Essays: Sound Tuning

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Sound Tuning

Our nervous system relies on data collection organs dedicated to each sense. Humans seem most acquainted to the world through visual input. Sound, smell, taste, and touch sometimes require a greater allocation of our attention to appreciate what the non-visual senses add to the mosaic of perception.

Sound comes to us as sensory and perceptual events both sequential and ongoing. Distinguishing and appreciating sounds in nature is a matter of attention and practice.
― GrokEarth, Sound and Soundscape

Listening requires attuning to the specifics of the incoming data, distinguishing foreground and background, tuning to pitch and frequency, and experiencing sound in all its symphonic or cacophonic fullness.

In every sound, the hidden silence sleeps.
― Dejan Stojanovic

Nature Sound Map and Wild Sanctuary offer collections of natural sound samples ranging from bubbling mudpots to groaning icebergs, and whale sounds.

Bubbling Mudpot

A mudpot is an acidic hot spring in a geothermal area. The sound of mudpots comes from bubbling gases exiting the viscous slurry of mud. Artist's Paint Pots is geothermal area in Yellowstone with large mudpots. Listen to the sound of a mud pot and steam vent recorded in the Artist's Paint Pots:

Iceberg Sounds

Icebergs creak, squeal, and groan as they scrape against each other. The movements that generate the sounds are caused by shifting tides and small waves under the ice shelf. Listen to iceberg sounds recorded in Terre Adélie, Antarctica:

Whale Vocalization

Whales and other marine mammals depend on sound for communication. Whales vocalize to communicate because sight and smell are less effective in the ocean. Listen to humpback whale vocalizations recorded in the south Pacific ocean near the Tongan islands:

Biophonies and geophonies are the signature voices of the natural world, and as we hear them, we're endowed with a sense of place, the true story of the world we live in.
― Bernie Krause, TED talk

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