One of the great privileges of working at NYU is having access to the state-of-the-art Dolan Studio. Listening to music on top-end Lipinskis through an SSL console in a control room designed by Philippe Starck is the most exquisite audio experience I’ve ever had, and likely will ever have. Unfortunately, it’s also very far removed from the circumstances in which I listen to music in my normal life. It isn’t even an issue of the speakers or amps, though of course mine are nowhere near as good as the ones in Dolan. It’s more about the listening environment.
I live in New York City. My usual life is accompanied by the sound of cars and trucks and trains and airplanes and ventilation and construction equipment and people talking and car horns and ambulances and fire engines and home appliances. But even when I’m not home, when I’m staying with family in the suburbs or the country for example, there’s always something humming or buzzing or whooshing or thrumming. I’m so used to noise pollution that I find the extreme quiet of the studio to be unnerving, in much the same way that I find total darkness unnerving.
Noise pollution is as big a problem for musicians as light pollution is for astronomers. We have to go to extreme technological or geographical lengths to avoid it. An ideal listening environment is as far out of reach for a normal person as the peak of a Hawaiian volcano. Most people do their music listening in their cars, where there’s about 70 dB of engine and wind noise to compete with. On the streets of New York, the only way to hear your music clearly is to blast it at a volume that can permanently damage your hearing. Some of the loudness war can be attributed to producers trying to one-up each others’ tracks, but some of it is an acknowledgment of the basic reality that the music has to cut through a lot of ambient noise.
So, as musicians, how do we deal with this reality? If we’re making music for the idealized conditions of the concert hall, we don’t have to. But if we’re making recordings, we should expect cheap speakers and headphones in bad listening environments. Rock music has tried to address the issue through blunt force, which is why all the rock musicians and fans I know have severe hearing loss. Hip-hop uses a smarter approach: clarity and minimalism. The sonic profile of a good hip-hop track adapts very well to the street: there’s a lot of energy in the bass and treble, and an empty midrange where the background noise and talking mostly sits. The use of silence as an attention-grabber in hip-hop is a good adaptation too. In a noisy environment, sudden quiet is more surprising than the buildups and fills typical of rock.
Electronic music sometimes uses the blunt-force approach of rock, and sometimes goes the hip-hop minimalist route. But electronic music has another strategy it can use, which is to blend seamlessly in. When I’m listening to Aphex Twin or The Orb, background noise isn’t necessarily an intrusion. Sometimes it’s an enhancement. If a fire engine goes by or a cell phone rings, it can shatter the mood of a classical piece, but it’s likely to make perfect sense against ambient electronica.
I started this train of thought because I was listening to some of my more textural and experimental Disquiet Junto music. Marc Weidenbaum is a great lover of the urban soundscape in all of its clamor, and his compositional prompts very often engage with the noise of the world. While Marc likes noise more than I do, I have to admit that all of my Junto music works very well within my sonic environment. Until we as a society decide that noise pollution is an issue, maybe Marc’s accepting and adaptive attitude is the best one.
The text below is excerpted from the current version (2016/2017) of the Pierce County Code Chapter 8.72. My purpose is to make people aware that the laws stated here actually are the current law in Pierce County, in the state of Washington. It seems there is a lack of awareness of these laws. Are you SICK AND TIRED of seeing and hearing the noise-making behaviors described below, WHICH THE LAW EXPLICITLY STATES ARE ILLEGAL? Contact the government and law-enforcement and DEMAND THAT THEY ENFORCE THE LAW!
Chapter 8.72 MOTOR VEHICLE, PUBLIC DISTURBANCE, AND PUBLIC NUISANCE NOISE
8.72.040 Mufflers. It is unlawful for any person to operate, or for any owner to permit any person to operate, any motor vehicle or motorcycle upon the public highways which is not equipped with a muffler in good working order and in constant operation.
8.72.070 Exhaust System. It shall be unlawful for any person to operate any motor vehicle upon any public highway if the vehicle exhaust system exceeds the maximum permissible sound levels set forth below for the category of vehicle, as measured at a distance of twenty inches (0.5 meter) from the exhaust outlet under procedures established by the State of Washington in Washington Administrative Code Chapter 173-58-080, “Close Proximity Exhaust System Sound Level Measurement Procedure.” Motorcycles 99 dB(A)/Automobiles, light trucks, and all other motor vehicles 10,000 pounds or less 95 dB(A).
8.72.090 Public Disturbance Noises. It is unlawful for any person to cause, or for any person in possession of property to allow to originate from the property, a public disturbance noise. The following sounds are public disturbance noises:…
C. Frequent, repetitive, or continuous sounds from starting, operating, repairing, rebuilding, or testing of any motor vehicle, motorcycle, dirt bike, or other off-highway vehicle, or any internal combustion engine, within a rural or residential district, including vacant property adjacent thereto, so as to unreasonably disturb or interfere with the peace, comfort, and repose of owners or possessors of real property…
F. Any loud and raucous sound made by use of a musical instrument, whistle, sound amplifier, or other device capable of producing or reproducing sound which emanates frequently, repetitively, or continuously from any building, structure or property, such as sound originating from a band session, tavern operation, or social gathering and which unreasonably disturb or interfere with the peace, comfort, and repose of owners or possessors of real property in the area affected by such noise…
H. Public disturbance noise from portable or motor vehicle audio equipment: While in park areas, residential or commercial zones, or any area where residences, schools, human service facilities, or commercial establishments are in obvious proximity to the source of the sound, it is unlawful for any person to negligently cause, make, or allow to be made from audio equipment under such person’s control or ownership the following:
1. Sound from a motor vehicle or vessel sound system, such as a tape player, radio, or compact disc player, which is operated at such a volume that it could be clearly heard by a person of normal hearing at a distance of 50 feet or more from the vehicle or vessel itself;
2. Sound from audio equipment such as a tape player, radio, or compact disc player, which is operated at such a volume that it could be clearly heard by a person of normal hearing at a distance of 50 feet or more from the source of the sound;
8.72.120 Enforcement… C. The Sections of this Chapter relating to motor vehicles and vessels and noise emanating from vehicles and vessels, shall be subject to enforcement proceedings with or without a citizen’s complaint.
8.72.130 Violation – Penalty. A. Any person violating any motor vehicle performance standard of this Chapter, or who shall create, keep, maintain, or allow to occur any noise related to motor vehicle performance standards, as defined herein, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Great fun article thanks
This is something that has never dawned on me “The sonic profile of a good hip-hop track adapts very well to the street: there’s a lot of energy in the bass and treble, and an empty midrange where the background noise and talking mostly sits. The use of silence as an attention-grabber in hip-hop is a good adaptation too. In a noisy environment, sudden quiet is more surprising than the buildups and fills typical of rock.” Thank you for illuminating it.
My grade 11 student has just finished recording herself performing Matt Corby’s “Brother” (her choice) as a means to understand the challenges of recording and balancing sound (it was also an aural exercise in notating drum patterns and writing a lead sheet). She says it taught her so much but she refuses to let anyone but me hear it because she was so frustrated by her inability to get the sound balanced and set our crappy microphones at the right level and get rid of other room noises, not to mention lining up the tracks and recording to a click track. The biggest take away for me was that she learnt how to listen, now she’s noticing everything in recordings, I will definitely have to sit down with her and listen to some hip-hop and see if she can identify the use of silence.