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TWiS Listening Post (0010)

This went out yesterday as a weekly bonus — a thank-you to people who financially support This Week in Sound. It supplements the free Tuesday and Friday issues, which feature a broader array of material from the field of sound studies. It contained an annotated playlist of recommended music. I wrote about (1) a video from FM3, best known for their Buddha Machines, posted by member Christiaan Virant, (2) a single from electronically mediated cellist Henrik Meierkord, and (3) a highlight, by Ina Kacz, from a recent compilation album.

Disquiet Junto Project 0608: Nature-to-Text

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto music community, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate. (A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required.) There’s no pressure to do every project. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time and interest.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, August 28, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, August 24, 2023.

Tracks are added to the SoundCloud playlist for the duration of the project. Additional (non-SoundCloud) tracks appear in the lllllll.co discussion thread.

These following instructions went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto).

Disquiet Junto Project 0608: Nature-to-Text 
The Assignment: Using a speech-to-text tool, turn a field recording into instructions for a composition.

This project is perhaps more experimental than ordinary, simply because it may not work for everyone. Apologies in advance. As someone, I think Brian Eno, once said, “It’s only experimental music if there’s a chance it can fail.”

Step 1: When one uses speech-to-text tools, such as those now commonly included in word processing software, often those tools will mistakenly interpret ordinary, non-verbal sound as garbled words, or otherwise try to characterize the sound, such as with bracketed phrases like “[deep breath]” or “[background chatter].” One potential way to achieve the result is to upload the audio to YouTube and then apply automated captions. Check out your options. There is likely to be discussion of this topic on places where the Junto occurs, such as the llllllll.co BBS and the Junto Slack.

Step 2: Record some non-verbal audio, perhaps a field recording of the sound on the street, or down a hallway. It’s recommended to do the recording somewhere where there is likely to be variation.

Step 3: Submit a segment of the audio to a speech-to-text tool. Or perhaps multiple tools, to see the results.

Step 4: Assuming Step 3 yields a series of descriptions, then compose a piece of music that treats that sequence as a kind of score. That is, make music that achieves the result described by the speech-to-text tool’s results. Perhaps you could use someone else’s. Here, for example, is a sequence that I ended up with recently: “[ambient noise] [ambient noise] [indistinct chatter] [indistinct chatter] [background noise] [indistinct chatter] [ambient noise].”

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0608” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0608” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.

Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0608-nature-to-text/

Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #DisquietJunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.

Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Step 8: Also join in the discussion on the Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to marc@disquiet.com for Slack inclusion.

Note: Please post one track for this weekly Junto project. If you choose to post more than one, and do so on SoundCloud, please let me know which you’d like added to the playlist. Thanks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. A steady pace over an extended period of time can have a unique kind of impact.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, August 28, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, August 24, 2023.

Upload: When participating in this project, be sure to include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.

Download: It is always best to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).

For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:

More on this 608th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Nature-to-Text (The Assignment: Using a speech-to-text tool, turn a field recording into instructions for a composition), at: https://disquiet.com/0608/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0608-nature-to-text/

This Week in Sound: “The Sirens Are Intended for Tsunamis”

These sound-studies highlights of the week originally appeared in the August 22, 2023, issue of the Disquiet.com weekly email newsletter, This Week in Sound. This Week in Sound is the best way I’ve found to process material I come across. Your support provides resources and encouragement. Most issues are free. A weekly annotated ambient-music mixtape is for paid subscribers. Thanks.

▰ BOY TROUBLE: “Female-focused dating simulation games — also known as otome games — and AI-powered chatbots have millions of users in China,” writes Viola Zhou. “They offer idealized virtual lovers, fulfilling the romantic fantasies of women.” When those conversation chatbots shut down, the emotional pain is real, as has been the case with “Him,” a former service of the voice startup Timedomain: “Devastated users rushed to record as many calls as they could, cloned the voices, and even reached out to investors, hoping someone would fund the app’s future operations.”

