Psychoacoustics Information on the Net Today Compiled: April 28, 1999 Question: What does this file and its content have to do with the Apple IIgs? Answer: It's useful when you want learn about what Psychoacoustic sound effects and music is all about,to compose it with your IIgs and for porting it to your IIgs using a Mac with several Mac music composition MIDI programs and Sound Editors - both of which are clearly able to be done with the use of NoiseTracker GS, USE (Universal Sound Editor) GS v1.0 and BeatBox GS. All of the compiled text content that follows was derived from a search of: Ask Jeeves - via the following URL links. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Waves PAZ Real-Time Psychoacoustic Analyzer Plug-In Now Available for Mac MUSIK MESSE, FRANKFURT GERMANY, MARCH 11, 1998 - the leading supplier of DSP software for the professional audio and multimedia markets, today announced that the PAZ PsychoAcoustic Analyzer - a real-time analyzer is now available for native Macintosh platforms including Adobe Premeire and Steinberg VST. The PAZ Plug-In provides accurate visualization of psychoacoustic experiences and contains three modules: Frequency Analysis, Stereo Position Display, Loudness/Peak Meter. The PAZ PsychoAcoustic Analyzer employs 52 frequency bands nearly identical to the constant Q critical frequency bands of human ears, thereby providing the most accurate visualization of sound as we experience it. Distinctive continuous-graph display of the wavelet-based realtime analysis includes RMS or Peak modes, with dual channel or total stereo energy graphing from DC to Nyquist. The RTA is from 0 to -80dBFS, with unweighted, C- and A-weighting options. The unique Stereo Position Display shows energy (loudness) distribution in the stereo image, as well as anti-phase information. Waves PAZ PsychoAcoustic Analyzer is useful for mastering and analysis, troubleshooting gear or sound systems, room tuning and more. The PAZ has three displays: Frequency Analysis - Can be used for Peak or RMS display of Dual Channel, Total Stereo Energy, and mono analysis. The energy spectrum can be weighted with two curves (dBA, dBC). The resolution below 250Hz can be increased to 10 Hz steps for a total of 68 bands. Tools and modes include PeakHold graph, Zoom and Scroll, Freeze Display, and SaveData to text file. Stereo Position Display - This displays the loudness across the Stereo stage as well as detecting anti-phase components. It is a polar coordinate graph between -45deg and +45deg, with the anti-phase shown outside these borders. Loudness/Peak Meters are shown against each other. Loudness is computed according to the selected weighting curve. Each 'mode' can be used as a separate Plug-In, or all three can be used in a single window. The PAZ supports the following platforms on Mac: Pro Tools TDM, Pro Tools AudioSuite, Premiere, Cubase-VST, Peak, WaveConvert Pro, SoundEdit 16, Deck II, Digital Performer 2.1, Logic Audio 3.0, Studio Vision Pro 3.5, and other platforms supporting the Premiere architecture. The PAZ PsychoAcoustic Analyzer for native processing is now available from Waves Dealers Worldwide at US $100 or direct from Waves in the US. www.waves.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- An intensive collective dealing with Psychoacoustics can be found from: http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/psychoacoustic_music ----------------------------------------------------------------------- From: James Pomeray On Research & Ineluctable Subjectivity SANTA ANA, CA. - Welcome to the second installment in our series dedicated to exploring the realms of psycho-acoustic music. This installment is dedicated to developing an understanding of the difficulties that lie between the research into psychoacoustics and psycho-acoustic music recordings themselves. Research vs. Subjective Experience As previously noted, there is a great deal of research being done on psychoacoustics, much of it Byzantine and interdisciplinary (ěmusicology, psychology and computer science are fields of research cited in MUSIC, MIND, MACHINE: Computational Modeling of Temporal Structure in Musical Knowledge and Music Cognition Unpublished manuscript, August 1995, Peter Desain & Henkjan Honing which title alone should suffice to enlighten the reader). However, as with musicology and music itself, a distinguishable difference exists between the research on psychoacoustics and psycho-acoustic music recordings. In fact, the gap between the two can be seemingly unbridgeable. This reflects the problem faced by any who would compare a thing in itself to the results of the study of that thing. Ultimately, the subjective experience remains outside the hallowed halls of University save insofar as that experience exists in the heads of the students and the professor. Put another way: results from research on psycho-acoustic music that has been dissected, analyzed, and synthesized by researchers, cannot but superimpose a visible structure on that invisible essence which is communicated in purely subjective terms to each individual listener; i.e., the experience lies forever beyond the capacity of research to explain or define. So, am I devaluing research? Not in the least. What should be always borne in mind is that the results of research into psycho-acoustic music are useful only to the degree that a greater understanding of the mechanisms of psycho-acoustic music is gained therefrom. From the understanding of such mechanisms comes the chance to more directly and more intelligently explore the avenues the subject "naturally" presents to us. It was the study of birds wings that ultimately got human beings flying, but it did not, however, make birds of us. A Personal Understanding Psycho-acoustic music, like all