soundboard episode 005

00:00 // introduction

[ soundboard is a production of the austin audio lab ]

Gabe: Breaking down soundwaves through noise cancellation, and breaking down a music track to see how it’s made. It’s all happening now, on soundboard, with Mark and Gabe.

[ opening track ]

Mark: Hello everyone and welcome to Episode 5 of soundboard. soundboard is an audio production podcast hosted by myself, Mark Stelter, and someone whose brain waves would probably sound like Randy Newman if you could transform them into soundwaves, Gabe Alvarez.

Gabe: On today’s episode, Mark will be breaking down how soundwaves are transformed into silence through noise cancelling technology.

Mark: And later, Gabe takes an in depth look at a custom piece of music and walks you through his creative process step by step. So with that, let’s transform and roll out.

[ tape transition ]

 01:00 // noise cancelling headphones

written by Mark Stelter

Sometimes, I’ll be idly skipping through my music not knowing what to listen to and nothing really hits the spot. So I’ll switch over to a podcast thinking that might be what I’m in the mood for, but it's still just not doing it. So I hit pause, just to think and I realize that, the most comforting sound I’m actually looking for is nothing at all. But taking off your headphones or turning off the speakers doesn’t mean you’re hearing nothing. There will still be the ambient noise of whatever environment in which you’re currently located, which lets be honest, can sometimes be even worse. So actually listening to nothing, or just some peace and quiet, isn’t quite as easy as you might think. 

Enter noise cancelling headphones. There are plenty of different options currently available and the concept seems simple enough, but how noise cancelling actually works is really interesting. First off, there are 2 different types of noise cancelling. Passive and Active. Passive noise cancelling pertains to really any type of noise reduction, whether it be through simple earplugs or the heavy duty ear protection devices like those worn by construction workers. The difference between these 2 examples stems primarily from the seal formed in or around your ears and the materials used to block out that outside noise. Both of these typically use different types of sound absorbing foam to block out as much noise as possible. Most headphones will also have some amount of passive noise cancelling, simply by the design of blocking part of your ears, but since they also have the purpose of producing sound, it's not the most practical to just jam a speaker into bulky, foam covered, ear protection. So how do we maintain the noise cancelling properties of passive noise reduction while still being able to hear the music or audio that we want?

To understand the concept of active noise cancelling, first think of a sound wave. As we’ve discussed before sound is essentially a vibration moving through the air which is then processed by our brains. So that vibration has an up and down motion to it with peaks and valleys of specific wavelengths. Active noise cancelling uses small microphones and electrical equipment to detect those wavelengths, reverse them, and play them back before the noise actually reaches your ears. These wavelengths then cancel each other out in a phenomenon known as destructive interference. It’s kind of crazy to think that the solution to noise is essentially more noise, just in the opposite direction. 

But who first thought up the idea of active noise cancelling and why? Well it turns out that it’s because of a subject that’s near and dear to my heart, aviation. The first attempt began when Dr. Paul Lueg submitted a patent application in 1933 describing the process of displacing sound oscillations around a loud speaker by mechanically superimposing other oscillations like we just talked about. While his patent was granted in 1936, the technology didn’t exist at the time to actually create the device. Several decades later in the 1950’s a scientist by the name of Dr. Lawrence Fogel, working for the US Air Force was able to refine the ideas of Dr. Lueg and created the first set of noise cancelling headphones SPECIFICALLY to help helicopter pilots in the cockpit communicate and alleviate the stress on their hearing. As many of you know, I am a helicopter pilot while I’m not at the lab and I currently use a noise cancelling aviation headset while I’m flying. And whoa buddy, I can tell you first hand that it makes a WORLD of a difference. Helicopters are LOUD and a lot of the time, especially in the summer heat, we’ll be flying with the doors removed which makes them even louder. So as a helicopter pilot and an audio engineer, both me and my ears owe Dr. Fogel and every other pioneer in active noise cancelling BIG TIME.

