[Slipstreamer]

Hello again all, been a while since I last posted. I've been wondering whether any other IDMers are syneasthedes, and how it affects your appreciation/production of electronic music. I have mild sound-visual synaesthesia, in that particular sounds evoke for me particular colours and, more rarely, shapes. For example, earlier this evening a friend of mine was playing a psy-trance set at the local "hip" club. I hate trance, but I went to support him. On listening to the trance music, though, I was struck by how strongly it brought to my mind the image of a downward spiral, soaring outwards but eventually condensing to a single point. I've had a similar response to certain forms of dubstep, the image of a small metallic box within which things- colours- are crawling. More usually, certain music will just bring colours to mind. For example, most of Cio D'Ors "Die Faser" album came to me in shades of white and grey, with just the occasional hint of pale, lemony yellow. A lot of Skream is murky green. And so on.

Sorry if this sounds/weird/trippy/wanky. I'm genuinely interested in hearing if anyone else ever has similar experiences of music.

[henryspencer]

Originally Posted by Slipstreamer

Hello again all, been a while since I last posted. I've been wondering whether any other IDMers are syneasthedes, and how it affects your appreciation/production of electronic music. I have mild sound-visual synaesthesia, in that particular sounds evoke for me particular colours and, more rarely, shapes. For example, earlier this evening a friend of mine was playing a psy-trance set at the local "hip" club. I hate trance, but I went to support him. On listening to the trance music, though, I was struck by how strongly it brought to my mind the image of a downward spiral, soaring outwards but eventually condensing to a single point. I've had a similar response to certain forms of dubstep, the image of a small metallic box within which things- colours- are crawling. More usually, certain music will just bring colours to mind. For example, most of Cio D'Ors "Die Faser" album came to me in shades of white and grey, with just the occasional hint of pale, lemony yellow. A lot of Skream is murky green. And so on.

Sorry if this sounds/weird/trippy/wanky. I'm genuinely interested in hearing if anyone else ever has similar experiences of music.

I have had this to quite a degree especially with connecting sounds to what looks like shades of light hitting walls, like an ambience of sorts. Its to the point where I can listen to a piece, have these images in my mind and then go listen to the piece years later and the same images come back, which really makes me question if there is some sort of concrete reality to music and emotions "out there" somewhere. However I also sense that these interpretations we get are also specific to our own interests and experiences. Sometimes the images will reflect places Ive been as a child and stuff.

I would say that this positively impacts my creativity but can be quite negative on my production (in the past) since I may come up with something, spend little time on making it sound tight and just be happy with the pictures I get from it without taking into account that the production might be shitty for anyone hearing it. I have since had to really pay attention to sound design for this reason. I dont know if aphex twin was being honest when he talked about having this early on (the selected ambient works 1 and 2 days) but it would make sense that this could have accounted for the notably poor quality of his early ambient releases which are obviously visual. Perhaps for him to take that step in the direction of better sound design which basically went miles from "I care" to "drukq" (literally miles, compare for yourself! its insane), it may have been necessary for him to subdue the association of images at least temporarly, at least during the mixing stage.


** I also feel that there is a large difference between the synesthesia we are talking about with shades of colours and moving images when compared with the process used during mixing where engineers will try to picture the physical space of where the instruments are being played in order to place the sounds in a balanced way (drums in the back, guitar off to the left etc)

[Slump]

The most famous synesthetic composer is scriabin, and his music is pretty damn weird (in a good way) and before its time. Check out his wiki page.

youtube.com/watch?v=xudZ3J4EeoQ
(Scriabin composed this, but he is not playing the piece)

[johnrae]

I have the same as you. I like it. It's pretty cool, though I get distracted when I'm producing sometimes, and end up staring into space while I listen to whatever 8 bar loop I'm trying to expand on lol.

[bodfhgjkl2]

im not sure if im synesthetic but i experience most of what people described, im surprised no one mentioned autechre yet these seem to be great examples of synesthetic videos

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[Mindsweeper]

I'm super synesthetic for electronic music. I get mild synesthesia with other stuff too, but it seems to be stronger for music I really like.

I don't get colors as strongly as I used to, but I do get lots of textures. For instance, the generic supersaw lead almost always strikes me as a light, sharp, and rubbery mist (which makes no fucking sense but it's the closest I can come to describing it properly).

[henryspencer]

Originally Posted by bodfhgjkl2

im not sure if im synesthetic but i experience most of what people described, im surprised no one mentioned autechre yet these seem to be great examples of synesthetic videos
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Yea this stuff is indeed awesome and really does seem like the ultimate visual representation to their music.

I wonder how much input the guys themselves actually have in the making of these videos.

[mr.Qaobab]

Originally Posted by Mindsweeper

I'm super synesthetic for electronic music. I get mild synesthesia with other stuff too, but it seems to be stronger for music I really like.

I don't get colors as strongly as I used to, but I do get lots of textures. For instance, the generic supersaw lead almost always strikes me as a light, sharp, and rubbery mist (which makes no fucking sense but it's the closest I can come to describing it properly).

Yes, for me too, shape, texture and direction is usually much more expressed than colour. Colours are more explicit in single sounds, like a piano note etc.
I`m not sure if its actually useful...maybe it is easier to work with timbre while producing as you just kind of tweak the sounds until you not only hear but also see that they fit..hmm, maybe. It`s hard to picture how it would be without that video in my head. I guess it comes with my ADHD/OCD package as it is more likely for a synaesthete to have all those neurological abnormalities. So maybe after all it`s a good luck NOT to have synaesthesia.

