For your listening pleasure. Hopefully.
9.23.2009
Who wants to get a hearing test with me?
'Perfecting Sound Forever': A History Of
June 22, 2009 - In his book, Perfecting Sound Forever, Greg Milner explores the evolution of sound. His history covers the analog days of Thomas Edison through the present day of digital recordings, and the quest for sonic perfection.
Technological advances have complicated the debate about the value of the most accurate reproduction of a sound, versus the most enhanced. Whereas Edison set out to perfectly capture a live performance, today's sound engineers have the ability to create recordings from musicians who aren't in the same room — or aren't even alive at the same time.
Milner takes the reader through major breakthroughs and massive failures in recording history. He also digs into specific recordings from Lead Belly, the Beatles, Mission of Burma, Steve Albini and Massive Attack.
Excerpt: 'Perfecting Sound Forever'by Greg Milner
Greg Milner is also the coauthor, with filmmaker Joe Berlinger, of Metallica: This Monster Lives. He has also worked as a political speechwriter.
When a sound wave is generated, the mass is the air itself — or rather, the billions of particles that comprise the air — and the elasticity is the natural tendency of the particles to return to a stable position. These are the characteristics of any sound wave, whether caused by the big bang or by John Bonham's drum intro to Led Zeppelin's version of Memphis Minnie's "When the Levee Breaks." Those two particular sounds are alike in other ways: they are both epic and epochal, and each has been cited as evidence of the hand of God (and in Bonham's case, also His right foot). The latter is easier for us to conceive (though nearly as unlikely to ever be repeated), so let's examine the work performed by Bonham, and its effect on us.
You are very lucky. It is sometime in the early seventies, and you are at a mansion in the English village of Headley. The members of Led Zeppelin are here to make their fourth album, and they have invited you along to watch. Today they will record Bonham's drum part for "When the Levee Breaks." The band wants Bonham's drums to have a booming, reverb-heavy sound. (This is an unusual choice for the time, since the trend in records is toward drums that sound dry, with little resonance.) To achieve the desired effect, they place the drums at the bottom of a stairwell, with the microphone hanging three stories up. You are in the stairwell, a few feet away from the drums. The only person who will be closer to the sound is Bonham.
The engineer announces that the tape is rolling. Bonham counts off the rhythm and then slams his foot down on his kick drum's pedal to begin the beat. Let's freeze time at this exact moment and analyze the next 1/30,000th of a second, roughly the amount of time that elapses each time our hearing system takes a reading. What exactly is happening?
The pedal causes the mallet to strike the kick drum with a force that only Bonham, it would seem, can generate. The skin of the drum impacts the air particles around it. There are a lot of them — 400 billion billion just in the cubic inch around the area where the mallet has hit. Like any other sonic source, Bonham's drum has caused a disturbance in the air. The particles are very disturbed. They're rocking — literally. Imagine each attached to its own spring mechanism. The first particle to be impacted is knocked off its unique and stable position in the universe. It swings forward, and then is pulled back by its spring. It overshoots its original position on the way back, is pulled back again by the spring, and attempts to find its original spot. Its initial surge forward has thrown it up against the particle next to it, and that particle begins the same process. There's real slapstick comedy here — particles all knocking one another out of place like circus clowns.
We'll follow the wave into one of your ears.
The wave travels a little more than two centimeters through the ear canal and arrives at your tympanic membrane, otherwise known as the eardrum. The wave vibrates the eardrum, which transfers the vibration to a tiny bone attached to it on the other side. This bone is connected to two others; the three are known informally (and, for our example, appropriately) as the hammer, anvil, and stirrup. The hammer transfers the vibrations to the anvil, which sends them to the stirrup. The stirrup covers the entrance to the inner ear. It is in the inner ear that these vibrations begin to become information. (The inner ear also regulates your sense of balance, an important task at this moment, since Bonham's drumming is about to give you simulated whiplash.)
