kaylon's recent activity
-
Comment on What's something about your lived experience you wished people understood, but rarely do? in ~talk
-
Comment on Cobalt – a media downloader that doesn't piss you off in ~tech
kaylon LinkProbably the fanciest YT2MP3 website I have ever seen in my entire life.Probably the fanciest YT2MP3 website I have ever seen in my entire life.
-
Comment on How to "How to start making a song" in ~creative
kaylon Link ParentYou're right, and that was what I was going for! I think this is also something I sorely missed the mark on. I wasn't necessarily trying for anyone to intentionally invoke a flow state, more like......I don't think they can be intentionally invoked so much as being a thing that happens when conditions are right.
You're right, and that was what I was going for! I think this is also something I sorely missed the mark on. I wasn't necessarily trying for anyone to intentionally invoke a flow state, more like to find self-awareness as to how you get into your specific flow state. To give you the mindfulness necessary to figure out what to do from there.
Even for someone as pretentious as me, I cannot invoke a flow state at will. I've tried, it's impossible. Instead, I find that the conditions you speak of are the things to look for and suggest rather than control. Your environment plays an instrumental role (pun unintended, but acknowledged) in creativity and expression — same as or adjacent to how your environment influences your personality, quality of life and health.
I'm very strict on the standard that anything you want to do should take as long as necessary, or as long as you need to.
That second one is why I can enter a flow state much more easily when programming than when making music: I am really good at computer-touching and really mediocre at music.
Yeah if you're competent or skilled at something, you will discover and enter that flow state better. As for music, it is art — thus, the stereotype of 'modern art' applies to music. Something as superficial as striking pieces sold in auction houses for tax deductions applies to music as well, not 1:1 but similar in this analogy.
Purposelessness makes learning anything hard. Why are you writing songs? Where do you intend them to be played? The formatting is kinda built into these answers.
The above says it better than I ever could when it comes to what you are making music for. How you make music, as Moseph says, will influence how you write music. That leads to the missing information necessary to draw the rest of the fucking owl.
(IME it doesn't make sense as a step 0 in a doing context either - I generally start doing a thing and then enter a flow state while doing it - but that one sounds likely to vary by person.)
This was step 0 as in this is to set you up for thinking about doing the thing, rather than doing the thing itself. In other words, the things that describe doing the things. Meta-"doing a thing". In that context, I failed spectacularly.
A question for further pondering and discussion: do you think the "creative spark" itself is something that can be taught?
If I leave it at just no, then that is misleading.
The creative spark, to me, is converting potential energy into kinetic energy. I fundamentally believe everyone has the potential for creativity and ingenuity — despite what culture will tell you, anyone can cook. It's also cardinal to note that not everyone can and will be a good cook, lest an average one; even one at the bare minimum of competency. Everyone is different. I'm no psych major also, but there is something to be said in the field of evolution and how we came to be.
However, the tools are there. If I were to point to something as evidence, I would look no further than improvisation and adaptation for those who live in the wilderness. On the other, Chris McCandles is a good example of someone who sought out to do so and, arguably, "failed".
Teaching is a requirement. So-called prodigies can teach themselves, as they have the capabilities to understand and comprehend at a super-human level. Ofc, we tend to believe in one way of teaching — public and private education in the United States is standardised, and as much as today's curriculum is aware of alternative learning methods, no significant changes have been made to change this 'assembly line' style of teaching. Consequence of 'the natural order of things'.
Anyone can be taught something in the natural way they learn about things. This mutual relationship between teacher and student teaches both the teacher and the student. The teacher, who may have been taught one way, re-evaluates and re-teaches themselves how something works. Both the teacher and the student become an active participant in education, and in communication as well.
I think I shared the content in the post to the wrong people. It was truly meant for the person I was replying to; thus, it should have been a comment instead. Posting it on Tildes was not a good idea; the best thing, ofc, is that I had this communication with you! Failure and learning from it is awesome!
So to answer your question, the idea of teaching the "creative spark" implies something like social Darwinism. Western society is very much like this — we rely on a self-serving system of competition that, in so many cases, is unfair! Even something like intelligence is a competition; if you are regarded as ""retarded"" in a silent or a direct way, you are unworthy of help and most often left to die off. I do apologise for the slur, but it really is to emphasise we are taught that aptitude is fixed whether subliminal or explicit! I find that this challenging way of showing normalised, derogatory perspective is necessary. However, if I'm wrong, I am absolutely and happily willing to edit out the slur. I will also erase it if anyone objects.
