Do You Hear What I Hear?

[Ammonite Audio]

Did anyone see the Horizon programme on BBC TV on 8 Aug, titled "Do You See What I See"? Well, the programme followed some interesting strands of research regarding how different people perceive colours, concluding that what we as individuals think of as colours are actually contructs of our own brains and of the processing that goes on within it. We don't all "see" the same colours; indeed how we see colours does alter depending in the individual's state of mind, status, sense of empowerment etc. Fascinating stuff.

I do not see why the same scientific view cannot apply to hearing and music; after all some people love Shoenberg and Birtwhistle, yet do not appreciate Mozart - there is likely to be far more going on than mere expressions of preference. Many people make the mistake of thinking that hearing can be classified or quantified merely in terms of pure tones and whether we can hear them (pure tone audiometry), but that takes no account of the complex processing that goes on between the middle ear and the brain.

I don't know how to evaluate how anyone else perceives sounds and music: merely how I do so myself. Nobody is right or wrong in terms of musical perception and perhaps in this audio hobby of ours, there should be more understanding of different views expressed. So, "Do You Hear What I Hear?" - possibly not but I should not automatically assume that I am correct and you are wrong.

Perhaps there is already some research on this matter - I shall have a look through the acoustics academic libraries but maybe we as audiophiles could be a good cohort for a perception study?

[Reid Malenfant]

LOL, i have thought & said this for years :eyebrows:

There is no way that you can prove (or anyone else for that matter) that we all see the same thing! When we are children we are taught that "this is red" & "this is green" etc...

But who can say we are seeing the very same thing? We can all say we are seeing a certain colour & agree on that, but what do we actually see & how can we prove we are all seeing the same thing :scratch:

We can't :cool:

[Pete The Cat]

I'm convinced that we all hear differently. For example many people say that if they have a cold they don't hear the same. A lot of people have minor hearing issues related to sinuses, you get used to things so they become the norm (even though they're actually a bit bright or muffled or whatever you individually experience) then a sudden "pop" and clarity is revealed.

Pete

[Andy]

Do you mind if we combine both sight and hearing?
What about people who see colours when they hear music? Synesthesia (I hope I've spelled that right) has fascinated me since I was explaining to someone many years ago that I didn't like too much fuzzy brown guitaring, I really prefered the yellow or blue sound.;)
She thought I was mad, (I began to wonder whether I was too).:doh:
I meant (in relation to rock) I didnt like too much grungey guitar (dirty brown) and prefered the clear blues and yellows of Wishbone Ash's style of lead guitar. Does that make sense?
Anyway I soon realised that its quite common and people have it to different degrees - some people physically see colours in the air above the music, sadly (or not) I dont, the colours are just in my imagination.
Anyone else experience this, or is there anyone here who does not experience anything like this at all?

[kininigin]

Do you mind if we combine both sight and hearing?
What about people who see colours when they hear music? Synesthesia (I hope I've spelled that right) has fascinated me since I was explaining to someone many years ago that I didn't like too much fuzzy brown guitaring, I really prefered the yellow or blue sound.;)
She thought I was mad, (I began to wonder whether I was too).:doh:
I meant (in relation to rock) I didnt like too much grungey guitar (dirty brown) and prefered the clear blues and yellows of Wishbone Ash's style of lead guitar. Does that make sense?
Anyway I soon realised that its quite common and people have it to different degrees - some people physically see colours in the air above the music, sadly (or not) I dont, the colours are just in my imagination.
Anyone else experience this, or is there anyone here who does not experience anything like this at all?

When i hear robbie williams,i see red.

On a more serious note,sound is simply vibrations and the brain decodes these vibrations,not the ears,they just pass the infomation on to the brain.My brain perceives sound ect differently,to that of another person because no two brains are the same,one persons 'bright sounding' is anothers 'detailed sounding'

We all generally hear the 'same' sound but will interpret it in our own unique way.

[Andy]

:lolsign: nice one! I totally agree btw!:)

[Vinyleyes]

Do you mind if we combine both sight and hearing?
What about people who see colours when they hear music? Synesthesia (I hope I've spelled that right) has fascinated me since I was explaining to someone many years ago that I didn't like too much fuzzy brown guitaring, I really prefered the yellow or blue sound.;)
She thought I was mad, (I began to wonder whether I was too).:doh:
I meant (in relation to rock) I didnt like too much grungey guitar (dirty brown) and prefered the clear blues and yellows of Wishbone Ash's style of lead guitar. Does that make sense?
Anyway I soon realised that its quite common and people have it to different degrees - some people physically see colours in the air above the music, sadly (or not) I dont, the colours are just in my imagination.
Anyone else experience this, or is there anyone here who does not experience anything like this at all?

I can well remember the main stage at Glastonbury being surrounded by huge rainbow coloured shapes ... pulsing in time to the music .... a bit like the picture ... .... It is well known that the perception strands in the brain (or whatever they are called) that pick up colour and music can become mixed up .. entangled ....... ......... :cool: .............

[Andy]

heh heh, and more so with a little chemical help...:cool::lol:

[jostber]

Do you mind if we combine both sight and hearing?
What about people who see colours when they hear music? Synesthesia (I hope I've spelled that right) has fascinated me since I was explaining to someone many years ago that I didn't like too much fuzzy brown guitaring, I really prefered the yellow or blue sound.;)
She thought I was mad, (I began to wonder whether I was too).:doh:
I meant (in relation to rock) I didnt like too much grungey guitar (dirty brown) and prefered the clear blues and yellows of Wishbone Ash's style of lead guitar. Does that make sense?
Anyway I soon realised that its quite common and people have it to different degrees - some people physically see colours in the air above the music, sadly (or not) I dont, the colours are just in my imagination.
Anyone else experience this, or is there anyone here who does not experience anything like this at all?

An list of well-known persons with synesthesia with some interesting quotes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_with_synesthesia