This word is one to remember: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Machiavellianism

Machiavellianism Ma·​chi·​a·​vel·​lian·​ism | \ ˌma-kē-ə-ˈve-lē-ə-ˌni-zəm: is a malevolent personality trait whereby a person will exploit, abuse, and manipulate to achieve their goals. Machiavellism is one of the traits in the Dark Triad; along with psychopathy and narcissism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_triad

Those 3 traits are probably the most important bit of human psychology to memorize and become good at identifying. Everyone knows what a narcissist is and what a psychopath is but I seldom see anyone talk about Machiavellianism. I can't count the numerous times myself or others I've known have been victimized by THOSE type of people. The worst part is, you usually don't realize what's happening, till it's too late and you get that knife in your back. They usually present themselves in such an appealing way. The way that totally disarms you and your peers, gaining unquestioning trust.

Machiavellian Personalities: https://www.learning-mind.com/machiavellian-personality-signs/

These people are cowards who excessively rely upon an unspoken 2nd triad of social tactics:

#1 plausible deniability: The ability to deny any involvement in illegal or unethical activities, because there is no clear evidence to prove involvement. The lack of evidence makes the denial credible, or plausible. The use of the tactic implies forethought, such as intentionally setting up the conditions to plausibly avoid responsibility for one’s future actions. {Details/extended reading: https://politicaldictionary.com/words/plausible-deniability/ }

#2 alinsky tactics: "Ridicule is the most potent weapon. There is no defense. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage." If the target is a concept, if you attack the person who is most effective at presenting it, you have personalized and polarized the concept and can thus attack the person’s most controversial weaknesses. On the person, don’t let up the pressure, ridicule them, threaten them (because power is mostly what the enemy thinks you have so the threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself), avoid the issue because that is their knowledge, avoid what they know and you don’t know, get them into what you know and they don't. Attack them for not living up to all of their ideals regardless of how small, because no one can. Make sure your people enjoy insulting and humiliating them, but don’t use the same tactic all the time — it will bore your people. {details/extended reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_for_Radicals#The_Rules }

#3 the Hegelian Dialectic: Cognitive dissonance/controlled opposition/PROBLEM — REACTION — SOLUTION in that firstly you create the problem; then secondly you fan the flames to get a reaction; then thirdly you provide a solution. The solution is what you were wanting to achieve in the first place, but wouldn’t have been able to achieve under normal circumstances. {details/extended reading: https://kennethmdouglass.com/the-hegelian-dialectic/ }

When you encounter people of the dark triad, kick them OUT of your life. Call them out immediately on their manipulations and do NOT let them bully you into thinking you are in the wrong for doing so. They are abusive social predators, if ever there were ones.

Stay safe.

Peace.

lol Ok so I got recommended a youtube video that claimed, 528Hz is the master frequency of the universe and it's the center of the electromagnetic spectrum and the only frequency where visible light is the same as sound: https://youtu.be/0nO48UIzLk8

There are so many things wrong in that video. To start: Audible sound ranges from 20Hz to 20,000Hz. The section of the electromagnetic spectrum that consists of visible light is 400–790 Terahertz.. Visible light is measured in Terahertz not Hertz. Terahertz is abbreviated as “THz”. 1 Terahertz = 1,000,000,000,000Hz. There’s a range of 390THz for all colors in the rainbow. Half of 390 is 195. 195 plus 400 is 595. The dead center of the visible color spectrum is 595THz or 595,000,000,000,000Hz. The video is off by 67,000,000,000,000Hz. Anyone who can: Do simple math, use a calculator or perform a simple internet search, can easily find this out. Visible light is trillions of Hz higher in frequency than audible sound. 595THz is not even the dead center of the electromagnetic spectrum as a whole. The entire electromagnetic spectrum ranges from less than 1Hz to over 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000Hz or 1 times 10 to the 25th power Hertz.

