Jun 15, 2007

iPods to blame for total eclipse of the art: “‘We are not in a very visual age,’ Hockney said. ‘I think it’s all about sound. People plug in their ears and don’t look much, whereas for me my eyes are the biggest pleasure.’”

Are we visual people, or are we aural people? If you had to choose, would you rather lose your eyesight or your hearing?

For the longest time I wrestled with this question - if I lost my hearing, I would lose the ability to listen to beautiful music. But if I lost my sight, I’d lost the ability to look at beautiful women. But in the end, it came down to one thing: if I lost my hearing, I would lose the ability to hear someone sneaking up behind me. Sorry Mr Hockney, but I’ll go with the ear every time.

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A brief follow-up on my loudness post from couple of days ago:

• A U.K. brief on TV Advertising Sound Levels “ and why they’re so loud.
• Why music really is getting louder: “Record companies are competing in an arms race to make their album sound the ‘loudest’”

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David Pogue of the New York Times offers up a review of several active noise canceling headphones.

Short summary: the Bose QC-2 and QC-3 are still at the top of the heap, but models from Panasonic and Audio-Technica are closing the gap.

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Jun 12, 2007

Here’s a list of stuff I’ve been meaning to post, but never got around to. Some old, some very old:

• Talk Softly but Carry a Big Woofer — “‘Try watching a movie with the sound off,’ said Jack Buser, worldwide technology evangelist for Dolby, creators of the Dolby Digital surround sound standard. ‘Sound is half the experience. It conveys motion and the power of the entertainment.’”
• The Sound of Silence — “The emerging science of infrasound may help track ­ or even predict ­ earthquakes and other disasters.”
• Sports-Arena Noise Can Damage Hearing — “Six minutes of sports-arena noise gives fans 81 times their daily allowable dose of noise.”
• Scientists Study Sacred Sounds— “Does your church sing? Or does its message fall flat in a mess of reverberation, boomy bass and muffled speech? Researchers here are investigating the subjective acoustic qualities of church architecture in one of the most extensive scientific inquiries yet.”
• Some Researchers Call for Classroom Sound Systems — “But some caution that amplification is not the only way to get a quiet classroom‹good design is also necessary.”
• A Screaming Comes Across the Screen — a history of the “Wilhelm” scream heard in many movies
• The rural alarm clock — “Thousands of people across the UK have complained the horns on the new sleek, comfortable and, yes, quiet trains are just too loud.”
• Tiny sliver of land puts abbey, MBTA at odds - “The T offered the abbey $1,700 for the parcel and has spent $123,000 on a sound- and vibration-dampening mat it says will absorb much of the impact of the trains. ” (ah, the memories…)
• Keeping the Sound In— “The right sound absorption solution can prevent audio from leaking into adjacent rooms from the home theater.”
• The Silence of the Leaf Blowers — “‘That high RPM causes a screaming sound, and that screaming sound is what bothers everyone,’ said Larry Will, a consultant and former engineering vice president for Echo, a maker of outdoor power equipment that routinely opposes blower bans in communities that propose them. ‘The ban is blind. It doesn’t recognize that there’s such a thing as a quiet blower.’”
• 17-Year Silence Spoke Volumes — “Bottomline, Williams said snowmobiles do not belong in Yellowstone. ‘We need to give silence an opportunity to be heard,’ he said.”
• Loud Pipes… and the Bikers who Love Them — “Loud bikes are sure to be a continuing issue (especially in beautiful vacation spots like Hampton Beach and the Lakes Region) because motorcycles are part of New Hampshire life. And noise is an inescapable part of motorcycling.”
• Math, Physics, and Engineering Applets— Java applets to help you visualize various engineering concepts, including acoustics, wave propagation and signal processing
• Longing for the sounds of silence— “In 2006, there were a grand total of eight citations written for excessive motorcycle noise under the state’s decibel law, according to Registry of Motor Vehicles. That’s eight, in all of Massachusetts.”
• Anti-gang noise box switched off— “The device, called a Mosquito, works by emitting a high pitched irritating noise audible only to young people.” There was a similar dispute recently in the Western MA town of Great Barrington where a business owner was using “the Mosquito” to discourage youths from congregating in his parking lot (scroll down to the bottom).

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Jun 07, 2007

(hey, my first YouTube post!)

I’ve written in the past about the games some recording techs play with regards to dynamic range in modern albums. User “LoudnessWar” has posted a visual and audio presentation that shows the problem:

(If you’re reading this through my RSS feed, you’ll have to click through to see the movie.)

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