Listening Skills

[Creativemind]

Hi All!

I'm gonna ask a question many people probably could learn from here and something that's rarely talked about in music production (I feel).

Anyway, it's when listening to a track, today for me it's been deep house, say you're listening to a certain element, bass or synth, and you wanted to recreate that sound, how would you deconstruct it's elements audibly? what would you listen for?

Sometimes I'm completely flummoxed. I'm not sure where to even start. Say it was a bass, how do you learn what to listen for to know where to even start to recreate that sound?

It'll be interesting to hear what people say here. Is it something that just comes over time? hmmm.

Thanks!

[dvdrtldg]

Not an expert on this, but I suspect it would be next to impossible to reverse engineer a sound - especially a bass sound - from hearing it in a busy EDM mix...?

[Benedict]

There are certain cues that you learn to know, things like Tone, Timbre, Texture, Shape (over time) and of course the musical role.

[-008']

It's called "Critical Listening" and it was IMO one of the most important classes I ever took!

Once you practice enough and hear/study enough sounds it gets easier.

It's absolutely not impossible and a bass type in any style would be relatively easy.

In my class they made us listen to some 80's Peter Gabriel and identify and describe the reverb(s)!

For ex:
How many reverb do you hear in this mix? What types? (Room, plate, gated, etc) How are they panned? Etc...

[Benedict]

Now reverb I am not strong on at all.

[selig]

Beyond critical listening, which I encourage everyone to pursue (it's a life long pursuit to be sure), There's also experience. Speaking specifically of bass sounds, if you sit around and make a bunch of bass sounds from scratch (even if at first they suck), you'll soon get a feel for what elements work well (and which don't). You can start to recognize which synth/techniques create which sounds, and build from there.
You can also begin to sort the possible sounds into different broad categories, such as bright vs dark bass sounds, sharp attack vs smooth attack, sustaining vs decaying, etc. Makes it easy when first listening to a track to begin to categorize the obvious qualities of the sound, then you can build a 'test model' that's in the General neighborhood and then have a foundation to start building on for the subtle aspects of the sound.


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[aeox]

Beyond critical listening, which I encourage everyone to pursue (it's a life long pursuit to be sure), There's also experience. Speaking specifically of bass sounds, if you sit around and make a bunch of bass sounds from scratch (even if at first they suck), you'll soon get a feel for what elements work well (and which don't). You can start to recognize which synth/techniques create which sounds, and build from there.
You can also begin to sort the possible sounds into different broad categories, such as bright vs dark bass sounds, sharp attack vs smooth attack, sustaining vs decaying, etc. Makes it easy when first listening to a track to begin to categorize the obvious qualities of the sound, then you can build a 'test model' that's in the General neighborhood and then have a foundation to start building on for the subtle aspects of the sound.


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i was going to post my opinion but this really sums it up. well said!

[Creativemind]

It's called "Critical Listening" and it was IMO one of the most important classes I ever took!

Once you practice enough and hear/study enough sounds it gets easier.

It's absolutely not impossible and a bass type in any style would be relatively easy.

In my class they made us listen to some 80's Peter Gabriel and identify and describe the reverb(s)!

For ex:
How many reverb do you hear in this mix? What types? (Room, plate, gated, etc) How are they panned? Etc...

Yeah did a little bit of that at college, again it was with reverb. I was more thinking (not that reverb isn't great as well) more to do with sound though. I will look into the critical listening more.

[Oquasec]

I know a lot about the basics buts thats cuz this hobby been a thing since 2010.
Can identify many instruments and synths by default in most pieces of music and can read sheet, but thats only because I bothered brushing up on those.

Then theres the usual basic beatmaking. Not to mention how reason is one of the few daws out there laid out in a way that you can transfer you production knowledge to anything else related to music production in general.

[Creativemind]

Just a book and it says the room dimension can affect the acoustic characteristics of a musical instrument. We all know that, I hope. Anyway, it goes on to say, in regard to Spectral Balance, a carpeted floor will absorb a lot of the high frequency content and thus sound more dull, whereas a wooden floor will reflect high frequencies and thus sound more bright.

Is there any way of visually seeing how an instrument sound / timbre is affected? I suppose you'd need the same instrument (in my case I was thinking of an acoustic guitar) recorded without it being affected at all to be able to see / hear the difference. That would mean the same instrument in an anechoic chamber wouldn't it? that would be impossible unless such a thing was available online somewhere, then it wouldn't be YOUR acoustic guitar. I dunno. I would just like to see (with a spectrum analyser, how the sound is being affected from - it being unaffected - to it being affected by whatever it was affected by) and then listen at the same time and also look at the spectrum analyser too. See / hear.

[Benedict]

Is there any way of visually seeing how an instrument sound / timbre is affected?

I would say the simple answer is no. NASA probably have something that would clearly show the difference but that level of accuracy has to be scary expensive.

Do the critical listening whilst practicing as Selig says and in time your brain will build up a huge spreadsheet of things and then more things will fall into place.

[Creativemind]

Thanks Benedict. I wish I'd have made this thread 2 years ago haha!

[selig]

Thanks Benedict. I wish I'd have made this thread 2 years ago haha!

Come back in two years, and check in with your progress just for fun!



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[Creativemind]

Thanks Benedict. I wish I'd have made this thread 2 years ago haha!

Come back in two years, and check in with your progress just for fun!



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Haha! will do.

[strangers]

This is something I've been working on, too. My main focus has been to closely listen in on what producers do within their mixes. I'm constantly amazed how effective and power such simple techniques can be when you sit back and take in the big picture. Some guys have really clever panning and spectrum tricks that I'm sure many, including myself, have overlooked or never noticed.

[Noplan]

I have pictures in my head for each timbre/sound.

[Joerg]

Just a book and it says the room dimension can affect the acoustic characteristics of a musical instrument. We all know that, I hope. Anyway, it goes on to say, in regard to Spectral Balance, a carpeted floor will absorb a lot of the high frequency content and thus sound more dull, whereas a wooden floor will reflect high frequencies and thus sound more bright.

Is there any way of visually seeing how an instrument sound / timbre is affected? I suppose you'd need the same instrument (in my case I was thinking of an acoustic guitar) recorded without it being affected at all to be able to see / hear the difference. That would mean the same instrument in an anechoic chamber wouldn't it? that would be impossible unless such a thing was available online somewhere, then it wouldn't be YOUR acoustic guitar. I dunno. I would just like to see (with a spectrum analyser, how the sound is being affected from - it being unaffected - to it being affected by whatever it was affected by) and then listen at the same time and also look at the spectrum analyser too. See / hear.

Isn't that, what Impulse Responses can do for a certain extend? I don't know how accurate a specific room can be represtented but I assume for the general tonal changes it should be adaequate. No glue if there are some demonstration IR by any courses or schools

[Creativemind]

This is something I've been working on, too. My main focus has been to closely listen in on what producers do within their mixes. I'm constantly amazed how effective and power such simple techniques can be when you sit back and take in the big picture. Some guys have really clever panning and spectrum tricks that I'm sure many, including myself, have overlooked or never noticed.

Maybe right, just analyse tracks you admire.

So what do you listen for? I was talking more sounds here, or synthesis. It's relatively easy to hear panning and levels (to a degree) but reverb and stereo imaging a lot more harder. The timbre that makes a sound though is arguably the hardest.

I want to be able to hear a bass and say, "that sounds like a sawtooth, sounds like a LP filter and maybe EQ'd at blah blah!". "Blah Blah" - not literally lol! you get what I'm saying though.

I've been listening and trying to produce now for over 4 and a half years and wish I'd have put more procedures in place to constructively listen more a lot sooner.