Tag Archives: sound

Culture

5 Ways To Listen Better

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In our louder and louder world, says sound expert Julian Treasure, “We are losing our listening.” In this short, fascinating talk, Treasure shares five ways to re-tune your ears for conscious listening — to other people and the world around you.

Julian Treasure studies sound and helps people and businesses to listen, speak and use sound well.
This talk was presented at an official TED conference. For the Silo, David J. Hensley.

Transcript


00:03
We are losing our listening. We spend roughly 60 percent of our communication time listening, but we’re not very good at it. We retain just 25 percent of what we hear. Now — not you, not this talk, but that is generally true.
00:18
(Laughter)
00:19
Let’s define listening as making meaning from sound. It’s a mental process, and it’s a process of extraction.
00:27
We use some pretty cool techniques to do this. One of them is pattern recognition. (Crowd noises) So in a cocktail party like this, if I say, “David, Sara, pay attention” — some of you just sat up. We recognize patterns to distinguish noise from signal, and especially our name. Differencing is another technique we use. If I left this pink noise on for more than a couple of minutes, (Pink noise) you would literally cease to hear it. We listen to differences; we discount sounds that remain the same.
00:56
And then there is a whole range of filters. These filters take us from all sound down to what we pay attention to. Most people are entirely unconscious of these filters. But they actually create our reality in a way, because they tell us what we’re paying attention to right now. I’ll give you one example of that. Intention is very important in sound, in listening. When I married my wife, I promised her I would listen to her every day as if for the first time. Now that’s something I fall short of on a daily basis.
01:28
(Laughter)
01:29
But it’s a great intention to have in a relationship.
01:32
(Laughter)
01:34
But that’s not all. Sound places us in space and in time. If you close your eyes right now in this room, you’re aware of the size of the room from the reverberation and the bouncing of the sound off the surfaces; you’re aware of how many people are around you, because of the micro-noises you’re receiving. And sound places us in time as well, because sound always has time embedded in it. In fact, I would suggest that our listening is the main way that we experience the flow of time from past to future. So, “Sonority is time and meaning” — a great quote.
02:08
I said at the beginning, we’re losing our listening. Why did I say that? Well, there are a lot of reasons for this. First of all, we invented ways of recording — first writing, then audio recording and now video recording as well. The premium on accurate and careful listening has simply disappeared. Secondly, the world is now so noisy, (Noise) with this cacophony going on visually and auditorily, it’s just hard to listen; it’s tiring to listen. Many people take refuge in headphones, but they turn big, public spaces like this, shared soundscapes, into millions of tiny, little personal sound bubbles. In this scenario, nobody’s listening to anybody.
02:51
We’re becoming impatient. We don’t want oratory anymore; we want sound bites. And the art of conversation is being replaced — dangerously, I think — by personal broadcasting. I don’t know how much listening there is in this conversation, which is sadly very common, especially in the UK. We’re becoming desensitized. Our media have to scream at us with these kinds of headlines in order to get our attention. And that means it’s harder for us to pay attention to the quiet, the subtle, the understated.
03:23
This is a serious problem that we’re losing our listening. This is not trivial, because listening is our access to understanding. Conscious listening always creates understanding, and only without conscious listening can these things happen. A world where we don’t listen to each other at all is a very scary place indeed. So I’d like to share with you five simple exercises, tools you can take away with you, to improve your own conscious listening. Would you like that?
03:55
Audience: Yes!
03:56
Good. The first one is silence. Just three minutes a day of silence is a wonderful exercise to reset your ears and to recalibrate, so that you can hear the quiet again. If you can’t get absolute silence, go for quiet, that’s absolutely fine.
04:13
Second, I call this “the mixer.” (Noise) So even if you’re in a noisy environment like this — and we all spend a lot of time in places like this — listen in the coffee bar to how many channels of sound can I hear? How many individual channels in that mix am I listening to? You can do it in a beautiful place as well, like in a lake. How many birds am I hearing? Where are they? Where are those ripples? It’s a great exercise for improving the quality of your listening.
04:40
Third, this exercise I call “savoring,” and this is a beautiful exercise. It’s about enjoying mundane sounds. This, for example, is my tumble dryer.
04:49
(Dryer)
04:50
It’s a waltz — one, two, three; one, two, three; one, two, three. I love it! Or just try this one on for size.
04:58
(Coffee grinder)
05:07
Wow! So, mundane sounds can be really interesting — if you pay attention. I call that the “hidden choir” — it’s around us all the time.
05:16
The next exercise is probably the most important of all of these, if you just take one thing away. This is listening positions — the idea that you can move your listening position to what’s appropriate to what you’re listening to. This is playing with those filters. Remember I gave you those filters? It’s starting to play with them as levers, to get conscious about them and to move to different places. These are just some of the listening positions, or scales of listening positions, that you can use. There are many. Have fun with that. It’s very exciting.
05:46
And finally, an acronym. You can use this in listening, in communication. If you’re in any one of those roles — and I think that probably is everybody who’s listening to this talk — the acronym is RASA, which is the Sanskrit word for “juice” or “essence.” And RASA stands for “Receive,” which means pay attention to the person; “Appreciate,” making little noises like “hmm,” “oh,” “OK”; “Summarize” — the word “so” is very important in communication; and “Ask,” ask questions afterwards.
06:18
Now sound is my passion, it’s my life. I wrote a whole book about it. So I live to listen. That’s too much to ask for most people. But I believe that every human being needs to listen consciously in order to live fully — connected in space and in time to the physical world around us, connected in understanding to each other, not to mention spiritually connected, because every spiritual path I know of has listening and contemplation at its heart.
06:46
That’s why we need to teach listening in our schools as a skill. Why is it not taught? It’s crazy. And if we can teach listening in our schools, we can take our listening off that slippery slope to that dangerous, scary world that I talked about, and move it to a place where everybody is consciously listening all the time, or at least capable of doing it.
07:07
Now, I don’t know how to do that, but this is TED, and I think the TED community is capable of anything. So I invite you to connect with me, connect with each other, take this mission out. And let’s get listening taught in schools, and transform the world in one generation to a conscious, listening world — a world of connection, a world of understanding and a world of peace.
07:29
Thank you for listening to me today.

