Marc Weidenbaum's Blog, page 96

“Voicemail – 124”

I receive a lot of voicemail messages from people I don’t know even though I’ve had this phone number for over 20 years. Today I got several in quick succession that had especially interesting sonic qualities, notably what seemed to be music playing in the background of the (garbled) individual doing the speaking. This is the full audio of one of those messages.

Sound Ledger (Tinnitus Edition)

15: Percent of adults in the U.S. with tinnitus

40: Percent of those sufferers who have sought relief

60: Percent of test subjects who benefited from a new treatment

Source: michiganmedicine.org.

Fab Four

On the way back south to California from Oregon this past week, I stayed at the same hotel I’d stayed at on the drive up. In the less than five days in between my two visits to the hotel, these four massive solar panels were erected in the parking lot. This photo doesn’t do justice to their scale.

Enter the Dragon

Like much of Timberline Lodge in Oregon, the door knockers wouldn’t have looked out of place in an episode of Game of Thrones. The place, especially the interior, is like if JRR Tolkien had written the architectural brief for Hearst Castle.

Scratch Pad: Payne, Duolingo, Conway

I do this manually each Saturday, usually in the morning over coffee: collating most of the little comments I’ve made on social media, which I think of as my public scratch pad, during the preceding week. These days that mostly means post.lurk.org (Mastodon) and disquiet.bsky.social (if you’re on Bluesky, which remains behind a beta firewall at the moment).

▰ RIP to a great one, Dr. Roger Payne, who helped discover singing as a form of communication among whales. I had the opportunity to interview him at length early on in the pandemic for a long-form writing project I’m still in the midst of. He was sharp, funny, and generous. He leaves behind an incredible legacy of acoustic ecology. We have a richer sense of life on our planet because of his life’s work. (Read his New York Times obituary.)

▰ One thing I’ve learned from Duolingo is that a particular alert sound I’d previously heard for some time is, in fact, not people’s text messages but people doing Duolingo

▰ I really like comics. I really love pencilled roughs for comics. Check out this multi-page planning document from the fourth issue of Declan Shalvey’s ongoing series Old Dog, which he writes and (with support from Clayton Cowles) draws.

▰ How was this not an option in The New York Times Spelling Bee?

▰ Judged a book by its cover (OK, and also its author’s reputation) and bought it:

▰ I really wanna try out this new synthesizer module based on Conway’s Game of Life. It’s from the developer Nervous Squirrel.

disquiet.bsky.social

I snagged an invite from a friend. Now posting there, in addition to Mastodon.

Disquiet Junto Project 0598: Mixmaster Mic

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, June 19, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, June 15, 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 0598: Mixmaster Mic
The Assignment: Record the same sound with multiple mics; mix the results.

Step 1: This project will require some preparation. You’re going to need a few different microphones, so consider what’s available — not just a standard mic, but your phone, laptop, maybe even a domestic surveillance device, etc. Maybe you can borrow a few mics from friends.

Step 2: Record a single sound source — an acoustic or electric instrument, a field recording — using all those microphones assembled in Step 1. Optimally you can set everything up and record simultaneously once. Or you can do so in batches — or one at a time. If not recording with all the mics at once, try to re-produce the same source sound each time through, as closely as possible, so the recordings will more or less match up.

Step 3: Make a piece of music that involves switching between and combining all the microphone recordings you made in Step 2. Light processing is allowed.

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0598” (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 “disquiet0598” (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-0598-mixmaster-mic/

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.  

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, June 19, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, June 15, 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 598th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Mixmaster Mic (The Assignment: Record the same sound with multiple mics; mix the results), at: https://disquiet.com/0598/

The image to the “cover” of this project is from an 1880 U.S. patent.

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-0598-mixmaster-mic/

30s

I’m on an initial work-free summer vacation break at the moment, hence my limited activity on social media, and the lack of a This Week in Sound email newsletter issue yesterday and this evening. I’ll be back at it by next week, and I may have a newsletter issue out on Friday. Tomorrow will mark the 598th consecutive weekly Disquiet Junto project. I have a new record review due out shortly at Pitchfork, and there’s a new book review I’m working on for The Wire, and some essays in progress for some other places — plus longer form writing I’m blocking out time for this summer. (I should probably mention here: If you’re reading this and you edit a publication that might be interested in me writing for it, lemme know.)

In the meanwhile, if you’re on Instagram, I’ve begun a series of 30-second audio-video field recordings. They’re “stories” (not “reels” — a distinction that still somewhat eludes me), and they’re grouped as a “highlight” section that I’ve titled “30s” — and if that’s not enough information, welcome to the modern internet. This is all at instagram.com/dsqt. I’m trying to sort out if there are other/better ways to post such short vertical videos (maybe YouTube, maybe Vimeo?). They’re inspired by the great ongoing occasional slice-of-life recordings that Jorge Colombo, an old friend of mine, has been posting on his account. Jorge is a far better photographer, visual thinker, and observer than I am. His work is quite incredible.

I’m really interested in the combination of audio and visual elements in field recordings, and how mundane moments can, when framed carefully, have a heightened quality. And I’m even more interested in how during the 30 seconds I am recording, I pay incredibly close attention to what I’m hearing (and to a degree what I’m seeing). It’s as if hitting record doesn’t just trigger my phone’s camera; it also engages my attention.

Location, Location, Location

An apartment building near the symphony hall in San Francisco. Wondering if the window with the cello case belongs to an orchestra member.

Outlier