The video claims the solfeggio frequencies are the core of the universal structure. This requires these 9 tones to be in harmony with each other, otherwise the structure would be unstable and fall apart. Like a building made of ill fitting bricks. The video says straight out though, that 2 of the solfeggio frequencies when played together are dissonant. Dissonant means not in harmony. Tesla said the key to the universe is 3 6 9. The solfeggio frequencies have 3 as a common whole number multiple but not 6 or 9. When played together many of the solfeggio frequencies are dissonant with each other. You can check this on a goniometer with 2 tones playing simultaneously, with each tone panned to an opposite stereo channel. (Yes I have done this in logic pro x). Truly harmonious tones when combined in this way, will create a stable waveform, not something that stutters and shakes with instability. You can literally SEE it.

So this video claims there’s this global group of bad people who changed music tuning to 440. People who control every mainstream form of media and communication. Every mainstream platform. That includes youtube. If the video was correct, it wouldn’t be up on youtube for everyone to see. It wouldn’t stay up for years on end. It wouldn’t be in my recommendations feed which is created by an AI owned and programmed by those very same bad people who rule the world and whatever.

This video compares radio static to being the “bad thing” you’ve been tricked into listening to. No mention at all that radio static is actually what nature sounds like. Human technology doesn’t create static. Static on your radio is what radio sounds like WITHOUT humans broadcasting. That static, that sounds like rain, is the sound of the Aether. The universal ocean. The video is so in tune with the natural universe, it uses one of the most natural sounds in existence as an example of something “bad”.

Oh and the video plays music over it. Guess what that music is tuned to? Not the solfeggio frequencies. It’s 440Hz even temperament. The exact thing the video is saying will kill you. Anyone can check it by playing reference tones on onlinetonegenerator.com

Thanks to modern DAWs, you can compose, edit and produce your music all by your self. It takes some know how and practice but it’s not prohibitively difficult, nor expensive.

Now many will tell you that "do it your self" production isn't good enough. That no one will like your tune if it never gets passed leveling stage. That you MUST get professionals to process/mix/master your tunes.

I say nay.

Don’t let anyone convince you that your art isn’t good enough without the “professional” treatment. If you are competent enough to do good leveling on your tune, you are already at 90% completion in the music making process. If your music isn’t good enough by then, it’s not good music to begin with and you do not benefit from pretending it is.

Before I continue I should explain some terms: "Tracks" often refers to audio channel assigned to individual elements or instruments. "Leveling" is the act of adjusting the sonic character and volume of each instrument or element in the tune, so they all fit well with each other. This is usually done by applying the appropriate production tools to each individual track such as: compression, expansion, equalization, limiting, automation, effects, gating, noise reduction, phase correction, ect. "Mains" refers to the stereo channel that all tracks flow into. "Monitoring" refers to properly designed and adjusted speakers that do not color the sound so they don't mislead your mixing decisions. "Room treatment" is the application of properly calculated acoustic materials so the room doesn't color your sound/mislead your ear. "Headroom" is simply how much level you have left before a sound maxes the meters and begins to clip (clipping bad).

Mixing is fine tuning the sonic character/color/balance of the tune. Mastering is polish. Nothing less but nothing more. I rarely see people ask: Will the mixing/mastering steps change the melody? The beat? The lyrics? The arrangement? If you have done a good job leveling your tracks, the answer is most definitely no. It’s just polish. It might surprise a lot of people but some of the most memorable pieces of music in our lives were not “properly mixed and mastered” by today's standards.

Now will professional polish make your tune sound better? Sure. It gives a piece of music that mirror finish. Before you spend a ton of money on professionals though, consider this: Most listeners aren't audio engineers. They neither care nor know what kind of processing has been done to your music. They only care if the music tickles their fancy. If it's good music to begin with, it will. A large part of what you are buying with professional processing is a stamp of approval from people and an industry that DOESN’T care about you, DIDN’T compose your tunes, AREN’T fans of your music and likely WONT ever purchase or support your art in general.

