Disquiet – Page 891 – Listening to culture. Playing with audio. Sounding out technology. Composing in code.

SOUND RESEARCH LOG: Pharmaceuticals Are Technologies Are Pharmaceuticals

July 4, 2014 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Kind of fascinating that the manufacturer of an over-the-counter sleep aid might create brand extensions that include white noise machines:

Procter & Gamble Co. Chief Financial Officer Jon Moeller piqued curiosity when he told an investor conference last month that the company was preparing to enter a new category in the next six months and “introduce a new and far superior method of addressing a chronic consumer issue.”

Based on the company’s trademark filings, a strong candidate, at least for the latter, appears to be a line of products that make it easier to sleep.
Several of its recent trademark filings relate to an expansion of the ZzzQuil brand the company launched in 2012 into what would be a range of new sleep-aid products. Among the categories P&G filed to cover with the ZzzQuil and ZzzPads name in February are “electronic sound generators for producing ambient sounds for promoting sleep,” light-therapy units and aromatherapy pads specially adapted for creating scents for electric vaporizers, electric fans, air purifiers and humidifiers.

Via Zack Neff at adage.com.

This entry cross-posted from the Disquiet linkblog project sound.tumblr.com.

SOUND RESEARCH LOG: Smartwatches Are Always Listening, LG G

July 4, 2014 / By Marc Weidenbaum

The above image is from the initial promotional material for the Android-powered LG G Watch. It is showing support for “Ok Google,” which listens for that phrase as a prompt. Of course, in order to do that, the watch has to be always listening. As useful as the concierge-ish search is, of all gadgets a watch needn’t have to listen — you could just, you know, hit a button. Also from the promotional language: “It doesn’t just listen well, it communicates with you well: straight answers to spoken questions.” The initial specs don’t seem to note the inclusion of a microphone.

This entry cross-posted from the Disquiet linkblog project sound.tumblr.com.

SOUND RESEARCH LOG: Music Wars, Mobile Plan Divison

July 4, 2014 / By Marc Weidenbaum

“Mobile and music united at once.” That’s how Rok Mobile, which launched today in VIP/invite-only mode, is describing its phone plan, which adds a “music” category to the core talk/text/data plans. According to gigaom.com‘s Kevin Fitchard, Rok is likely reselling plans on Sprint and/or T-Mobile. More at rokmobile.com.

This entry cross-posted from the Disquiet linkblog project sound.tumblr.com.

Disquiet Junto Project 0131: The Key of Tea

Create a composition that naturally extends from the whistle of a tea kettle.

July 3, 2014July 10, 2014 / By Marc Weidenbaum

shardayyy
Each Thursday at [the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.com](soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/) 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](soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/).

Tracks by participants will be added to this playlist as the project proceeds:

This project was published in the evening, California time, on Thursday, July 3, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, July 7, 2014, as the deadline.

These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (sign up at [tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto](http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto)):

Disquiet Junto Project 0131: Kettle Development

These are the steps for this week’s project:

Step 1: Record the sound of a tea kettle coming to a boil, preferably a tea kettle that whistles when the boil is achieved.

Step 2: Create a piece of music that originates from the sound of that tea kettle reaching its climax. Employ the sound of the tea kettle in an original composition that can be heard to extend from the field recording of the kettle itself. Start your piece with between five and ten seconds of the unaltered kettle sound.

Step 3: Upload the track to the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud, following the directions below.

Deadline: Monday, July 7, 2014, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

Length: The length of your finished work will be between one and two minutes.

Information: Please when posting your track on SoundCloud, 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.

Title/Tag: When adding your track to the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com, please include the term “disquiet0131-thekeyoftea” in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.

Download: It is preferable that your track is set as downloadable, and that it allows for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).

Linking: When posting the track, please be sure to include this information:

More on this 131st Disquiet Junto project — “Create a composition that naturally extends from the whistle of a tea kettle.”— at:

Disquiet Junto Project 0131: The Key of Tea

SOUND RESEARCH LOG: Noise Pollution, the Hum Edition

July 3, 2014July 3, 2014 / By Marc Weidenbaum

At mic.com, Jared Keller dives deep into “the hum” — the Hum:

“The Hum” refers to a mysterious sound heard in places around the world by a small fraction of a local population. It’s characterized by a persistent and invasive low-frequency rumbling or droning noise often accompanied by vibrations. While reports of “unidentified humming sounds” pop up in scientific literature dating back to the 1830s, modern manifestations of the contemporary hum have been widely reported by national media in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia since the early 1970s.

Here’s an “alleged recording of the Auckland Hum”:

The above map is from the World Hum Map and Database. More on the database at thehum.info.

This entry cross-posted from the Disquiet linkblog project sound.tumblr.com.