Sci-Tech

7 Of The Best Sounding Car Exhausts

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We asked our friends at Hagerty what defines a great sounding automotive engine. Here’s what they had to say.

When executed just right, a proper exhaust is the cherry on top of the perfect automotive sundae—it stands out in its own right, but it also completes the package. And it’s not just the sound, glorious though it may be. The visual—and sometimes the artistry—that a good set of pipes can add sometimes does more to define a car than any bit of thoughtfully penned bodywork.

We got to thinking about the sights and sounds that captivate us most, and this list was the result. We could have gone on for days, though, and we bet you have some favorites, too, so give our submissions a read, then tell us your favorite exhaust—for whatever reasons you choose—in the comments!

Ford GT40

I’m going to go with the Ford GT40’s “bundle of snakes” exhaust. When you stop to consider the precision with which such a system had to be fabricated, your mind kind of melts a bit. If you’ve never YouTubed one of these things at full honk, do yourself a favor and click play below. — Nate Petroelje

https://youtube.com/watch?v=iMocr95cYfU%3Fsi%3DSRXSg-GEQNSI5Tcf%26enablejsapi%3D1

Gurney Eagle

Dan Gurney Eagle-Weslake T1G Grand Prix Of Great Britain 1968
Dan Gurney, Eagle-Weslake T1G, Grand Prix of Great Britain, Silverstone, 20 July 1968.Bernard Cahier/Getty Images

The first time I ever saw a Gurney Eagle was at Gooding’s Pebble Beach auction in 2013.

The car was on display in the lobby area of the tent, and I remember being flabbergasted at the intricacies of the exhaust pipes coming out of that Gurney-Weslake V-12. I’d never seen anything like it, and all I could think of was spaghetti twirled up on a fork. — Stefan Lombard

1966 AAR Gurney Eagle Mk I-1
Stefan Lombard

Outlaw Dirt Sprint Car

Outlaw Dirt Track Sprint Cars race action
Cameron Neveu

No question, there are some lovely-to-look-at exhausts here, but I’m more moved by the sound an engine makes through that exhaust, and that’s a tough call. On several occasions I’ve been lucky enough to be at a racetrack when vintage Ferrari Formula 1 cars were making an exhibition run, and the Ferrari 412 T2’s fabric-tearing sound from its 3.0-liter V-12 is just otherworldly. But I’m picking something far less sophisticated: An exhaust note made by simple unmuffled headers fed by a 410-cubic-inch V-8 engine in an outlaw dirt sprint car. One car is loud; 24 sprint cars, representing about 21,600 horsepower, is thunder. The biggest sanctioning body for sprint cars is the World of Outlaws, which runs about 90 races a year, in a season that, in 2024, starts on February 7 and ends on November 9.