Expressing yourself deeply and honestly. Finding and connecting with your audience. Gaining exposure and revenue. THESE are the things that matter the most. If you are going to pay a professional to do something for your music, you'd be much better served hiring a promoter to get yourself exposure. Buzz is WAY more important than whether or not your tune is super polished.

But what about being loud? Streaming services standardize the playback volume of music. Spotify for instance, runs at -14iLUFs. So all you need to do is make your tunes "loud enough" and that's not hard to do. You don't have to mix to -4iLUFs or something ridiculous if you can't or don't want to.

If you are disappointed with the overall sound or loudness of you tune, take the time to master proper leveling techniques and don't rule out the power of proper plugins for the job. If you take the time to apply the right tools to each track and use a few critical plugins on the mains, you might be surprised just how good your tune can sound all by your self. Some of the most powerful types of tools I've found did NOT come with my DAW.

Here are some of my goto tools:

https://www.meldaproduction.com/MLimiterMB (though it acts more like a compressor it's great for controlling an overly bassy mix without trashing quality)

https://www.waves.com/plugins/l2-ultramaximizer#how-to-limit-mixes-masters-peak-limiters (indispensable tool for bringing your mix up to competitive loudness)

https://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-nova/ (fantastic for individual tracks that have nagging EQ problems)

https://www.meldaproduction.com/MSaturator (for adding presence/loudness to wimpy sounds without eating headroom)

https://babyaud.io/smooth-operator-plugin (great for adding just a touch of expansion/compression to a mix)

https://www.meldaproduction.com/MLoudnessAnalyzer (indispensable tool for analyzing iLUFs loudness on the mains)

Last and not least is a fast response real time spectrum analyzer. Like this: https://www.meldaproduction.com/MEqualizer I don't own that last one because logic has one already built into it's channel EQ. It is however THE MOST USEFUL TOOL YOU CAN HAVE. Because no matter what you can or can't hear, you can ALWAYS SEE what's going on.

The biggest advantage to having your music professionally mixed and mastered is professionals have proper monitoring in a properly treated room (a very expensive thing to do). Not having this is the biggest oversight and weakness of DIY at home producers. It doesn't have to have such a huge impact on your music though. If you learn to use a real time spectrum analyzer, you can SEE what a pleasing sound profile looks like. You can SEE the major "problems" in your mix. You can see how effective your solutions are. This is a great way to get good leveling and even a little mixing done by yourself. You can use it on individual tracks/instruments as well! A lot of professionals will bad mouth "mixing by eye" but it is a fast and most importantly an at home ACCESSIBLE technique to get a tune well over the 90% mark.

I got most of my plugins and info for a fraction of the price I would have paid a mix/master engineer for processing just one album. : )

So youtube’s algorithms literally REFUSED to let me post this response. Jee, I wonder why?:

"People get annoyed when “experts” claim that the real life world/universe are digital. That real life is made up of a finite number of bits, just like what's in your computer. That it's actually analog and infinity that are the illusion. People get annoyed at that because it’s not scientifically sound. It’s a religious belief. A belief that sells an imitation as equal to or better than the real thing. Real physics continually points towards evidence that our reality/universe is continuous and infinite, not finite. Your computer is what creates illusions in a finite resolution. A mimicking of reality. A quick on line search of “the infinite fractal nature of the universe” will show, the whole word is not made up of finite bits like in a computer.

Doesn’t matter how high the resolution of digital. Analog means analog. Digital means digital. They are 2 fundamentally different things. That’s why we have 2 different terms. One is limited to the finite resolution of your computer, the other is not. Or have these “experts” discovered the end of the universe? (No they haven’t) Or perhaps a magic computer with infinite resolution? (No again) By the way, computers have 2 kinds of “bits” 1 and 0, the real world has how many types of “bits”? I suppose these “experts” have looked at your skin under an electron microscope and seen the 1s and 0s? It’s a joke, no they haven’t, because they aren’t there.

