These sound-studies highlights of the week originally appeared in the June 20, 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.
▰ CORAL EFFECT: Acoustic ecology generally means listening to the environment as a means of learning more about it, especially in terms of assessing its health. But acoustic ecology can be a means of taking action, as well. Sometimes those sonic signs of a healthy ecosystem are, in fact, signs that animals and other species within the ecosystem can themselves recognize. Hence the effort to replenish coral reefs by playing, underwater, the sounds of what they were like when they were more robust: “Setting up underwater speakers to broadcast their recordings of the old, healthy reef from 2013 in hopes of luring back the coral larvae.” NPR’s Nurith Aizenman spoke with Aran Mooney, marine biologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, Massachusetts. (Thanks, Rich Pettus!)
▰ SLOW LANE: “It has been predicted that artificial intelligence will revolutionize computer programming, enable widespread cheating among college students and possibly even destroy the human race. For now, AI chatbots are still learning the art of taking orders for burgers and fries.” Here’s a story about how White Castle — among other fast food chains — is trying out voice AI as a means to speed up the drive-thru. “Some customers say they are sick of cranky fast-food workers who can’t hear their orders through defective speaker boxes, and look forward to the robot revolution.” Per at least some employees, the feeling is mutual: “Just having that relief of not having to communicate with the customer would be awesome,” says one. It’s still a work in progress — or, in the words of one customer, “a pain in the butt.” (Read gift article for free at the Wall Street Journal.)
▰ HIT PUNJABI: “One of South Asia’s most influential hip-hop figures, [Sidhu] Moosewala was shot dead by gunmen on May 29, 2022. A whole year after his death, artificial intelligence is being used to generate a number of Punjabi tracks in his voice. Rest of World found at least 38 such tracks across SoundCloud and YouTube, some of which had over tens of thousands of views.” The key thing is, these are being made by fans. Few tensions in modern life are as fraught as the one between artists making deep emotional connections with listeners and then those listeners responding in ways both enabled by technology and made available for easy access as enabled by technology. (Via Om Malik’s website)
▰ LENS FLARE: The Verge’s Antonio G. Di Benedetto has thoughts, and feelings, about the sound of a camera capturing a shot: “Nikon’s flagship Z9 and newer Z8 cameras forego traditional shutters entirely, so instead of hearing and feeling a mechanical action, you either hear nothing at all or are played the sound of a fake shutter. Just this week, Nikon released firmware 4.0 for the Z9, which added a slew of new features, including extra shutter sounds: a beep, a DSLR-like chonk, a classic film-era clack, and a rangefinder snap. I love the idea of being able to pick my own shutter sound, and bringing back some classics is a fun way to embrace the lineage of photography while taking advantage of the latest technology. But I’m left slightly disappointed if this is all we’re going to get. I think camera companies can (and should) do a whole lot more.”
▰ QUICK NOTES: ▰ Tape Heads: There’s a video game called Cassette Beats in which the player goes “on a monster-collecting adventure, recording creatures onto tapes to use in battle.” ▰ Hit the Links: Jo Craig breaks down the best sound elements in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, including this one: “The sound of Link’s movements will vary depending on what weapons he carries, and many of these materials rattling together are pleasing and have great attention to detail.” ▰ Mr. Roboto: Meta (aka Facebook) has launched its own AI-powered music generator, which is open-source. ▰ Angry Birds: The Shriek of the Week two weeks ago was the sedge warbler, which deserves “a prize for angriest sounding bird of Britain.” ▰ Wrath of Khonshu: Researchers have found bone instruments that date back over a dozen millennia — not centuries, millennia (via Warren Ellis’ newsletter). No offense to the Shriek of the Week, but they’re made of bird bones. ▰ Spot On: “After fans reported sound mixing issues in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Sony Pictures has sent an updated versionof the film to movie theaters.” ▰ Button Up: There’s a great Instagram video (from the “vintagevideobasement” account) collecting the sounds of various physical media in “eject” mode.” (Thanks, Paul Rose!) ▰ Ear Bud: I’m due later this summer to attend my first arena show in a very long time (I mostly go to concerts in small rooms with fold-up chairs, most of which are empty), and as an earplug aficionado, I was intrigued by the idea that AirPods could (key word: “could”) down the road provide a solution, thanks to Adaptive Audio. ▰ Ear Bud II: Here’s a healthy reminder that the ear isn’t just about hearing: there’s a tiny new in-ear monitor that “uses blood flow measurements to determine why an individual may be suffering from dizziness, fainting spells, and/or brain fog.”