Psychoacoustic Techniques In Music To Affect Consciousness
An interesting concept I have been exploring and implementing for some time in my music is the use of psychoacoustic techniques to affect the listener on a deeper level. There are a number of resources available online on the subject, just google music and consciousness. I've noticed majority of my favourite artists implement these to different degrees. The difference between music that feels flat and music that surrounds you and interacts with you, so to speak.
The following are some of the techniques:
Polyphony
Polyphony is the use of multiple melodies playing simultaneously. A human's limited sensory input allows one to focus upon one or two melodies at a time at most. However, any more than that will cause an overload in the rational brain's ability to follow melodies, creating a wandering effect upon the user's listening. With careful mixing, this creates the perception of space or depth within the music.
Very frequently used in multi-layered music, such as Devin's, but also with some progressive (eg Opeth) and industrial (eg Skinny Puppy) bands. Careful mixing can cause a song to become hard to digest upon first listen, however multiple listens reveal more dimensions of the music. This makes for an awesome track where the listener hears something new every time they listen.
Polyrhythms and Time Signature Changes
Similarly to polyphony, polyrhythms involve multiple rhythms being played at the same time. Creating multiple rhythms will throw a person's sense of rhythm off balance, creating an interesting sense of flow that switches between multiple rhythms. The human brain simply can't process all the rhythms at once, so in such cases it is forced to hop between the rhythms.
In addition, time signature changes also disrupt the typical 4/4 static flow of the music, and gives the music a greater sense of identity and life, as the rhythms represent freedom from the typical static boundaries of the music, and allows emphasis to be placed on certain phrases. However, it is wise to utilize this with good taste and balance by mixing in time signature changes around typical 4/4 sections, to provide the song with some stability, while at the same time giving it more life and movement than the typical mechanical 4/4 the whole way through.
Examples can be heard in bands such as Meshuggah and Tool, who utilize this to great extents.
Spatial Effects and Panning
Effects such as reverb and delay, when mixed accordingly, will add to the sense of space and atmosphere of the music, essentially signaling the brain to associate such sounds with vast openness and three-dimensional space. We hear this a lot in Ocean Machine, the vastness of it indeed makes it sound like an ocean. Devin's well known for using this extensively in his wall-of-sound approach.
In addition, careful tuning of each layer's panning allows you to paint a visual mental picture of the locations of each layer, creating the effect of the sounds coming from multiple sources surrounding the listener.
Timbre
The timbre or "texture" of the sounds of the music impacts on the listener's perception of the feel of the music. The guitar tone in Ocean Machine perfectly presents very smooth but fuzzy sound, indeed creating the feeling of flowing water, or being immersed in wavy waters.
Noisier tones will sound confronting to the listener, springing up their attention, delivering an inner "electric shock". However, a smooth clean guitar tone will in fact reflect the sense of clarity and cleanliness.
Repetition
The repetition of certain sounds induces a minor trance-like state on the listener, providing them a hypnotic connection to the music. In the right listening environment, the listener will begin to be led on by the repetition of certain sounds or passages. Allowing other melodies to occur over the top of the repetition will emphasize certain changes of the moods or feelings expressed from the melody.
Tension and Release
An interesting songwriting technique is tension and release. By building up the tension in one form or another to a climax of suspense within the music, providing an equally compelling release will give the listener a sense of action and life within the music. This is can be achieved through a number of methods, such as the use of carefully placed dynamics, progressively increasing repetition, a sense of tension from playing a note behind the root note of the scale to give the feeling of incompleteness before the satisfying release when the note is finally reached, etc.
Be creative when using this, but let it feel natural, as long as you're aware of the tension areas and release areas, as well as their climaxes and buildups.
These techniques provide a good arsenal for adding extra depth to music and cause interesting reactions from the listener subjectively.
Google is a very good resource for looking further into psychoacoustics in music.
If you have anything to add to this, feel free to do so.
-Max
An interesting concept I have been exploring and implementing for some time in my music is the use of psychoacoustic techniques to affect the listener on a deeper level. There are a number of resources available online on the subject, just google music and consciousness. I've noticed majority of my favourite artists implement these to different degrees. The difference between music that feels flat and music that surrounds you and interacts with you, so to speak.
The following are some of the techniques:
Polyphony
Polyphony is the use of multiple melodies playing simultaneously. A human's limited sensory input allows one to focus upon one or two melodies at a time at most. However, any more than that will cause an overload in the rational brain's ability to follow melodies, creating a wandering effect upon the user's listening. With careful mixing, this creates the perception of space or depth within the music.
Very frequently used in multi-layered music, such as Devin's, but also with some progressive (eg Opeth) and industrial (eg Skinny Puppy) bands. Careful mixing can cause a song to become hard to digest upon first listen, however multiple listens reveal more dimensions of the music. This makes for an awesome track where the listener hears something new every time they listen.
Polyrhythms and Time Signature Changes
Similarly to polyphony, polyrhythms involve multiple rhythms being played at the same time. Creating multiple rhythms will throw a person's sense of rhythm off balance, creating an interesting sense of flow that switches between multiple rhythms. The human brain simply can't process all the rhythms at once, so in such cases it is forced to hop between the rhythms.
In addition, time signature changes also disrupt the typical 4/4 static flow of the music, and gives the music a greater sense of identity and life, as the rhythms represent freedom from the typical static boundaries of the music, and allows emphasis to be placed on certain phrases. However, it is wise to utilize this with good taste and balance by mixing in time signature changes around typical 4/4 sections, to provide the song with some stability, while at the same time giving it more life and movement than the typical mechanical 4/4 the whole way through.
Examples can be heard in bands such as Meshuggah and Tool, who utilize this to great extents.
Spatial Effects and Panning
Effects such as reverb and delay, when mixed accordingly, will add to the sense of space and atmosphere of the music, essentially signaling the brain to associate such sounds with vast openness and three-dimensional space. We hear this a lot in Ocean Machine, the vastness of it indeed makes it sound like an ocean. Devin's well known for using this extensively in his wall-of-sound approach.
In addition, careful tuning of each layer's panning allows you to paint a visual mental picture of the locations of each layer, creating the effect of the sounds coming from multiple sources surrounding the listener.
Timbre
The timbre or "texture" of the sounds of the music impacts on the listener's perception of the feel of the music. The guitar tone in Ocean Machine perfectly presents very smooth but fuzzy sound, indeed creating the feeling of flowing water, or being immersed in wavy waters.
Noisier tones will sound confronting to the listener, springing up their attention, delivering an inner "electric shock". However, a smooth clean guitar tone will in fact reflect the sense of clarity and cleanliness.
Repetition
The repetition of certain sounds induces a minor trance-like state on the listener, providing them a hypnotic connection to the music. In the right listening environment, the listener will begin to be led on by the repetition of certain sounds or passages. Allowing other melodies to occur over the top of the repetition will emphasize certain changes of the moods or feelings expressed from the melody.
Tension and Release
An interesting songwriting technique is tension and release. By building up the tension in one form or another to a climax of suspense within the music, providing an equally compelling release will give the listener a sense of action and life within the music. This is can be achieved through a number of methods, such as the use of carefully placed dynamics, progressively increasing repetition, a sense of tension from playing a note behind the root note of the scale to give the feeling of incompleteness before the satisfying release when the note is finally reached, etc.
Be creative when using this, but let it feel natural, as long as you're aware of the tension areas and release areas, as well as their climaxes and buildups.
These techniques provide a good arsenal for adding extra depth to music and cause interesting reactions from the listener subjectively.
Google is a very good resource for looking further into psychoacoustics in music.
If you have anything to add to this, feel free to do so.
-Max