music, like a familiar place, is both static and dynamic. Every time you put on a particular work of psycho-acoustic music the notes are the same, the recording levels are still the same, and the songs are in the same order (unless you choose to play them in some other order). Yet, depending on your mood, the time of day, or any number of greater or lesser factors, the work may seem different. But it will seem different only within certain limits. This brings up some difficult issues, which we will have to carefully deal with over the course of these essays. For instance, if research into psycho-acoustic music yields certain results that point to the effects of listening to any given work, can it be said that those results will hold over the course of many listening sessions? That is, can it be predicted that the same stimulus will cause the same result every time, and, if not, how can we conditionally qualify those results without reducing them to ambiguity? Further, we must ask where the threshold is at which point your experience of a particular work and my experience of that same work become identical? Can such a point exist? Can it fail to exist? How does this relate to the composers intention? Looking at these questions, one is struck by the complexity of the topic at hand. So, for now, I would like to offer here some simple guidelines for listening to psycho-acoustic music. We shall have to put the questions weve raised on the back burner temporarily. Rest assured: we shall return to them; we have to, if there is to be any real gain for us. Lets offer some guidelines by answering a general question relevant to our discussion: how should we listen to psycho-acoustic music in order to gain the most from it? In my own experience, psycho-acoustic music is most effective when one dedicates both ears to it. Distractions cannot but spoil its spell, just as impolite people can ruin a movie at the theater. Also, one should be in the mood to listen attentively. (Please note: Psycho-acoustic music is not mood music, per se; psycho-acoustic music is created by composers as unique works of art, whereas works of mood music are designed by musicians and companies, usually for profit and listeners peace of mind.) Total immersion in the music through the use of quality headphones is suggested, though the listening experience should not be degraded too badly if one has decent speakers and a quiet room in which to listen. What is perhaps of the most importance is our attitude toward the composition. The composition should be approached with an open mind, empty of anticipation, free of second-guessing. Let the composer(s) do their stuff, and let your mind accept, without hesitation, the journey the work would take you on. See you next time! Thank you! Headlines ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Psycho-Acoustic Music The Effects of Music as Created by Various Artists. The American HeritageĆ Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition copyright © 1992, gives us the following definition of psychoacoustics: psychoacoustics noun (used with a sing. verb): The scientific study of the perception of sound. I offer the following definition, which I tentatively put forward, of psycho-acoustic music: psycho-acoustic adjective or noun (depending on context): music designed to affect the mind, the emotions, the senses, the spirit (as you define it), or all of these together or in combination. Please note that the word psychoacoustics will refer to the scientific study of sound, whereas its hyphenated sibling, psycho-acoustic, will refer to the second definition given above. _________________ SANTA ANA, CA. Today there are more categories of music than you can shake a conductors baton at, and more subcategories than there are instruments in an orchestra pit. Each month seems to bring another nervous breakdown in Radio Land: no category remains stable as the record industry (including even indie labels) scrambles to find a new and fragmental niche for every emerging band. However, the meta-categories of music are nowadays often ignored or neglected. Virtually everyone knows that certain groups can be called "Top 40" and that certain others can be called "easy listening"; these are meta-categories we can use to group large numbers of artists and bands for ease of segregation. Unfortunately, such meta-categories are frequently too vague for their own good. We often find an artist or band spanning several meta-categories, some of them contradicting others. A good example of such a contradiction exists between the "alternative" and "Top 40" meta-categories. How can an artist be both alternative and very popular? Adding insult to injury, we are frequently told by the media that "alternative" is now one of the most popular music formats ever. So then, why should we want to discuss a meta-category of music called psycho-acoustic? How does it differ from other such categories? Will it not just lend itself to the growing confusion about an art-form so riddled with pigeonholes that it can scarcely float on the airwaves? One question at a time, please. Artists who compose psycho-acoustic music address one of the most important facets of music, one ignored by mainstream musicians more often than not. That facet: music can have a very powerful affect on the human mind. It sounds almost trite to point that out, but it is not. Popular music is marketed by large corporations to the general population in the same way aspirin or chocolate candy is; it is certainly not packaged with advice or instructions on how best to use it as a tool. Further, popular music ploughs under the spiritual roots of music, leaving us to hum tunes for no reason or to dance without an internal, intimate, spiritual motivation. Composers of psycho-acoustic