Experiences - Sound/music perception and drugs

[Beta]

A very close friend of mine is audio engineer/producer/mixer. He mainly use drug in order to increase his perception of sounds for professional and pleasure purposes. After a very extensive experience with several substances, he comes to the following conclusion. The substance he felt totally ineffective or counterproductive are coke, alcohol and cigarette, …
The substance he felt really interesting are weed, mushrooms, mdma and lsd.
My friend is listening to music since he was six. Weed was the first substance that increases the perception of the sound for him. Better separation of the sound, more focused and less prejudices. Still the "easier" way to get into the music but probably less effective than the old times…
Mdma (and especially with weed) is a very powerful substance for sound perception. Precision and details are astonishing. It increases the perception of the sound at a point where he can easily hear things he can't hear sober. For example he can hear the limitation of DA converter or abx (blind test) samples he can't abx normally. However, for my friend, this improvement mainly occurs in the treble's region. Therefore if he mixes under mdma, the next day, he has to add around 2-3 db of trebles in the mix in order to get the balance right. Also my friend told me that using mdma for listening to house/tecno/trance is a huge cliché and all good music will be wonderful (classical might be extraordinary even if you don't have a huge beat in it).
LSD (and shrooms in a less powerful way) is very interesting too. Representation, impact and emotions here are king. The representation might be visual but not necessarily (he doesn't know how to explain). Complex arrangement and harmonies are very well understood. Also the emotion is very well "lived". For me friend, the perception of the bass frequencies is getting more pronounced. Also the trip can let you loose the focus on the music.
Therefore he arrives at the conclusion that mix the three substances (candyflip+weed) is the best way to get the better perception/experience with the sound/music. Mdma for precision, details and the increased treble's perception, lsd for representation, emotions, impact and bass, and weed to get back to it a bit more deeply… Also the bass (lsd) and treble (mdma) "extension" balance each other perfectly.
Voila. This was a summary of my friend experience with sound and drugs. What is your friends or animals (cat has great ears) experiences with sound and substances?
Did he get the same experience with bass and trebles?
Does he know other substances increasing the sound perception?
Cheers

I forgot to mention that he tried also piracetam/choline and that it substantially enhances the experience (visually and sonically). He told me that it helps to focus and control the lsd trip as well.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Fascinating experience, and well-written too!
	excellent!

[Nature Boy]

SWIM definitely agrees with the point about marijuana and the separation of sound. As a non-musician with a reasonable musical ear, marijuana, directly after use, certainly increased his ability to distinguish between individual instruments in extremely complex musical compositions. No wonder cannabis is the jazz drummer's drug of choice when they're trying to tap those barely audible but oh-so-sweet symbol beats.

The point about stronger psychedelics, mushrooms and LSD, and how they provoke emotional synergy between the music and the listener is also a valid point. These psychedelics are quite powerful though. Blocking out all other distractions and moderating the dosage would seem to suggest a better result.

[Pondlife]

It would be interesting to hear of the effects on the listening tests that are used to compare the quality digital audio codecs and bitrates. For example:

Sebastian's Public Listening Tests http://www.listening-tests.info/

Roberto's public listening tests http://www.rjamorim.com/test/

If some substances really do enhance sound perception, then that may allow the listener to discern more subtle differences in these tests.

[Beta]

Originally Posted by pondlife

It would be interesting to hear of the effects on the listening tests that are used to compare the quality digital audio codecs and bitrates. For example:

Sebastian's Public Listening Tests http://www.listening-tests.info/

Roberto's public listening tests http://www.rjamorim.com/test/

If some substances really do enhance sound perception, then that may allow the listener to discern more subtle differences in these tests.

That's exactly what he was talking about. My buddy was able to easily abx all high quality mp3 with the original waves under "good" condition (particularly mdma). It was very difficult or he failed to do the same normally.

[Tranquil Toad]

I certainly agree that mdma, cannabis and psychedelics add whole new worlds to music. Listening to music under the influence has completely changed how SWIM perceives some songs/albums (even after he comes down). SWIM has also found that dissociatives can have a profound effect on sound. After taking a balloon of nitrous, time seems to slow down allowing him to hear more of what is going on in the music. Ie: if he is listening to some really complex electronic music (something like autechre or aphex twin) he can distinguish every single layer of sound going on all at once after taking a balloon. The advantage to this is that in only lasts a few minutes, so you don't have to commit yourself to a 9-hour acid trip to hear music differently. DXM also alters music in an amazing way once you get into the upper plateaus. Not sure how it would mix with audio engineering since the dissociative effects might make it hard to actively create music, but listing to music on a 3rd plateau dose makes it sound like it is being played in a giant concert hall with a top of the line sound system (at least for SWIM), even though its just coming out of his crummy computer speakers.

[Beta]

Originally Posted by pondlife

It would be interesting to hear of the effects on the listening tests that are used to compare the quality digital audio codecs and bitrates. For example:

Sebastian's Public Listening Tests http://www.listening-tests.info/

Roberto's public listening tests http://www.rjamorim.com/test/

If some substances really do enhance sound perception, then that may allow the listener to discern more subtle differences in these tests.