To understand what happens next, we need an understanding of some of the properties of waves. Every wave has an amplitude and a frequency. The amplitude is a measure of the power of the wave, the degree to which it disturbs the medium in which it propagates. For sound waves, that medium is air, so amplitude corresponds to the pressure changes the wave causes in the air. We perceive amplitude as volume. The relationship isn't linear — that is, we can't simply say the greater the amplitude, the louder the sound — but for now, just think of the amplitude of a sound wave as an expression of soft and loud, usually expressed in a unit called the decibel (dB).
A wave's frequency describes the time it takes to complete one cycle of vibration before beginning to vibrate again. The frequency of a sound wave corresponds to its pitch. A low frequency sounds like bass, a high frequency sounds like treble. Frequency is denoted in cycles per second, or hertz (Hz). (Groupings of a thousand cycles per second are often expressed in kilohertz, or kHz.) Thus the lowest sound human beings can hear, 20 Hz, is caused by a wave that vibrates back and forth 20 times in one second. The upper limit of human hearing is 20 kHz (though for most people it is much lower), caused by a wave that vibrates 20,000 times in one second.
For the purposes of this book, think of the amplitude as the "height" of the wave, a measure of its power, which we perceive as volume; and think of frequency as the wave's "width," the distance it travels back and forth when it vibrates, which we perceive as pitch.
The inner ear is barely the size of a grape. Within it lies a snail-shell-shaped organ called the cochlea, filled with fluid and bisected by a membrane that varies in length from half a millimeter on one end to 1/25th of a millimeter on the other. The vibrations from the stirrup displace the fluid. The way this fluid is displaced allows your auditory system to determine loudness and pitch. Bonham's vibrations begin to become something we can understand, thanks to thousands of hair cells in the cochlea that make synaptic connections with the auditory nerve. As far as you are concerned, Bonham's blast is no longer a wave. It is now a series of electrical impulses.
The nerve endings of the auditory nerve interface with various cells, which eventually connect to a part of your brain called the medial geniculate body. From there, nerve fibers carry the signal to the auditory region of your cerebral cortex. It is here, after this arduous journey of vibrations begetting more vibrations and then finally electrical signals, that the sound of Bonham's kick drum finally becomes "real" to you. When his stick slams down on the snare, and his foot makes the kick drum thunder once more, and his other foot and other stick work the hi- hat cymbal to tie it all together, your brain starts to hear that distinctive rhythm that changed music forever. Soon, your brain will send an urgent message that says: You've never heard a human being make a sound like this before.
Excerpted from Perfecting Sound Forever by Greg Milner, © 2009. Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
June 22, 2009 - In his book, Perfecting Sound Forever, Greg Milner explores the evolution of sound. His history covers the analog days of Thomas Edison through the present day of digital recordings, and the quest for sonic perfection.
Technological advances have complicated the debate about the value of the most accurate reproduction of a sound, versus the most enhanced. Whereas Edison set out to perfectly capture a live performance, today's sound engineers have the ability to create recordings from musicians who aren't in the same room — or aren't even alive at the same time.
Milner takes the reader through major breakthroughs and massive failures in recording history. He also digs into specific recordings from Lead Belly, the Beatles, Mission of Burma, Steve Albini and Massive Attack.
Excerpt: 'Perfecting Sound Forever'by Greg Milner
Greg Milner is also the coauthor, with filmmaker Joe Berlinger, of Metallica: This Monster Lives. He has also worked as a political speechwriter.
When a sound wave is generated, the mass is the air itself — or rather, the billions of particles that comprise the air — and the elasticity is the natural tendency of the particles to return to a stable position. These are the characteristics of any sound wave, whether caused by the big bang or by John Bonham's drum intro to Led Zeppelin's version of Memphis Minnie's "When the Levee Breaks." Those two particular sounds are alike in other ways: they are both epic and epochal, and each has been cited as evidence of the hand of God (and in Bonham's case, also His right foot). The latter is easier for us to conceive (though nearly as unlikely to ever be repeated), so let's examine the work performed by Bonham, and its effect on us.
