on light, colour and sound

I can't sleep. I went to bed early last night (well, early for a Friday) and woke up about 20 minutes ago and can't seem to fall back asleep. I've been kind of wanting to write about a few things lately so here's the first one.

A few days ago I was playing with my new sound toys trying to make yet another mix. I still haven't found a good track selection that really makes me want to record anything or by the time I find some tracks that work well together I'm tired and don't really feel like going through the pain of having to record it (I'm realizing now that maybe I should just record everything and then delete it if I don't like it.)

On this particular night, as I played one track and tried to play with the EQ and some effects I started realizing the similarity between what I was hearing and light. In fact, I will take this statement a step further and say that ... I could see colour in the sound. It was almost as if this track I had found was radiating this deep shade of red into my ears and as I played with the EQ it would turn into a more pink colour, or become almost metallic.

One of my friends (also aurally-inclined) once had a somewhat delirious moment where early one morning after staying up all night he turned to his friends and asked "what is the colour of that sound?" Everyone looked at him and laughed a bit, thinking that he really needed to get some sleep. I didn't particularly think much of it either way when I was told about this. I think I'd probably heard many people talk about this "colour of sound" before. I had some strange profs in University - one who would leave me somewhat strange (possibly drug-induced) messages on my personal department voicemail (usually about some weird assignments I'd handed in, sometimes about the faeries and goblins running about in the woods on his land...) I'm sure I remember sitting in a lecture with him talking about the colour of some sound and everyone kind of looking around wondering what he meant.

But for that brief moment on Wednesday night, as I played with my toys I heard it. It was unmistakable. There was colour in that sound.

I don't know that this is a normal state for me to be in that I've just supressed - I don't always see colour in sound... or maybe I do and have just chosen to ignore it up until this point. Maybe it was something specific in the track I was listening to that triggered it? Or maybe it's a result of being sick and not eating a regular meal in 5 days.

The experience was far from unpleasant - if anything it made me appreciate the track on a whole new level and come some sort of new understanding of music, colour and light. [For those interested, I believe the track in question was a Nathan Fake track - I'm not absolutely sure which one right now... probably not one that I listen to very often.]

This made me think a lot about photography and the need for post-processing (something that until recently I'd really neglected and am now struggling to figure out.) I don't know why this immediately came to mind... I must have been imagining something I'd seen before. But as I turned the knobs on my controller I could see the colour changing just like when I edit a picture. There were points in which the sound was the most full, most radiant almost, and then as I turned the knob further it would change, thining out or becoming so strong that it was no longer a colour at all. It was all about finding that balance.

There has been research done about this kind of stuff (neurological stimuli experienced through more than one sensory pathway) which is interesting. I'm not going to repeat any of what the research has found here - if you want to read more do a wikipedia search for synesthesia.