Oh the irony

Tivoli Audio have announced a groovy little device which you can plug a ethernet cable into and stream Internet Radio. You don’t need a computer. They link to a Boston Globe video feature which, ironically, has mono audio with the polarity flipped. Ouch!

Site News – Tivoli Audio, LLC: “Watch The Boston Globe video featuring the NetWorks”

Exploiting Sound, Exploring Silence

By compelling audiences to listen more closely, “No Country for Old Men” has had the effect of calling attention to an underappreciated aspect of filmmaking: the use of sound.

Link to Story

The article makes note of the lack of music in the sound design. Years of being manipulated by music have left us ready for this trend. I first noted it in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days when I saw it this past summer at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Human Auditory System: Researchers identify how blind people hear better

If you have ever wondered if there was any truth to the idea that blind people can hear better than sighted people, now you have a scientific answer – apparently it is so.   Alexander Stevens at Oregon Health & Science University has just published the results of an imaging study to identify which areas of the brain are activated when blind (at birth) people hear sounds.  It turns out that part of the area normally used for vision processing is co-opted into performing aural processing. New Scientist has a short write-up and a link to the journal article abstract.

Link to blog post

Absolutely fascinating. I’d always assumed – as my grade 5 teacher Mrs. Levy reasonably suggested – that blind people had simply developed their listening skills to a higher degree. Hmmm. I guess she was right. It just happened at a higher level than I anticipated.

Congressional Support Grows for ‘White Spaces’ Wireless Mic Interests

The FCC has rescinded its October deadline for issuing new regulations governing use of the hotly-contested “white spaces” within the TV spectrum. Sandy LaMantia, president and CEO of Shure Inc., lauded the continuing efforts of a growing bipartisan group on Capitol Hill lending its support to wireless microphone interests.

Link to Story

Automatic Volume Settings for Headphones and Speakers (Mac)

If you use a Mac, you may not know that it automatically defaults to two different volume settings, based on whether your headphones are plugged in or not.

Creating separate volume settings for when headphones is a
mere matter of plugging in headphones and altering the system volume,
then unplugging the headphones and dragging the volume slider to a new
spot.

Link to Story | Source Home

Daniel Levitin to Deliver Keynote Address at Fall AES Convention

Daniel Levitin will deliver the keynote address at the 123rd Audio Engineering Society Convention on October 5, 2007 in New York City at the Jacob Javits Center. Levitin is a best-selling author; head of the McGill University Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition and Expertise; musician; producer; and former stand-up comedian.

Link to Story | Source Home

Followup from Pro Audio Companies

This has happened to me a number of times and it makes me a little crazy. I go to an AES Convention. I visit a manufacturer’s booth. They have a new product which I’d like to know more about. They scan my badge.

About a month after I get home I get a package in the mail from the company. Great! Not.

Invariably the package contains information about all the company’s products except for the new one I’m interested in. What a waste of time, postage and paper.

Come on guys. Can’t we be a bit more clever about how we gather data?

The Best Buildings You’ll Ever Hear – New York Times

Could it be that we’re entering a golden age in concert hall design?

Link to Story

Having recently heard the Musikverein for the first time I find it hard to imagine a better sounding concert hall. But ok. Bring ‘em on! Be sure to check out the “Audio Slide Show”. But beware the ghastly editing of the audio! Let the guy breathe for heaven’s sake.

Sound software should bring peace to the workplace

Open-plan offices are social collaborative places, but they can be noisy – new software lets architects fine tune the space’s acoustics

Link to Story | Source Home

Good Night, and Good Luck Music Soundtrack

On a typical film, Reeves and her ace band would likely play (or pretend to play) to a prerecorded track, giving the sound team the ability to edit, EQ and remix music recorded later to fit the film and CD soundtrack. But Clooney took a different approach, opting to record the music live on the set in one pass.

Link to Story | Source Home

I’ve had this bookmarked for some time and am finally posting a link. I remember going to this film with my wife and being completely knocked out by a scene in which the camera panned to and lingered on the singer and the band in the tv studio. The sound, the performance. Wow!

Later I read that everything had been done live. Clearly, that’s what made the moment stand out. Real musicians playing real music live and captured with good gear by great engineers. It shouldn’t be the case but we rarely hear something this close to real anymore. It had a huge impact on me.