You are very lucky. It is sometime in the early seventies, and you are at a mansion in the English village of Headley. The members of Led Zeppelin are here to make their fourth album, and they have invited you along to watch. Today they will record Bonham's drum part for "When the Levee Breaks." The band wants Bonham's drums to have a booming, reverb-heavy sound. (This is an unusual choice for the time, since the trend in records is toward drums that sound dry, with little resonance.) To achieve the desired effect, they place the drums at the bottom of a stairwell, with the microphone hanging three stories up. You are in the stairwell, a few feet away from the drums. The only person who will be closer to the sound is Bonham.
The engineer announces that the tape is rolling. Bonham counts off the rhythm and then slams his foot down on his kick drum's pedal to begin the beat. Let's freeze time at this exact moment and analyze the next 1/30,000th of a second, roughly the amount of time that elapses each time our hearing system takes a reading. What exactly is happening?
The pedal causes the mallet to strike the kick drum with a force that only Bonham, it would seem, can generate. The skin of the drum impacts the air particles around it. There are a lot of them — 400 billion billion just in the cubic inch around the area where the mallet has hit. Like any other sonic source, Bonham's drum has caused a disturbance in the air. The particles are very disturbed. They're rocking — literally. Imagine each attached to its own spring mechanism. The first particle to be impacted is knocked off its unique and stable position in the universe. It swings forward, and then is pulled back by its spring. It overshoots its original position on the way back, is pulled back again by the spring, and attempts to find its original spot. Its initial surge forward has thrown it up against the particle next to it, and that particle begins the same process. There's real slapstick comedy here — particles all knocking one another out of place like circus clowns.
We'll follow the wave into one of your ears.
The wave travels a little more than two centimeters through the ear canal and arrives at your tympanic membrane, otherwise known as the eardrum. The wave vibrates the eardrum, which transfers the vibration to a tiny bone attached to it on the other side. This bone is connected to two others; the three are known informally (and, for our example, appropriately) as the hammer, anvil, and stirrup. The hammer transfers the vibrations to the anvil, which sends them to the stirrup. The stirrup covers the entrance to the inner ear. It is in the inner ear that these vibrations begin to become information. (The inner ear also regulates your sense of balance, an important task at this moment, since Bonham's drumming is about to give you simulated whiplash.)
To understand what happens next, we need an understanding of some of the properties of waves. Every wave has an amplitude and a frequency. The amplitude is a measure of the power of the wave, the degree to which it disturbs the medium in which it propagates. For sound waves, that medium is air, so amplitude corresponds to the pressure changes the wave causes in the air. We perceive amplitude as volume. The relationship isn't linear — that is, we can't simply say the greater the amplitude, the louder the sound — but for now, just think of the amplitude of a sound wave as an expression of soft and loud, usually expressed in a unit called the decibel (dB).
A wave's frequency describes the time it takes to complete one cycle of vibration before beginning to vibrate again. The frequency of a sound wave corresponds to its pitch. A low frequency sounds like bass, a high frequency sounds like treble. Frequency is denoted in cycles per second, or hertz (Hz). (Groupings of a thousand cycles per second are often expressed in kilohertz, or kHz.) Thus the lowest sound human beings can hear, 20 Hz, is caused by a wave that vibrates back and forth 20 times in one second. The upper limit of human hearing is 20 kHz (though for most people it is much lower), caused by a wave that vibrates 20,000 times in one second.
For the purposes of this book, think of the amplitude as the "height" of the wave, a measure of its power, which we perceive as volume; and think of frequency as the wave's "width," the distance it travels back and forth when it vibrates, which we perceive as pitch.
The inner ear is barely the size of a grape. Within it lies a snail-shell-shaped organ called the cochlea, filled with fluid and bisected by a membrane that varies in length from half a millimeter on one end to 1/25th of a millimeter on the other. The vibrations from the stirrup displace the fluid. The way this fluid is displaced allows your auditory system to determine loudness and pitch. Bonham's vibrations begin to become something we can understand, thanks to thousands of hair cells in the cochlea that make synaptic connections with the auditory nerve. As far as you are concerned, Bonham's blast is no longer a wave. It is now a series of electrical impulses.
