Sound Ledger¹ (Quindar Edition)

Audio culture by the numbers

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

“Quindar-tones” are the twinned beeps best known from the Apollo and Space Shuttle missions. They’re named for Quindar Electronics, Inc., which produced the related equipment.

50: The difference in Hz between the two tones

2,525 Hz: The higher of the two pitches, in hertz

250ms: The length, in milliseconds, of each of the two tones, individually

I thought to do this entry because someone at some point searched for the word “Quindar” on disquiet.com. There was no entry, so I figured I’d make a brief one, and the Sound Ledger seemed like a good format in which to do so.

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¹Footnotes

Quindar-tones resources: [wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quindar_tones), [nasa.gov](https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/quindar.html), [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20130929033302/http://apollo17.ehartwell.com/MissionTranscriptCollection.htm#Quindar).

Panel about The Children Next Door

On its 10th anniversary

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Back in 2012, I had the great pleasure to work on a documentary film titled *The Children Next Door*. I joined the project to initially as music supervisor: to collaborate on sound design and oversee the hiring of a proper composer.

We eventually brought on the incredibly talented Taylor Deupree, of the 12k record label. The resulting film, from director Doug Block and producer Lynda Hansen, is a complex story about the survivors of domestic violence. This Thursday, October 27 (6:00-7:30pm ET), Doug and Lynda will participate in a panel discussion, titled “Filming with Traumatized Participants,” on the occasion of the movie’s 10th anniversary re-release. They’ll be joined by two members of the family that was the focus of *The Children Next Door*, Penny and Chelsea Waldroup, along with advocate Margie Ratliff (daughter of convicted murderer Michael Peterson, and herself a subject of both the true-crime documentary *The Staircase* and *Subject*, a documentary about participants in such documentaries).

Needless to say, audio will not be the focus of the October 27 discussion, but I’m proud of this film, and wanted to mention the event. I’ll definitely be attending. A Q&A will follow the discussion.

The October 27 online event is free. Just register online and you’ll get a Zoom link in return.

The film (which, I must warn you, is a tough watch) is available to screen for free through November 6 at showandtell.film.

136 Strings Can’t Be Wrong

Ellen Fullman and company

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

You should, I hope, have a spare two minutes and ten seconds. And if you don’t, then you need this video even more than those of us to whom such a concept is not entirely foreign:

This is footage of musician Ellen Fullman performing with Travis Andrews and Andy Meyerson, a duo who go by the [Living Earth Show](https://www.thelivingearthshow.com/about). Ellen Fullman just goes by Ellen Fullman, but she does have a sonic biosphere of her own. That would be her Long String Instrument, a massive installation of fine strings that can be extended for dozens upon dozens of feet. Wherever Long String is installed — and I’ve personally experienced the tremendous impression it makes — not just her music it emits but the instrument itself fills the given space majestically.

The video is an excerpt of [*Elemental View*](https://www.ellenfullman.com/elementalview), a forthcoming document of an “expansive installation [that] inhabits an industrial sized space with 136 strings.” And if you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, there’s a [screening on November 19](https://performingarts.mills.edu/2022/11/tudor.php) in Oakland at Mills Performing Arts, where Fullman is currently the David Tudor Composer-in-Residence. This event will occur in the Littlefield Concert Hall foyer, which is apparently where Fullman first installed her instrument 37 years ago.

Swamp Thing

A new book from Wetland Project, a British Columbia eco-art endeavor

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

The new book *Wetland Project: Explorations in Sound, Ecology and Post-Geographical Art* is almost as remarkable for the variety of its contributors as for the deep attention it pays to the natural environment. The gorgeous and highly colorful volume includes work by science fiction novelist William Gibson (an adaptation of whose *The Peripheral* just hit Amazon Prime, and I will be watching shortly!), sound artist Hildegard Westerkamp, Canadian Member of Parliament Elizabeth May, poet Susan McMaster, and the late scholar Stephen Morris, among others, all arranged by Brady Marks and Mark Timmings.

This is a photo of Brady Marks, one of the Wetland Project founders, leaning near recording equipment.
Wheel the Noize: Brady Marks, a co-creator of Wetland Project, monitors a field recording (photo from the book’s promotional website, and from the book itself)

The book (available [for sale](https://shop.figure1publishing.com/products/wetland-project?_ga=2.142698165.1629766006.1666391787-815768512.1666029244) from the publisher Figure 1 — with, to be clear, no commission or kickback for me) is a manifestation of Marks’ and Timmings’ ongoing creative efforts engaging with the sounds of the ṮEḴTEḴSEN marsh, in W̱SÁNEĆ territory (Saturna Island, British Columbia), more on which at [wetlandproject.com](https://wetlandproject.com). I’m not completely done reading *Wetland Project* — I received an advance copy, and will be writing a proper review of it soon — nor am I done listening to all the complementary audio field recordings triggered from little QR codes embedded throughout the book, but I wanted to make sure folks know about it. *(And thanks to [Bruce Levenstein](https://twitter.com/BruceLevenstein) for making me aware of it!)*

RNBO 4 Max Teaser

Something new from Tom Hall and Cycling '74

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Not sure what Tom Hall has planned for Cycling ’74, makers of the great visual programming tool Max, but it appears (per [synthtopia.com](https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2022/10/18/cycling-74-teases-something-new-rnbo/)) to be something called RNBO ([twitter.com/rnbo74](https://twitter.com/rnbo74/)). I was pleased when Rupert Lally [pointed out to me](https://twitter.com/rupertlally/status/1582598228050337792/photo/1) that my Aphex Twin book on the album *Selected Ambient Works Volume II* is featured in this teaser video.

Just as a side note, about 14 years ago I took a job on a side street — really more of an alley — in SoMa here in San Francisco, and one day I realized that the offices of Cycling ’74 were right across the way, though it turned out that was mostly for the sales team, as everyone else worked remotely. Cycling ’74 has always been ahead of the times.