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Author Topic: Musicianship/Engineering and Weed.  (Read 20359 times)

wwittman

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Re: Musicianship/Engineering and Weed.
« Reply #30 on: January 18, 2007, 12:06:22 AM »

well, I can.

Do you really want me to?

One is used recreationally to make one feel "better", or at least different, and to lower inhibitions while giving one a sense of euphoria.

the other (when it works, which is about 35% of the time) helps people with clinical depression not feel like they want to kill themselves.
It's not euphoric and has zero potential for 'recreational' value.


there's really not much connection between the two other than that I suppose ANY drug (including alcohol) can be used in an attempt to "self-medicate" a genuine mental illness.
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William Wittman
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jetbase

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Re: Musicianship/Engineering and Weed.
« Reply #31 on: January 18, 2007, 12:07:48 AM »

maxim wrote on Thu, 18 January 2007 16:01

glenn wrote:

"Wasn't Doc's context obvious in this thread?"

can you delineate the difference between prozac and ecstacy?



No, I don't know much about either. What does it have to do with this thread?
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Version

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Re: Musicianship/Engineering and Weed.
« Reply #32 on: January 18, 2007, 12:15:08 AM »

Quote:

Ps. If you do Reggae, dub or minimalistic electronica, please ignore this message and carry on as usual.


All three. dead sober.

About the only drug going on is adrenaline and maybe the euphoria of a good meal or residue from a good orgasm. there i said it.

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maxim

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Re: Musicianship/Engineering and Weed.
« Reply #33 on: January 18, 2007, 12:15:13 AM »

william wrote:

"ANY drug (including alcohol) can be used in an attempt to "self-medicate"

spot on!

sometimes, one doesn't need a doctor to prescribe themselves a 'drug'

and, sometimes, the prescription is correct

whilst i wouldn't advise anyone to do it, i have to accept that all 'drugs' have a psychotropic effect, which may be beneficial in some situations



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zakco

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Re: Musicianship/Engineering and Weed.
« Reply #34 on: January 18, 2007, 12:23:06 AM »

Tomas Danko wrote on Wed, 17 January 2007 17:25


I don't touch drugs, life is weird enough as it is. I am very fond of beer and some assorted liqours however.


A little OT...but since when is alcohol not a drug?
I mean no disrespect, but your drug of choice just happens to be both legal and socially acceptable, but easily as dangerous and destructive as many illegal ones.

As for the thread subject, I don't believe that any mind altering substance could possible improve one's quality of work. It can definitely inspire creativity (and occasionally performances) for some people (I'm not one of them), but for technical duties requiring accurate listening, concentration or mental sharpness forget it.

J.J. Blair

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Re: Musicianship/Engineering and Weed.
« Reply #35 on: January 18, 2007, 12:50:55 AM »

I'm allergic to drugs....

They make me break out in handcuffs.

I haven't been high in seventeen years and some change.  So, I can't say what effect it had on me in the studio.  However, I can say that Marijuana and LSD both really had an impact on my appreciation of music.  In fact, it wasn't until I listened to it on acid that I finally understood Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch.  Also, listening to "2,000 Light Years from Home" while I was baked to a deep crisp was also a very pivotal moment.  And listening to "Super Session" on acid was the seed that made me want to own a B3 since I was a teenager, not to mention that Harvey Brooks's bass playing on that really made me understand how important bass, and how it functions within a song.  

However, I have a hard enough time functioning at what I would consider even 75% efficiency when I'm not stoned.  I can only imagine that it would be worse.  In fact, when I was fifteen, I worked a summer job at a hotel where they had an old phone system with a patchbay, and I got stoned at lunch one day.  I fucked that whole thing up.  If I couldn't operate a phone patch bay while stoned, imagine having to deal with one of my spaghetti nightmares that my bay can turn into on a tracking or mixing session.
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RSettee

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Re: Musicianship/Engineering and Weed.
« Reply #36 on: January 18, 2007, 01:46:30 AM »

J.J. Blair wrote on Wed, 17 January 2007 23:50

I'm allergic to drugs....

