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It happens every time some new technology threatens to put people out of work: a public campaign to save jobs. One example was in the 1920s and ’30s, when synchronized sound was added to movies, which meant that theaters no longer had to pay live musicians to accompany the films. The Music Defense League sprang into action, with a $500,000 advertising budget to rally the public against soundtracks recorded by just “300 musicians in Hollywood.” Read about the battle against canned music in theaters at Paleofuture. Link
Alexander Graham Bell and his Volta Laboratory Associates began research into recording sound in the early 1880s. They tried a variety of recording mediums, such as glass, wax, rubber, and metal. The experimental materials were eventually donated to the Smithsonian Institution, but they were not played back for fear of damaging the original material. But new technology is able to detect the recorded sound without scratching the cylinders and discs.
The recordings in the museum’s collection are in fragile condition due to their age and experimental nature. Until now, the technology to listen to the recordings without damaging the discs and cylinders was not available. The noninvasive optical technique used in this project to scan and recover sounds was first studied by Berkeley Lab in 2002–2004 and installed at the Library of Congress in 2006 and 2009. The process creates a high-resolution digital map of the disc or cylinder. This map is then processed to remove evidence of wear or damage (e.g., scratches and skips). Finally, software calculates the motion of a stylus moving through the disc or cylinder’s grooves, reproducing the audio content and producing a standard digital sound file.
The new preservation laboratory at the Library of Congress has hundreds of early recordings, including 200 from Volta Laboratory, to work on, and four of them are digitized for you to listen to at the Berkeley Lab website. Link -via reddit
Most
of us find hearing other people chomping and slurping rude and annoying,
but to some, the sound of other people eating, coughing or even breathing
can be enraging.
Here's the strange case of misophonia (lit. "hatred of sound"):
For people with a condition that some scientists call misophonia, mealtime can be torture. The sounds of other people eating — chewing, chomping, slurping, gurgling — can send them into an instantaneous, blood-boiling rage.
Or as Adah Siganoff put it, “rage, panic, fear, terror and anger, all mixed together.”
“The reaction is irrational,” said Ms. Siganoff, 52, of Alpine, Calif. “It is typical fight or flight” — so pronounced that she no longer eats with her husband.
Many people can be driven to distraction by certain small sounds that do not seem to bother others — gum chewing, footsteps, humming. But sufferers of misophonia, a newly recognized condition that remains little studied and poorly understood, take the problem to a higher level.
Joyce Cohen wrote this interesting article on The New York Times (just don't read it aloud, mmkay?): Link
(Image credit: Flickr member Jorge Orte Tudela)
by Martin Melchior
Stream Ecologist
Lake Mills, Wisconsin, USA
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Many have treated this as a philosophical question, with little to show for their efforts. I, on the other hand, see it as a practical question that can be answered by careful observation and measurement. With the help of an assistant and several sub-assistants, I have answered the question.
The research was conducted in the Chequamegon and Nicolet National Forests, in the state of Wisconsin.
My results show two things. First, that if a tree does fall in the forest, and no one hears it, it does indeed make a sound. Second, that while out-of-state recreationalists mispronounce the name “Chequamegon” in 75% of cases, Wisconsin residents mispronounce the word in only 62% of cases. I also learned the scores of some hockey games. Here are the details.
Large Woody Debris
Large woody debris (LWD) plays an important role in stream habitat, for fish, macroinvertebrates and other forest dwellers. A fairly thorough search of the scientific literature turned up no existing data concerning the sound of falling LWD in forests.
Gathering the Sounds
I used directional microphones, professional electronic audio recording equipment, personal observation, and some very inexpensive young assistants, to monitor the accumulation of large woody debris in old-growth forests of northern Wisconsin from June 1999 through July 2001.
I hired an impoverished undergraduate student to collect nearly 20,000 hours of audio/video tape in scenic areas in the Chequamegon and Nicolet National Forests. Video footage was collected with a Hitachi Z900 video camera and audio data was collected using a Shure SM58 microphone and three Shure DM 25 directional microphones with parabolic collector dishes. Recordings were made on a Tascam 850 8-track digital recorder and Yamaha 16-channel mixing board.
I made this impoverished undergraduate watch all of the tapes and make a record of every instance in which large woody debris fell to the forest floor.
(Image credit: Flickr member Gavin Golden)
Gary Hecker is probably unfamiliar to most of you, but there’s a good chance that many of you have seen (or rather heard) some of his work without even knowing it. He’s an award-winning Foley artist, reproducing everyday sounds for movies.
via kottke.org
Here’s a nicely done audio remix using sound elements from the movie, Pulp Fiction. It incorporates beats using sounds like soap being slapped into the hands of Jules and Vincent, the smoke alarm, the Wolf hanging up the phone, and lots more. No credits…anyone know who made this? Enjoy.
Caterpillars of the Great Peacock Moth (Saturnia pyri) are making quite a buzz. A recent study has shown that these giant silkmoth caterpillars are advertising acoustically that they are unpallatable and warn of an upcoming defense strategy.
When disturbed by a would be attacker the caterpillars stridulate by rubbing their mouth parts together, creating broadband chirps spanning from 3.7-55.1 kHz. While it is still unclear who exactly they are advertising to, a predator would be well advised to stay away from their sharp, chemical exuding bristles.
Though is not the first example of sound production in caterpillars it is a novel mechanism, paving the way for future research. (Photo: V. Bura)
Saturnia pyri chirp before or while they ooze foul-smelling droplets from their bristles. So the chirps might be a warning to attackers that there’s some serious resistance on the way, Yack and her colleagues propose online and in an upcoming Naturwissenschaften.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by afleming.
Physics can be fun if you don’t have to take a test. The scientific principles behind the Rubens’ Tube (showing standing waves) involved in this demonstration are explained at Wikipedia, but are more dramatically illustrated in the video.
– via dilidoo
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Minnesotastan.
The crack of Indy’s whip, the bleep-blips of R2-D2, and the asthmatic breathing of Darth Vader. These unique and memorable sound effects are all products of an often overlooked art form – the art of sound design. A Sound Designer’s duties include creating, editing and applying sound effects and all non-compositional elements of a film, video game, theater performance, recording or television program in what amounts to a very daunting job.
From the Upcoming Queue, submitted by whitespace.
