This Week in Sound: “Nightingales Perform These Songs in Duels to Defend Territory”

These sound-studies highlights of the week originally appeared in the August 1, 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.

▰ ALL ATWITTER: “Male nightingales have very large repertoires of up to 150 to 200 different song types, one of which is known as a whistle song. During the mating season, male nightingales perform these songs in duels to defend territory and attract mates, sometimes for many consecutive nights. … [Researchers] found that nightingales flexibly adjusted the pitch of their whistle songs to match that of their opponent. When the researchers played pitch-controlled artificial whistle sounds from speakers, the nightingales also matched their pitch to these across a wide range of frequencies.”

▰ APPLE RECORDS: Apple filed for a head-turning, turntable-related patent: “In the patent, first filed in June of 2021 and approved Tuesday, Apple talks up its ideas for ‘Modularized Computing and Input Devices.’ This kind of kickstand would act as a kind of slotted dock that could accept multiple screens and keyboards, and potentially more. It’s all configured around some kind of base device that can connect both displays or keyboards in multiple configurations. The base itself would be hinged to allow these devices to swivel. … One of the funkiest aspects of the patent is the inclusion of a large, classic-style vinyl turntable. The application itself describes this as merely an ‘input device’ that can provide information to the base. Essentially, the base would allow physical or wireless communication with the attached device, in this case, a turntable usable by ‘disc jockeys,’ or anybody working the decks on their device.”

▰ SPACE OUT: The use of sonification remains a somewhat conflicted topic — often the question is: is it science, or just public relations? Take the case of research from Northwestern University that led to a sonic exploration of the “twinkle” of stars: “the team also converted these rippling waves of gas into sound waves, enabling listeners to hear both what the insides of stars and the twinkling’ should sound like.” (Thanks, Gene Kannenberg, Jr!) … Even more interesting: “a musical piece written for a small wind ensemble based on one year of wind data collected by the satellite” Aeolus, which “will die in a fiery first-of-its-kind reentry this week.” This work involved composer Jamie Perera.

▰ STABLE FOR DAYS: “[I]n a car, sound waves may have to travel from the lower doors, front kick-panels, or the trunk, bouncing off plastic, carpet, leather, fabric, glass, and more before reaching a listener’s ear. Sound from one speaker can also interfere with that of another — a problem that can be made worse by increasing the number of in-car speakers. Dirac’s audio magic is all ones and zeros — digital signal processing software that helps virtually align and equalize these sound paths—and it’s designed to work with anyone’s speakers. … Researchers there determined that any speakers in any space could be made to sound better if the signals driving those speakers were conditioned to work collaboratively with one another, and that, when tailored to the specifics of the space, those collaborative signals could even make the sound seem as though it was arriving at listeners’ ears as if from unobstructed speakers in a studio.” Read up on Dirac’s “Intelligent Audio Platform” in Motor Trend.

▰ TEAR IT UP: Jennifer Krasinski in Artforum on the role of sound in the sculptures of artist-composer Camille Norment (Oslo-based, American-born): “One way to ‘share this resonance’ (as Norment prompts) is modeled by Untitled (Bellhorn), 2022, a shining, magisterial brass sculpture installed in the middle of an otherwise empty gallery. About five feet tall, its form is like the horn of an oversized tuba, seamlessly closed off at one end to balance upright, its wide maw open to the ceiling. Suspended just above is a long, thick thread that gathers into a molten, lacrimoid pendant, in which Norment has hidden a speaker. Four microphones point from the four corners of the room toward the sculpture, recording the ambient sounds of the visitors and the room — bits of conversation, footsteps, the rustling of clothing — all fed into the speaker in loops which in turn echo inside Bellhorn’s mouth and beyond. Every sound is a record of the listener; every listener is permeated by their own sounds. As author and sound artist Jace Clayton noted about this work in his review of “Plexus,” Norment’s exhibition at Dia: ‘Feedback is machinery saying “I Am that I Am.”’ Feedback is also architecture declaring the same, or at least rounding out the chorus. Less audible, perhaps, but no less present, are context’s effects and distortions.”

▰ QUICK NOTES: Making Waves: On the role of cruise ships in ocean noise. ▰ Broken 45: “In his news conference, which just ended, Jack Smith spoke barely above a whisper. The sound crews recording him complained after he left that it had been hard to find a good volume level.” That’s a post from reporter Glenn Thrush at the New York Times regarding the August 1 indictment press conference. ▰ Blipverts 2.0: A distinction really needs to be made between the broader implications of sonic branding and the narrower matter of audio (or sonic) logos, which Washington Post classical critic Michael Andor Brodeur aptly describes as “highly concentrated jingles” (thanks, Mike Rhode!) ▰ Found That Number: In related news, a jingle written for the beer Schlitz by Steely Dan — a band more closely associated with “the Cuervo Gold, the fine Colombian” — has surfaced. ▰ Double Nickels on the Dime: And, check out the new sonic logo of the AA (that is, the automotive services company), which uses “strong bass and percussions … to evoke a feeling of safety.” ▰ Block Chain: “Counties in the state of Arkansas are scrambling to pass emergency legislation to regulate the noise levels of BTC block reward miners amid a looming new law that would protect the miners from being singled out through targeted legislation. ▰ Mouthing Off:An experiment with the upcoming iOS 17 “voice replication technology” was able “to trick a phone banking voice authentication system.”