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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
tombowlus
416 posts
 
I am a bass player (upright, as well as electric, and everything from classical, to swing, to rock and roll), and I do believe that it has had an impact upon my hi-fi tastes. I am a big fan of accuracy, and I want an upright to sound like an upright, a Gibson to sound like a Gibson, a Fender to sound like a Fender. Sure, I want to hear the bass, but I want it controlled, and not bloated, or over-hyped. But I am also quite keen on upper mids, where the bass spends more of its time than you might think. Really good, really convincing upright bass is a difficult thing to reproduce, so most of my critical listening will include some upright, for sure.

Interestingly, my hi-fi love has seemed to affect my bass gear as well. I am a big fan of the less well know, be more well made equipment from the likes of Euphonic Audio (who started out making ultra-accurate hi-fi speakers) and Accugroove.

Tom.
nrchy's avatar
nrchy
2,111 posts
 
I am terrible on everything I play, but I still play with my Flutes (open hole and closed hole) and my sons guitar, but I have fun!
rlips
105 posts
 
I have been playing trumpet for the last 27 years, thats how I got into classical music. One day, my teacher gave me a Maurice Andre record. I liked it so much, that I found the classical station, WQXR, and sat and listened to my dads fisher 400 unitl they played Maurice Andre. Somehow in all that waiting, I began to really like classical music. And, WQXR still plays Maurice Andre once in a while!
peacefrog
15 posts
 
I am a classically trained percussionist (Bachelor of Music from Northwestern University) and a beginning acoustic guitarist. I think that the keen attention to tone quality that I learned as a musician carries over into my listenting to audio gear. When I'm really drawn into a recording, it's usually because of the tone quality.
foxtrot
211 posts
 
Drummer for the last 12 years.
My main inlfluence was also Neil Peart of RUSH, for playing I usually go the progressive rock side.
There's a bunch of drummers I admire, Neil Peart, John Bonham, Bill Bruford, Phil Collins (Genesis, Peter Gabriel era), Christian Vander, etc.

Rgds,
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