Yes and no. No, the "creative spark" cannot be necessarily taught because that capacity is innate. Yet, it's normal to stop there and call that the end of it. Because the capacity to create is innate; considering the individuality of humans and entities, how to access that potential energy will depend entirely on the person and how they learn. Thus, I don't believe something fixed like a "how to" article will help as it is fundamentally inefficient. Instead, something like private lessons are better — that is fair. My post was instead meant to jog an alternative view of how to start "how to start making a song" to that one specific person I replied to; I haphazardly changed the wording to poorly include others, as a result of wanting to share this knowledge with others from a conflicting intention.
Anyone can be taught a skill. The real talent is your plasticity to learning. Anyone can make a song, absolutely. Making a song is independent from musical profession. You can make music just because you wanna create something. Whether you wanna 'declare your major or minor' is another thing.
-
Comment on How to "How to start making a song" in ~creative
kaylon Link ParentIf you mean Elfen Lied, your hunch is correct! The band I posted this under is named after Lucy, and the username is a direct reference to the anime/manga. It was my rite of passage into...If you mean Elfen Lied, your hunch is correct!
The band I posted this under is named after Lucy, and the username is a direct reference to the anime/manga. It was my rite of passage into adolescence, and I think the thematic content of the anime/manga truly explains the ethos of such a band.
-
Comment on How to "How to start making a song" in ~creative
kaylon Link ParentI figured that there was a lot of stuff about how to write a song, so I instead tried to write something from the POV of how to start approaching how to write a song. Hence, the how to "how to". I...This... doesn't seem that useful, though. It reads a lot like "you write a song by just writing a song".
I figured that there was a lot of stuff about how to write a song, so I instead tried to write something from the POV of how to start approaching how to write a song. Hence, the how to "how to". I intended for this to be more like a pre-requisite than how to literally write a song.
That's probably great for people who already have whatever innate creativity thing makes you good at writing songs, but it's sort of meaningless for everyone else.
...this kind of tries to wrap that up in the form of universal advice and it winds up reading like "draw the rest of the owl".
Yeah, this was prob where I failed. I think I was trying to kill two birds with one stone and ended up just not scoring the audience I wanted, nor any audience.
If this helps, the point of this was more like the step 0 to the step 1 to the 'draw the rest of the owl'. The point about how to find creative flow is the key point ofc — you do need to find some sort of way to access the state where you're satisfied, focused, inspired, amorphous, and/or in-tune all at once. Aka 'the flow.'
Honestly, this all inspires me to try again. The responses I've gotten are not what I wanted, but they're more like what I need.
You are absolutely right tho. This isn't really all that useful if you do not have that spark of creativity and, in that way, I did fail to spark high-quality content and discussion. So this really isn't a good post hahaha.
I do wanna try again at some point. This time, on my own. I feel like this is outside the scope of "people who know music, or know a lil something bout music" that I wanted to target using the profile of my band (what the link posts to).
So I do wanna say thank you so much for your input! I created something quite shit, and you gave me something priceless. Literally and ironically! I am eternally grateful for this.
-
Comment on On the superhero question in ~movies
kaylon Link ParentAlso watched Ridley Scott's Napoleon and yeah... it was the usual male gaze fare. I ended up just looking at other things, most of those things I was looking at disrespectfully. It was a boring...Also watched Ridley Scott's Napoleon and yeah... it was the usual male gaze fare. I ended up just looking at other things, most of those things I was looking at disrespectfully. It was a boring movie and I realised that, yeah... not a lot of good movies. So I'm a lot more strict with what films I see now.
Latest one I did see, though, was Poor Things. It's the latest film for Yorgos Lanthimos, of The Lobster and The Favourite fame. I found it was worth it as I went to a theatre that exclusively caters to independent films. So I'm just happy to have watched the film and supported that theatre.
Can't wait for Dune: Part Two though.
-
Comment on On the superhero question in ~movies
kaylon Link ParentRyan Reynolds is the public face of Mint Mobile, a virtual phone network that Reynolds partially owns. It is a cell service that buys up space from dedicated cell companies' networks and puts...I read your comment over and over and whether there is a pun or a serious comment, I am missing it, so I default to coming back with a pun of my own.
Ryan Reynolds is the public face of Mint Mobile, a virtual phone network that Reynolds partially owns. It is a cell service that buys up space from dedicated cell companies' networks and puts their subscribers on that network at a lower priority than the cell companies' own subscribers.
Reynolds always appears in his usual Reynolds persona in advertisements for Mint Mobile. Always. So yeah, Deadpool sells cell service by the sea shore.