You can believe you (a human) aren’t analog but it’s about as true as flat earth. The human body IS continuous. There is no real end to the size of the particles you are made of. Every smaller particle is made up of even smaller particles, endlessly. Every time people claim “they found the smallest particle”, a decade down the line or so, science finds something smaller. The only thing that changes is our technological ability to “see” or measure smaller and smaller realms of the universe. A photograph is only made of pixels in a computer. Analog film developed by straight chemical processes (not an office printer) doesn’t quite work that way. When you hear live performance of analog instruments, there is no sampling rate.

I respect “experts” freedom to believe in what ever religion they wish but call it what it is: A religion."

No one can be free, who is not god of their own mind.

Believe it or not, most people who believe in god, don't actually believe anything. They believe what they are told. Because believing in god requires faith and faith is a function of the mind, one can not truly believe in a god, if said person is not already god of their own mind. Fore only someone who is god of their own mind can make a proclamation of faith with authority.

The new age teaches to become god but this concept’s context can be misleading. Being god of your own mind isn’t the same as being the “one creator god of the universe”. They are 2 different things. It is also not the same as solipsism (nothing exists outside of self). The outside world (the universe) and the individual (self/mind) exist separately at the same time. The 2 can work in opposition or unison. Be connected or disconnected.

A person can be a stable creative force in the universe, like a god, but only if said person is god of their own mind. Because creating stable lasting things in the universe, requires understanding the inner workings of the universe. Working with them not against them. This requires one to have god like authority of one's own mind. Otherwise one is a chaotic force, destroying as much as one creates, which in the end is a null effect on the universe. In the end, those who do not claim lordship over themselves, remain effectively nothing.

Since truth is beheld in the mind, one can not obtain lasting truth without being god of one's own mind, since all truth can be made a matter of relativity without the mind’s authority to assign logic in the form of deductive reasoning. When someone or something else is god of your mind, you are subject to that god. Slave to that god. If a person is god of their own mind, any concept or "truth" beheld is subject to themselves and no other authority.

https://youtu.be/k6lIx41uAJE?t=8

These examples alone are IMO plenty reason enough the Greek philosophers of old should be mandatory reading. : )

There are 6 basic steps to making music. Compose → Perform/Monitor → Record → Produce → Master → Distribute.

A lot of people ask what’s the point of outboard gear, when you can do it all inside a DAW for less money/time. People still like and use outboard gear IMO due to a few basic fundamentals.

#1 You actually OWN outboard gear/instruments. No company, change, update or data loss can take your gear away.

#2 many find the tactile experience of real life tools/instruments, more inspiring.

#3 Natural sound. Analog electronics add saturation/warmth. Outboard digital devices have pre-amps and converters, which can add color, and onboard processors/memory are always optimized per application. Lastly the most impactful piece of outboard gear, a musical instrument played by a human adds a plethora of individuality, identity and uniqueness.

The downsides to outboard gear is, it’s more time consuming/expensive, and real life instruments take practice/talent to play. It’s hard to beat the efficiency of the DAW for most music making steps. Where the DAW lacks IMO is performing/monitoring and mastering. These 2 steps, especially performing/monitoring, benefit most when done outside the box, provided proper gear/instruments are available. Real instruments played by real people always sound more natural in every way. Mastering outside the box adds natural harmonics, saturation and filtering, which have a different sound signature than artificial ones in the DAW.

Hybridizing music making steps can be tricky because of latency. I’m always surprised how much this gets overlooked. High latency almost always interferes with a performance/recording. To get extremely low latency, you must spend a LOT of money on your DAW/computer/interface. Nullifying one of the main benefits, the low cost. So it seems, it’s best to do entire steps either purely inside or purely outside the box. For instance perform/monitor outside the box, while using the DAW to simply record. Once done, then stay purely inside the DAW for production. Once done, stay purely outside the box for mastering, using the DAW to simply play/record.

https://youtu.be/Kjjzeib69FQ

People don’t need to make stuff up or believe urban myths to be confident in their abilities!

