PROCESS / 03. 0xL ≠ 0xR
(Digital Left, Analogue Right — a channel-split sonification study)
Working on 0xL ≠ 0xR today — the first track in the album that demands asymmetric treatment. It’s the closest I’ve come to modelling how I actually hear: left ear digitised and artefact-sharp (CI), right ear analogue, smeared, softened (HA).
I pulled stems from Suno and Version 2 gave the only usable pair: Drums and Other. Dense enough to convert into SRT without collapsing; sparse stems weren’t stable, so this became the working split.
From there, the track diverges:
Left (CI): Drums → Sound→SRT→Sound via Machine Room. Chromatic grit, harsh edges, digital reconstruction. High-passed, midband-boosted, panned hard left, ~−25 dB.
Right (HA): Other → Sound→SRT→Sound via VHS Haunt. Tape-worn drift, softened timing, analogue haze. Low-passed, blurred, panned hard right, ~−32 dB.
Both layers sit under the main Suno composition — a stereo “ghost” mix approximating the asymmetry I live with. Because my hearing aids + CI auto-compress and reshape everything, I can’t trust real-time listening. So I’m mixing through meters and waveforms instead: treating Audition like a prosthetic sense, balancing frequencies I can’t reliably perceive.
What emerges is something I may never hear as intended — but others will. A literal crossed-wires artefact. A binaural faultline flattened into stereo. Another reminder that in this project, as in my head:
input ≠ comprehension output ≠ truth
Machines, once again, helping me understand myself.