New cool sounds from NASA

I just had a strange, uncomfortable thought as I was playing the sound that Emma posted…“Can sounds cause cancer?” :crazy_face: Maybe these foreign, otherworldly sounds can effect us negatively…or positively…Hmm, I guess all sound effects us in one way or other.

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Inter-galactic sounds could have a huge range of unforseen effects…
my mind is boggling…

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I’m the result of intergalactic effects…

for some reason that comment reminds me of an exotic icecream sundae

Just thought I’d mention that…

If an asteroid makes a strange and distinctive noise and a spacebird hears it and replicates the sound throughout the nightsky and a small earthbird with powerful hearing imitates the sound and inadvertently fries peoples brains, is that mass murder?

Much to think about…

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Not really, only people can commit murder. You also need to show intent, state of mind, and motive to establish a murder. I mean, who do to blame for the incident? The asteroid, the spacebird, or the earthbird?

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There is an emerging art/science called Sound Healing that I’m intrigued with, and the premise is exactly that. It relates to Music Therapy to some degree, which is an established and credentialed occupation and has been for some years. But Sound Healing can get a bit more “woo-woo” and out there, which is pretty cool. :grin: But it is not yet mainstream or accepted. Studies have show that light and colors have profound effects on us psychologically and our health. The same with sound, but the scientific research seems to be a bit behind on that IMO. And yes, all sound potentially can affect us in some way. While you can “turn off” visual stimuli by closing your eyes, sound will resonate through your body whether you have your ears covered or not. And covering your ears (or ear plugs) does not shut out all sound, only reduces it. I’m fascinated by this … it’s a sensory input that you can never turn off. We hear even when we’re sleeping, though with eyes shut and almost zero visual input.

The 432 Hz debate (and others) relate to this principle of Sound Healing. It’s even partly based on a (conspiracy?) theory that the Nazi’s got 440 Hz set as the musical standard for tuning because it is inherently dissonant and causes listeners to experience conflict and warlike tendencies. Indeed, there is evidence that Joseph Goebbels was behind the push to get the standard adopted by international music associations. Prior to that, there were multiple tunings used and no rigid standard. Classical composers earlier than that had advocated for 432 Hz and a few others, based on their own experiences.

The art of Qi Gong, whose origin is in ancient China, includes sound healing techniques that are said to affect different internal organs of the body. This is usually done by vocal sounds and toning from the individual practitioner as it resonates throughout their own body.

In my own experience, sounds can very much affect health, especially when they are unwanted or inharmonious. I think it’s a huge area for exploration, and something we can do is manage our environment by being conscious of sounds we are exposed to.

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I did some more thinking about this, and it may have come across as harsh and a bit of a rant. I have some background in astronomy and astrophysics (purely a hobby), and combined with my knowledge of acoustics (sound waves propagate in a medium, air, water, etc) it was very clear to me what must be going on. I now realize that not everyone, even musicians knowledgeable about acoustics, might make the connections I did with this process.

I’ve had some sessions of that - utterly amazing and powerful stuff with a skilled practitioner. I had fun recently recording a sound therapist ‘toning’ and was really fascinated analysing the frequency of her tones later on… such a dense band of sound, covering such a wide spectrum. Fascinating stuff.

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Wow, this thread went in directions I didn’t expect!

But Stan has it right: it’s a conversion of radio-frequency data to audio, not actual recorded sounds. There is a lot of “electromagnetic topography” out there, lots of things going on in the lower frequencies (infra-red, radio, microwave etc). Magnetic fields of the large planets affect and modulate that topography, and with these kind of conversion algorithms (and I have no idea what those are) all sorts of crazy sounds are possible.

Speaking of sounds and space stuff, this past week I was at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, where the JWST (and many other) spacecraft and telescope were built. Here’s a lousy shot of the tall, narrow acoustic chamber where they do vibrational testing by exposing the finished hardware to 190 dB of low frequency sound. Even with the massive doors shut, our guide told us, one can barely stand being in the outer room during a test. Check out that massive woofer up top! Strangely, they had no place for me to plug in a guitar…!

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Very cool Emma! I’m interested in a bunch of stuff, including “overtone singing” (throat singing). There’s so much to explore beyond contemporary music.

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Wow! Just imagine if they were to use Bark of Dog with that woofer. :smirk:

I gather that you’re familiar with the Tuvans then? I first learned about throat singing from reading the great physicist Richard Feynman’s memoirs, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think? His odyssey to finally reach Tuva to hear them is a major thread throughout the books.

Bela Fleck worked with one of the great Tuvan singers, Ondar Kongar-ol, before the latter’s untimely death a few years ago. There’s a Flecktones concert DVD called “Live at the Quick” where he’s featured, and it’s astonishing to hear and see. There used to be clips from that disc out there on the Tubes but it looks like they must have been taken down, can’t find them despite detailed searching, otherwise I’d post it…

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Yes, I have heard of them and I think there are several (or many) other traditions in the world that do that or something similar. I have been familiar with Buddhist chanting for many years, and throat singing for just the last few years probably. It is something I have tried and may find a way to incorporate it in some compositions or experiments.

Even if it sounded terrible, it’d still be awesome to try that just to be able to say you did. Lol

I’ve been idly musing on what I might have played if I could plug in to that sucker for just a minute… Maybe the opening of Communication Breakdown, or of Neil Young’s My My, Hey Hey (the fuzzed out version)… :guitar:

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I would have suggested “All About That Bass”, but perhaps Meghan Trainor isn’t your taste or style in music. :wink:

It’s been said that there’s a particular note/pitch that brings perfect harmony to the human body and mind…, also animals and plants, if I recall correctly. Supposedly that note would be the low E on a piano…I forget exactly which low E they were referring to…I think it’s the first E below middle C…, or maybe the second low E below middle C…Ahhh, I think it’s the second low E below middle C. It’s very close to the bottom of my vocal range…But if I used that note in a song it wouldn’t be very powerful because I have more of a baritone/ tenor vocal range.

I’m not sure if the things I’ve read and videos I’ve seen about this “special” note are just more human fairy tales/ folk lore or if there’s truth to it, but like you said, sounds DO indeed have substantial impact on us.

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I don’t know about all of that, but I took the first file, recorded it backwards, slowed it down a lot, and flipped the phase on it. If you listen very carefully you will hear “Paul is Dead”.

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It’s still a little tough for me to grasp the scale of this picture. Is that woofer cone about 10 feet across?!? :open_mouth: