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tell me your ritual to enjoy music

G

Guest155

Active Member
Hi!

i show you how i enjoy music, it's a "ritual" and i suppose every AKer has his/her own, what's yours?

-sit on a couch, always preferred, not office chairs allowed!!

-not totally dark but penumbra is well. Doesn't matter what time is, i enjoyed Palace Brothers while breakfast at 7am and after dinner (around 11pm-spanish time, yes we are always late :D ). Sleep must not annoy me.

-i have such a home studio in a room but it's hard to enjoy music here, office chair and mixer beside me...what's the problem? if i don't like a song i change it immediately, i don't give second chances so i prefer living room stereo, DIY preamp, Dynakit ST35 and a big couch, if i want to skip a track i have to wake up, walk 3 steps, choose a song and back to couch...what a laziness!!! i always stay on the couch trying to listen this “hard track”.
Often hard tracks become favorite songs, like peeling an onion: hard outside but after some layers i discover something beautiful (i.e.: Joy Division “closer”, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds “no more shall we part”, Smog (just discovering it), Autechre (abstract and noisy electronic music), Bonnie “prince” Billy “i see a darkness”, Cocteau Twins “Garlands”, Neil Young “Harvest”, Slint “Spiderland” and “Tweez”, The Velvet Underground & Nico “banana LP” and more...)

- i don't like loud volume so i fix a level which "forces me" to pay attention helping me getting inside the music

this steps are referred to folk, jazz, electronica and other "relaxed" genres (better described as non-dance music)

BUT when i want to "twist and shout" with Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Ramones, Slint and such i just turn up the volume and scare my cat :D

so, how do you listen to music??
 
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Only ritual I have is, is to flick on the amps... then decide what I want to do.. watch TV (runs through my system) plop on an album, listen to a music channel on the cable, or turn on the radio..

Some times I want background music.. some times I want something particular.. some time I listen low, other times I'll crank it up.. no rhyme or reason..

Listening to music isn't a ritual to me.. it's just a part of life.. no biggie..
 
similost said:
Only ritual I have is, is to flick on the amps... then decide what I want to do.. watch TV (runs through my system) plop on an album, listen to a music channel on the cable, or turn on the radio..

Some times I want background music.. some times I want something particular.. some time I listen low, other times I'll crank it up.. no rhyme or reason..
Click to expand...

Sounds familiar. :)
 
Glass full of draft beer while waiting for the tube stuff to variac up. After that it's usually finding a suitable record while sipping more draft. Happens all the time; I never thought of it being a "ritual".
 
Not really a ritual for me either - I sit down, plop in a CD, hit play and then carry on whatever I was doing.

However, if it's a new album I haven't heard before, I generally have a dedicated beer + stereo listening session.
 
Whatever room I'm in, crank what system I have there, and let her rip (preferably nobody home but me).
 
Most of the time I have no ritual for listening. I do, however, ritually use my Diskwasher on each record before I play it.

The only thing that could be called a ritual is that I put on music while I am falling asleep at night. Could be a CD, Tape or record (usually more than one record since I have a changer) and then I put the volume low and kill the lights.
 
In my study, I listen as I'm on the computer and play internet music (Pandora) through my system. I'm doing that right now.

In my listening room I like to play vinyl or CD or internet audio, there I have a futon that I sit on facing the system and it's very relaxing. Sometimes TOO relaxing, because my wife sometimes catches me napping!

In my basement where I have two systems, one with AR4x speakers, the other with KLH 6 speakers, I can't listen for too long because of a lung problem. I would like to have the basement finished someday, but that project will have to wait.
 
When I was young and idle I might've given this some thought. Today most of my listening is when I'm driving in my car to tune a piano, or other such appointment.

I haven't fired up my big stereo in a long time. Maybe some day I will. I can see signs... I just turned 50 as of the 11th (yup--9/11!) and I've already gotten mail since from AARP... :D

Any more I cannot be bothered as to how I enjoy my audio. Like perhaps a possible sultry and illicit interude of sex, I will "get it" when and how I can.... :o

I enjoyed a good session with Copland on the system in my Mercedes 300SD. The car has a half-million on the clock, and still runs halfway decent. And diesel is coming down right now against the gasoline going up in response to Ike. I may drive the MB more, and enjoy the benefits of the RJ-reflex sub enclosure I put in the trunk many years ago, and never really tested with classical music and pipe organ recordings....until just recently!

