Feeling

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 09:02:06 +0100

Just got back from Koli, Finland where I attended the Soundscapes 2010 conference. The Finnish organizers should be proud of this carefully planned and wonderfully produced gathering dedicated to the discussion of “Ideologies and Ethics in the Uses and Abuses of Sound”. An event marked by a growing interdisciplinarity as Barry Truax noticed.
In my view the Koli conference defines a new era in soundscape studies.
Hildergard Westerkamp and others have pointed out to the importance of listening and to the central role that the perceptual subject has played in soundscape studies since its very inception.
Environmental, social and media studies have largely ignored the approach that soundscape studies pioneered. Listening is a part of feeling. Feelings is what’s largely in need in these days of incertitude and of unaccounted scrutiny of the “markets”...
A promising future thus stays ahead of us, not only because soundscape studies have an edge that can and will undoubtedly be applied to other areas of scholarship, but also because further development of this model being necessary new work will inevitably await us.

Koly also served another purpose. I don’t know exactly how many members the World Forum of Acoustic Ecology has. But I suspect that each one has particular reasons to belong to this unique group. In this wonderful diversity however there is one key and consensual figure that symbolizes the origins and strength of this movement: R. Murray Schafer.
Leading soundscape studies into the future is the best homage to him and to his vision.

(the photo is by architect, soundscaper and friend Marc Crunelle to whom I thank)

Ambisonics

Tue, 8 Jun 2010 19:31:46 +0100

Been writing about ambisonics for a local professional magazine. Writing on this subject brought back thoughts on the problem of spatialization of electronically produced acoustic signals. It also made me realize how this has been a recurring theme in electronic music and how badly the problem has always been dealt with. It made me think again on how this eminently elegant solution —ambisonics—, conceived by Michael Gerzon (seen in this ca. 1971 photo setting up his first tetrahedral Calrec microphone system) solved the problem, for electronic music but also for any field in which electronically produced or broadcasted sound is involved. And all he got in return was general undeserved indifference, I’m afraid.
Only financial determining factors have prevented me from having fully embraced this wonderful technology a long time ago, but this will hopefully change.

Soundscapes of war 2

Sun, 6 Jun 2010 18:20:33 +0100

The charge of the deaf brigade continues. Now it’s the “sound cannon”. Something called LRAD whose “shrill warning tones can be heard at least 1,600 feet (500 meters) away and depending on the model of LRAD it can blast a maximum sound of 145 to 151 decibels — equal to a gunshot — within a 3-foot (one meter) range,” MSNBC says.
At these levels the operators themselves may soon be saying: (Used to) hear you LRAD and clear!
“Originally designed for the U.S. Navy, LRADs can emit ear-blasting sounds so high in frequency they transcend normal thresholds of pain. While they are used everywhere from Iraq to the high seas for repelling pirates, LRADS are being increasingly employed as a crowd-control device.” the Star says.
They should also try them on rating agencies... I say!
Sound cannons were used in Pittsburgh during the G-20 summit (see photo) and the Toronto police may be using them during the upcoming summit at the end of the month.
If you‘d like to have an idea on how these things sound click here. If you are interested in finding out more about sonic weaponry read this.
The sound cannon is the only weapon guaranteed to backfire!
(photo by Brian Blanco / EPA)

Soundscapes of war 1

Sun, 30 May 2010 17:53:33 +0100

South Korea will be reinstalling powerful speakers in 14 different locations along the demilitarized zone that separates it from North Korea.
The loudspeakers which are being re-installed now were deactivated by the South Korea authorities six years ago. North Korea, which used radio as a propaganda tool in the past to glorify Kim Jong-Il, the “sun of the 21st century”, now threatens to blast the speakers. South Korea claims that the goal of this gigantic operation is to spread propaganda on freedom and democracy. “One group of loudspeakers on the Seoul side can be heard more than 20 kilometers” into North Korea in the quiet of the night, AFP says.
The blast of the sun of the 21st century’s combat with democracy and the freedom to speak louder, here is the theme of this gigantic 21st century electroacoustic extravaganza.

Vuvuzela

Wed, 19 May 2010 23:50:35 +0100

”What’s in a name?”, asked Juliet. “That which we call a rose
by any other name would smell as sweet?”
What’s in this name? That which they call a vuvuzela would it sound less dreadful or less threatening by any other name?
The sound of the vuvuzela became a symbol of the football supporter’s enthusiasm for their teams. It’s being used as a sort of iconic sound of FIFA’s World Cup 2010 in South Africa.
A recent study by Dr. De Wet Swanepoel of the University of Pretoria's department of communication pathology, and Dr. James Hall of the University of Florida, however, found evidence that this sound turned symbol of this sport event can lead to permanent hearing loss. “A real risk of noise induced hearing loss.” Another previous study, totally disregarded by the FIFA authorities, had already alerted to the inevitable consequences of the exposure to the vuvuzela’s high intensity sound level.
FIFA refused to ban the vuvuzela after finding out about these risks and supports it.
We’ll support our national teams until deafness do us part...

Au naturel...