So apparently most audio “engineers” on youtube don’t know what sampling rate is @.@;

Sampling rate is not sampling range. Sample rate is the set number of samples taken per second. It stays the same, no matter what frequency of sound you are recording/rendering. Higher sampling rates aren’t for recording higher frequencies (like ones you can’t hear). They are for recording/rendering any audible frequency in HIGHER RESOLUTION. I reiterate, sampling rate is the SPEED at which a computer samples audio. Not the bloody frequency range it samples! The higher the sampling rate, the higher the resolution (sound quality).

The real math is simple: Divide the sampling rate, 44.1kHz (most common/standard), by the frequency of your audio sound, say 60Hz (bass kick), and you get the number of samples per cycle for that particular sound (735 samples per wave cycle in this case). That means, when you record that 60Hz sound, the computer has no more and no less than 735 steps to estimate the shape of the waveform’s fundamental cycle. Like if you laid out 735 square blocks in the shape of a wave. The blocks can be what ever size you want, it's the number of them that's important. Here's an example of a single wave cycle (the shape you would be trying to draw with your blocks): https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Zer0DTeKD8o/Us0Qc4TIE-I/AAAAAAAABqY/3hoUpAh81To/s1600/sinewave.png So as you can see, the more samples you have per cycle, the better you can fake the curves of real life sound waves. It’s EXACTLY like the number of pixels in a picture. The more pixels/samples, the higher the resolution of the sound/picture.

The higher the frequency of the sound being sampled/rendered, the more cycles that particular sound has per second, thus the fewer samples will be taken of each cycle. THIS IS BECAUSE SAMPLING RATE FUNCTIONS AS A CONSTANT/PER SECOND. A 6Khz sound has 100 times more cycles per second than 60Hz. So out of your 44,100 samples taken per second, only 1/100th of them will be made for one cycle in the 6Khz sound. Compared to the 60Hz sound, sampling a 6Khz sound at 44.1Khz sampling rate, gives you only 7.35 samples per cycle to construct your waveform. Try drawing any kind of convincing curve with only 7 blocks or a coherent picture with 7 x 7 pixels. It can’t be done. What’s worse, MOST SOUND IN THE REAL WORLD IS MADE UP OF COMPLEX WAVEFORMS. These waves include fractal harmonics extending well into the high frequency range. The fractal nature of the physical world is a proven fact. To say sound is the exception, is ignorant. Point is, these real life sounds are even harder for a computer to draw than a sinewave. So at 44.1Khz sampling rate, how many samples would you get if you recorded a 16Khz sound? Answer: 2 or 3. That’s it. 2 or 3 blocks. You literally can do NOTHING but draw a simple square wave with that few. Just 2 giant blocks. One up, one down. There's your wave cycle. A simple square wave.

The application of this math is easily proven by entering your desired frequency and downloading the sound file from onlinetonegenerator.com Sine wave shape should be the easiest to work with and shows the degradation that happens as you sample higher and higher frequencies using 44.1Khz sampling rate. Open the file in audacity. Zoom in to find exactly ONE wave cycle (as is shown in the linked sine waveform above), then count the number of dots. Each dot in audacity is a sample. This is how digital audio works. Because of the math sampling functions under, the resolution of digital audio goes exponentially down the higher the frequency of the sound you are recording/rendering/reproducing. Digital resolution is very high in the bass bands but practically non existent in the higher bands. To get high resolution across the entire audible spectrum, you’d need sampling rates in the megahertz range. Not kilohertz. 8Mhz sampling rate would be adequate. That’s 8,000,000Hz not 44,100Hz. Kind a bit of a difference there. With modern technology, it should be possible but since everyone’s convinced 44.1Khz is fine, I’m not holding my breath for it to change.