Actually there was discussion about this on an "audio forum"

Some argue (not without a grain of bad faith) that you can hear differently but not necesserly in a better way... I think people can't accept that drugs can have a positive side... ... to bad for them

Reputation Comments on this post:

Very interesting link in an already interesting thread

[Beta]

Music and drug is an old couple. A lot of musician used it (jazz, pop, rock, rap, blues, house, d'n'b, ...) and clearly the biggest (beatles, pink floyd, bird, ...).
Also nearly all musical genre has borne with the (re)discover of a drug: rock/amphet, psychedelic music/lsd, punk/heroin, house/xtc, goa/xtc, disco/coke, electro 80's/coke, gang rap/crack, ...

I red that 2cb and DXM might be sonically interesting but my friend never had the possibility to get some. Also DXM seems to be more dangerous than lsd, mushroom, weed and mdma.

[eltimmy]

This is a great thread and great info, thanks marcan.

[Perception Addict]

Here's a fairly related sidenote. Swim has relative pitch and is working on perfect pitch. She finds auditory hallucinations on psychedelics terrifying and has gotten really overwhelmed with the sounds, and she thinks this is related to the minute pitches she can separate, making already weird auditories almost unbearable. Obviously swim can't really test this theory as she can't for herself not to have a sense of pitch, but after talking to friends who had the same types of auditories from the same substances, she came to the conclusion that pitch accuracy was at the root of her issue.

[Beta]

Originally Posted by Perception Addict

Here's a fairly related sidenote. Swim has relative pitch and is working on perfect pitch. She finds auditory hallucinations on psychedelics terrifying and has gotten really overwhelmed with the sounds, and she thinks this is related to the minute pitches she can separate, making already weird auditories almost unbearable. Obviously swim can't really test this theory as she can't for herself not to have a sense of pitch, but after talking to friends who had the same types of auditories from the same substances, she came to the conclusion that pitch accuracy was at the root of her issue.

Interesting. my friend has relative pitch as well and he's very sensitive to untuned sound. He didn't notice a change regarding my sensitivity to pitch. He knows some people who have absolute pitch and, even sober, they can't stand to hear music that isn't tuned to A440...

[D.U.M.B]

This quote seems fitting:

"See I think, drugs have some done good things for us. I really do. And if you don't believe drugs have done good things for us. Do me a favor, go home tonight, take all your albums, all your tapes, and all your CDs, and burn them. 'Cause you know what? The musicians who made all that great music that's enhanced your lives throughout the years? Reeeeeeeal fucking high on drugs" - Bill Hicks

SWIM agrees he messes around with audio editors as well as musical instruments, when he is stoned he can create a song (using editor) to great detail much more than when he is sober. Trouble is the creation buzz doesn't last so long if your not smoking to top it up. SWIM has created slower music too he notices when on opiates like codeine and when tripping on Shrooms or LSD his music is faster and more insane

SWIMs listening skills are also enhanced by certain drugs (cannabis, lsd, shrooms, codeine to name a few). SWIM loves to trip and have some earphones, listening to every wave of music coming from the earphones is heaven and you notice little things you may not have before

[Beta]

Originally Posted by D.U.M.B

This quote seems fitting:

"See I think, drugs have some done good things for us. I really do. And if you don't believe drugs have done good things for us. Do me a favor, go home tonight, take all your albums, all your tapes, and all your CDs, and burn them. 'Cause you know what? The musicians who made all that great music that's enhanced your lives throughout the years? Reeeeeeeal fucking high on drugs" - Bill Hicks

SWIM agrees he messes around with audio editors as well as musical instruments, when he is stoned he can create a song (using editor) to great detail much more than when he is sober. Trouble is the creation buzz doesn't last so long if your not smoking to top it up. SWIM has created slower music too he notices when on opiates like codeine and when tripping on Shrooms or LSD his music is faster and more insane

SWIMs listening skills are also enhanced by certain drugs (cannabis, lsd, shrooms, codeine to name a few). SWIM loves to trip and have some earphones, listening to every wave of music coming from the earphones is heaven and you notice little things you may not have before

My friend has the opportunity with codeine few times. Not bad. However codeine is on the blacklist of all audio engineers. It kills the hair in the ear (like a lot of legal drugs as antibiotics, chemotherapy, ...). So be careful.

[Bassic]

SWIM went to Glade Festival this year and dropped acid. Music is most enhanced on Acid out of anything sounds just sound so detailed on a fairly high dose. A huge rig is also good get proper into the music. You can dance forever aswell of course. Feels like your properly fitting in with every beat of the music. Yuuummmm!!! Sweeties.

[Jatelka]

How was Glade, LSD and the mud? SWIJ had planned to partake, but felt that the conditions were too adverse!

With LSD everything seems supercharged, and somehow coherant, whereas with MDMA she seems able to follow the smallest squiggle and squelch cleanly and to infinity. LSD is often overwhelming with music whereas with MDMA it is analysable.

[Bassic]

SWIM agrees to SWIM the buzz seems to kind of fit the description of electricity. Glade was mad when SWIM did acid the mud bubbled and SWIM could walk through the mud like a breeze. All the vibes were peaceful this year no fence jumpers really. Some people did get a bit grumpy 'cuz of the mud but it was sort of like "Cheer up!".