Now it’s important to note that active noise cancelling is not 100% effective. The current microphones that are used to pick up and cancel out outside sounds tend to focus on ambient and consistent noises. That’s why they feel so effective on planes in eliminating the persistent hum of the engines, but can’t always account for the spike in sound of a baby crying. However, the technology behind active noise cancelling is constantly developing the scope and range of which frequencies they can detect and cancel out. This is called the attenuation range, and the more sensitive the microphones in active noise cancelling headphones become, the better they are at reducing outside noise. 

However, there is a threshold for how quiet is too quiet. There is currently a room at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington called an anechoic chamber, literally meaning that it is so quiet the room does not create any echo and prevents any sound from getting in or out. The only place that is any quieter is the absolute vacuum of space. There is so little ambient or background noise, that the loudest thing you can year is well, yourself. Things like your breathing, your heartbeat and even your bones twisting in their sockets are clearly audible. The most minimal sound can become almost deafening and the room’s designer Hundraj Gopal commented that the longest period of time anyone has spent in the room at once is about 55 minutes. So why even build it? What is it used for? It’s basically the physics equivalent of a frictionless surface. Sounds can be measured with the highest degree of scientific accuracy possible from the click of a mouse to the hum of a computer monitor. 

Is it possible for active noise cancelling to approach anything close to the anechoic chamber? I imagine it could be at some point, but I’m not sure what kind of practical application it might have. But who knows, maybe the new hit track of the year 2090 will be “Beats by You” featuring your own heart.

[ tape transition ]

07:37 // sounds of ships

written by Gabe Alvarez

How do you make a song that captures and evokes the feeling of riding your horse across the old western frontier? Is it the instrumentation? The rhythm? Is it something more?

Being in Texas, maybe especially for being in Texas, I find that I have internalized a sense of the glamorous aspects of the old west, and of cowboys, and of the frontier. And I think that’s actually pretty common and even popularized especially through the tremendous volumes of media we have available that explore that historical setting in particular. For me, growing up watching old westerns and hiking through west Texas and playing pretend cowboys, what really resonated with me, and still resonates, is the sense of wonder they all seem to have. While the details and tones of our cowboy stories ride a wide range, there’s always an aspect of introversion, of a longing, of a profound appreciation of nature, and of a respect for the contrast of the individual and the community, even within the context of isolation -- and the wonder that those elements evoke in the characters and the audience.

To be honest, I didn’t start exploring older western films, John Wayne and Gene Autry, until much later in my life. I actually started with Sergio Leone, which shaped a really significant foundation of my concept of the old west. And a huge part of that, I think goes without saying, is the iconic music of Ennio Morricone. While his work within the western genre only accounts for a small fraction of his catalog, those pieces are so woven into our culture that it only takes a second for you to recognize them.

Behind the scenes here at the lab, we’re working on our own western, an upcoming narrative fiction called Grimwell County. In its production, Grimwell tends to have its own particular sound and tone, but for a specific moment, a specific narrative moment, I knew I really wanted to reference that sound. Not necessarily to produce a facsimile but to play with the components and create something that fit my needs while evoking the sweeping sense of power and wonder that I was looking for.

First, I broke down the key instrumentation I want and that I think captures that spirit. I’ve got my Fender Strat, I’ve got the tubular bells, the chorus of dudes, the timpani, the snare. I know immediately this track is going to have the classic ‘galloping’ rhythm, you know: 1-and-a 2-and-a, not just because it’s so intrinsic to the genre, but because I know the nature of the scene for which I am composing this track.

Second, I look at that scene. Fundamentally, it has two really important pieces: it’s a scene where two cowboy strangers bond over a montage of horseback riding. These two characters, your grizzled gunslinger and your wide-eyed wanderer, have just met and essentially go on a road trip which develops their partnership, their friendship, upon which the rest of the series is predicated. Which means that this piece needs to build up and hit a climax where we feel those characters, distant at first, have reached a new level in their relationship. Now, there may be some cognitive dissonance here as far as the idea of presenting a montage, which I think is traditionally associated with visual media, in an audio medium, but that’s why I chose to contextualize it through this piece.

