I bet many of us cant listen to a song without thinking of "how did they do that"...
How so you cope with it?
Can you enjoy music without analyzing?
 
For me I try to... 
But always end up analyzing.
If its melody, chords, effect.
Those "i cant figure out what's happening" songs always stands out as a, "i need to find out" songs.
 
Like the Devin Townsend song Kingdom.
I have seen some videos of Devin later on where he explain how he uses delay instead of reverb on vocals.
And how that killed it...
 
Its hard to just enjoy music

Yes.

You're absolutely right. Sometimes it's refreshing to just listen to some old Benny Goodman or Jimmy Dorsey that was recorded in mono as a live take, and just appreciate the beautiful simplicity of the recording, and the wonderful musicianship.

I haven't listened to music without some level of analysis for most of my life.  Before I started teaching myself piano at age 9, I would hear music and simply enjoy what I heard.  But after learning to play an instrument, I began listening to how music is put together.  Started playing guitar at age 13, and it just got worse.  When I ventured into recording a few years later, that was it. Never could listen to music the same again.
 
I still enjoy it, of course, but there's always that part of my brain that picks it apart.  Not in a bad way, though.  It's just how it is.

Really good thread
 
I found myself getting into this pit progressively worse over time. Music had become too analytic with the joy receding at the same rate I was dissecting everything apart into waveforms and techniques.
 
Went to an outdoor country music thing with two friends. One was a music major working on some critique degree and the other was a construction worker. Some of the local bands were..uh..less than stellar, but the energy was good and fun.
 
The construction guy was really into the sound and festivities, laughing, singing. The music major's face was wrinkled in pain for about the whole day buried in the analytics and any flaws coming from the stage. This was a heaven versus hell presentation and I was somewhere in the middle. Since then have tried to just enjoy the music more and be less analytical. Less critical of others, and as a perk, realized I was becoming less critical of myself.
 
John

I have another analogy of this.
 
I did go to a instrument making school many years ago.
It was ok.
But the teacher in drawing and the workshop had 3 fewer finger on his left hand.
He lost them in a workshop years prior.
No need to explain more in detail about that.
 
 
So he told us we had to choose between being instrument makers or instrument players.
You cannot do both 100%. (or 50/50)
 
Being a maker, hinders you from playing, and can in fact destroy it.
You can loose fingers, and get cuts, hands gets numb after hours of hard work.
 
Being a player, hinders you from working fast enough in the workshop.
You will be too scared of your fingers all the time, to be productive.
 
So is it this way as a musician, composer, recorder, producer too?
That you can't be both a music fan and a music maker?

I was a meat cutter at Kroger for 15 years while being a musician, and I think every other meat cutter who knew me would testify that I could absolutely fly on a table saw. I also owned a window cleaning company for 25 years. Before that I was in the Army. I've always worked dangerous jobs. If I get hurt, I get hurt. The world can get along without my music or anyone else's. There's plenty of music in nature. I would miss playing guitar, but there are other things I could do.

 
 
Some thoughts ,
What some people call listening is total BS ...
Listening is a very active activity where the listener participates in real time as the music plays . Not the passive outer shell of the thing that people try to pass off as listening ..
Example , Dudes woman is pissed off and wont shut up ...if said dude wants to keep her and have peace in his life again he has to pretend he is listening ...
 
That is how many people listen to music
 
Listening to music is a choice . Think about it for a moment . It can be no other way
 
In any given moment the amount of sounds our brains and ears have to process are staggering ...
 
Example , As i type my post I have the sounds of my apt going on ..a fan above my kitchen stove and Duke pacing around wanting to go out . All Left ear BTW...my right ear is hearing the sounds of the highway a few hundred yards away combined with the sounds of planes coming and going to and from an airport that is 20 miles away ...
 
Now what's my point ?
 
it is simple and complex all at the very same time
 
On this forum we have people that have trained their ears in many different ways ...
A guy like Bit can hear a tune and know instantly what rouge frequency's are jumping out of line and ruining the mix.
Over the decades he has put in the time and trained his ears to be able to do so at will  ...
I can not for the life of me picture him out with a few friends having a picnic in the woods and saying to his friends You hear that waterfall ? it sounds all wrong , there is way too much 4 K in the sound . The Waterfalls  over hyped 4 K is conflicting with the upper mid's of the tree tops frequencies ...
The Fletcher Munson  curve is not helping this either ...the sound of the waterfall is all wrong
As we all know Bit would never say that so it must have been Mini Bit a new apprentice from the forum saying it ....
 
In my above example 2 points have been addressed ..
 
1 , Out of all the sounds of the woods somewhere along the line a choice was made consciously or subconsciously to place the listening attention on the sound of the waterfall ....Focus ....
Not the sounds of the cows mooing in the field a mile down the road .
 
2 , When a sound comes into focus one can choose to be vulnerable and experience the sound in real time while their critical mind rides shot gun . Acceptance .
Or one could put their critical mind in the drivers seat  and fight the sound the whole time it is playing in real time ...The Desire not to relinquish control .
 
I have often made that mistake ...my brain will actually try to fill in the right frequency's .
This happens to be common when the listener is experiencing severe emotional distress to what they are hearing 
 
Then we have people that can hear all aspects musical of what they are hearing ...
By that I mean a musician that hears and can identify all the various elements within a musical performance ..
 
 
A, They can hear all elements of the melodic and harmonic structure .... B , they can hear all elements of the rhythmic structure ...
A ='s hearing and being able to identify an A minor when you hear one .
B ='s hearing and being able to jump in and ride the pulse of the tune with the full knowledge of what is taking place rhythmically  in real time .
 
That is the realm I live in ...I can hear most of the various ingredients of each of the performers playing and that is where I like to spend my time ...not so much on the technical production end of things ...
 
Anyway I'm gonna cut this short .
 
I enjoy listening to music so much I  have spent many "the whole night " listening to one song .
That happens a lot when I'm transcribing sections of music that I want to play on my guitar .
I'm actually grateful to be able to listen to music and have my analytical mind just come along for the ride ...
 
I am not impressed with the way the whole music bizznezz has turned out since the days of people sitting in the same room and playing the basic tracks to a song all together ,,,
 
that's my story and I'm sticking too it
 
Kenny 

Was that a yes or a no then?

As long as I have my freedom I don't have to live in the world of Yes or No .
 
Kenny