music, on the other hand, are pioneers consciously re-exploring ancient territory, re-covering, re-membering, and realizing the power of music. This is no small feat, especially in todays rampantly commercialized record industry. Referring to music as psycho-acoustic, rather than simply referring to psychoacoustic research, is relatively new, even if psycho-acoustic music itself has been around in one form or another since human beings first rhythmically banged wood, stones, and bones, on this and that in order to enter trances or make magick. A web search using Excite turned up 124,848 hits, with top references going to musicians Elliott Sharp and Zeena Parkins, as well as to information on "the psycho-acoustic technique and methods based on Binaural Beats for various fields of application" (courtesy of the Applied Research and Design Center of Israel). Lycos turned up seventy-eight URLs for "psycho-acoustic music" on the first try, which introduced me to quite a few music theory sites. So, as you can see, its already a broad and broadly discussed category were dealing with. But is it easily confused with other meta-categories, lending itself to the creation of another oxymoron like "popular alternative"? The answer is a simple negative (one almost totally free of reservations), because, unlike such meta-categories as "pop" or "alternative", the psycho-acoustic meta-category is much deeper than standard meta-categories, having a foothold in applied research, and is also much less ambiguous. However, we must bear in mind that as with any meta-category we might name there is bound to be a point at which "psycho-acoustic" becomes ambiguous as a category and therefore becomes useless to us. Over the course of articles I will offer on the topic of psycho-acoustic music, we will explore the words and works of many artists and researchers. URLs and other information will be provided to facilitate ease of understanding. It is to be hoped that as we explore the world of this mind-altering music learning the how and the why, and getting to know the artists behind it we shall develop a greater appreciation for music, especially as it relates to the life we know through our minds, bodies, hearts, and spirits. See also this URL; http://www.nici.kun.nl/mmm/INTRO.HTML Contents follow: Introduction to Music Cognition Research The research builds upon three disciplines: musicology, psychology and computer science. By starting from the margins where these approaches overlap, it aims at discovering innovative ways in which solutions can be found for problems which have proven so far to be unsolvable in a mono-disciplinary approach. In computational modeling, theories are formalized in such a way that they can be implemented as computer programs. As a result of this process, more insight is gained into the nature of the theory, and theoretical predictions are, in principle, much easier to develop and assess. With regard to computational modeling of musical knowledge, the theoretical constructs and operations used by musicologists are subjected to such a formalization. Conversely, with computational modeling of music cognition, the aim is to describe the mental processes that take place when perceiving or producing music, which does not necessarily lead to the same kind of models. Surprisingly, one of the main problems in computational modeling is its success: there is a huge number of models proposed for many tasks in the form of working computer programs. But the psychological validation of these models, their implication for theoretical constructs, their generalizability, and the relationship between different models is often left obscure. Thus, the success of the method is only apparent and a new approach is necessary. Recently a methodology has been emerging in which a working computational model is seen much more as the starting point of analysis and research, than as an end product. This approach needs further elaboration, because it promises a way out of the present stagnation. Music is an excellent domain for experimenting with this methodology: knowledge about the domain is available at many levels (psycho-acoustic, music-theoretic, historic), and formalization is not as far removed from music itself as commonly thought: consider, for example, the extensive music notation system that has evolved. In human culture, music is as widespread a phenomenon as language, and although the variety of musics of different societies and cultures as well as their continually changing character appears to refute the possibility of formalization, there are reasons to believe that there are basic mechanisms that underlie human perception and performance which facilitate and constrain the genesis of a music, much as they may do in language. However, music is not an easy domain for developing computational models. Some of the characteristic problems include: mutually incompatible overlying structural descriptions, the combination of discrete and continuous types of information, and the incremental nature of processing that often relies on a combination of both bottom-up and top-down mechanisms. These problems, though, make music a fruitful domain of research, the outcome of which is beneficial to other fields as well. Amps on the -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other URL containing information of interest: http://smt.ucsb.edu/mto/mtohome.