How well can you HEAR?

(I once worked with a producer who had a pair of speakers nicked from a cheap car stereo for this exact purpose...)

And the Super Furry Animals thing is that a; this guy is a fan, b; they've had one dude singing for all their previous albums and c; all of a sudden there are very obviously different people singing different songs on their new album, and I'm not for one second buying a "but they're all Welsh!" excuse.

Either way, sometimes music is meant to be heard blating out of a passing car. And I know at least one critic who says music isn't good unless it sounds right through the tinny little speakers on his TV.

What, you're telling me that Guided by Voices Sandbox was s'posed to sound that way? ;-)

I have a friend who has an amazing ear for music. Just amazing. One of those guys who finds little things hidden in the music, picks out the counter melodies played by other instruments on the first listening, etc. And he doesn't have a good stereo AT ALL. While not state of the art, I have a pretty nice stereo, in addition to pretty nice headphones through which I listen to music often. And this guy picks up stuff that takes me three or four attentive listenings to pick up. I also play music with this guy, and have for quite some time, so I am very familiar with him.

Now, at the same time, I have actually been thinking about my own progress as a musician/listener to music. Unfortunately, its much more of the second than the first right now (fuck school), but I still find myself much more able than three years ago even to pick out parts of music, understand the song's structure, and even to predict the changes, like where the bridge is going to go, etc. So, in terms of aural progress, it happens. And its NEET.

As for listening to music - if I could do it and be effective with all else that I do, I would do it non-stop. Seriously. Like Jack Slade with my theme music all the time. But, since it is relegated to the back ground sometimes, I find myself listening to a lot of music at polite office volumes, making mental notes to go back and listen to it more attentively later, and then doing so.

Since I've used it twice, what does attentive listening mean? I would say that, regardless of medium, setting, or equipment, attentive listening is the type of listening where it is the primary activity you are engaging in. You would shush someone if they started talking to you, or would pause the music while they finished with their interruption and would then recommence to listening.

And it all depends upon how much you want to emmerse yourself in the music - if you're writing a review of the album, I suppose you want to listen to it more than while writing a term paper, but maybe not as much as if you were attempting to learn the song itself. If you're commuting, and your commute is fairly robotic, you could totally emmerse yourself in whatever you were listening to on your headphones/car speakers - I've missed exits/train stops b/c of this very thing.

So, bottom line, I think that its all about what YOU want to do with your listening, and that, given the desire to do that, you can pretty much listen at whatever level of attention that you want in any situation. You just gotta want it.

HIM: Let's face it, people that actually think that drumming *really matters* are full of bullshit. You could swap out X drummer for X other drummer and the band wouldn't be THAT different. It's all about supporting the guy writing the songs/melodies.
ME: ...wha?

Now, one of the big differences between me and my buddy (musically) is that I have been played in large instrumental groups (through school) and jazz bands/trios/etc. and, as a result, really enjoy paying close attention to instrumentation, etc. He ('sup Danjer!) is more, shall we say, "rockist" in his tastes. While I'm not sure exactly WHY this makes a difference, I'm pretty sure it does.

all producers do this in one way or another, don't they? and they all like to tell a story about it, or brag about it, or something about it. but when it comes right down to it, it's their JOB, isn't it?

i'm convinced that whoever buys and maintains the stereo and speakers and sets the volume at just such a level for the main floor of kim's on st. marks place is the world's greatest audio person. every single record ever made sounds great on that thing. if i were a reviewer and i was reviewing records through that system, i'd give five stars to everything. which would make me a fairly useless reviewer, i'd think.

No, not all producers do. Only the *good* ones do. I've worked with a couple of really shitty ones who get offended if you take your rough mix out to the car to listen to it on little speakers.

in those cases, you should take your rough mix out to the car along with all your raw files and your car keys, and drive to a better producer's place.