Due to local zoning laws, the WoO requires mufflers for 22 of the races. Since my hearing is shot already (Kids! Don’t do drugs, but DO wear earplugs!), I’ll take the unmuffled races, and the unmistakable smell of methanol in the evening. — Steven Cole Smith

Drag Headers

2021 Dream Cruise woodward ave action hot rod
Cameron Neveu

The best exhaust systems are the ones that end after the headers.

I couldn’t have said it much better than SCS. A 410 engine belching out of unmuffled Schoenfeld headers is tops.

But a close second are drag headers. Zoomies or fenderwell are my favorite on old drag cars. That cackle. That’s the noise I’d like to hear out of the trumpets as I approach heaven’s gate. Oh, and the visual appearance of four pipes directing exhaust up and over fat slicks, or peaking around the lip of a fender. Get outta here! — Cameron Neveu

Milan Nostalgia Drags Willys Truck Gasser
“The Haymaker” Willys gasser.Cameron Neveu

Mercedes SLR McLaren and 1987–93 Mustang LX

Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren exhaust
Mercedes Benz

My favorite exhaust in terms of looks is the side exit exhaust of the 2003–10 Mercedes SLR McLaren, because of that insane amount of space between the front wheel and the cowl and the subtle little twin pipes peeking under that area. The flat belly pan likely made this a mandatory location, but that only adds to the appeal. But when it comes to looks and sounds, for me there’s nothing like a 1987-93 Mustang LX with its signature chrome double-barreled shotgun tailpipes, and that small block Ford rumble. I could look and listen to that exhaust all day. — Sajeev Mehta

1990 ford mustang LX exhaust
Ford

Shelby Mustang GT350

1966 Ford Mustang Shelby GT 350
Ford

I grew up on V-8s in a GM family.

That said, the first time I heard the idle and subsequent roar of a 289 in an early Shelby GT350, I knew Ford had done something right.

It wasn’t till I was older that I learned all about how firing order, crank design, and exhaust setup influenced the amazing sounds that come from our favorite engines. That 289 was what I remember as my earliest favorite so that’s what I picked for this response, but like Steven Cole Smith said, there are so many great sounds out there that it’s a really tough call. — Eddy Eckart

Reviews

Three Thousand Dollar Cartridge Reveals All That Vinyl Records Offer

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Audio-Technica Introduces Its ART Series AT-ART20 High-End Phono Cartridge  

STOW, OH, June, 2022 — Audio-Technica recently reached out to The Silo and announced the introduction of its AT-ART20 Dual Moving Coil Stereo Cartridge, the latest in A-T’s ART Series of high-end phono cartridges. The AT-ART20 utilizes Audio-Technica’s magnetic-core design to achieve extraordinary musical realism. Complementing its superlative vinyl playback performance, the AT-ART20 has a striking, distinctive contoured appearance.

“Our goal in creating the new AT-ART20 was to capture the full expressiveness of the original recording,” said Bob Peet, Audio-Technica Global Product Manager – Analog Products. “

To that end, the AT-ART20 embodies technologies and know-how that are the result of our 60 years of experience in phono cartridge design and manufacturing.” 

The AT-ART20 (SRP: US$2,900 / CAD$3,760) delivers expansive, detailed sound with unmatched imaging and dynamics. The AT-ART20 utilizes the advanced manufacturing and polishing techniques that have been developed in the eyeglass industry of Sabae City in Japan’s Fukui Prefecture. The cartridge’s body features graceful curves with a flowing, organic design that has never been previously achieved. The body is made of precision-machined titanium combined with an aluminum cartridge base and an elastomer under cover, a selection of materials that provides significant resonance reduction along with lower mass. The cartridge body has threaded mounting holes to facilitate installation. 