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Place Where The Black Stars Hang. Darkness at the outer limits of consciousness. Okay, a little history here When I was still pretty young I used to watch a British sci-fi show called Space: 1999, which was filmed from 1975 through 1976. To be brief, the show chronicled the amazing events experienced by the people who were stuck living on the moon after it was blasted out of the earths orbit. Maybe it sounds corny, but it was a really good show and I watched it regularly. Sometimes it was pretty intense, at least to a kid as young as I was then. However, one episode in particular really scared me. Dragons Domain (which was the twenty-third episode). For those of you unfamiliar with the episode I am referring to, just imagine, if you will, a graveyard of spaceships drifting through the darkest reaches of deep space. Imagine if within that graveyard there existed a creature with one glowing eye without a pupil (like an old trains headlight) and with a writhing mass of tentacles. Now, imagine that it could just appear wherever it wanted to and devour your life-force, leaving nothing of you but a smoldering skeletal shell. Oh! I get the chills just thinking about it. As a kid, that one episode gave me nightmares for weeks. Lustmrds Black Stars recording, although not quite as scary as the twenty-third episode of Space: 1999 was to me as a kid, is still as eerie and haunted as any spaceship graveyard, and one really cannot help but wonder perhaps a little nervously what unknown force might be lurking in it. Unlike Steve Roachs The Magnificent Void, which begins rather tentatively, Black Stars softly but surely launches you headfirst into the domain of distance-haunted space, eventually sending you out to its farthest reaches. Lustmrd is a master at creating and manipulating aural space, and the listener is very quickly swallowed in it. Regarding space, we find in the liner notes the following: We have yet to gain a true comprehension of cosmological space, that space between space, the shadows between shadows, and the infinite darkness thereof, where metaphysical transgressions prevail. Excerpted from inside CD liner; italics are mine. JP Shrouded in what some people might take at first glance to be mere poetic twaddling or pseudo-philosophical babble, a core issue in Black Stars is actually here exposed. The manifestation of space in a recording is not something that just happens. It takes an earnest effort or a total accident to bring it about. With Black Stars, space is no accident. Utilizing any number of specialized processes to delve into patterns of digitized sound waves and pull space from them, B. Lustmrd leaves behind the mundane world of common three-dimensional sound and steps up to the cutting edge of truly psycho-acoustic composition: four-dimensional sound. Let me explain. With the average stereo recording, the illusion of three dimensions is created by carefully mixing the strengths of signals being output to left and right channels. For instance, the weaker a signal becomes in the left channel, or the stronger its made in the right channel, the more the right channel will pull the location of that sound to the right. Different placements of sounds are created by varying the strengths of signals sent through the left and right channels. You can try your own experiments at home to illustrate this. Go to your kitchen or bathroom and run the water in the sink. Now, stepping back a foot or so, close your eyes and focus on the location of the water coming from the faucet. Chances are good that, unless you have a hearing impediment of some sort, you can locate the water as coming out in front of you. Now, cover your right ear with your hand. Be sure the palm is flat against your ear, rather than cupped. Although you know that the water is still pouring out in front of you, you should notice that the exact location of the waters stream has apparently shifted to the left. Covering your left ear instead will result in the waters stream apparently shifting to the right. Now, try cupping your ears with palms facing first toward the water, then away. What happened? What happens when you cup one ear with your palm toward the water while you cup the other ear with your palm turned away from the water? Although you can create a sense of three-dimensional placement with the average stereo recording, it is quite another matter altogether to create real space. In our next installment we will look at the creation of aural space and also talk a little more about Black Stars. Until then take care, be well! Stay tuned - but, for now...that's all folks. More will follow soon, related to and concerning 'Psychoacoustics Information on the Net Today' and it's related use with the Apple IIgs. Kettner Enters Additional Ref. URL's and links related to the use of Psychoacoustics, it's posibilities and the Apple IIgs with various stereo cards, sound editors and sound/music programs follows; http://www.grin.net/~cturley/gsezine/GS.WorldView/GS.VAMPS.NTV/ http://www.grin.net/~cturley/gsezine/GS.WorldView/*GS.AUDIOWARES/ http://www.grin.net/~cturley/gsezine/GS.WorldView/A2GS.NEW.PRODUCTS/Sound.Interactor.html http://www.grin.net/~cturley/gsezine/GS.WorldView/*HIGHTECH.SOUND/ http://www.grin.net/~cturley/gsezine/GS.WorldView/*A2GS.SYNTHLAB/ http://www.grin.net/~cturley/gsezine/GS.WorldView/**GS.STEREO.CARDS/TDX.html http://www.grin.net/~cturley/gsezine/GS.WorldView/*A2.APRIL.MAY.98/Apple_II_Sound_&_Music_.txt http://www.grin.net/~cturley/gsezine/GS.WorldView/*A2.APRIL.MAY.98/audiozap20.shk http://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/Collections/1WSW/GS.Sound.4.SHK ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/Collections/1WSW/GS.Sound.4.SHK http://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/Collections/1WSW/GS.Sound.5.SHK ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/Collections/1WSW/GS.Sound.5.SHK http://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/Collections/1WSW/NTGSv2.0.SHK ftp://ground.ecn.uiowa.edu/apple2/Collections/1WSW/NTGSv2.0.SHK Compiled Information Copyright © 1999 by OSRL and GS WorldView