BAD
NOISE GOOD NOISE.. Some ongoing notes about sound.
WHAT IS FREE? A Free Noise Manifesto
'Now that this most excellent and perfect concord of life
does remain principally in the midst of a line drawn from Unity,
or the fountain of form, to the Earth or duality, which is the
fountain of matter, I prove it thus by the accords of Music...'
Robert Fludd: Philosophia Moysaica: 1638 FULL
ARTICLE
or download from here
as MSWord doc.
Planet
gongs A series of 14 tuned gongs by Paiste, ranging
in size from 24" to 38". They are tuned to the vibrational
frequencies of the planets, sun, and moon, as determined by
Swiss mathematician, Hans Cousto. Planet Gongs are used extensively
in therapy, as the different notes/frequencies affect different
areas of the body/mind (example: the 38" Earth Gong vibrates
at a frequency of 136.10 Hz/C# and affects the Heart Chakra. http://www.answers.com/topic/gong-1
"Sound" (1966-67), Pt. 1
The first installment of a short film featuring Rahsaan Roland
Kirk, John Cage and David Tudor among others.
Directed by Dick Fontaine.
Musical Savants - autism, blindness.
Meet 2 musical savants who are both blind and in the autism
spectrum. Here's a clip about 'savants' (there was a prog on
TV a week or two ago). Basically some autistic children are
musical genii, prompting the belief that 'Music is an inherent part of the universe'.
Brainwave
generator
EEG (Electroencephalography)
technology is used to measure brain's electrical vibrations
from the surface of the scalp. Brainwave entrainment is used
in treatment of depression, low self-esteem, attention deficit
disorder, drug and alcohol addiction and autism, to name a few.
The
easiest way of applying stimulus to the brain is via ears. Other
senses could be used as well, and vision is actually used quite
often (often in addition to hearing). However, humans cannot
hear sounds low enough to be useful for brain stimulation, so
special techniques must be used. One such special technique
used is called binaural beats.
Note, however, that just passively listening to binaural beats
does not necessarily alter your state of consciousness. For
example, willingness and ability to relax and focus attention
affects how effective the binaural beat stimulus is for inducing
state changes. http://www.bwgen.com/
Traffic
The effects
of environmental noise on children are well established. It
has been documented that children who live in chronically noisy
neighborhoods, mostly by traffic noise, exhibit decreased learning
skills. This is because part of their brain is constantly being
channeled into dealing with the noise conditions under which
they must learn. Similarly, there are more admissions to mental
hospitals from people who live in noisy environments compared
to quiet areas.
NOISE.
This nicked from Nik Turner's website. Cheers Nik!
“...never
eliminated, just prevented, cured, or endured, depending on
its nature...”
Analog-Digital Conversion Handbook, D.H. Sheingold, Analog Devices
WHITE
Constant, continuous, uniform - equal power across a finite
band (appears 'top-heavy') - aka "Johnson"
BLACK
Catastrophic - zero-power (aside from a few spikes, often clustered)
- aka "Silent"
GREY
Psychoacoustic - given range 'bent' over an equal loudness curve
(such as an inverted 'A-weight' curve) - sounds equally loud
at all frequencies (to humans).
PURPLE
Differentiated - magnitude proportional to square of frequency
- aka "Violet"
BLUE
Regional - magnitude proportional to frequency (good for dithering).
GREEN
Background noise of the world. Really long term-power spectrum
averaged over several sites. Rather like pink noise with a hump
around 500 Hz - aka "New Age"
YELLOW
"Watch out how the huskies poise..." (No such thing
as yellow noise?!?)
ORANGE
Quasi-stationary - finite power spectrum, finite number of small
bands of zero energy dispersed throughout a continuous spectrum.
Bands of zero energy centre about frequencies of musical notes
(in whatever system of music is of interest); all in-tune musical
notes therefore eliminated, the remaining spectrum consists
only of bum notes (in case you ever wondered from whence those
all come).
RED
Oceanic ambient noise (distant from the sources) - selectively
absorbs higher frequencies.
PINK
Random - magnitude inversely proportional to frequency - aka
"Flicker"
BROWN
Magnitude inversely proportional to square of frequency - aka
"Random Walk" or "Drunkard's Walk" (Brownian
Motion).
Don't play what's there, play what's not there' - Miles
Davis.