-
Comment on How to "How to start making a song" in ~creative
kaylon (edited )LinkContext; conflict-of-interest This post is meant to discuss music making in a way that is approachable to anyone interested in doing so. While being a musician is different than dabbling or making...Context; conflict-of-interest
This post is meant to discuss music making in a way that is approachable to anyone interested in doing so. While being a musician is different than dabbling or making music as a hobby, a lot of videos and informative content online is directed towards an audience of musicians and... to convert watchers into customers by promoting their products, usually as the 'easiest' way to achieve success.
This is something I wrote for my band originally to promote our music, but I realised the above and decided to not do that. It undermined the true purpose of this post: Spread knowledge for the public domain, using the band as a credible vehicle to distribute such knowledge under. Ergo, I removed any trace of direct and/or intentional promotion and spent a lot of time rewriting to fulfil this purpose and make the topic approachable to as many as possible.
You can argue that me posting something under a 'brand' I am a part of is self-promotion, and you'd generally be right. However, this post was not made to exploit the engagement of others for our benefit. Reposting here ensures as many people see it as possible, personal knowledge is not locked onto one platform, and genuine discussion may even occur across platforms! We are always learning, and adopting new perspectives makes art approachable for all. I even rewrote this specifically to take as much attention away from the band as much as the message behind it.
In other words, I do not think this repost is a conflict of interest since the interest of spreading knowledge is compatible with the idea of high-quality content and discussion value on Tildes. However, I am more than willing to take punitive measures or hand-delete this post myself if it is decided that this does undermine Tildes.
Thank you for reading.
EDIT: As much as I do come on Tildes to genuinely read and comment, I do admit that I don't have the best track record of independent posts. Therefore, I am more than willing for this to be completely taken down. If we're all good, then that's cool.
musicians! producers!
what the fuck do i do when all i can make is 8 bar loops and not full songs? do you have any tips for me? why is it possible to forget such a basic songwriting thing? why is life so much hell? i guess that last question isn't fully related but if you know, please tell
— @nicky
How to "How to start making a song"
I really love questions like these cause I ask myself... how do I make songs?
How you make music is 110% subjective as it is purely theoretical. In a purely scientific context, what separates theory from law is that a law is extensively proven to show it can be replicated under specific conditions. There needs to be objectivity for a law to be law — besides the natural harmonic series, there is absolutely no objectivity concerning music despite what theories may tell you. Art comes from individual expression and preference; the only truly objective fact in music is that humans and entities are consciously unique. Therefore, how you make music is personal.
When I'm downtown, one of my favourite things to do is hop on rapid transit to get to where I need to go. It's my favourite form of commuting by far. I won't get to my stop immediately, there's a couple of stops before mine. Within the time it takes — multiple people will board and depart, the train runs over a bunch of tracks and makes noise, the surrounding environment may amplify or take away noise, et cetera. Eventually, I make it to my stop and depart.
A song is like taking the metro. Creating a song is like planning the route you will take.
How you plan your route depends on what you want out of it. Do you want to go in the morning? Do you want the scenic route? Do you want to get there as quickly as possible?
Before you start making a song, you should have an idea and set rules/guidelines/limitations for yourself. Do whatever it takes to get yourself in your creative state of mind. Once you're in that flow state, you'll feel or know better what to do.
Ofc, you can also break the rules! Experiment! Some songs were born out of an accident, in some form or another.
So how do you start making a full song? It's all about getting into that flow state of creativity. Get an idea and just fuck around until you get into your flow state. Your song can be as short as a second, 30 seconds, or even a minute. It doesn't even have to be ""good""! Just create and have fun!
-
How to "How to start making a song"
9 votes -
Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech
kaylon Link Parentoh that's a rly nifty feature, I can just highlight text and Tildes will auto-quote it for me. so helpful omfggggg~ Anyway, this comment rly spoke to me. I think it's essential to show that anyone...- Exemplary
Perhaps some introspection about how you relate to others and whether or not you are speaking appropriately to abject strangers is in order?
oh that's a rly nifty feature, I can just highlight text and Tildes will auto-quote it for me. so helpful omfggggg~
Anyway, this comment rly spoke to me. I think it's essential to show that anyone can communicate in bad faith, and this divisive culture on the Internet is not one-sided. I think that's where I had some trouble empathising with OP; it sounds like there is nothing they did wrong, and it is very... disturbing, ig.
I do communicate in bad faith not just on the Internet but off the Internet too. I think my experience in more politically-active scenes on mainstream social media has given me 'brainrot' and such. I have treated the people I love the most in such a careless, narcissistic and borderline abusive way. It is a mind-breaking and despondent thing to realise that you are not only in the wrong, but have become the thing you hate and condemn. I'm trying to be better about this today, and a good thing I can do is just... listen and change.
