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Singing is the most accessible stress reliever

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Re: Singing is the most accessible stress reliever

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I first laughed about calibrating sound systems with microphones to compensate for different cable lengths until a sound engineer let me listen to the differences. Seriously? Even if electricity has a drift velocity of 50% the speed of light, that's still 150,000 meters in 1 ms - how long is this cable???? There must be something else at play.

It's not the transmission through the cable that matters, it's the fact that you're using a long cable to put things far enough apart that the speed of sound matters.

Ah, so it's the soundstage, not the mic that's the problem?

Re: Singing is the most accessible stress reliever

#32
post #30

Terrence McKenna believed stress relief is the reason that so many shamanic rituals include singing and steady drum beats. The anxiety surrounding communication with the dead or the gods is released through the music. He also pointed out rightly that singing requires deep, slow breathing, which prevents hyperventilation and its attendant stress. More practically, his recommendation for bad drug trips is to sing or hu…

+1 for singings your way out of a bad trip. To paraphrase McKenna, If you find yourself in hell start singing. It will take you all the way to heaven.

Re: Singing is the most accessible stress reliever

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I first laughed about calibrating sound systems with microphones to compensate for different cable lengths until a sound engineer let me listen to the differences. Seriously? Even if electricity has a drift velocity of 50% the speed of light, that's still 150,000 meters in 1 ms - how long is this cable???? There must be something else at play.

It's not the transmission through the cable that matters, it's the fact that you're using a long cable to put things far enough apart that the speed of sound matters.

Yeah, that's correct, but saying "cable length" and not "acoustic time distance cause by microphone placement" seems like it would confuse folks who might not have tried to solve phase alignment problems into thinking that the difference is wholly in the "cable length".

But that could just be my reading of the thread.

Re: Singing is the most accessible stress reliever

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I first laughed about calibrating sound systems with microphones to compensate for different cable lengths until a sound engineer let me listen to the differences. Seriously? Even if electricity has a drift velocity of 50% the speed of light, that's still 150,000 meters in 1 ms - how long is this cable???? There must be something else at play.

It's not the transmission through the cable that matters, it's the fact that you're using a long cable to put things far enough apart that the speed of sound matters.

There's something weird here though. I reckon more 4 or 5 ms of latenecy is enough to put me off playing something in time (this is about what you aim for using DAWs to record music) and yet if you just think about playing a piano, the player's ear is about 1m from where the sound is generated. The speed of sound in air is ~300m/s so there's 3 ms of delay right there, even if the hammer mechanism is instantaneous, and I've never heard a pianist complain about delay.

Maybe it's just familiarity but even that feels too simple an explanation

Re: Singing is the most accessible stress reliever

#35
post #26

> Singing is the most accessible stress reliever Not where I live in an apartment in a crowded city where the culture is to not bother others. Neighbors would not be happy to hear me sing no matter how good am, any more then they are happy to hear my stereo. When I commuted to work in a car I had 30 to 60 minutes of singing time each way. Now I have karaoke box 3 - 4 times a year.

yeah, in apt setting it doesn't reduce stress, it just transfers it to your nextdoor neighbor

human voice relatively patterned, esp if the computer knows the song you're singing / you've sang it before. I wonder if there's room for a custom noise cancelation algo that can dampen my neighbor's opera practice?

Re: Singing is the most accessible stress reliever

#36
post #30

Terrence McKenna believed stress relief is the reason that so many shamanic rituals include singing and steady drum beats. The anxiety surrounding communication with the dead or the gods is released through the music. He also pointed out rightly that singing requires deep, slow breathing, which prevents hyperventilation and its attendant stress. More practically, his recommendation for bad drug trips is to sing or hu…

"He also pointed out rightly that singing requires deep, slow breathing"

I would generalize that "breathing is the most accessible stress reliever".

Breathing consciously is the single thing you can do always to relieve stress and get your hormons in balance again.

Singing and chanting and drumming can be even more powerful obviously, but you cannot always do that, but you can (and should) always breathe the right way.

Re: Singing is the most accessible stress reliever

#37
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the transmission through the cable that matters, it's the fact that you're using a long cable to put things far enough apart that the speed of sound matters.

There's something weird here though. I reckon more 4 or 5 ms of latenecy is enough to put me off playing something in time (this is about what you aim for using DAWs to record music) and yet if you just think about playing a piano, the player's ear is about 1m from where the sound is generated. The speed of sound in air is ~300m/s so there's 3 ms of delay right there, even if the hammer mechanism is instantaneous, an…

"Maybe it's just familiarity but even that feels too simple an explanation"

I think it is. Because it has always been like this for anyone since he played the first time. You press the key and (a bit later) music comes. I doubt anyone consciously notice that it is not instant, but your mind notices and adjusts to it.

Re: Singing is the most accessible stress reliever

#38
post #30

Terrence McKenna believed stress relief is the reason that so many shamanic rituals include singing and steady drum beats. The anxiety surrounding communication with the dead or the gods is released through the music. He also pointed out rightly that singing requires deep, slow breathing, which prevents hyperventilation and its attendant stress. More practically, his recommendation for bad drug trips is to sing or hu…

+1 for singings your way out of a bad trip. To paraphrase McKenna, If you find yourself in hell start singing. It will take you all the way to heaven.

what happens in a bad drug trip?

Re: Singing is the most accessible stress reliever

#39
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the transmission through the cable that matters, it's the fact that you're using a long cable to put things far enough apart that the speed of sound matters.

There's something weird here though. I reckon more 4 or 5 ms of latenecy is enough to put me off playing something in time (this is about what you aim for using DAWs to record music) and yet if you just think about playing a piano, the player's ear is about 1m from where the sound is generated. The speed of sound in air is ~300m/s so there's 3 ms of delay right there, even if the hammer mechanism is instantaneous, an…

I'm an organist. The organ console is often placed quite some distance from the pipes—especially in the instance of remote divisions such as antiphonal stops (placed at the back of the sanctuary). In addition to distance, the mechanism of the instrument itself introduces a bit of lag. It's something that you just get used to. Choral and orchestral musicians also often deal with these sorts of issues: sometimes they have to play entirely on sight (watching the conductor's baton) rather than listening to the (delayed) sound.

I used to play Dance Dance Revolution quite regularly. One of our controllers had a lag that made it unplayable for most people. But I found my brain adjusting to it extremely quickly, and I think it's because I was accustomed to doing that already during organ playing.

Re: Singing is the most accessible stress reliever

#40

I wish there was a good way to sing together over videochat. The lag makes it impossible--if you've tried singing Happy birthday to someone over Zoom, you've probably noticed that it's the worst! Everyone tries to adjust to everyone else's lag and it just makes everyone even more and more out of time with each other.

Then how is Smule possible?
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