How Did Prince Transition From Maintenance Technician to Engineer?

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"I've known a lot of maintenance engineers, and I can't think of a single one who transitioned to being a first engineer," she says. "The great one must have intuited that you had some skill outside of your job description." Prince asked her where he wanted his microphone set up in the home studio when there was no isomerume. He didn't like to make small talk; so why not just have someone familiar with all the signal flow? 'That's how you had to be with him'

In this special episode, Susan Rogers, a record producer turned cognitive neuroscientist, and Daniel Levitin, author of “This Is Your Brain on Music,” get together to discuss what music has meant in their lives, debate what separates a great artist from a generic one, and share some of their favorite tunes.

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Susan’s new book, “This Is What It Sounds Like,” was chosen by our curators — Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink — as one of the eight best works of nonfiction published last year. She recently made a beautiful video e-course about the book, which you can experience by downloading the Next Big Idea app.