▰ WHITE OUT: Just a year ago, Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman reported on how some Spotify podcasters made as much as $18,000 per month with white noise. Now Carman reports that Spotify is looking to ban the very same material: “As of January, according to an internal document Bloomberg viewed, white noise and ambient podcasts accounted for 3 million daily consumption hours on the platform, inadvertently boosted by Spotify’s own algorithmic push for ‘talk’ content (versus music). … Once Spotify realized how much attention was going to white noise podcasts, the company considered removing these shows from the talk feed and prohibiting future uploads while redirecting the audience towards comparable programming that was more economical for Spotify — doing so, according to the document, would boost Spotify’s annual gross profit by €35 million, or $38 million.” Side note: I feel confident that a lot of the music I listen to would be mistaken for white noise by copyright bots. (Thanks, Michael Upton!)

▰ KONG KING: The longtime voice of Mario in the Nintendo video games has retired. According to Chris Kerr at gamedeveloper.com, Mario+Rabbids: Sparks of Hope (2022) is Charles Martinet’s final work as the character. He also played Luigi and Wario, among other Nintendo gaming favorites. Stephen Totilo notes at axios.com that Chris Pratt, not Martinet, did the voice for the recent film The Super Mario Bros. Movie — however, Martinet portrayed “Mario’s father as an Easter egg for fans.” As Totilo says, “Mario never said much in his various Nintendo games, but Martinet made the most out of the character’s exuberant exhortations.” Martinet started performing as Mario in 1994, with Mario Teaches Typing, having worked for Nintendo as a voice actor since 1991. Back in June, per Devindra Hardawar at engadget.com, fans were wondering if Martinet had moved on, based on how the characters sounded in teasers of upcoming games (via videogameschronicle.com).

▰ ACUTE ACCENT: “I have a foreign accent. You have a foreign accent. If you’re from the South in the United States, you speak very differently than someone from Boston or California. There are companies that think of this as a problem and are trying to make people working at call centers in India or the Philippines sound like they are from the United States. That business does not excite me.” That’s Seamus McAteer, founder and CEO of Speechlab, “a startup building generative AI for speech-to-speech translation,” in an interview by Caiwei Chen.

▰ QUICK NOTES: Wrong Direction: There’s an update on the lack of emergency sirens during the Maui fires: “The sirens are intended for tsunamis, and sounding them would have sent residents to the hills and into the fires,” said the director of the Maui Emergency Management Agency, who defended the decision. (New York Times gift link). ▰ Speakerboxxx: Mozilla has a handy breakdown of the privacy matters of the most popular smart speakers. ▰ Wave Rider: I look forward to reading Carolyn Birdsall’s forthcoming book Radiophilia: “Treating radiophilia as a dynamic cultural phenomenon, it unpacks the various pleasures associated with radio and its sounds, the desire to discover and learn new things via radio, and efforts to record, re-experience, and share radio.” (Thanks, Barbara Postema!). ▰ Call of the Wild: Australians voted on their favorite animal sound, and a full third gave their votes to Gymnorhina tibicen, the magpie. (Thanks, Alison Armstrong!) ▰ In Sea: “For a three-year pilot project funded by the National Science Foundation … a national team of researchers have transformed a year of carbon dioxide readings taken off the coast of New England into sound.” ▰ City Living: “NPR’s Pien Huang takes a sonic tour of Providence, Rhode Island with researcher Erica Walker and talks about noise pollution solutions with Jamie Banks the founder and president of Quiet Communities, and New York City Council member Gale Brewer.” (Thanks, Rich Pettus!) ▰ Call of the Wild (2): “Scientists are experimenting with sound to try and lure seabirds back to depleted environments,” reports the Australian ABC.net.au about “the ecological approach called Acoustic Restoration.” (Thanks, Michael Astill!) ▰ AI, Robot: An overview of recent text-to-music AI apps. ▰ This Is the Droid: “Android 14 will be more proactive in protecting your hearing with its new headphone loud sound alert feature.” ▰ Bad Apple: “Disabled people who rely on Apple’s accessibility features say that Voice Control has fallen behind Siri in both accuracy and capabilities, despite being an essential rather than a nice-to-have.” ▰ Siren Song: And on a local tip: San Francisco’s Tuesday noon sirens could be coming back by 2024. (Thanks, Michelle Milligan!)

Sound Ledger

63.4: The percent market share of audiobook sales belonging to Audible, an Amazon subsidiary

$1,800,000,000: The 2002 market for audiobooks in the United States

$35,000,000,000: Estimated U.S. audiobook market size in 2030

Source: goodereader.com

Extra Credit

Extra credit for the “door bell” scrawled on the metal faceplate, and for the exclamation-points-doubling-as-smiley-face punctuation

Sentinel, Sentimental

Scratch Pad: Dinklage, Shea, Cochlear

I do this manually at the end of each week: collating most of the recent little comments I’ve made on social media, which I think of as my public scratch pad. I mostly hang out on Mastodon (at post.lurk.org/@disquiet), and I’m also trying out a few others. 

