My Grey World : The Daughter of Audio

Posted by sylv in June 30th, 2007

I do many weird things in Jakarta. Contrary to the popular belief, I’m not feeling bored in Jakarta although what I essentially do is just wake up-eat-watch DVD/read books/teasing siblings/playing with the new dog-eat-sleep-wake up-etc.

There is this one thing I do that is so interesting I just wanna share =P well, I don’t really have time to go through my music collection while in Singapore. My music bank was just my “filler” to make me not feeling lonely while doing.. Well you know what I’m doing in Singapore. But in Jakarta, hearing my favourite tunes through my headphone made me realize unique things about recordings.

Note : I recommend using headphone to hear the tracks I include below

I guess, usually, vocal-focused tracks will be engineered in such a way that when you’re using a headphone to hear them, the singer’s voice will be “in the middle”. (Btw, my father said good speakers are speakers that can make the voice appears to be “in the middle”)

This is an example of that kind of track. “Vulnerable” by Secondhand Serenade. I might say that this track is kinda plain (not regarding the melodies/lyrics. That part, it’s wonderful). The track is engineered in a way that it stays to be “in the middle”. Well, it’s an acoustic piece anyway. That’s the best way, I suppose. You will be annoyed to hear the guitar strums playing in the left ear, then right ear, then left ear again, right?

The next style is putting the instrument’s sound in different place. The following track “Other Side of The World” by KT Tunstall shows it. First you hear the synthesizer’s sound in the left ear, then the guitar strum in the right ear, then KT’s voice in the middle. This is kinda common actually for pieces with multiple instruments. Or should I say this type is the most used type of.. Arrangement, should I say?

Just for your entertainment, this is another song with similar arrangement. Once Upon A Time by Tony Bennett. Ah, classic.

However there’s a unique piece I found. Alfie by Lily Allen. The one which the video I featured in this post. After hearing Lily’s songs, I found out usually her tracks are engineered in the first/second type I talked about earlier. Well of course, she’s a singer. However, this “Alfie” track really amazed me. Plug in your headphone and listen to it. You’ll hear two Lily Allen singing, one in each ear. It’s the exact same song. Same lyrics, same melodies. I guess it’s true that you will never sing in the same way twice..

The next piece is one of my favourite tracks all time. Yeah coz it’s sing-a-long and that, but plug in your headphone and just listen to it. The sounds just rotate from your left ear and your right ear and so on and so on.. Plus, since they’re a duo, one will sing in your left ear and one will sing in your right ear. I feel like being served a concert by two people on each ear. Hee.

Check it out. “Such Great Heights” by The Postal Service.

Okay. That’s about it. Will post other findings soon if I happen to find any unique tracks again. Gee. Should I have taken sound engineering instead? :p

Note : tracks have been modified to prevent me from sharing copyrighted artworks illegally.

Regarding the title, my father is an audio hobbyist. So the title can be taken quite literally =P

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