They make me break out in handcuffs.

I haven't been high in seventeen years and some change.  So, I can't say what effect it had on me in the studio.  However, I can say that Marijuana and LSD both really had an impact on my appreciation of music.  In fact, it wasn't until I listened to it on acid that I finally understood Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch.  Also, listening to "2,000 Light Years from Home" while I was baked to a deep crisp was also a very pivotal moment. .


I totally agree. I listened to alot of records on dope on the headphones, and I think I really got a good perspective. Certain things stand out, especially stuff that's buried in the background or heavily reverbed or whatever. The crazy thing is that in order to duplicate that reasoning and techniques, I have to be sober in order to realize what the hell i'm doing. I don't like "lucking" into something, so drugs are no good for reliability during a recording, but it did sorta permanently alter the way that I heard things, I think.

The reason why I stopped: apparently not everyone gets paranoid. And I had to reiterate to myself that it reacts differently with everyone's brain, and I would honestly be in a mental institution right now if I didn't stop. When that shit is happening, you better quit. I think that it might have happened too late in my case, but i've learned to not take everything too seriously. Everything became a serious deal, you know, everything was like a huge crisis, haha.
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wwittman

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Re: Musicianship/Engineering and Weed.
« Reply #37 on: January 18, 2007, 02:05:57 AM »

There was a really interesting study done a few years ago.

Apparently, it was already known that students who studied for tests while stoned on marijuana didn't recall as much information as they did when they studied 'straight'.

but what this study tried, for the first time, was to have them study under the influence and then TAKE THE TEST equivalently under the onfluence.

and THEN, they did just as well!!

Apparently the part of the brain accessed while stoned was ONLY really accessible (at least to the same degree) when stoned.

which confirms a suspicion of mine, that when mixing stoned, it only sounds as good again when LISTENED to stoned.

and that those records we loved and always said "they must have been tripping when they made this"... they probably WERE.
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William Wittman
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wwittman

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Re: Musicianship/Engineering and Weed.
« Reply #38 on: January 18, 2007, 02:07:40 AM »

Version wrote on Thu, 18 January 2007 00:15

...

About the only drug going on is adrenaline and maybe the euphoria of a good meal or residue from a good orgasm. there i said it.





if you have residue from your orgasm I don't think I want to be in the control room with you.
or shake your hand.

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William Wittman
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Samc

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Re: Musicianship/Engineering and Weed.
« Reply #39 on: January 18, 2007, 02:51:11 AM »

Tomas Danko wrote on Thu, 18 January 2007 01:25

Ps. If you do Reggae, dub or minimalistic electronica, please ignore this message and carry on as usual.

hope you ment this as a (bad) joke because ignorant comments like this are tired already.........

Fact of the matter is that a lot of the reggae musicians and almost none of the engineers that I have worked with don't even smoke.  
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Sam Clayton

CWHumphrey

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Re: Musicianship/Engineering and Weed.
« Reply #40 on: January 18, 2007, 03:24:35 AM »

Samc wrote on Wed, 17 January 2007 23:51



Fact of the matter is that a lot of the reggae musicians and almost none of the engineers that I have worked with don't even smoke.  


...which leads me to a funny story.

A couple months ago a got a call from a studio that I had just tracked in.  The studio manager said he had a vocal session booked for reggae and the producer usually used one of the guys on staff to engineer but he was out of town.  The chief engineer refused to do the session on the grounds that he didn't want to do a session where people were smoking pot.  Would I like to come in and do this one day of engineering?

So, I say sure.  Two journeymen reggae singers come in nobody smokes the entire session.  Ha!

Cheers,
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Carter William Humphrey

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sui-city

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Re: Musicianship/Engineering and Weed.
« Reply #41 on: January 18, 2007, 03:32:42 AM »

In our studio's early days, we were all young and learning. One night we were tracking our friends' band. The band and the engineer had a toke, I don't smoke pot so i was sober for the rest of the night.

