Susan Rogers, PhD, is a professor of Music Production and Engineering at Berklee College of Music. She holds a doctorate in psychology from McGill University, where she studied music cognition and psychoacoustics under researchers Daniel Levitin and Stephen McAdams. Her research focuses on auditory memory, the perception of musical signals, and the influence of musical training on auditory development. For two decades prior to her science career, Rogers was one of the world's few women known for her work as a record producer, engineer, mixer, and audio electronics technician. Career highlights include years (1983–1988) as staff engineer for recording artist Prince and working with such diverse artists as Barenaked Ladies, David Byrne, Tricky, and Tevin Campbell.
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyM5mbNEpWs&ab_channel=PsychMic
In this episode, we cover:
- Intro: who's the second interviewer with Maya??
- Susan’s childhood
- How do kids come to like what they like?
- Working with Prince: tech to engineer
- Important skills for audio engineering
- Comparing art and science
- Why Susan left music to study psychology
- Grad school & mentors
- Susan’s new book: This Is What It Sounds Like
- Why you like the music you like
- Musicians, bilinguals, and auditory processing
- What it takes to produce successful records
- Advice for people interested in music and science
- Figuring out what you really want
- and much more...
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Music by: Adam Fine
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