▰ There was a car alarm this morning so shrill, so sharp, so persistent that it was like I’d been transported to a far worse world where the neighborhood is synced to the same dystopian municipal wake-up call.

▰ The “composer tuning to the portable vacuum” moment from :27 – :38 in this trailer for the new Anne Hathaway / Peter Dinklage / Marisa Tomei movie, She Came to Me, is everything. Now looking forward to heaps of Cate Blanchett / Peter Dinklage modern composer memes

▰ Actually overheard today:

Person 1: “How is your implant?”

Person 2: “…”

Person 1: “How is your implant working?”

Person 2: “…”

Person 1: “How is your cochlear implant working?”

Person 2: “Huh?”

▰ Nothing like stopping by the used record shop and overhearing three people talking about all the times they saw the Beatles

▰ When you’re used to San Francisco summer weather, all foggy like a film noir, and you find yourself in 78º for the afternoon, and you think, as you type outside, “The backs of my hands feel warm”

▰ Yo, Duolingo/multilingual folks — anyone out there used Duolingo for Korean and have pros/cons to share? This week marked my 100-day milestone in Duolingo, which I’ve been using for German. Trying it out for German has been more of a test than a long-term plan. I was considering switching over to Korean. Thanks for any input you might have. For what it’s worth, I’m much more interested in reading than I am in conversing. Language was always my worst subject in school, and I’ve been trying, quite belatedly, to get back to it.

▰ YouTube is a time machine. I think of a concert I saw and wonder if there’s footage/audio. Found Slayer (Arco, Sacramento ’95), two Nirvana shows (Crest and Cattle Club, Sac ’90), Sun Ra / Don Cherry (Battery Park ’89), Pavement (Old Ironsides, Sac ’93), and Yes (MSG, NYC ’84).

Sync History

I’d love to read a detailed explanation of this chart showing these two words’ relative use over time. Is this some sort of extended Y2K hangover?

. . .

After I asked online, Ranjit Bhatnagar masterfully posted this in response:

Disquiet Junto Project 0607: Silence Wave

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto music community, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate. (A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required.) There’s no pressure to do every project. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time and interest.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, August 21, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, August 17, 2023.

Tracks are added to the SoundCloud playlist for the duration of the project. Additional (non-SoundCloud) tracks appear in the lllllll.co discussion thread.

These following instructions went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto).

Disquiet Junto Project 0607: Silence Wave 
The Assignment: From close to zero and back again, alter the relative amount of sound to silence in a piece of music.

There’s just one step to this project:

Compose a piece of music in which the relative amount of sound to silence starts at zero (that is, no sound), rises to approximately 40 percent (that is, 60 percent silent) and returns to zero again. Keep the pace fairly steady.

Background: This project builds on the two previous ones. You needn’t have done them; do give them some consideration. In the first of the two, each participant composed a piece of music with as much silence as notes. In the second, each composed a piece of music with three times as much silence as sound. Jason Richardson proposed the first project in what has since become a sequence. As that project unfolded, Klaus-Dieter Hilf (aka RabMusicLab) commented that maybe the instruction should have read “sound” in place of “notes.” Since the first project went well, a subsequent project increased the amount of silence, and implemented Hilf’s proposal. This project takes it a step further still.

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0607” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0607” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.

Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0607-silence-wave/

Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #DisquietJunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.

Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Step 8: Also join in the discussion on the Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to marc@disquiet.com for Slack inclusion.

Note: Please post one track for this weekly Junto project. If you choose to post more than one, and do so on SoundCloud, please let me know which you’d like added to the playlist. Thanks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. A steady pace over an extended period of time can have a unique kind of impact.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, August 21, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, August 17, 2023.

Upload: When participating in this project, be sure to include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.

Download: It is always best to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).

For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:

More on this 607th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Silence Wave (The Assignment: From close to zero and back again, alter the relative amount of sound to silence in a piece of music), at: https://disquiet.com/0607/

Thanks this week to Jason Richardson and Klaus-Dieter Hilf.

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0607-silence-wave/