The nerve endings of the auditory nerve interface with various cells, which eventually connect to a part of your brain called the medial geniculate body. From there, nerve fibers carry the signal to the auditory region of your cerebral cortex. It is here, after this arduous journey of vibrations begetting more vibrations and then finally electrical signals, that the sound of Bonham's kick drum finally becomes "real" to you. When his stick slams down on the snare, and his foot makes the kick drum thunder once more, and his other foot and other stick work the hi- hat cymbal to tie it all together, your brain starts to hear that distinctive rhythm that changed music forever. Soon, your brain will send an urgent message that says: You've never heard a human being make a sound like this before.
Excerpted from Perfecting Sound Forever by Greg Milner, © 2009. Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
9.18.2009
The distant future. The distant future.
Touchable holography
Posted by David Pescovitz, September 17, 2009 11:56 AM | permalink
Professor Hiroyuki Shinoda and his colleagues at Tokyo University are making headway in haptic holography, 3D projections you can actually feel. I first experienced something like this probably 15 years ago at the late holography pioneer Steve Benton's laboratory at MIT's Media Lab. Back then, the hologram was grainy and grayscale and the physical feedback came from a handheld Phantom stylus that provided some sensation of touching a real object. Based on this demonstration, it appears that the technology has come a long way. From Reuters:
By using ultrasonic waves, the scientists have developed software that creates pressure when a user's hand "touches" a hologram that is projected.
In order to track a user's hand, the researchers use control sticks from Nintendo's popular Wii gaming system that are mounted above the hologram display area.
The technology has so far been tested with relatively simple objects, although the researchers have more practical plans, including virtual switches at hospitals, for example, and other places where contamination by touch is an issue.
Posted by David Pescovitz, September 17, 2009 11:56 AM | permalink
Professor Hiroyuki Shinoda and his colleagues at Tokyo University are making headway in haptic holography, 3D projections you can actually feel. I first experienced something like this probably 15 years ago at the late holography pioneer Steve Benton's laboratory at MIT's Media Lab. Back then, the hologram was grainy and grayscale and the physical feedback came from a handheld Phantom stylus that provided some sensation of touching a real object. Based on this demonstration, it appears that the technology has come a long way. From Reuters:
By using ultrasonic waves, the scientists have developed software that creates pressure when a user's hand "touches" a hologram that is projected.
In order to track a user's hand, the researchers use control sticks from Nintendo's popular Wii gaming system that are mounted above the hologram display area.
The technology has so far been tested with relatively simple objects, although the researchers have more practical plans, including virtual switches at hospitals, for example, and other places where contamination by touch is an issue.
9.15.2009
Reasonable discourse
Hello everyone. Good to see you. Long time reader, first time blogger here. With all the pro-liberal speakings that's been up here lately, I felt like I had to step in and play a little devil's advocate. I speak for all the people who aren't quite sure about Obama's true motives as our country's president. Oh sure, he says he wants to reform healthcare and help the poor and sick but what's he really trying to gain here? There's no money in helping the disadvantaged. Just pitiful poor person gratitude and some crappy thank you notes from sickly kids.
It's obvious to me and most true Americans that deep down Obama's an impostor, ready to pervert everything we stand for. He's just consolidating his power and waiting for the perfect opportunity to take this country down the road to destruction. Or worse...socialism. It makes me shiver to even think about it. Now, if you're intrigued by my truth-bomb, I beseech you to follow the link at the bottom of the poster and open your mind to the true workings of the world. But beware. Just like those Nazis from Indiana Jones, not everyone will be able to handle the awesome power that is contained in this link. So you "progressives" probably don't need to look at it. And your co-workers probably won't be able to take the truthload that I'm dishing out either. This is strictly for the hardcore seekers of truth...to view in their own home, away from prying eyes.
The truth must be told!!! Americans will not sit idly by and watch their country be destroyed. If you view this message and believe it to be true, help me out by printing out these fliers and distributing them to everyone who is wary of this Obamanation! We can make a difference!
9.14.2009
Batter up!
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, just that it's a little "blah".