This is why engineers who do know how digital audio works, facepalm when people say analog has inferior resolution. Digital has better editing capabilities by far, but not high frequency sound resolution. Modern digital sampling can’t even accurately record a 6Khz complex waveform, let alone a 16Khz one. Analog gear can though. Because it doesn’t need to sample. In analog, recording is a straight shot of electro/mechanical physics. A good reel to reel or vinyl has MORE resolution than any digital audio to date. All those hard edges on the digitally estimated waves also produce distortion (mostly odd order). Just play with a subtractive synth for a minute and listen to how different a square wave or saw tooth sounds compared to a sine wave. Edges matter. Wave shape matters. Accuracy matters. It all adds up.

Most people don’t seem to know this stuff though, usually substituting techno babble they heard on youtube. They have no real reference, so it’s not surprising. Most analog gear is too expensive to buy, too old to function properly, or too hard for noobs to handle. Most what people hear these days, is digital or analog that has been digitized for the internet. Digital decoders have a few tricks to mask the poor high frequency resolution and noise though. However, pretending decoders are perfect (which they aren’t), even if the decoder could completely make up for noise and wave warping, you’d still be missing what the computer didn’t record in the first place. That being all the details and curves of those higher frequency sounds, as they get mangled or left out entirely. There’s no way around it, you loose definition/detail when you digitize.

Some people act like this kind of information somehow insults their talent. To be blunt, if you suck at music or production, you will suck regardless if you are using analog or digital gear. The quality issues brought up in this article have nothing to do with one’s abilities and EVERYTHING to do with the pure mechanics of audio sound quality. Instead of flaming, people should look at what they CAN do. Digital or analog, if you can make something that puts a smile on your face, does it really matter if there are better tools you could have? Is it worth being jealous and petty over it? No. Believe in your self. Make music and be happy!

Boopaboopadoo The end. : P

Bit of an article concerning the new surround sound music production tech apple is promoting. With technocrats pushing production as more important than composition or anything really, and apple needing more of your money, surround sound music as a standard wouldn’t be surprising. It might mean they could resell you all the stuff you already bought. The application possibilities though, bring up questions:

Most music you hear in movies/shows/games plays OVER the visual material not WITHIN it, because otherwise it can interfere with immersion. Sound effects/dialog are different and play within the realm of the visuals, thus making sense to use in surround sound. It’s been used that way for decades. It works in open theater, which are rapidly disappearing thanks to c4vid19. It also works for PROPERLY set up home theater, which, most people don't have.

So Apple, not at all known for pushing gimmicks, has got surround sound music and special headphones for it. Enthusiasts claim these headphones “kind of” reproduce the 3d surround sound. As apposed to normal headphones that can already reproduce a 3d sound stage just fine. Or good normal speakers which, when properly set up, can ALSO reproduce 3d sound, though not quite the same as headphones can. In Logic Pro, WITHOUT creating a surround sound project profile, one can simply adjust the imaging placement of any sound/effect, using the onboard plugin. Effectively changing the perceived placement of sounds when listening under normal headphones. It also works to a certain degree when listening on a properly set up normal stereo pair of speakers. This technique is likely available in most DAWs worth a damn and gives the same effect of immersion/dimension as surround sound. It can also save bandwidth by utilizing phase or imaging appropriation. All without the more expensive time consuming surround sound music production.

Surround sound enthusiasts talk about recording an orchestra twice, so they can use surround sound to seat the listener in the middle of the concert. You can do that with just one recording and no surround sound production, by simply using that head shaped mic thing sold for less than a studio surround sound rig. Just place it where you want the listener to be in the concert. Done. Simpler, faster, less expensive, just as effective. Apple’s headphones “kind of” reproducing surround sound, insinuates a proper surround speaker system would be needed. All the while the trend in gaming is VR head sets and such, which means gamers will be on headphones, which they mostly are on already.

