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Singing is the most accessible stress reliever

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Re: Singing is the most accessible stress reliever

#41

Post by atomack »

hutzlibu wrote: post #37
atomack wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But I could play either Jerry Lee Lewis style, arms length from the keyboard with my head back, or Glenn Gould style, hunched over the keyboard and my head moves a metre between the two. So that's around the 3ms threshold where I (and the sound engineer above) claim to be able to detect delays, and yet I don't think I'd notice a delay between those two playing positions

Re: Singing is the most accessible stress reliever

#42

Post by EVdotIO »

qnsi wrote: post #22
mrspeaker wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or even not alone - is it possible to get better at singing, or is it mostly just natural? I can kind of "hold a note", but only about 8 of them! Can you meaningfully extend your range, or is your range your range?

IIRC you can improve your singing

You absolutely can. Practice, lots of practice. Get an ear training app, and practice intervals. When I took music theory courses, you spent about half your time ear training, and most of it was just intervals.

Re: Singing is the most accessible stress reliever

#43

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

iovrthoughtthis wrote: post #25

Shame poorer inner city dwellers all live in close proximity with thin walls or shared accommodation. Singing is almost impossible in those circumstances without annoying a neighbor. My last tenancy agreement had specific references to playing any music instruments / singing practice.

Singing at a normal indoor volume is fine even in apartments. Maybe you can't belt music out at the top of your lungs but despite the lease agreement no city will allow the enforcement of a rule that no singing at all is allowed in apartments.

Re: Singing is the most accessible stress reliever

#44

Post by adrianmonk »

atomack wrote: post #34
danharaj wrote: post #18

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…

It depends on what scenario you're talking about. One scenario where delay is often used is when you have speakers at different locations to provide even coverage for a crowd.

For example, at a really large outdoor concert, you might have speakers near the stage, and another set of speakers further back. If you don't add any delay, then the people sitting far back will hear the signal once from the speakers closest to them, and then they will hear it again from the speakers that are further away (by the stage). The effect will sound like an echo.

So you delay the sound coming out of the further back speakers just enough so that as sound arrives from the stage, the speakers further back produce it at the same time.

And it's not just large venues. in small venues, you sometimes cannot cover the whole area evenly with one set of speakers, so you might have small "fill" speakers to deal with coverage gaps.

Re: Singing is the most accessible stress reliever

#45

Post by uryga »

yters wrote: post #38
AlwaysRock wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+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?

depends on the substance, but usually stuff like paranoia and in general being stuck [seeing / thinking about] unpleasant things

Re: Singing is the most accessible stress reliever

#47

Post by graphpapa »

mrspeaker wrote: post #20
qnsi wrote: post #17

Ask HN: any hackerlike ways to train your singing when alone with no feedback? I will try to search algolia and come back to you with my research

Or even not alone - is it possible to get better at singing, or is it mostly just natural? I can kind of "hold a note", but only about 8 of them! Can you meaningfully extend your range, or is your range your range?

You can find videos of people’s improvement with practice on YouTube.

This is one example: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eTX9LxZ9YUQ

Definite improvement

Re: Singing is the most accessible stress reliever

#48

Post by atomack »

organsnyder wrote: post #39
atomack wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 h…

Somehow the audience also manages to adjust too, trained or not. The violins and cellos are several metres apart yet I think the audience would agree whether they come off together or not, regardless of where they're sitting in the auditorium

I wonder if actually it's the delays plus reverb we manage to adjust to. I remember playing church organ too, a while back, and I found the delays much easier to get used to than say a 4 or 5 ms delay in a DAW, even though the delay was probably much bigger. It's like it's training + room acoustics that we use to adjust, rather than the raw numbers of the physical delay

Re: Singing is the most accessible stress reliever

#50

Post by balfirevic »

gfxgirl wrote: 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.

I don't consider it reasonable to expect such level of silence from neighbors that normal singing volume levels would exceed it.
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