The Metaphysical Axis

An exploration on creative problem solving

Why is sound so hard to describe? Electronic music. Gabber. Hardcore. Trap. Rock. Genres barely scratch the surface of the story music is trying to tell. Metaphysical constructs to define a grouping of similar enough sounding music to give people an idea of what to expect

When I approach sound design I use a mental model I call the ‘Metaphysical Axis’ to create elements for musical story telling, but the application of the model goes far beyond this. Let’s try it out…

Let’s say the metaphysical concept of ‘Fire.’

Fire can be crackly, it spits, it sizzles. It can burn hot, it can smolder. It can burn, it can cook. Infernos or warm tea. It may invoke specific memories for you, but we want to avoid the personal context right now and focus on communication at a more primal level.

Thinking about all these things primes you for the creative exploration. You are overwhelming your mind with a brain cloud of various concepts to get in the creative space. You may even have physical reactions to the process, starting to feel warmer or energetic.

Now that we are primed, let’s narrow down the concept to sound and how it feels… the sound of fire. The crackles. Sizzles. Snaps and pops. Roar of a forest fire. The reaction on your skin near a warm fire.

All of these metaphysical concepts overlap to create our personal understanding of ‘fire’. Your ‘sizzle’ may be stronger than mine, or the type of pops and cracks may not be a firewood stove or fire ring on the beach. It’s your story, what’s important is you have the feeling. If you want to tell the story about a fiery being that goes on a journey, the foundation could revolve around those elements in the sound. An effect that adds some sizzle. Cracks! Energy. Maybe fast, maybe slow… it’s your fire after all.

And let’s say we want to transition into smoke… break it down the same way. Maybe you have sounds that create other metaphysical associations, perhaps ‘mist’ or a ‘shimmer’ that feels like particles sailing in the air…. so let’s create a metaphysical axis.

Put Fire and Mist on either end of the metaphysical axis as we look for smoke. The fiery sound scape we’ve put together now adds some mist until it feels like steam… a little heavier, whistles perhaps, but we’re going off axis. Wisps. gentle ethereal smoke, or deep dark soot?

Any two metaphysical concepts can be put on an axis and a sound can move toward one or the other. One sound may be a bit fiery and a lot misty, or quite fiery. Ignore all the other components of the sound, just focus on where it sits on that axis as you play with the parameters. Add effects. Change it around. Does a delay make it feel too watery? Distortion bringing some of that smolder back?

Intention doesn’t have to be in the moment, the whole point of organizing and putting together your own library is to create your palette of colors for the story. The more you push towards each element being intention, the stronger “your sound” becomes. The more you embody your art and it becomes part of you and you part of it. The closer you get to intention, the closer you get to expressing your true story in your music but the mental model goes far beyond that. Almost any problem can be redefined by wanting to be closer to one concept, the key is defining the axis correctly.

More to come…