Music is everywhere around us, from the birds in the trees to the electric beats coming from your speakers. Sometimes we are surrounded by so much music we tend to not even notice it anymore, to the point of being so saturated with it it becomes just some white noise background. Such a shame if that happens!
Music should be enjoyed wherever you go, though quality should come before quantity.
But considering the many ways we can consume music today, it is not an easy thing to do, choosing not only a band but also the medium through which the music comes to us.
Open-air festivals, chamber music, MP3 or a record player… The list is long and what you need is someone to guide you through it.
What is Watt
Studies show a prevalence of listening to music through personal music players (known as MP3 and MP4) among young people. However, we all know that in the modern world, young people and even mature generations will listen to music via some electronic platform.
Even though concerts attract huge audiences, especially on music festivals, many will only visit a handful of those during their life while still listening to music every day. Therefore, it is reasonable to know what is behind the technology that makes our day more pleasant and how to make the experience even richer.
Starting with Amplifiers
Amplifiers, sometimes simply called amps, are devices that can increase the power of a signal. Formally, they are an electronic device or part of a circuit, but we mean instrumental amps when specifically talking about music. They can convert almost inaudible signals coming from instruments, or other sources, to very loud music and are often paired with loudspeakers in the same device to form a complete unit.
They are always used in concerts but are sometimes even used in home sound systems or in cars to give more kick to what is being played. Choosing the right cabling can be tricky if you have not done it before, as it is easy to misjudge the thickness of the wire or power of your amplifier. Luckily there is a good guide from SoundCertified that also explains how to do your math. Although not obligatory per se, amps are a much-needed part of any good music experience.
Music Sources
CD players, and their modernized version’s DVD players, can read data from an audio compact disk using a laser beam, process it, and decode it into analog audio data, which is then played through a player with loudspeakers and amplifiers. CD players emerged in the ’80s and experienced a boom when they were introduced in the form of a Walkman by Sony and can still be found regularly as an addition in cars.
It is usually the quality of the disk itself that determines how the music will be played – scratched and damaged CDs should be discarded as they tend to skip parts or have a lower quality reading of data. Disks quality aside – the other biggest factor is not the reader but the sound-amplifying and playing system that was discussed before. A few well-placed speakers and a well-proportioned amp are best for a surround sound system in your car or room.
Finally, the Speakers
Loudspeakers are what some consider the very “heart” of music electronics. They are the ones that convert electrical audio signals into corresponding sound and actually give us something we can recognize as music. They are always paired with amplifiers as the sound source must be strengthened first. The speakers are often enclosed in a wooden or plastic box of rectangular shape, the shape of the box and its material being very important for the sound quality!
Speakers that are meant to be used indoors are best chosen according to the room size they will be used in. That is to say, you have to take into account how many squares you have to “volume up,” the position of the speakers relative to the listener, and the acoustics of the room. If this is too much for you to swallow, look at what the experts in the field have to say.
Music is much more than a constant rhythm you can swing to. Considering how we are engulfed by it every day, it pays off to know how it comes to us and what we need to experience it better. Any commute to work can be turned from a painstaking long ride to a very pleasant, or even relaxing, journey to your office if you have the right tunes for the mood.