I know I should stop, but I can't. I know I have it, and I should stop to get rid of it. What is it? Ear fatigue.
Ever since I bought the monitor speakers, I've been working pretty much day in and day out, trying to get a feel for what works and what doesn't. The speakers displaced my computer speakers, which are now situated in a way to make everything I play through them sound different.
And because I've been listening and analyzing and analyzing and listening, I'm really not sure what is something is supposed to sound like. That's ear fatigue.
On the monitor speakers, every frequency is played pretty much equally, although the whole sound tends to be a bit muddy. (I get what I paid for, and while each speaker cost $135, higher end monitors cost at least $250. Each.) On the computer speakers, I get a lot of brightness from the speakers and low end from the subwoofer. On my monitor headphones, every frequency is even and clean, but on my regular headphones, the bass and treble are exaggerated into the "disco smile". Then in the car, everything gets muddy.
With all that data running around in my head, it's no wonder everything just sounds weird.
Instead of just hearing music, I'm listening for the effects of frequency ranges when I turn this knob or change this setting. And it's not just my own stuff. I'll bust out some Utada Hikaru or Neutral Milk Hotel and compare and contrast the listening experiences of each.
I really need to stop.
Or I really need a sabbatical.
I'm not inclined to stop because it will be a long time before I have another stretch of personal time. I've pretty much discovered the day job and the commute to and from drains my ability to have a decent recording session for vocals, so I must wait till the weekends. I want to improve on the stuff I recorded around this time last year, then use the weeknights to mix.
With any luck, I can start posting entire albums for real.
But tomorrow again, I soldier on, running errands when I can manage to tear myself away.
I need a haircut. I need an oil change. I have some blood work scheduled on Tuesday morning. I need to go to the bank tomorrow and again on pay day. Sometimes, I wish these things could take care of themselves.