Now, before I even start recording anything, I want to establish that my goal here is not to produce something clean and tight. I want sort of a dirty, lo-fi sound. I want all the tracks I record to fit together, obviously, but I really want to capture that organic element of imperfection. That said, let’s step into the lab.

The advantage of scoring this piece is that Grimwell County has an established theme, thanks to a track commissioned from our friend, a talented musician named Ben Valdmets, with whom we were very lucky to collaborate. Drawing some melodic elements from his work, we can ensure that what we create will be consistent with the title track of the show, something especially important as this scene revolves around the two main characters.

To set our pace, I let the snare and an acoustic guitar carry that galloping rhythm. I know it needs a lead, something with the Strat for the audience to latch onto, so I make a permutation of the title riff. I’m not the strongest guitar player, but I’m leaning into it here. When I put these pieces together, I already have a pretty strong sense of where my other elements need to go, so I throw in the chorus.

And, around this time, I had the thought that there could be more interest in the guitar tracking. So I started conceptualizing the electric sound in association with the younger cowboy -- a little edgy, trying to cut through the mix and establish an identity, but lacking something deeper. The lower frequencies here, but, in terms of character, lacking that confident balance that comes with experience and maturity. He takes the lead and gets out first, and his challenge, if you will, is then answered by his new friend, the seasoned gunslinger, who I’m associating with an acoustic guitar which is matching that melody. I like this because, in my mind, it really starts to put these characters on the same wavelength; it’s not a harmony we’re going for, it’s a unity. These characters ultimately have the same goal, and we have a sense that they can work together to reach it.

From there, I put together my textures -- swells with strings and organ and synth to feel like breathing. Breathe in, and out. And in, and out. If the guitars, rhythm, and chorus are the characters and the kinetic motion and maybe even the emotional tone, these textures are the substitute for the visual aspect of the montage. There’s something happening there in the foreground, but these are the different landscapes we’re seeing. The goal is to trigger that wonder within the audience -- where are we? How do we feel? How are these characters interacting?

And the answer lies at the climax of our piece. Here’s the moment we want, we’ve spent the last few beats in this obscure mood, we’re playing in C#m and we get these glimpses of something hopeful when we hit the F and maybe a reserved curiosity when we hit the B, and then here we are, full gallop, breaking through that doubt and landing back on that F. This is the big moment. This is where we’re smiling, eyes on the horizon, hearts swelling, full throttle, this is something these characters are sharing and it’s something we, the audience, are sharing with them. And to drive that point home, I brought in the chorus.

After tracking those pieces, I went back through and punched in the percussion, very basic timpani, my bells, some cymbals, and some heavy drums to accent and ramp up the primality a little bit. There’s a feeling of some raw power at this climax, in the natural world around them, in their elation, in their unity with their horses, and the communal frequency of energy all these narrative elements and characters are sharing in this moment.

And after I had everything stitched up, I came out with something that I’m pretty happy with. It captures the spirit of the scene and the narrative that can’t really be expressed with words, and it draws from the vocabulary of Morricone’s timeless western sound without compromising my voice.

We’ll have more information and announcements regarding Grimwell County in the weeks to come, but in the meantime if you’ve got a favorite piece of western media, or musical moment, or any of your own pieces to share, we’d love to hear about it on Twitter, where you can find us @austinaudiolab. And if you’d like to hear more phenomenal music from our friend Ben, you will find links to his work in this episode’s show notes. With that, I present my Morricone inspired western composition.

22:36 // closing

Mark: Thanks for listening to this episode of soundboard! I hope we were able to give you some solid tips on how to defeat Soundwave if you ever happen to be attacked by Decepticons.

Gabe: You can find links to the gear we used, the sources we referenced, and the sounds we made for today’s episode in the show notes, or, on our blog post at austinaudiolab.com. This is the Austin Audio Laboratory, signing off for now.

[ music fades out ]