I forget the problems we have today — aside from subjectivity and individual perspective — are intersectional and complex. There is no easy way to solve a genocide like the one in Palestine, there is also no way to solve racism, sexism, transphobia. There is no future where someone doesn't get hurt and you can save everyone. This line of reasoning is why people don't wish to try, staying in the now is more familiar. The future is uncertain, and painful. Ignorance is bliss, as they say.
But I think more people on all sides should be willing to try to understand their fellow Sapiens and give each other a little latitude when it comes to expressing opinions.
It is genuinely hard but not impossible to do this in a culture as egocentric, superpowered and individualistic as the US. Even on social media — you can dodge America's dominant influence on the WWW, but you can't exactly escape it unless you go to more niche areas. Kind of like Kensington Market in Canada and also more ethnic places like New York's "Chinatown".
Either way, I really like this sentence and what has been said. I try to do this, and it is rly alienating and isolating. One of the worst things to feel is an unspoken "you're not welcome" in a community you love and give towards because of being 'human'; forced to make a choice between the truly right thing and the ""right"" thing. Both political sides have done this, whether in-person or online.
Are you familiar with the concept of Safe Spaces?
I was really bitter towards this idea once as I was kicked out and ostracised in safe spaces, but as I grew up... I realised that the communities I was kicked out of (excepting the ones where I genuinely was an asshole, and that was the reason why) were run by people who were immature.
Safe spaces are, solemnly, absolutely necessary. I'm glad they exist and places like cohost and Mastodon instances exist too.
I don't know if this comment makes sense, but I wanted to provide a different perspective to this than just saying 'I agree'.
-
Comment on Fighting with Fitbit's tech support in ~tech
kaylon Link ParentI am bookmarking this. I can't wait for the day someone fucks up and I'll send an EECB. This.... this puts a big smile on my face, and made me laugh with contempt.I am bookmarking this. I can't wait for the day someone fucks up and I'll send an EECB.
This.... this puts a big smile on my face, and made me laugh with contempt.
-
Comment on Someone registered their phone subscription using my email in ~tech
-
Comment on What are your predictions for 2024? in ~talk
kaylon (edited )Link ParentI'd rather live in today, but all things considered... Any time period with inequality is horrible. Incremental progress is marvellous, the inequality gap is being chopped at and if you look in...I'd rather live in today, but all things considered...
Any time period with inequality is horrible. Incremental progress is marvellous, the inequality gap is being chopped at and if you look in the right places, you will find steps being made. Regardless, inequality is still inequality.
In America especially, I find that what's worse than wealth inequality is the sheer... what is it, apologism of the behaviours behind our systems. Fuck competition... the encouragement of pressure may burn out lots of workers, contribute to worse health, lead to some kids under traditional "tough love" parenting to break away, cause brain drain... but either no one special knows how to tackle this, cannot tackle this, or just do not care. I find individualism to be worse than inequality at this point. Rich people, I can at least understand.
-
Comment on Sharing my music with Tildes in ~creative
-
Comment on Sharing my music with Tildes in ~creative
kaylon LinkListening to the EP miles away and I find this very interesting! Very much dark and nocturnal, it's almost in alignment with artists I've listened to before like nuages! Wanted to listen to...Listening to the EP miles away and I find this very interesting! Very much dark and nocturnal, it's almost in alignment with artists I've listened to before like nuages! Wanted to listen to vulnerary but wanted a taster of your music first. Might just listen to vulnerary after this!
The first track, "paroxysmal", is my favourite. no wait.... "exhaustion of will" is giving the opener a run for its money.
Man this is awesome. Definitely listening to vulnerary after this. Pat yourself on the back; it's not every day you come across things that genuinely cool! Would even love to collaborate in some fashion or form!
I'm a musician; software; music + self-promo
I am a classically-trained percussionist and drummer, and have been a part of my high school's marching band my entire time there. I am also a ""producer"", fledgling multi-instrumentalist, noisehead, and boundary-pushing audio engineer that specialises in mixing and sound design (For anyone out there, I am available and am p affordable. I would like to live, but no hard feelings.)
I love Ableton. It's the DAW I specialise in and my personal favourite — especially because of Max for Live, its integration with the visual programming language Max; it has led to awesome plugin-like devices that you cannot get anywhere else (which is a blessing and a curse). I would love to learn FL Studio, but its trial version and obfuscated workflow have turned me away from it. I have also used Renoise, but stopped using it due to it inhibiting workflow. I plan to use it again at some point.
The other piece of software I use is called ppooll. It's an open source environment/suite of programmes built on standalone Max for live DSP, ambisonics, etc. It is so cool and without it, I wouldn't have done some cool sound design and improvisational, formless composition. I plan to use it a lot more.
