7.5: The number of people, in millions, living in the U.S. who have difficulty using their voices.
30: The percentage rise in Tokyo noise complaints to police between March and April 2020, after schools were closed due to the pandemic.
2,217: The number of free synthesizer modules (out of 2,504 total, the others requiring a one-time fee per user account) in the module library of the free VCV Rack virtual emulation of a modular synthesizer (vcvrack.com). Other modules are available outside the library, as well.
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¹Footnotes: Voices: [wsj.com](https://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-firms-train-voice-assistants-to-understand-atypical-speech-11614186019). Tokyo: [nytimes.com](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/25/world/asia/japan-noise-map.html). VCV: [vcvrack.com](https://library.vcvrack.com).
*Originally published in the March 1, 2021, edition of the This Week in Sound email newsletter ([tinyletter.com/disquiet](https://tinyletter.com/disquiet)).*