Main Entry: 1con·ser·va·tive
Pronunciation: \kən-ˈsər-və-tiv\
Function: adjective
Date: 14th century
1 : preservative
2 a : of or relating to a philosophy of conservatism b capitalized : of or constituting a political party professing the principles of conservatism: as (1) : of or constituting a party of the United Kingdom advocating support of established institutions (2) : progressive conservative
3 a : tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions : traditional b : marked by moderation or caution - a conservative estimate c : marked by or relating to traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manners
4 : of, relating to, or practicing Conservative Judaism
— con·ser·va·tive·ly adverb
— con·ser·va·tive·ness noun
AND
Main Entry: con·ser·va·tism
Pronunciation: \kən-ˈsər-və-ˌti-zəm\
Function: noun
Date: 1832
1 capitalized a : the principles and policies of a Conservative party b : the Conservative party
2 a : disposition in politics to preserve what is established b : a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing established institutions, and preferring gradual development to abrupt change; specifically : such a philosophy calling for lower taxes, limited government regulation of business and investing, a strong national defense, and individual financial responsibility for personal needs (as retirement income or health-care coverage)
3 : the tendency to prefer an existing or traditional situation to change
Main Entry: 1con·ser·va·tive
Pronunciation: \kən-ˈsər-və-tiv\
Function: adjective
Date: 14th century
1 : preservative
2 a : of or relating to a philosophy of conservatism b capitalized : of or constituting a political party professing the principles of conservatism: as (1) : of or constituting a party of the United Kingdom advocating support of established institutions (2) : progressive conservative
3 a : tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions : traditional b : marked by moderation or caution - a conservative estimate c : marked by or relating to traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manners
4 : of, relating to, or practicing Conservative Judaism
— con·ser·va·tive·ly adverb
— con·ser·va·tive·ness noun
AND
Main Entry: con·ser·va·tism
Pronunciation: \kən-ˈsər-və-ˌti-zəm\
Function: noun
Date: 1832
1 capitalized a : the principles and policies of a Conservative party b : the Conservative party
2 a : disposition in politics to preserve what is established b : a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing established institutions, and preferring gradual development to abrupt change; specifically : such a philosophy calling for lower taxes, limited government regulation of business and investing, a strong national defense, and individual financial responsibility for personal needs (as retirement income or health-care coverage)
3 : the tendency to prefer an existing or traditional situation to change
9.13.2009
To allow for a more complete understanding.
Just so we're clear.
Main Entry: lib·er·al·ism
Pronunciation: \ˈli-b(ə-)rə-ˌli-zəm\
Function: noun
Date: 1819
1 : the quality or state of being liberal
2 a often capitalized : a movement in modern Protestantism emphasizing intellectual liberty and the spiritual and ethical content of Christianity b : a theory in economics emphasizing individual freedom from restraint and usually based on free competition, the self-regulating market, and the gold standard c : a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of the human race, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties; specifically : such a philosophy that considers government as a crucial instrument for amelioration of social inequities (as those involving race, gender, or class) d capitalized : the principles and policies of a Liberal party
— lib·er·al·ist \-b(ə-)rə-list\ noun or adjective
— lib·er·al·is·tic \ˌli-b(ə-)rə-ˈlis-tik\ adjective
Intellectual and civil liberites? Gee, I don't know . . . sounds a bit racy.
Main Entry: lib·er·al·ism
Pronunciation: \ˈli-b(ə-)rə-ˌli-zəm\
Function: noun
Date: 1819
1 : the quality or state of being liberal
2 a often capitalized : a movement in modern Protestantism emphasizing intellectual liberty and the spiritual and ethical content of Christianity b : a theory in economics emphasizing individual freedom from restraint and usually based on free competition, the self-regulating market, and the gold standard c : a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of the human race, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties; specifically : such a philosophy that considers government as a crucial instrument for amelioration of social inequities (as those involving race, gender, or class) d capitalized : the principles and policies of a Liberal party
— lib·er·al·ist \-b(ə-)rə-list\ noun or adjective
— lib·er·al·is·tic \ˌli-b(ə-)rə-ˈlis-tik\ adjective
Intellectual and civil liberites? Gee, I don't know . . . sounds a bit racy.