Something that isn't "software" but counts since it runs software is Clover, the name of my norns shield. A norns shield is a hardware/software extension of the Raspberry Pi that becomes a norns, a Linux-based sound computer manufactured by a boutique partnership called monome. Both run a Linux-based OS that can load scripts, dedicated programmes, for multiple kinds of things — sampling, synthesis, granular processing, looping and sound manipulation, sequencing. I plan to build a version of the programmable 16 x 32 "grid" so I can use scripts like mlre (an extended version of mlr — a live four-track sampling script controlled by a grid), cheat codes 2 (a three-track discrete sequencer-sampler in a script), and concréte (a spiritual interpretation of the Make Noise Morphagene)
My pride and joy is being part of the band/project called ルーシー LUCY. I started this with my best friend c. 2015 and so far, we have only released a few things. We are.... well, a bit of everything.
Thematically and lyrically, we are a yin and yang band. Order and chaos; life and death; fundamentally, the relationship between the unfathomable darkness and the purest beauty you just know. The core identity behind LUCY came from both my light research into LaVeyan Satanism and my love for emotionally complex stories with a Gothic tinge — I wrote many short stories while in high school, and eventually started to just... write lyrics of my own.
I always wrote lyrics and imaginary albums w complete tracklists and concepts since middle school. Being a fan of Pink Floyd since I was way younger, I always loved the idea of concept albums and intricate arrangements. High school opened me up to a lot more independent, experimental, and even noisy artists.
This ties into our sonic identity. You could technically call us prog or art rock, but it's not that accurate. Originally, I proposed a mix of electronica and psychedelia — "psychetronic" — but my best friend suggested we just switch it up every release. That's what we do. We pull from sooo many influences and sounds it's hard to keep track. "Experimental rock" also alienates us; nowadays, I find that genre isn't tied to our identity, never needed to be, and is taken too seriously. Ergo, LUCY is a pop rock band.
LUCY is named after the titular character from Elfen Lied. I would say the manga is much more intense, but either the manga or anime best represents the band more than anything I can say.
This is the best song we have out right now. It's not dissimilar to what I've heard on miles away, and it features very dark themes and depressive lyricism. Not to mention... it's a p good introduction to our sorta sound.
In the meantime, I'm currently working on our debut mixtape that's been in-dev for three years. Plan to release next year, but we are broke lol. If you really like what you've heard and can, please consider donating monthly. Internet marketing is hard because it's unethical (in order to be successful, you have to step over the musicians in your same position bc that's how the game works). There are other reasons but it would take too long.
Sorry for the self-promo but seeing as I don't usually do so, I saw this as my opportunity to shill us. Self-interest is funny.
-
Comment on Entry level IEM earbuds recommendations? in ~music
kaylon Link ParentJust updated my original reply and credited you and zod. Your use of 'return' instead of ground is brilliant by the way.Just updated my original reply and credited you and zod. Your use of 'return' instead of ground is brilliant by the way.
-
Comment on Plagiarism and You(Tube) in ~tech
kaylon Link ParentThat's... surprisingly an argument I am on board with. Especially online, of which I do apologise. "Entitled" is not the word I should have used. Unfortunately, social platforms on the Internet do...That's... surprisingly an argument I am on board with. Especially online, of which I do apologise.
"Entitled" is not the word I should have used. Unfortunately, social platforms on the Internet do not have a fun time regarding nuance or even critical thought; I play into this as well. My firm belief is that this is a macrocosm of incompatible, dissimilar assumptions; when services like YouTube and Facebook were in their infancy, users joined and utilised these services as they were intended. Self-interest is innate, but the interest of sharing media and self-business overlapped. It seems the narrative would be that Silicon Valley became greedy one day, shifting their strategies from user interests to business interests; as a result, corporate leaned into their self-interests, and looked for those with common interests (investors, stockholders, blah blah blah). It would be nice if that was it... but centuries of industrialisation (look no further than Standard Oil) make light of a different perspective. Self-interest is innate, right? Well, that goes both ways too. So the narrative is a lot more complicated; business and consumer have always had unique interests, and then some more.
Deep-seated (and, when you look into it, quite stupid) cultural problems are the macrocosm of such a phenomenon. Technology companies have shifted their focus away from their consumers to their partners; this represents a change in priorities and strategy. Platforms have always been for the individual and not for the community, but it's even more apparent — even if you aren't a nerd or an armchair specialist, you can absolutely tell who a service prioritises. With Tildes, it's very obvious Deimos priorities users more by sharing mission critical resources like the source code — source code absolutely counts as a trade secret, which can be used for Deimos' own self-interests!
