stuff i go that sound neeeds to be green!!!
Re: Is it just me...
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 7:32 am
by meer
kaiori breathe wrote:Manly imagery is manly.
Only a little. I've got my share of touchy feely tracks, too.
The middle ground is always nice.
Re: Is it just me...
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 8:44 am
by HALP
this post is a postmodern reflection on what deadly did