Sound is our business but sometimes it gets to be too much.
Peace and quiet, a break.
Perhaps this is where ambient music came from before it became a (cash cow) genre.
There is an art to putting a lid on it while still rattling the lid a little bit.
Considering that I'm working with metal guitar sims, this is a challenge.
Today, I'm taking a day off sound to refresh and reset my ears.
The silence is very musical.

 

The beauty of silence

 

……

 

Ambient music is a cash cow genre? I'll be damned. I guess I produce the right music then.

In other news, I suffer from misophonia. So yeah, I CRAVE silence, mainly from the aggravating noises in the building I live in.

 

Never.

8 years ago I was diagnosed with Meniere's disease. Amongst other symptoms, this means I have never-ending tinnitus. Sound is my savior, as silence can at times be maddening.

 

Yes, I know the feeling of getting overloaded with sound and music to the point where it becomes unpleasant all to well. It's not even so much the sounds and music I decide to produce or choose to expose myself too. For me the main problem is the relentless stream of 'musac' in supermarkets, malls and other public places that drive me crazy! Why is it? That whatever we do and wherever we go this relentless stream of 'musac' is always there? Even cars driving by with music are so loud! You can't even go to the beach without being assaulted by this musac!

Twice every year I go to Finland for one week. I rent myself the same cabin at a lake in the middle of nowhere. I only bring my phone and only so some people can reach me in case of emergency. I bring no music, no laptop. I do not check internet nor email. I take sauna's, swim in the lake and take long walks in the forest and just enjoy the 'noise'. The noise made by all the creatures that roam these woods.

 

Silence is a distant memory for me, I have quite severe high and mid frequency tinnitus. The mid frequency sound happens mostly in the quiet evenings and it's hard to convince myself that what I'm hearing isn't a loud mains hum from somewhere in the house.

Protect your ears.

 

I've had the same decease for years. I can always hear my heartbeat in my ears and I always have this constant ring. But I have learned to live with it. The worst thing for me are the spells of dizziness and sickness. They can come sometimes a few times a year but can also be absent for years.

 

I can completely relate. When it began, the not only ringing, but also distortion, in my right ear was so severe that, when told it may never go away, I asked my Doc if we can eliminate the hearing in my right ear all together. Thankfully it has since subsided, yet is still constant, and it took a very long time to 'learn to live' with it. The vertigo can be downright debilitating as well. It's really an awful condition. I'm just thankful that I have only lost a portion of my overall hearing.

 

The only times I can honestly say I have ever had this happen has always involved camping. Sunday 6AM on a 40 foot wall is not the time for The Sounds of Rotterdam" at 130dB. F*ck you.
There are 0 places to hide in a field in the middle of absolutely nowhere. We get the joke.

 

Last edited: Nov 6, 2022

Kind of. I sometimes get sick of "normal" harmonies and rhythms. There are days when I could call for annihilation of all pop and music music. What I do then is listen a whole day to Stockhausen (Licht-Zyklus), Ligeti, Schönberg and other 12-tone and/or serial music. I have gone so far that I have some Reaper-templates that deliver non-tonality and non-rhytmical music. There are generators that do beautiful things to VSTis like virtual orchestras and obscene synths like Absynth or some older HG Fortune machines.

All that is when I find Zappa too "normal". Not hat I understand what he did. But there are days when I can't even stand Zappa playing halfway normal chords.

 

There are days where I can't stand to listen to the sound of whatever I'm even working on. Based on CONTENT and specific sounds, I'm sure we all know enough about specific records that we could start a Billboard Hot 100 chart for a CIA black site. Even if they are decent music and so on. Go on Youtube and type in Todd Rungren, for me.

 

its about time u take a break from the Gods of Music

 

Ear fatigue I guess.

 

About 27 years ago I spent 6 months without listening to the radio or watching any television. I read nothing, many hiked miles a day and meditated for at least two hours every afternoon an hour in the evening. I only played acoustic guitar...and tranquil was my name-o.

 

OP has an issue with burnout. I have it too, the worst part about my own bouts with burnout is that I guilt trip myself back into working on music in one form or another. If recording/mixing/arranging gets too tiring for too long then there is usually a huge checklist of other stuff to do that's adjacent to creating music.

Even when "it's time to finally relax, you promised this time" Then my way to do that would to guilt trip my way back into a sacka chiba then organize files or do sound design/create samples to prep for the time I will create again.

I'ts a viscious cycle. In my head that's like 50% vacation, 40% work and barely 10% power of will. Outside my head it feels like it creates a mullet storm that's confused about the business desk up front and the gravity bong cooler in the room out back.

 

Last edited: Nov 6, 2022

Physical activity and Meditation, if possibly, in nature. Living in a noisy environment, I can tell you the difference between natural noises and the one Human make is HUUUGE ( not to mention all the bad vibrations frustrated people generate )

Giving some rest to your ears is crucial, I've ruined countless mixes, not only because of bad headphones and lack of DSP/CPU power, but also because I was so much of a workaholic that in the end it ruined the creation.

I always work with open-back headphones when I record guitar and bass for rock/pop stuff, otherwise I end up either not being able to hear the instrument enough or having to much of volume which quickly exhaust my ears ( never had this problem when I was playing in bands on high-stack amps and no real protection) ( I know, it's bad ).

Now, I'm a bit wiser, I rest more, and anyway it's best for the ears, best for creativity, best for your mixes.

 

NEVER. I can't stand silence

 

Honestly, no. I don't like to work loud because:
1- it's harder to mix
2- reflections on the room, depending on the speakers and the room
3- it will make me sick

I can get tired of the style of music i produce. When that happens i go for something that's completly nothing related to my work, but things i really enjoy listening (e.g. Salsas, Bachatas, Norteños, Mariachi, Samba, Bossa Nova, Cumbia)

Don't like silence at all, scarying as fuck. Even in my songs there's a hiss at -89db for the silent parts. No. Way.

 

We'd have to separate sound and music here. I'll just give my 2 cents about the former.
When it comes to sound that gradually can get to stress you we often talk about nature. A great deal of the relax a natural(-ish) setting gives you is precisely those quiet but constant noises. Be it the wind slightly moving a tree's leaves, your foot stepping grass or little branches, and so on.

Also we have to keep in mind those noises are in our DNA, the human race has developed very slowly. 10K years is barely nothing.