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A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it

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Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it

#91
post #47

I would love to hear what my drum set sounds like in there. Has anyone ever practiced a musical instrument in a chamber like this? I wonder what the advantages and disadvantages would be.

Drums sound really strange without reverb. If you've ever drummed outside, the difference is really stark - I play outside with my samba band a lot, and all the drums sound really cold and quiet, so you end up playing a lot harder automatically just to get the sound of your drum to be as loud as you're used to. I imagine the anechoic chamber might be similar, with the added effect of not hearing any drum sound which would normally bounce off the floor - do, for example, you'd probably hear very little snare wire sound.

Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it

#92

He mentioned that people generally can't be in there longer than 45 minutes. I would love to test that theory. Give me a desk, a laptop, and let me get to work. The most interesting thing would be whether or not my tinnitus is going to drive me insane or not :P

In a room this quiet I assume using keyboard will sound very loud.

Not to mention the ventilator, the HDD, and the rest of the electronic components.

Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does it compare to an isolation tank?

In comparison, isolation tanks are extremely noisy. You got to try an anechoic chamber to believe it. BTW: many universities have one. The one I worked at (BYU, long ago) has this one: http://www.physics.byu.edu/research/acoustics/facilities.asp... http://vimeo.com/15855229 (a corny advertisement, but shows the room well) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PGF_cGS8ts It's a very good facility. Interestingly, I believe t…

Huh, the vimeo one is weird. I'd think we wouldn't be able to hear them talk, let alone move boxes (at around the 1:00 mark).

Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you hear your heartbeat if you can cannot hear your keyboard keys when pressed?

Because the veins are very near your ear canal. Any outside sound is not available, so the only sound you hear is those that are internal and wouldn't get very far anywhere else...

And I imagine even them are not louder, just that you're a lot more focused on them.

Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it

#97
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In comparison, isolation tanks are extremely noisy. You got to try an anechoic chamber to believe it. BTW: many universities have one. The one I worked at (BYU, long ago) has this one: http://www.physics.byu.edu/research/acoustics/facilities.asp... http://vimeo.com/15855229 (a corny advertisement, but shows the room well) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PGF_cGS8ts It's a very good facility. Interestingly, I believe t…

Huh, the vimeo one is weird. I'd think we wouldn't be able to hear them talk, let alone move boxes (at around the 1:00 mark).

Of course you can hear sounds: but you can only hear direct sounds. All reflected sounds are gone. And that's actually a high percentage of the sounds you normally hear.

An anechoic chamber is used to test acoustics in an environment with absolutely no reflection (reverb, echo, etc.).

Re: A room so quiet, no one can spend more than 45 minutes in it

#98
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot speak to partial deafness, but I used to work in an anechoic chamber. It is indeed soul-suckingly disturbing after short periods of time. Even a totally "silent" environment has tremendous amounts of reverb and low-level reflected noise: you just filter it out automatically. In an anechoic chamber, this noise is gone, and your filter goes haywire. It starts filtering things that aren't there. You start heari…

Nobody tell the State Department - it'll be the new waterboarding.

Sensory deprivation has already been used as a form of torture by the US. See the case of Jose Padilla for instance.
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