[ExI] sound archive

[spike]

. On Behalf Of Jebadiah Moore
Subject: Re: [ExI] sound archive

 

.Not to detract from your main point (which I think is an interesting idea),
but I'm pretty sure those lighters didn't go away.I've never heard of the
brand Rossignol (which Google thinks is a winter gear manufacturer)--perhaps
you mean Ronson.

 

Ronson it is, thanks.  I was going on very old memories, and I did remember
the fluid Ronsonol, confused it with Rossignol the ski manufacturer.

 

.More to the point, there are a number of sound archives out there, although
I don't know of any (and couldn't quickly find) any with the specific
purpose you stated.-- Jebadiah Moore

 

Do let me get to the specifics that caused me to think of the idea.  When
one fires up an Apple computer, there is a chord as played on a guitar,
which always sounded familiar to me, but I could not place it.  Not being a
guitarist, but somewhat of a music hipster, I thought it a diminished 7th
chord in F, or possibly an F minor 7th, but I could be mistaken.  Yesterday
I heard that chord on the radio, which was immediately followed by the
comment: 

 

It's been a hard day's night

And I've been working like a dog.

 

And so forth, then I remembered where I had heard that chord, so very many
years ago in my own misspent youth.

 

Question: if I had the chord and could reproduce it on a guitar or could get
reasonably close, how can we conceive a google-like device to get from the
sound to text describing it?  If I knew the song, I could easily google a
YouTube of the chord, but if all I have is the chord, or the tune without
any lyrics, I need a googly tool to get to the song.  I could imagine
reducing a rhythm to a googlable form, but not really a chord or a tune.

 

Regarding our current efforts at scanning and OCRing old books to get these
into ASCII text, this is all admirable indeed.  What I am proposing is an
audio version of preservation of the past.  The sound of a Ronson lighter,
the buzz of an icicle on the cooling fan of an antiquated refrigerator,
these are the kinds of things that defy efforts at reduction to ASCII files.


 

By still further extension, could we not attempt to somehow preserve extinct
smells?  While doing genealogical research, I found a family who still
heated their home with coal.  That gives the home a distinctive, not
unpleasant smell.  How many here have smelled a home heated by coal?  Is
there any way to create a googlish device that can get us from a smell to a
descriptive text or website?

 

These sensations will soon be lost forever to humanity, as was the wisdom in
the library of Alexandria in the fire.  If we can figure out how to google a
smell or a sound, we may save these sensations.  Otherwise the fires of
Alexandria burn brightly and tragically.

 

spike

 

 

 


 <http://blog.jebdm.net> 

 

 

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