The AT-ART20 features dual moving coils aligned in an inverted “V” shape which provides optimal channel separation for superior stereo imaging and wide dynamics. The front yoke of the magnetic circuit is 0.6 mm thicker than previous designs, to improve magnetic flux density and increase the output efficiency by more than 15 percent to 0.55 mV. 

The cartridge employs a nude special line-contact stylus with a solid boron cantilever just 0.011 inches (0.28 mm) in diameter, to extract a remarkable amount of information from the record groove. The boron cantilever is connected to the armature utilizing a stepped-pipe construction, which provides increased rigidity and improved strength with decreased resonance for a purer audio signal with clearer, more detailed sound.

The AT-ART20’s tip reinforcement plate is made of titanium, which reduces overall mass and improves the cartridge’s high-frequency performance, which extends to 50,000 Hz. 

The Audio-Technica AT-ART20 Dual Moving Coil Stereo Cartridge is now available. Contact us on where and how to place your order.

Sci-Tech

Researchers Control Mammalian Cells With Sound For First Time

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Salk researchers pinpoint a sound-sensitive mammalian protein that lets them activate brain, heart or other cells with ultrasound
LA JOLLA—Salk scientists have engineered mammalian cells to be activated using ultrasound. The method, which the team used to activate human cells in a dish and brain cells inside living mice, paves the way toward non-invasive versions of deep brain stimulation, pacemakers and insulin pumps.

The findings were published in Nature Communications on February 9, 2022.” Going wireless is the future for just about everything,” says senior author Sreekanth Chalasani, an associate professor in Salk’s Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory. “We already know that ultrasound is safe, and that it can go through bone, muscle and other tissues, making it the ultimate tool for manipulating cells deep in the body.” About a decade ago, Chalasani pioneered the idea of using ultrasonic waves to stimulate specific groups of genetically marked cells, and coined the term “sonogenetics” to describe it.

In 2015, his group showed that, in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, a protein called TRP-4 makes cells sensitive to low-frequency ultrasound. When the researchers added TRP-4 to C. elegans neurons that didn’t usually have it, they could activate these cells with a burst of ultrasound—the same sound waves used in medical sonograms. When the researchers tried adding TRP-4 to mammalian cells, however, the protein was not able to make the cells respond to ultrasound. A few mammalian proteins were reported to be ultrasound-sensitive, but none seemed ideal for clinical use.

So Chalasani and his colleagues set out to search for a new mammalian protein that made cells highly ultrasound sensitive at 7 MHz, considered an optimal and safe frequency.” Our approach was different than previous screens because we set out to look for ultrasound-sensitive channels in a comprehensive way,” says Yusuf Tufail, a former project scientist at Salk and a co-first author of the new paper.

The researchers added hundreds of different proteins, one at a time, to a common human research cell line (HEK), which does not usually respond to ultrasound. Then, they put each cell culture under a setup that let them monitor changes to the cells upon ultrasound stimulation. After screening proteins for more than a year, and working their way through nearly 300 candidates, the scientists finally found one that made the HEK cells sensitive to the 7 MHz ultrasound frequency.

TRPA1, a channel protein, was known to let cells respond to the presence of noxious compounds and to activate a range of cells in the human body, including brain and heart cells.

But Chalasani’s team discovered that the channel also opened in response to ultrasound in HEK cells. “We were really surprised,” says co-first author of the paper Marc Duque, a Salk exchange student. “TRPA1 has been well-studied in the literature but hasn’t been described as a classical mechanosensitive protein that you’d expect to respond to ultrasound.” To test whether the channel could activate other cell types in response to ultrasound, the team used a gene therapy approach to add the genes for human TRPA1 to a specific group of neurons in the brains of living mice.

When they then administered ultrasound to the mice, only the neurons with the TRPA1 genes were activated.Clinicians treating conditions including Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy currently use deep brain stimulation, which involves surgically implanting electrodes in the brain, to activate certain subsets of neurons.

Chalasani says that sonogenetics could one day replace this approach—the next step would be developing a gene therapy delivery method that can cross the blood-brain barrier, something that is already being studied. Perhaps sooner, he says, sonogenetics could be used to activate cells in the heart, as a kind of pacemaker that requires no implantation.

“Gene delivery techniques already exist for getting a new gene—such as TRPA1—into the human heart,” Chalasani says. “If we can then use an external ultrasound device to activate those cells, that could really revolutionize pacemakers.”For now, his team is carrying out more basic work on exactly how TRPA1 senses ultrasound.

“In order to make this finding more useful for future research and clinical applications, we hope to determine exactly what parts of TRPA1 contribute to its ultrasound sensitivity and tweak them to enhance this sensitivity,” says Corinne Lee-Kubli, a co-first author of the paper and former postdoctoral fellow at Salk.

They also plan to carry out another screen for ultrasound sensitive proteins—this time looking for proteins that can inhibit, or shut off, a cell’s activity in response to ultrasound.

The other authors of the paper were Uri Magaram, Janki Patel, Ahana Chakraborty, Jose Mendoza Lopez, Eric Edsinger, Rani Shiao and Connor Weiss of Salk; and Aditya Vasan and James Friend of UC San Diego.

The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01MH111534, R01NS115591), Brain Research Foundation, Kavli Institute of Brain and Mind, Life Sciences Research Foundation, W.M. Keck Foundation (SERF), and the Waitt Advanced Biophotonics and GT3 Cores (which receive funding through NCI CCSG P30014195 and NINDSR24).

About the Salk Institute for Biological Studies:
Every cure has a starting point. The Salk Institute embodies Jonas Salk’s mission to dare to make dreams into reality. Its internationally renowned and award-winning scientists explore the very foundations of life, seeking new understandings in neuroscience, genetics, immunology, plant biology and more. The Institute is an independent nonprofit organization and architectural landmark: small by choice, intimate by nature and fearless in the face of any challenge. Be it cancer or Alzheimer’s, aging or diabetes, Salk is where cures begin.

Featured image: Neurons (magenta) in the mouse brain. The Chalasani lab made specific neurons express TRPA1 (white), so they can be activated by ultrasound.

Sci-Tech

Why We Have A Romantic Conception Of Reverberation

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Reverberation. Why are its effects so pleasing to our ears and how is reverberation designed and controlled?

Sci-Tech

ELEKTRO MOSKVA- Intriguing Documentary About Soviet Music Synthesizers

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I spent most of yesterday afternoon watching and taking notes from the 86 minute documentary ELEKTRO MOSKVA. This film is so rich and interesting that I found myself sitting in reflection every time I jotted down another intriguing story element…..and believe me there were lots.

Stanislav Kreichi with ANS - world's first 'draw sound' synthesizer.
Stanislav Kreichi with ANS – world’s first ‘draw sound’ synthesizer.

The film’s official website describes itself like this: “ELEKTRO MOSKVA is an essayistic documentary about the beginnings of the Soviet electronic age and what remained of it- a huge pile of outdated, fascinating devices. Today they are being recycled and reinterpreted by musicians, inventors and traders, who carry that legacy on into an uncertain future. An electronic fairy tale about the inventive spirit of the free mind inside the iron curtain- and beyond.”

An example of everyday Soviet Russia DIY- In 1970 TV's were readily available but not antennas.
An example of everyday Soviet Russia DIY- In 1970 TV’s were readily available but not antennas.

Well all of that is certainly true but I discovered something deeper….. something partially hidden and really only stated at the end of the documentary: A metaphysical connection between electronic instruments, their circuitry and between immortality and rejuvenation. A sort of Frankenstein subplot. And that makes ELEKTRO MOSKVA much more interesting. It lingers and stays with you as all great films and documentaries tend to do.

Leon Theremin

Leon Theremin
Leon Theremin

Leon Theremin

If the inventor of the world’s first electronic instrument- The Theremin is to believed, his experimentation with electronic instrument designs led to techniques that allowed rejuvenation of human life and the bringing of the dead back to life. Kooky stuff to be sure but in our modern age of DNA manipulation and Stem Cell research shouldn’t we keep our minds open to all biological possibilities? Why is it so obtuse to think that electronic manipulation holds the key to immortality? The brain is after all- a sort of electronic computer. Why else would Russia have kept the body of Lenin whole and entombed for over a hundred years? Perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself- let’s move instead to the birth of Communist Synthesizers.