Maybe it's not so much entitlement as it is those who stand to benefit from the current system, which is kinda what you pointed out. If you word it right, Deimos sharing source code could easily be considered "commie" behaviour. People love to point at things they have contradictory intentions of, aka bad faith (which is what your point is).
My true point was all of that, condensed: Everything affects everything to various degrees, that's how a system works. No better field taught me that than computer science. In the context of Hbomberguy, I think he should absolutely have a script doctor but it's always worth thinking twice. Video length can have an argument that's more solid than you think, or a reasoning that justifies weakness. It is expected that creators on YouTube outsource resources to dedicated producers, writers, editors — a production team. If Harris has a skeleton crew with no script editor, it could give him (and his team) grace. As a complement, it's easy to spout things you are not knowledgeable in or communicating in self-interest — the difference between "systemic" and "institutional" come to mind, but misconstruing personal opinion as objective logic is very common. Everyone does it — as the sentiment goes, everyone has a degree on the Internet.
So what I meant by my entitled comment was not "shut up and be grateful". What I meant by my 'entitled' comment is "shut up and think twice".
As an aside...
This is a political tangent but complementary reading to my argument about the intersection between self-interest and business.Anyone who says they're running a platform for "free speech" is selling you something. "Free speech" got sold out a long time ago by conservative business — ironically, the same people who pwn "the left" or "so called free thinkers" for living in their complex hypocrisy wonderland are the same people who live free in their self-imposed complex hypocrisy wonderland. People dog on Twitter/X for being a leftist cesspool echo chamber when the rightie equivalent can easily be Parler or, worse, 4chan. Either way, everyone accepts ads as a "necessary evil".
We play "4D chess" while industries use quantum computing.
"In the land of the white, the blue-eyed man is king" (emphasis mine).
-
Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
kaylon Link ParentI'd say they're very psychedelic while taking range from a lot of influences. RYM calls it "art punk" but yuh, they're just outside of nominal classification and it doesn't really matter that......another Japanese group, this one is sort of like a... ambient punk? noise?...
I'd say they're very psychedelic while taking range from a lot of influences. RYM calls it "art punk" but yuh, they're just outside of nominal classification and it doesn't really matter that much.
But this is an excuse to say I love KLUE. Listening to it for the first time was an experience I fondly acknowledge.
-
Comment on Entry level IEM earbuds recommendations? in ~music
kaylon Link ParentJust woke up and saw this. I will definitely rewrite my post-post clarity to just talk about the science behind balanced cabling as an extra rant — looks like I was bought into snake marketing...Just woke up and saw this. I will definitely rewrite my post-post clarity to just talk about the science behind balanced cabling as an extra rant — looks like I was bought into snake marketing again! I could research more about balanced headphone cables, but this is predominantly about my picks for entry-level IEMs, what IEMs are and how they work. The rest is noise.
Thank you so much for telling me this! I'll let you know when I do so.
-
Comment on Entry level IEM earbuds recommendations? in ~music
kaylon (edited )LinkThis is a bit of a warning that I'm not an active headphone enthusiast. There are others that are much much more informed than me, I know enough to make a good decision. Even so, IEMs are...- Exemplary
This is a bit of a warning that I'm not an active headphone enthusiast. There are others that are much much more informed than me, I know enough to make a good decision. Even so, IEMs are incredibly subjective and the debates/arguments to be had over "which is better" are endless.
And that's kinda the point. If it sounds good to you, it sounds good. The end.
First, some necessary information so you can understand what IEMs are! (I promise this is all worth it)
An in-ear monitor (IEM) is a specialised earphone — they were created to miniaturise the technology in monitors (large speakers in audio engineering that, more or less, reproduce sound as is rather than for subjectivity). They're professional-grade earphones unlike those that come with your phone (or, if you're old enough like me, your airline flight), made for those who need accurate sound reproduction— audio engineers, musicians, audiophiles, et cetera. They're especially handy for gigging musicians who wanna hear what's playing but don't want to go deaf. In that case, the live sound engineer at the venue would transmit a special mix to a wireless receiver the IEMs would connect to.
Every headphone has a driver, a tiny speaker that converts electrical signals into sound. Drivers are a type of transducer, a thing that converts energy into another form of energy; microphones are transducers, even your eardrums are transducers (they are the opposite of drivers, btw)! IEMs will have a select couple miniature drivers in them — these configurations collectively reproduce the signal; one driver alone wouldn't work, so a palmful are used to precisely represent the audible frequency spectrum as sound is divided into lower and higher chunks of frequency called (frequency) bands. These arrays are tuned in-factory to a specific flavour or specification — this is called a voicing. The exact measurement of frequencies an IEM (or any transducer in audio equipment) can reproduce is a frequency response. A voicing is NOT a frequency response, the latter is affected by the former, and you can further voice your headphones with equalisation (whether or not you should use EQ is personal preference, but it's not uncommon for audiophiles to embrace EQ).
