Do you play an instrument/sing?


Personally, I'm a trombonist. Quite a bit of my audition is searching for something such that Joe Alessi sounds just the way he does when I actually see him at Carnegie/Avery-fisher. In other words, PHENOMENAL! Similarly, another part of it consists of listening to some brass heavy orchestral works, such as Mahler 3, Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz, Beethoven 5,Brahms 1,2,4, etc, Beethoven 3 (maybe slightly less brass-heavy), etc. Then I listen to some classic rock, just to sound how it deals with yet another part of the music that I listen to, but the initial two parts tend to be the more important.

Are you an instrumentalist/singer, and if so, how does it affect the way you audition equipment and/or listen to music.
midficollege

Showing 1 response by dkidknow

I studied classical piano, sang off-broadway, taught myself guitar and played in bands all over New York. Being a musician has absolutely affected the way I approach audio.

First, from making my own recordings, both on puny 4-tracks and in big studios, I've spent time getting the right sounds in the room so they would sound good on tape, and when you're mixing, you really have to think about balance between instruments and carving out a range for each instrument so that it stands out from the rest while blending into a whole. I think a good audio system accomplishes a similar feat.

Gear-wise, I have a 1967 Super Reverb for my guitar. The Fender not only introduced me to tubes, but it's simply the best purchase of anything I've ever made. For 8 years now, every single time I plug in, I always have to smile at the sweet sound coming out of the amp. This experience has given me something to strive for when assembling a music system-- even if just for a second, I want to just get some joy from the equipment and be reminded of why I was excited to buy it in the first place.

D