It was amazing to watch how they slowed down. Every movement over the console or over the setting on a guitar pedal or keyboard was turned into "bullet-time". It was like they were being controlled by some of Jim Henson's guys, just really, really slow. It was extremely amusing.

Some of the best music i have ever heard in my life though.

maxim wrote on Thu, 18 January 2007 06:35

the drug that most affected my creativity in a positive fashion was psilocybin ('magic mushrooms')

just one great trip is all it took to clear some of brain's illusions



Max,

Have you read Terence McKenna's "Food of the Gods"?

Exceptionally interesting point of view with regards to human evolution and how the shroom played a huge part in the development of the modern human brain.

As far as he was concerned, the early hominids consumed mushrooms before going on a hunt, due to the improved visual acuity that the mushrooms granted. It assisted in being able to see prey in thick savannah by sharpening the constrasts in the brain.

So, someone else on this post spoke about improving the awareness of details. Seems plausible. But i do agree that maybe the connection to the overall picture is what is lost in some cases.
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Tomas Danko

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Re: Musicianship/Engineering and Weed.
« Reply #42 on: January 18, 2007, 05:20:01 AM »

compasspnt wrote on Thu, 18 January 2007 03:47

Who knows what those creative people would be like without the stimulants?

Even better perhaps?

Shoe salesmen?



"Lucy In the Sky With Size 6"


I made an experiment when I was like 14 years old. I had half a bottle of Jaegermeister and then I recorded some synth playing. I played so fast and so great. The next day I played it back and it was fast all right. Kinda like all notes bunched up together. It sounded awful.

I never questioned the fact that drugs and alcohol will only ruin good music, from that day on. (And no, I didn't drink at that early age. It was an experiment only)
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p.mento

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Re: Musicianship/Engineering and Weed.
« Reply #43 on: January 18, 2007, 05:37:01 AM »

i've done lots of reggae sessions in the studio, dubplates and recording. every singer or musician that you guys also have heard of - i.e. the serious, talented and known examples - were sober!

on the other hand: i know singers who had to drink themselves halfway to unconsciousness to get their peak performance. (never a reggae-singer though)

speaking for myself: i think you can not guide a session or coach anybody on weed. too many things going on at the same time and you do shut yourself off from other people. and you wanna be on the same spot with the singer or musician and capture their performance.

however, lot's of times when i'm performing or mixing i smoke. i enjoy it and i do think some aspects of my work benefit from this. but this has absolutely nothing to do with creativity and unless i know exactly what i want to do in the first place it's absolutely useless.
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maxdimario

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Re: Musicianship/Engineering and Weed.
« Reply #44 on: January 18, 2007, 05:44:00 AM »

I'll second the fact that learning and thinking under the influence of marijuana will place thoughts in the memory differently than if you are straight.

some musicians who play really well and are habitual smokers will improvise better after a puff or two.

the cognitive part of the brain receives signals, processes them and stores them based on the moment, the mood, the meaning etc..

just like practicing an instrument in a room and playing live, or practicing live and playing alone in a room. Someone who plays live for years won't give his all in a room by himself, and someone who has been learning in a quiet room by himself will forget what he was doing in the different environment of live.

if you live your life by smoking all day long, all your activities such as motor, learning, thinking etc. are affected as mentioned.. your brain will develop memories in a way that will not register under normal 'operating conditions'

Pete Townshend once said in a n interview that pot was good in some 'mind expanding' respects but eventually it will make you into a puffball..

the danger is that weed has a way of 'spacing' people out to the point that they close up in themselves and become happy with minutiae which looks interesting under the effect, without concerning themselves with the bigger (and more stressful/complex) picture..

just like maxim mentioned, some drugs can break mental illusions which can chain up people's consciousness.. which is why some cultures such as american indians use them as a mind expanding tool in 'coming of age' rituals.

when people start to smoke too regularly, the music begins to take on a comfortable blandness
of sorts..

in the end the most creative thing about weed is probably the element of mistery and DISCOVERY which comes along when people first try it.

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