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:49:52 +0000

A recent article in The Telegraph describes the characteristics that separate “natural” from “un-natural” music and “explains” why audiences deslike the latter. This has raised some heated criticism.
I didn’t know that there was such a thing as “natural” music. I always thought that there’s nothing “natural” about writing some symbols of sounds on paper and later have some musicians grab mallets, bows or use complex mechanisms such as a piano or an organ to recreate those sounds.
But according to these theories, certain types of music may be more “natural” than others...
This raises a personal and difficult to deal with question. Are we producing “un-natural” music, those of us who have been using electronically produced “un-natural” sounds or real sounds from our acoustic environment? Am I artificial? A cyborg of sorts...?
The title of the article is in itself an outrageous statement. We learn that audiences hate modern classical music. I always thought that audiences hated any attack on their aesthetic beliefs and on their culturally wired values. And I also thought that it all depends on the package and the wrapping. Audiences that may hate modern classical music, love it, accept it and fully understand it in the context of, say, a movie.
But I didn’t know this was “natural”. Otherwise I would have changed my musical lexicon years ago...
Throughout the history of western music, scandal and outrage have surrounded a lot of “natural” music, that seem perfectly “natural” now, and the same scandal and outrage were present in many other forms of art.
What is “natural” music? Even if you can prove that there may be a common element that crosses different and seemingly opposite cultures, who would want to build an entire art form solely based on that?
As Collin Holter put it “Of course music with readily perceptible patterns is easier to grok. Crossword puzzles consisting of thematically related clues are, I imagine, easier to complete than the other kind.”
So it is easier and more “natural” to let a patient die of leukemia than to replace that natural bone marrow...

Avatar

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:36:06 +0000

Went to see the movie Avatar. It is indeed an astonishing experience. The movie will most probably start a new trend in the industry. Great, revolutionary production, hot subject... totally disappointing sound and music!
It is incomprehensible that such a high profile work, so rich and adventurous in the visual techniques employed, tackling such an all-embracing and delicate subject, that constitutes such a challenging visual experience, should sound like his. Its use of music ranges from the totally banal to the scarily corny and some of its sound effects will probably trigger a 10-point Richter scale earthquake or speed up continental drift, if the theaters where this film is shown happen to stand on the right fault line. Often during the projection, I had to cover my ears.
I don’t really see a 3m Na’vi producing music of such a poor quality...

Noisy oceans

Tue, 5 Jan 2010 00:37:10 +0000

Research conducted in the USA by the Univerisity of Hawaii and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute shows that increasing levels of CO2 may lead to sound traveling faster in the ocean thus increasing the sound level originated by sources such as propellers, oil rigs or military equipment. This will in turn lead to a potentially harmful situation to marine animals “which use sounds in the 1,000 to 5,000 hertz range for communication and echolocation while foraging,” the NYT comments.

The monster of lake loudness

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:27:43 +0000

I recently stood at the Park St. station of the Boston T waiting for my train to get back home. Suddenly a horrible, piercing, incredibly loud sound started. I tried to move away from it only to find out that it was impossible. A “network” of boxes similar to that small red one on the top left corner of the photo. They were spaced about 5 m from each other and provided a completely homogenous sound field from which one could not escape. I moved through the platform and grabbed my iPhone —running a wonderful app named SPL which turns the iPhone into a sound level meter— and measured about 106 dB at 2-3 m. This value is not 100 % accurate, but it gives you a fair idea of what was going on.
All the passengers seemed to reflect the disturbance this annoying sound caused, many tried to protect themselves by covering their ears with the hands.
I don’t know if this was some sort of malfunction, a drill or a real accident but everybody was trying to run away from this inferno, and the expected communicational value of this “signal” soon became totally lost.
I cannot imagine any MBTA official, or the “acoustic” engineers who “designed” this system to deliberately expect that such an aberration can actually work, or give credit to a poorly designed emergency system like this one. On the other hand, they might have their ears in such a poor condition that they themselves don’t realize how harmful this is to their passengers.
Anyway, if you happen to be in Boston, have to take your 5 o’clock T and find yourselves in the middle of this incredible cacophony, you’d better carry some really heavy duty hearing protectors or prepare to sue the company. This way they might have to redesign the entire system...

We’re still awake and still singing

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 02:11:12 +0000

According to the Media Daily News “The (American) Senate may green-light legislation compelling advertisers to turn down the sound on commercials. But although much of the public is annoyed by the high volumes, a minority feel the government should get involved in the issue.”
Daniel Levitin writes in his wonderful book The World in Six Songs “The surprise, predawn attack was a gruesome innovation in prehistoric warfare. The attackers would wait until their opponents were in deep sleep and attack just an hour before dawn, sometimes in complete silence, sometimes with a fanfare of menacing instruments, creating as much noise and mayhem as they could to terrify their victims. (...) Those bands of early humans who were unable to develop a strategy for fending off such attacks were killed. Their genes did not endure in the population.”
Whatever compelled bands of primitive people to turn that volume knob increasingly up during commercials we will never know...
What we do know however is that, still according to Levitin, “A few clever humans did develop countertactics —no doubt as a direct consequence of the increased size of their prefrontal cortex (...) These countertactics may well have involved staying awake at night and singing as a way to broadcast, ‘We’re awake, and we are here.’ “
Still singing after all these years...