Tape Project Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: steveidosound on February 01, 2010, 08:09:28 AM
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I know all of us are interested in why we like the sound of certain types of music or certain playback technologies.
I just got done reading a book that has been out for a while called "This Is Your Brain On Music" by Daniel Levitin.
He goes into all sorts of interesting things as to what is going on in the brain as we enjoy music. It touches on things related to psycho-acoustics for sure.
http://www.yourbrainonmusic.com/
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Hey Steve,
I've got that book on shelf. I've only read bits and pieces of it so far but I really love that stuff.
Here's a link to some really good papers on "Localization of sound in rooms". Most get pretty technical since they are the results of research done at universities but I really learned a lot from the W.M. Hartmann/IRCAM paper.
http://www.pa.msu.edu/acoustics/loc.htm
BTW IRCAM is a music/research facility at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. It was designed to be the premier modern/electronic music learning facility in the late 1970's. Among the interesting details of the facility is a listening space whose acoustics can be changed as a performance is taking place.
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.ircam.fr/www_ircam.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dircam%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26hs%3DKj0&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhg6dJMU2YtjSLsM2sDSGWU2k9yUVQ
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IRCAM is right next to the Stravinsky Fountain in Paris, which was one of my favorite places to go when I lived in Paris. Another was the Picasso Museum, no surprise when you have seen the Stravinsky Fountain.
Last Friday night I attended the SF Symphony performance, which included the complete Pulcinella - the original ballet was a collaboration between Stravinsky and Picasso. The relevance to the Tape Project is once again that a Stravinsky work ought to be high on the possible candidates for release in Series 3. If Decca tapes are still available, Ansermet was one of the great Stravinsky conductors.
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I know all of us are interested in why we like the sound of certain types of music or certain playback technologies.
I just got done reading a book that has been out for a while called "This Is Your Brain On Music" by Daniel Levitin.
He goes into all sorts of interesting things as to what is going on in the brain as we enjoy music. It touches on things related to psycho-acoustics for sure.
http://www.yourbrainonmusic.com/
I second your recommendation as his book overturns many widely held beliefs about how the brain works (such as the division in function between the left and right brain) and asks some fundamental questions such as why music is such an intergral part of human society whether it be some humans in a remote part of the world still in the stone age or modern day society.
Levitin's story is quite interesting, starting out as a musician, then producer and then finally a neuroscientist. One of my clients interviewed him after the book hit the shelves and said he is a really great guy. His book was on the NY Times Best Sellers List for quite a while. While I don't have it, I understand Daniel Levitin has also released a followup to the first book.