Enthusiasts claim: surround sound for music is good because it “complicates the profession”. Rubbish. From an engineering point of view, complicating a profession usually decreases efficiency. Good engineers know, one of the foundational pillars of engineering is efficiency, and simplicity goes hand in hand with efficiency. Surround sound enthusiasts also claim: More complicated=more professional. Hardly. If 2 people do the same job, with the same outcome but one takes twice as long, makes the process twice as complicated and spends twice as much money, most will say the faster person was more professional, because they flippin are. Professionals get the job done as efficiently as possible knowing, there is a set time/budget for any project. The more time spent on needlessly complicated production, the less time left for composition and other important things that impact the quality of the end product. Not surprising that some technophiles would love surround sound music production as the new standard. It would allow one to rack up more hours to be paid for doing busy work and shift attention away from their possibly subpar composition skills. Surround sound music production sure smells ripe for posers.

So, with surround sound you can make music surround the listener. The exact same thing one can achieve mixing normal stereo tracks utilizing proper phase/imaging placement, with before mentioned logic plugin, without the extra time and financial expense of surround sound production.

Preserving/promoting immersion depends on situation. In movies/shows/games, unless the music is IN scene (coming from a radio within the imaginary environment for example), it almost always plays OVER the visual realm, not WITHIN it. For music, re-creating acoustics of a scene would often confuse immersion. Sound, particularly music, is one of the most potent brain stimulants. If you made the music sound IN scene, your brain might ask: Why’s music playing in this hallway batman is sneaking in? Where is the sound system playing this music? Why are the characters not reacting to the music that’s obviously IN scene?

On the flip side, if surround sound music recreated a perfect concert hall or other sound stage unrelated to the scene, it has the possibility to compete with the scene’s immersion. The brain might ask: Why does the dialog/sfxs sound like they are in scene but the music sounds like it’s in a concert hall that I’m NOT in? Furthermore, if you DO match the music acoustics to the scene, every editing cut, game player movement or environment change, would shift the music’s acoustic phase, often creating audible whiplash, possibly harming immersion. It would be unrealistic to provide a recorded acoustic variant for every situation. So, for games, it’d be more feasible to feed it a dry normal stereo music recording and let the game system process environmental acoustics as was appropriate. Which would not require one to produce the music in surround sound in the first place. There’s also the issue that music does not always sound good in a lot of environments period.

Exceptions to all this exist of course but they don’t seem common enough to justify surround music production being a standard, as the exceptions require very specific situations and careful implementation. Otherwise, immersion can be degraded. I could be wrong but in general, this is why, MOST music, not sfx/dialog, plays OVER the visual realm, not within it. Oh, and very kindly, apple can eat a bag of dicks. Just sayin.

Music is currently one of the least appreciated, least valued, least respected and least outwardly noticed forms of art. Not insulting anyone, just stating something I’ve noticed over the years. The interesting thing though is, music is actually, literally, the most used form of art in the world. There’s even music in the frickin public bathrooms. Music is the most important ingredient in ANY modern entertainment.

Just imagine a whole season with no music, not even a jingle or sound effect. 3 months with no music, in the car, at work, in your movies, in your games, in your TV shows, in your shipping centers, on your phone. Most people don’t realize but music has a HUGE impact on your mood and behavior, positively or negatively. The impact strength of any game/movie/show/event directly depends on the music. At least 90% of immersion is based in the audible. This is why I always tell game developers, if you add really well designed highly detailed sound effects and music into your game, it will be memorable, even if the other aspects of the game are subpar. Not to say you shouldn’t try hard on the other things too lol but you get the idea.

So What’s the point? Well, I guess be more aware of things in general but really as it relates to me personally: Some people don’t understand why I work so much harder than I really need to on my music. Why I’m so picky about things like the quality and type of instruments I use, or bothering to record my own sound samples instead of using stock ones. It’s all because I know how much of an effect music has on people and that every little detail counts. I want the effect on people to be positive and I’m proud to put in the extra effort to help it be so. Something that makes people happy and ponder the mysteries of the universe. <:3