Prep myself...? No, in this day and age in my life it is hop in, twist the key, and go! Whatever CD is in the indash is what is on the hit parade that day. It's one call after another--hopefully all paying ones--and then homeward to listen to the news of the evening of the day on NPR. Then not much musical listening--except for scheduled vocal rehearsals with a couple of women friends of mine that share an aural appetite for three-part harmony a la Andrews Sisters or the like....
 
Turn off my work system: Hafler and JBL.

Go to the cellar and find a California Zinfandel or Chardonnay

Wife or I start dinner. Flip on the C220 and MC2102, take a sip while the "Tube Warmup" display fades and the McTubes start to glow and then select either a CD or LP of our choice.

Lately it is Gabby Slack Key or somthin' Twangy.
 
Push power Button/switch on components
select source
put in source/tune to station
Adjust volume
enjoy
 
hit the switch and go. SOmetimes I don't have to hit the switch as I occasionally neglect to turn it off. I've left my homebrew tube amp on a couple days in a row before. Not the smartest thing with 50 year old electrolytics and no fuse, but whatever. The Onkyo has probably been on for 3 months, its 30 years old and all original, the Allied i left on for probably 2 years steady.
 
My B&K ST-140 amp has been on continually since May.
With my tube amp.....I do what motorstereo does.....ramp it up on a variac with an ice-cold beer.
My two little Shetland Sheepdogs LOVE music, and are my constant listening companions.

Steve
 
I’ve never had a real ritual—just pop in a disc, sit down, and enjoy. Sometimes, if I’m listening critically, I’ll “prep” the disc by demagging and applying a good CD treatment, but recently I’ve been doing a lot more casual, non-critical listening, so that doesn’t really apply.
 
motorstereo/gearhound, you guys say you use a variac to "ramp up" your tube amps for listening? I just turn mine on and let them warm up.

Not following I guess. Splain this procedure to me would ya.

RC
 
First I turn off the fluorescent lights and turn on regular incandescent lights. Darker, yes, but music sounds better when there's less light.

Next I turn on the tube amps, followed by the preamp. While these warm up, I select a record based upon mood. Sometimes this part is hard and there is no exact fit. Guess I need more records; always a good reason to buy more. Often though something jumps out at me.

I pull the record from the sleeve and put it on the turntable. Give the platter a bit of a spin by hand and turn on the power to the turntable -- I believe this will extend the life of the belt.

Three slow squeezes of the Milty Zerostat over the record while spinning. Then while waiting for the static charges to dissipate, I dip the stylus in the magic eraser three or four times, followed by a dip in the zerodust cleaner. There is a pleasing thump from the speakers while I agitate the stylus, signaling all is well with the circuitry. Finally I open the carbon fibre brush and apply it to the nine o'clock position on the record while it turns a few times beneath it. Then I twist the inner part of the brush to point closer to me and move it, snow plow like, towards me and off the record. Flip it back and forth a bit on its self cleaner and put it away.

Cue the record and wait for the needle to settle in the groove.

Adjust the volume to suit me -- usually lower than 'real' music but louder than my wife prefers ;)

Sit in my chair and put my feet up. Close or lower my eyelids.

I listen to the instruments carefully. I try to place them in space, and envision the musician holding it while playing.

If a female vocalist, I think intensely about her mouth, her tongue, and listen for the presence or absence of mouth fluids. Don't go to that level with male vocalists, as a rule.

My mind often wanders; I let it do so. Only if it strays to work or unpleasant topics do I forcibly change topic.

I feel like this is a mini-holiday, listening to the music. When its over I seldom feel like I've listened long enough, whether it's one record or a half dozen.
 
Not always; but the last few weeks I seem to do most of my listening in my listening chair w/a Stephen King book (reread for the umpteenth time) and a 6-pack of tasty beverages.

This is entirely different than shaking the house whilst I do laundry and other assorted domestics.

:D


Matt
 
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