[carlgrace]

I have this "condition" as well. It's not really a condition because there isn't any negative impact on my life.

What people think is weird is that I compose kind of like painting. A lot of saw-based synth pads sound red to me, bass is usually a deep blue or brown or sometimes black. Brighter sounds tend more to the red scale, but not always. And strangely enough I almost never "hear" orange sounds. Please don't ask me why, because I haven't been able to figure it out.

But it does help me arranging my music. Sometimes I listen to a mix and I figure that I need some more blue or something, and usually it improves things.

Incidentally, the song in my signature is almost entirely red and black. That is why I picked the color scheme in my album cover... a lot of the songs are dominated by red and black, where other albums have had a lot more blue, brown and green.

It is very interesting that everyone has a different association. I hadn't thought about that. My association is not so much about scale pitch, but relative pitch. What I mean is the the note C for example isn't always the same color... if you change the octave you change the color. For me, higher notes tend to be more red than blue which is weird because the color spectrum goes the opposite way. I'm playing notes on my keyboard as I'm writing this post...

My guess is people that can do this have a mild wiring fault in their brains and we deal with it by kind of mixing auditory and visual processing. To put it another way, I think in most people there is a high wall between the auditory and the visual processing but in people with synethesia it is a much lower wall, so the processing areas talk to each other.

[Syd]

It's almost kinda reliving to see, it's not uncommon.
This really makes composing soothing, almost therapeutic.

[Trickeri]

For me I picture parts of songs as living organisms or creatures coming and going, breathing, changing form and changing color. Check out this video I found awhile ago, this guy explains that a lot of the greatest musicians have synaesthesia to a degree because it leads to a richer understanding.

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Side note, psychadelics forcibly cause synaesthesia for sure but can also put you in the loony bin haha.

[Exibyte]

Originally Posted by henryspencer

Yea this stuff is indeed awesome and really does seem like the ultimate visual representation to their music.

I wonder how much input the guys themselves actually have in the making of these videos.

It took, in the case of Gantz Graf, one trip for the director.

[Mindprowler]

Wow, I thought this was a very uncommon condition, totally surprised to see how many people experience it. I don't experience synaesthesia at all, normally, although I have experienced it in depth while using various psychedelics, and I find it very interesting and rather enjoyable. There have been times where a trip has been almost entirely directed by the music I'm listening to, to the point where I feel particular textures associated with the sample I'm hearing, like the audio of a waterfall feeling wet or slimy. Particular waveforms also have a tendency of evoking colour tones fairly often, ambient and psytrance have always seemed to work the best for exploring these effects, especially stuff like Androcell and Entheogenic.

[Vlantis]

I came in hear to say that Mindsweeper is synthezeziczths, but she beat me to it.

[Numerical]

Originally Posted by Mindprowler

Wow, I thought this was a very uncommon condition, totally surprised to see how many people experience it.

I wish I had it...unless I'm understanding it wrong from all of your descriptions. I dont get much bliss from making music, not to say I don't "like" doing it, I surely do or I'd be dead by now. Just doesn't take me into mind ray spiral territory.

[Mindsweeper]

Originally Posted by Numerical

I wish I had it...unless I'm understanding it wrong from all of your descriptions. I dont get much bliss from making music, not to say I don't "like" doing it, I surely do or I'd be dead by now. Just doesn't take me into mind ray spiral territory.

The thing is, it's really hard to explain synesthesia without sounding like we're on a 24/7 acid trip.

I wanna say it's a bit like how you're standing in a room or something, and the walls are white, however chances are you're not paying very close attention to that.

You don't walk into a room and immediately go "WOAH SHIT THE WALLS ARE WHITE!!", you perceive them as white but you don't think twice about it, it's just obvious to you.

That's how I am with music for the most part. This song is blue to me, this synth is like a sandy fog (lolwut), and I don't really think too hard about it most of the time.

[Vlantis]

Originally Posted by Mindsweeper

hat's how I am with music for the most part. This song is blue to me, this synth is like a sandy fog (lolwut), and I don't really think too hard about it most of the time.

lol stop dropping acid haha

[Numerical]

Originally Posted by Mindsweeper

The thing is, it's really hard to explain synesthesia without sounding like we're on a 24/7 acid trip.

I wanna say it's a bit like how you're standing in a room or something, and the walls are white, however chances are you're not paying very close attention to that.

You don't walk into a room and immediately go "WOAH SHIT THE WALLS ARE WHITE!!", you perceive them as white but you don't think twice about it, it's just obvious to you.

That's how I am with music for the most part. This song is blue to me, this synth is like a sandy fog (lolwut), and I don't really think too hard about it most of the time.

So if i get this right, you're making certain frequencies visually represent something? And it's involuntary?

Does indeed sound like some kind of psychedelic experience.

[Mindsweeper]

Originally Posted by Numerical

So if i get this right, you're making certain frequencies visually represent something? And it's involuntary?

Does indeed sound like some kind of psychedelic experience.

I don't literally see stuff in front of my eyes while I'm listening to something, it's more how you "see" a memory. There but not there... or something.

[Vlantis]

Originally Posted by Mindsweeper

I don't literally see stuff in front of my eyes while I'm listening to something, it's more how you "see" a memory. There but not there... or something.

haha lol