Darkroom music

Bill Burk · Jul 10, 2012

I've properly rigged the place for tunes... Kenwood KA-801 driving a pair of AR93Q speakers hanging from the rafters over the sink... I even went so far as to move the amp and tuner out of the darkroom proper (used to be under the enlarger and my excuse for no tunes was the light).

But I have to keep my darkroom as quiet as it is dark. Except for the water running. I have to listen out for the timer.

Besides it's so hard to get fixer spots off the vinyl.

hoffy · Jul 10, 2012

SILENCE......

Or, maybe some Nine Inch Nails or Rage Against The Machine? Such soothing and relaxing music.

No, just joking - I generally listen to the ABC Jazz digital radio station.

Felinik · Jul 10, 2012

Even if I don't spend time doing pictures (as I scan my negs) I most often pile up 5-7 rolls of film and then go into the dark to put them in tanks all at the same time, almost always listening to music for the relaxing meditational ambience it creates.

One of my favorites is Max Richter, The BLue Notebooks, very nice classical influenced ambient music.
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6917-the-blue-notebooks/

Bateleur · Jul 10, 2012

Pretty much anything, but it's generally loud (to beat out the whir of the extractor fan) and I sometimes miss the good lady banging on the door bearing a suitable beverage and wanting a chat Eventually I catch on and douse the music to open the door. But the concert of Mr Cohen or Miss Enya or Ms McKennitt or the like resumes to the secondary activity of making magic.

baachitraka · Jul 10, 2012

No music, I am so busy in producing one. Just kidding...

dasBlute · Jul 10, 2012

played my share of heavy metal back in the day, now it's: mozart piano sonatas, rachmaninov vespers, orlando de lassus, palestrina

Chris Lange · Jul 10, 2012

hoffy said:
SILENCE......

Or, maybe some Nine Inch Nails or Rage Against The Machine? Such soothing and relaxing music.

No, just joking - I generally listen to the ABC Jazz digital radio station.

NIN and Rage Against The Machine actually served as my darkroom jams for a few weeks earlier this year. Would blast them while printing 20x24" FB prints for my final critiques at school.

There was the nice side effect of getting my annoying-to-no-end classmates, and their Taylor Swift out of the darkroom when I put The Battle of Los Angeles on.

Roger Cole · Jul 10, 2012

Michael R 1974 said:
I actually find I can't have any music playing in the darkroom. I get too distracted and I can't dodge and burn properly. I really need to concentrate on the metronome when dodging/burning and having music on is too distracting. Perhaps it has to do with being a musician. Not sure. Anyhow, I will sometimes put on talk radio, but I can't work properly during the commercial jingles.

Interesting how different people react differently. I find music relaxing (even upbeat music, but I wouldn't personally listen to, say, heavy metal while printing) and very helpful when printing, while talk drives me bonkers. I sometimes wait for the DJ to quit and get back to the tunes before starting another print.

On the other hand, I am not a musician in the same sense that a fish is not a bicyclist. So it's possible I'm just not engaging the part of the brain that pays attention to detail when I listen to music. Or some such part, anyway.

Bob Carnie · Jul 10, 2012

Everything from Peter Tosh, Roy Orbinson, Metallica to Shania Twain when I want to get my sensitive mojo going.

I never print without music.

Chris Lange · Jul 10, 2012

Michael R 1974 said:
I actually find I can't have any music playing in the darkroom. I get too distracted and I can't dodge and burn properly. I really need to concentrate on the metronome when dodging/burning and having music on is too distracting. Perhaps it has to do with being a musician. Not sure. Anyhow, I will sometimes put on talk radio, but I can't work properly during the commercial jingles.

Funnily enough that's exactly why I tend to listen to house and techno. Not nearly as distracting and fast paced as trance, but with a defined pace that serves as a sort of internal metronome for me. I don't use it to measure precise amounts of time, but I often keep my agitation of my trays timed to the 4/4 beat in the track. 124-127BPM seems to be just perfect.

R.Gould · Jul 10, 2012

Either Johnny Cash's old albums or the Beatles, when I play cd's or I listen to my local BBC radio station, radio Jersey,

polyglot · Jul 10, 2012

Michael R 1974 said:
I just hope those of you listening to Metal, or Rage or anything cranked up aren't vibrating your enlarger/table into unsharpness...

Jazz unsharpness however, is quite artful.

NedL · Sep 29, 2012

Tonight, Bach. But I like jazz from the 50's and 60's so that will happen too. I downloaded the mp3 of a metronome from the "web darkroom" site and rigged myself a little switch so I can have the metronome when I'm exposing and music the rest of the time. My player remembers where I left off the music when I switch back-- I like!

Kav · Sep 29, 2012

I listen to a wide range of music. But for the most part I like to listen to bluegrass or folk country while working in the dark room. But some times I like to make prints while rocking out to metal bands like Ministry. The trick is that I wear headphones and use an iPod shuffle because it has no screen and gives off no light in the dark room.

georg16nik · Sep 29, 2012

In the darkroom R. Carlos Nakai works well for me.

flatulent1 · Sep 29, 2012

Music distracts my mind, that's what it's there for. Last thing I want is to be distracted as I'm reaching for the fixer before the developer...

AndreasT · Sep 30, 2012

I rarely listen to music in the darkroom. I enjoy listening to BBC World Service. Only in the darkroom do I have the patience to listen to news. On saterdays they broadcast the English Premier League which is fun. Although I prefer the German Budesliga.
Otherwise if I listen to music it will have to be Pink Floyd.

pbryld · Sep 30, 2012

No love for classical? What a shame.

AndreasT · Sep 30, 2012

Pink Floyd is classical

Richard S. (rich815) · Sep 30, 2012

AndreasT said:
Pink Floyd is classical

I like a lot of different music but IMHO there is none better than Pink Floyd.

AndreasT · Oct 1, 2012

We have to be careful now, not that we start a heated debate about music.

polyglot · Oct 1, 2012

AndreasT said:
We have to be careful now, not that we start a heated debate about music.

Heated?

Didn't you know you can run the Kodak music at room temperature and still get good colour?

OEyers · Oct 29, 2012

Kodachrome by Paul Simon.

sepiareverb · Oct 29, 2012

I worked in a darkroom with a TV. The photog wanted to be among the first to know if something happened or if some celeb was in town, so every room in the studio had a TV tuned to a different local station. I used to love running film because it was to only time I could turn it off...

I like all kinds of stuff in the darkroom: ambient, classic rock, punk/new wave, dance. I've been listening to a lot of LCD Soundsystem and 70s Rolling Stones in there lately.

Darkroom music

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