> Also, out of repetition the mind has a need to create variance. John Lilly > performed an experiment with a tape loop of the word "cogitate" being played > to a room full of psychologists for about 15 minutes. They were instructed to > record > the various word changes every time the tape changed. None of them knew that > the tape was a static loop. About 90 percent of the group came back with a > list of at least ten changes. This was an official psychological experiment > using other psychologists as the lab rats.
this kind of finding seems consistent with various other sensory deprivation experiment results and parallels a lot of the visual illusion research, which suggests that toneshifting is most likely tied in with perceptual processing. vision tends to get a lot more attention in this kind of area, but i'm sure there's a substantive body of academic writing out there on this sort of thing if you really feel like digging for it. personally, i don't see how styles of music that generate these kind of auditory effects hold any more artistic merit than others, but that's just me. > Quick comment on the DE9 reference. I agree completely that Rich's use of > the effects on the tracks brings to light through expression a kind of > transitional state between two things (w/ reference to the use of delay). > This transitional state is quite possibly the result of years of listening > to mixes. Mixes falling off, exposing the difference between the two > records, and then realigning. But the over use of this effect CAN become > overly manifest, overly static, and a little boring. No diss to Rich. Trust > me, he's one of my utmost favorite DJs of all time. But I remember hearing > him a couple of times when the delays seemed to be used so often, and at > such an obvious transitional point in the break down and mixing in of the > next record that it gave me a not so faint reminder of a time where parties > were a night of snare roll cresendo after snare roll cresendo, this being > the primary exciting agent of the peaks in tracks. You know how boring this > got. Build up, build up, build up, then nothing....or a raised cut-off or > resonance. Of course those with skill, such as Rich, know that a build up is > nothing if there's nothing to build up to! Anyways, just my two cents! Have > fun with it. - i think this is characteristic of richie's recent djing, though. his mixmag cd from 1995 is very narrative and contains a lot more textural variety than the mills/user tracks he canes for the first 2/3rds of DE9 (although the latter mix has been growing on me recently.) glyn