A Ghost of Communism: The backdrop for the film

It began with the Soviet electrification of the country. As Russian homes and farms became wired, Science and Technical Progress became heralded by the state as ‘the new Gods’. In 1926 Léon Theremin ( Lev Sergeyevich Termen ) invented an early form of television which was adapted for border security use and classified. At the same time, the state decided that technological developments were only considered legit and legal if they strengthened communism.

Alexey Borisov
Alexey Borisov

The long awaited electrical revolution expected by the masses and any notions of new, exciting products in Russian homes became instead a sort of electrified jail and super factory. Then, after Russia had successfully developed nuclear bombs and orbited the first man in space- things changed. A celebration of technical progress and Soviet achievement became politicized through the use of synthetic music and sound. Found out what happened next by watching ELEKTRO MOSKVA online in HD. Highly recommended. For the Silo, Jarrod Barker.

Click me! New Music created from early sci-fi soundtracks incl. Theramin cameos.
Click me! New Music created from early sci-fi soundtracks incl. Theremin cameos.

Culture

Griots And A Strong Sense Of What Hip-Hop Means

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Mos def has a strong sense of what hip-hop means

Hip-hop is not rap, although rap is part of hip-hop. Hip-hop is a culture and style that was born in the American city, growing out of the minds and experiences of predominantly African-American communities in late ’70’s New York. But by now it is everywhere. They love hip-hop in India and South America and here where I live in Norfolk, most farmers may not listen to hip-hop, but their kids certainly do.

Hip-hop is also a beat: the beat of rap music, the beat of the city beating here in the country, over the airwaves and out of car windows, vibrating through headphones in the air-conditioned cabs of tractors. It is a beat originally created by isolating the percussion breaks of jazz and funk records and remixing them live for dancing and block party revelry, and later to accompany the flowing, groove poetry of a whole new kind of poet: the rapper, Master of Ceremonies or MC—often poor and disenfranchised, but still creative, soulful and strong. Hip-hop, in its original form, could be considered a kind of technological, urban folk music, in the sense that its early practitioners did not record their sounds, and even resisted recording. Hip-hop was something that happened live.

But was rapping really a new form? There is another part of this story that has always interested me. In many of the African tribes from which slaves were stolen, the griot (pr. gree-oh) was a cultural fixture. Griots were to West-Africa what the bards or troubadours were to Europe: mobile repositories of history in the form of oral tradition; cultural history sung and chanted to the beat of drums. Except in the case of the griot, that beat was African.

Griots were also expected to improvise poetry based on the current social and political scene, and were known for their sharp wit and verbal mastery. In many parts of West-Africa, a party still isn’t a party without a griot.

It is a testimony to the resilience of slaves that, denied the right to speak their own languages, they found other ways to speak, and sing, their true voices. There were the work songs of course,   documented before they disappeared in the field recordings of Alan Lomax. But consider other examples. As blacks embraced Christianity, they injected the forms of church with Africanness. Black preaching became famous for its emotional power, spontaneity and, you guessed it, verbal mastery. Black gospel, blues and then jazz took the existing forms of American church music, folk and brass military music and made them African. Jazz and blues again incorporated the principle of the masterful voice, not spoken this time, but sung through the instrument itself, giving us the improvised instrumental solo. And rock and roll is a whole other subject…

Given this history, hip-hop is seen as an urban innovation on an old theme and a turn, perhaps full circle, back to the centrality of The Word. Rap is not merely poetry to a beat: these words flow with and around beats to create layers of syncopation, tickling the mind while they move the body. They are polyrhythms with verbal content.

At this level hip-hop is an art form, and while we may not always like the content of an artist’s message, if we care about art we can still engage with it on the basis of its merits. And we may consider its context. Some people, even creative people, will respond to poverty and systemic oppression with anger and violence. Some will focus their desire on all the trappings of money and fame formerly denied them. It’s not so hard to fathom.

But there are some, a few, who go another direction for justice. These are the warrior-poets who seek from pain the gifts of understanding, even wisdom. Even love. Hip-hop is known to borrow motifs from kung-fu movies, because there, too,  you find the archetype of the warrior-artist, skills honed to razor sharpness, delivering beat-downs with fists if necessary, but just as often with the mind itself.

Granted, you will not find much of this style of writing on the radio. But it’s out there. To dig deeper, Google “conscious hip-hop” or “underground hip-hop” and see where that takes you. Word.  For the Silo, Chris Dowber.