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silence?
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:39 am
by djake
i was reading a loefah interview a while back and he was talking about how silence is an instrument....it sparked a thought....
but can u class silence as a sound....
it has no wave form, u cant hear anyfing, but u no what it is
ive asked various friends n most of them say no its not a sound
what do you think?
edit : that might not make any sense at all
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:43 am
by drifterman_
duno about if its a sound or not
but i like 2 use it 2 make a tune swing a bit more
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:44 am
by tempest
I guess it's not a sound as its 0 frequency, no wave... But as a part of a song, in creating intrest and exciting the listener, I think its a massively underrated tool
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:47 am
by djake
tempest wrote:I guess it's not a sound as its 0 frequency, no wave... But as a part of a song, in creating intrest and exciting the listener, I think its a massively underrated tool
scientifically its not a sound,
but u can hear it, everyone knows what silence is dnt they
i've been finkin about this for a couple of months, i just keep goin round in circles
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:49 am
by shane
its not a sound and its actually "nothing" that you're hearing. you understand its presence is a lack of sound, which can sound good when used properly.
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:53 am
by djake
shane wrote:its not a sound and its actually "nothing" that you're hearing. you understand its presence is a lack of sound
ahhhhh
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 2:25 am
by Sharmaji
analagous to the zero-as-a-number discussion.
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 2:45 am
by slothrop
TeReKeTe wrote:analagous to the zero-as-a-number discussion.
Or black as a colour.
Good luck painting without black, good luck making music without silence.
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 3:06 am
by vahn roi
Sounds like someone who wants to present themself as a deep thinker...
Then again I haven't read the interview...got a link?
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 3:36 am
by djake
vahn roi wrote:Sounds like someone who wants to present themself as a deep thinker...
Then again I haven't read the interview...got a link?
haha i dnt usally fink like this....im no deep thinker
it was on blackdown....
cant be fuked to shift through the archives right now

Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 3:48 am
by misk
vahn roi wrote:Sounds like someone who wants to present themself as a deep thinker...
Then again I haven't read the interview...got a link?
i think he's talking about loefah...?
having extended silence in your track, takes balls.

Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 4:00 am
by vahn roi
djake wrote:vahn roi wrote:Sounds like someone who wants to present themself as a deep thinker...
Then again I haven't read the interview...got a link?
haha i dnt usally fink like this....im no deep thinker
it was on blackdown....
cant be fuked to shift through the archives right now

I was referring to the loefah
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 4:02 am
by noodle
I'd like to one day hear "true" silence.
We never hear actual silence, there's always background noise of some sort even if you think you can't hear it... it's there.
It would require a tank with no air, breathing apparatus and yerself.
I bet, with enough time spent in there, your brain would start making it's own sounds just so it's not bored... like how if you stare at the floor in the doctor's waiting room it warps... or is that just me?
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:20 am
by roqqert
you can see it as the color black... thou black is not a color. Its a hole in your sight.
same with silence. You hear stuff everywhere and if suddenly everything is silence you wont hear a thing.
You only hear silence when the sound stopped
all about contrast if you ask me
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 10:44 am
by 3rdeye
i remember reading or hearing from a producer, whose name i forget, that "it's not the sounds, but the space between them" that makes a good track... which always stuck in my head. the space between sounds being silence of course!

Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 10:49 am
by jackquinox
noodle wrote:I'd like to one day hear "true" silence.
We never hear actual silence, there's always background noise of some sort even if you think you can't hear it... it's there.
It would require a tank with no air, breathing apparatus and yerself.
I bet, with enough time spent in there, your brain would start making it's own sounds just so it's not bored... like how if you stare at the floor in the doctor's waiting room it warps... or is that just me?
I sat in an anechoic chamber for about 20 minutes aside from feeling really off balance because there are no reflections initially you hear nothing but then you start to hear the tiny hairs in your ears moving around and i have been told by people that if you sit in there long enough you hear your circulation system at work so yep your spot on with that comment.
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 10:54 am
by 3rdeye
jackquinox wrote:noodle wrote:I'd like to one day hear "true" silence.
We never hear actual silence, there's always background noise of some sort even if you think you can't hear it... it's there.
It would require a tank with no air, breathing apparatus and yerself.
I bet, with enough time spent in there, your brain would start making it's own sounds just so it's not bored... like how if you stare at the floor in the doctor's waiting room it warps... or is that just me?
I sat in an anechoic chamber for about 20 minutes aside from feeling really off balance because there are no reflections initially you hear nothing but then you start to hear the tiny hairs in your ears moving around and i have been told by people that if you sit in there long enough you hear your circulation system at work so yep your spot on with that comment.
that sounds awesome. i was supposed to visit Tannoy's anechoic chamber in their Glasgow factory when i was at college but it never happened

always wanted to experience that
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:28 am
by d-T-r
syntax
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:33 am
by slim
Interesting topic. Silence can be powerful, but then you also have producers like burial and blackdown who fill the spaces in their tunes with sound, crackle in burial's case and keysounds in Blackdown's.
That is one of the things about loefah's sound that is so powerful though. There is so little happening, but it's precise. Music is all about building and releasing tension, silence is a great way of doing that.
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:39 am
by slothrop
jackquinox wrote:
I sat in an anechoic chamber for about 20 minutes aside from feeling really off balance because there are no reflections initially you hear nothing but then you start to hear the tiny hairs in your ears moving around and i have been told by people that if you sit in there long enough you hear your circulation system at work so yep your spot on with that comment.
That was the experience that inspired John Cage to 'write' 4.33 - realizing that even in a piece of music with no actual notes, people would still hear stuff even if it was only the air conditioning or the birds outside.