All headphones use power — every audio jack sends electricity to your headphones. However, the technology in your IEMs may introduce something called impedance — the opp of the flow of electricity (current) measured in ohms. Impedance resists current, losing power in the process. Typically, headphone components that reproduce sound with better accuracy have a higher impedance like 250 or 300 ohms. Portable devices like laptops and phones don't have much power available, and what's available is usually inadequate to drive hi-Z (high impedance) headphones — thus, hi-Z headphones sound very quiet as current dictates volume. In necessary cases, you may need a headphone amplifier to take insufficient input and amplify it with enough voltage or current to power hi-Z headphones. Another thing to consider is sensitivity, how loud headphones get at a specific voltage (usually
xdB under 1 mW of power). Apparently, sensitivity is a good indicator of how much current flows to headphones, therefore meaning greater volume or sensitivity — it's a good idea to consider an IEMs impedance and sensitivity, and match that with the device you're using. 16 to 32 ohms are generally enough for any portable or dedicated device, and anything above 100 ohms (as in the Beyerdynamic article) would necessitate an amp. The power or impedance discrepancy between headphone and device may result in reduced dynamic range. However, as stated before, current dictates output and your ideal listening volume may vary. More often than not, you would like a discrete headphone amp but don't really need one..I think that should be enough for you to understand the world of IEMs and audiophilia!
It's a good rule of thumb to try things out before you buy. While it is highly unlikely there's a store near you that specialises in audio, there are online vendors like Headphones.com! They offer not 7, not 14, nor 30 days, but a WHOLE YEAR for you to try out headphones and send em back (more or less) for a full refund! Ofc, I will also tell you I have never bought anything from Headphones.com, so I say you should vet them thoroughly. There's no shame in just buying directly if you're feeling lucky, you'll just have a harder time recouping the cost.
If you're looking to start out cheap, I would look into KBEAR. I know DankPods cheekily regards them well, and they might have smth for you! They are a Chinese brand — part of the "Chi-fi" movement in the audiophile market (there are no words to express the animosity I have for the term) — which often results in competitive prices for great results (price-to-performance ratio). Anyway, their headphones are around $20-$30, but they have no website and all their stuff is through third parties and Amazon.
Moondrop is also a Chinese company, but they're well regarded as one of the best brands out there. They're infamous for the Blessing 2, the second generation of their Blessing IEMs which sell for ~$300. I have these, and I can tell you — they're known as the entry-level IEM for a reason. Costly but if you had to buy one, most will tell you these are it. They recently came out with the Blessing 3 which has a more improved voicing, for about $319.
For as wordy as I made this response, those two are the only definite leads I have! ofc Moondrop has much cheaper options like Chu and even Aria, but I recommend researching further! But fs, if I have to give you an entry-level recommendation, it will be the stereotypical "go with the Blessing 2 if you have the money".
Oh yeah, here's some post-post clarity!
This one's a doozy and p long so beware!
Another benefit of IEMs are that you can swap headphone cables! Cables are a common point of failure, so besides sustainability, interchangeability offers different connections! You'll likely hear about balanced vs unbalanced cables so I wanna just churn about audio engineering. Audio engineering 102 begin!
In audio engineering, unbalanced just means audio uses two things — a wire for signal and one for ground. Ground is hard to define, "a Swiss-army reference point in a circuit" comes close to describing it in this context. Anything can be unbalanced if only one wire is used to carry audio.
A TS cable is inherently unbalanced — the connector consists of a tip and sleeve (TS), two conductive surfaces separated by a black line for two conductors; wires. Thus, a TS cable is a two conductor cable — you'll often hear a TS cable be called many things in audio engineering. An instrument or guitar cable (provided the connectors are 1/4 inch or 6.35 mm), even an unbalanced cable. Unbalanced needs two conductors, and a TS cable only has two wires: Both will mean the same thing as both are inextricable. Consequentially, a TS cable can only carry a monophonic (one channel, or mono) signal, which is what many hardware instruments output. Of course, some antique devices are mono as well, and even hardware instruments can have two TS outputs for stereo!
Imagine the same two-wire cable, then add a third wire! The first wire passes audio, but now the second sends the same signal upside down! We reverse the polarity — the vertical position aka the electrical charge — of the signal. It's not the same as phase, the horizontal position aka the signal's position in time. Remember that sound is one big sine wave; a sine wave takes some time before it 'completes', then repeats itself — the time it takes to 'complete' is called a cycle, and phase is about shifting a signal within the period of that cycle.