9.10.2009
Guess who can post again!
Your mom.
I kid. It's actually me. And I've decided that I'm going to start posting definitions to words. I will start with this one:
Main Entry: 1lib·er·al
Pronunciation: \ˈli-b(ə-)rəl\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin liberalis suitable for a freeman, generous, from liber free; perhaps akin to Old English lēodan to grow, Greek eleutheros free
Date: 14th century
1 a : of, relating to, or based on the liberal arts - liberal education b archaic : of or befitting a man of free birth
2 a : marked by generosity : openhanded - a liberal giver b : given or provided in a generous and openhanded way - a liberal meal c : ample, full
3 obsolete : lacking moral restraint : licentious
4 : not literal or strict : loose - a liberal translation
5 : broad-minded; especially : not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms
6 a : of, favoring, or based upon the principles of liberalism b capitalized : of or constituting a political party advocating or associated with the principles of political liberalism; especially : of or constituting a political party in the United Kingdom associated with ideals of individual especially economic freedom, greater individual participation in government, and constitutional, political, and administrative reforms designed to secure these objectives
— lib·er·al·ly \-b(ə-)rə-lē\ adverb
— lib·er·al·ness noun
synonyms liberal, generous, bountiful, munificent mean giving or given freely and unstintingly. liberal suggests openhandedness in the giver and largeness in the thing or amount given - a teacher liberal with her praise. generous stresses warmhearted readiness to give more than size or importance of the gift - a generous offer of help. bountiful suggests lavish, unremitting giving or providing - children spoiled by bountiful presents. munificent suggests a scale of giving appropriate to lords or princes - munificent foundation grant.
Sounds pretty great to me. How exactly did it become a four letter word then? Well, anyways, I kind of wish I were more liberal.
I kid. It's actually me. And I've decided that I'm going to start posting definitions to words. I will start with this one:
Main Entry: 1lib·er·al
Pronunciation: \ˈli-b(ə-)rəl\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin liberalis suitable for a freeman, generous, from liber free; perhaps akin to Old English lēodan to grow, Greek eleutheros free
Date: 14th century
1 a : of, relating to, or based on the liberal arts - liberal education b archaic : of or befitting a man of free birth
2 a : marked by generosity : openhanded - a liberal giver b : given or provided in a generous and openhanded way - a liberal meal c : ample, full
3 obsolete : lacking moral restraint : licentious
4 : not literal or strict : loose - a liberal translation
5 : broad-minded; especially : not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms
6 a : of, favoring, or based upon the principles of liberalism b capitalized : of or constituting a political party advocating or associated with the principles of political liberalism; especially : of or constituting a political party in the United Kingdom associated with ideals of individual especially economic freedom, greater individual participation in government, and constitutional, political, and administrative reforms designed to secure these objectives
— lib·er·al·ly \-b(ə-)rə-lē\ adverb
— lib·er·al·ness noun
synonyms liberal, generous, bountiful, munificent mean giving or given freely and unstintingly. liberal suggests openhandedness in the giver and largeness in the thing or amount given - a teacher liberal with her praise. generous stresses warmhearted readiness to give more than size or importance of the gift - a generous offer of help. bountiful suggests lavish, unremitting giving or providing - children spoiled by bountiful presents. munificent suggests a scale of giving appropriate to lords or princes - munificent foundation grant.
Sounds pretty great to me. How exactly did it become a four letter word then? Well, anyways, I kind of wish I were more liberal.
9.03.2009
i have the internet now
hi, sorry for the absence. the month of august was pretty busy and crazy for me. i went drinking around 4 different countries in europe, moved into a different house, smacked around the international scientific community, and then Will came to visit me and had the best time of his life probably. in addition to the busyness, we haven't had internet hooked up at the house until yesterday so that's another explanation
so anyway i was in europe. it was pretty much the best trip ever. i can't explain everything that happened but i remember lots so ask about it when you see me. here's a picture that pretty much sums up the trip
wait damnit that wasn't the picture i meant to post. ok this is the picture that accurately portrays our trip.
that's better. ok later
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