What exactly is PRaT???

What would a discussion of PRAT be without bringing in marijuana?

Why Weed and Music Go So Well Together

"Dr. Jörg Fachner: [Marijuana] works like a psycho-acoustic enhancer. That means you are more able to absorb, to focus on something, and to have a bit of a broader spectrum. It doesn’t change the music; it doesn’t change the ear functioning. Obviously it changes the way we perceive ear space in music.

It also changes time perception, and if you listen to music, it is a time process, so if you have a different time perception of course you will listen differently to music.

This sort of reminds me of the discussion which turned into an argument about the meaning of "musical."

I know a bit of what PRaT is. I’ve also experienced it, A writer once wrote "PRaT can take decades to understand". He might be right, PRaT indeed is a hard thing to understand because it is not just 1 thing.

From what I’ve experienced, PRaT - at least some part of it allows the music to flow in perfect synchrony. It is indeed a rare trait.

The first time I ever heard of it was right here on A'gon, and I didn't get it either.

I mean, it seems to me that "pace, rhythm and tempo" is what the band either did or didn't do during the recording session, and if they did do it, the rest was up to the guys and/or gals doing the recording and mastering.  I would have never thought that this was the function of the consumer's playback gear.

However, one of the upgrades I made that most grabbed my attention was in '99 when I replaced a B&K digital HT preamp with a secondhand Carp SLP 90.  My initial reaction was, "So this is what "musical" means."  But I was never able to put what I heard into words that I could use to describe it.

@soix 

As a drummer, you know you can push the beat or play more relaxed and still be "on time". It's a feel thing. I notice it most on plucked strings. Acoustic guitar, mandolin, pizz strings. 

I think it's mostly about transient response on the high end and maybe damping on the low end to respond accurately to the speed of the waveform.