The problem with unbalanced audio is over a long span of 30 ft or 9.15 metres, electromagnetic noise will interfere with signal integrity. It gets even worse, too. By the time the cable terminates, the audio will suffer some irreversible degradation in audio.
Now remember that three-wire cable I just talked about? Imagine 30 ft / 9.15 metres of that was used instead of a TS cable. Same electromagnetic noise hits it, but as soon as that cable terminates, the second wire that had the copied signal's polarity reversed now reverses the polarity back.... no noise, the signal is great!! What gives???
To illustrate, imagine two copies of a mono signal on top of each other — in this theoretical situation, both deal with transformations of the copy of the signal and both sum to the same output. If you shift either the polarity or phase of the copied signal, the summed output will change in volume and sound. This is called interference. If you've ever had the pleasure of duplicating audio in audio editing software and then blowing your eardrums out when you played it, congratulations! That's constructive interference; when you add two signals going in the same direction at the same time. The opposite, however, is what we're going for.
Back to our scenario: If you flip the polarity of the copied signal so it is negative, or shift the copy's phase 'halfway' over the original signal by 180 degrees (getting into trigonometry here), you'll find the summed output is either ginemenosaurously quiet or silent altogether. This is called destructive interference — both signals cancel out by being opposite to each other.
This is how balanced audio works; it involves two identical signals of opposite polarity + ground, and then switches the polarity of the negative copy. Because electromagnetic noise concurrently hits both signals, switching the polarity of the negative will also switch the polarity of the electromagnetic noise! Applying the concept of destructive and constructive interference, the electromagnetic noise virtually cancels itself out and the resulting signal is not only great but louder as a result!
By the way, the three-wire cable I was talking about exists! Also a good time to point out why conductor is also important terminology — a TS cable is really just two-wire cable using a two-wire connector (in this case, the TS phone connector). Wire means conductor because in electrical engineering, a conductor is anything that conducts electricity aka wire.
So what is this three-conductor balanced cable then? Well, it's usually two options! For devices that often need to connect to recording consoles (primarily, but not exclusively, microphones), this balanced wire is XLR! For stereo headphones, this is TRS cable! This cable has a tip, RING, and sleeve; three conductive surfaces for three conductors! One for left channel (tip), one for right channel (ring), and one for ground (sleeve)!
Wait, stereo? Is that balanced?? No. BUT ISN'T TRS BALANCED!! The answer is... YES!
And no. You see, TRS (and technically 3 pin XLR) does not give a shit about what audio is put in as long as you use the cable as intended. If you use TRS or 3 pin XLR with a mono signal, given you have the right tech, you can make it balanced. If you use TRS or 3 pin XLR with a stereo signal, it will be inherently unbalanced. This means you're almost guaranteed to have more experience with unbalanced audio than balanced if you use stereo headphones, since the industry standard is 3.5mm or 1/8 inch TRS.
If you hang around the audiophile space for a while, you'll catch wind about balanced cables. For that, I will defer to @r-tae who wrote a great corrective reply to the original draft of this post explaining balanced headphone cables and @zod000 who elaborates a bit on balanced headphone output.
But yeah, balanced cables are awesome and I've yet to try it... but considering that I'm gonna get a portable amp soon to replace my dying Samsung USB-C to 3.5mm dongle....
Anyway, IEMs are awesome and interchangeable cables are heaven. But some are pretty expensive, and there are tutorials to make your own! Either way
WOE! DEBT BE UPON YE!
I am happy you are doing well, but I feel you strengthened OP's sentiment that T is not understood by society.
OP said they believe they are experiencing the effects of it worse than most other men, but nevertheless argues sex hormones are double edged swords that wholly affect you despite their purpose. I understand you do not relate, but you're seemimgly implying you are an exception. In your teenage years, you mentioned being super competitive yet insecure... but did you consider that both insecurity and hormonal/genetic predisposition can explain your teenage behaviour? It seems to be common sense that puberty is a period where hormones are at their most affective.
If there is anything I took from psychology class, personal health is multidimensional — physical and social health, as well as mental, behavioural, psychological, and envrionmental are interdependent and affect you in various ways at any time. You not caring about winning is irrelevant in that you not having these hyperactive traits does not necessarily mean you are in the clear. How your body works on and with testosterone is different from OP's, but the extreme effects of it CAN still affect most men, if not every man. The point was never about you not relating, the point is more among the likes of OP's experience being indicative of how your hormones can act against you.