31–40 of 99 posts
> Cage entered the chamber expecting to hear silence, but as he wrote later, he "heard two sounds, one high and one low. When I described them to the engineer in charge, he informed me that the high one was my nervous system in operation, the low one my blood in circulation."
I've worked in one of these for a happy summer making measurements of acoustic diffuser panels. I quite enjoyed it. However, it looks that that room actually has a regular floor; mine didn't. You lowered your own suspended floor (metal grill tiles) onto scaffold poles to get into the room, then tore it all up as you left. Falling off the "floor" was a Really Bad Idea; those foam pyramids have got a steel spike up the…
However, it looks that that room actually has a regular floor Look carefully at the picture, he's not standing on a solid floor, he's standing on a wire frame over more absorbers. Their website has a better pic: http://www.orfieldlabs.com/Researchtour4.html IOW, their chamber is (fully) anechoic, not just hemi-anechoic.
Looks like their wire floor is a bit more permanent than the design I was using; my microphone was on a rotating boom that could be swept 360 degrees from outside, and my sample mounting was a pole down to the real floor, so we could have the absolute minimum of interference from the mountings.
Well apparently one can hear one's own circulatory and nervous system: http://theresonator.blogspot.com/2007/04/john-cage-visits-an... > Cage entered the chamber expecting to hear silence, but as he wrote later, he "heard two sounds, one high and one low. When I described them to the engineer in charge, he informed me that the high one was my nervous system in operation, the low one my blood in circulation."
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wouldn't they be the same thing, just "tuned" to block out different frequency ranges? I'm guessing the tuning is based on the material and shape of the foam, and thickness and material of the walls? It's all waves.
They are different physical phenomena. Sound is a pressure and is produced by compression and expansion of the (local) environment. RF or light is a self-sustaining electromagnetic wave (assuming we are not right next to the source [i.e. far-field]) produced by a time-variant electric field inducing a time-varying magnetic field, which induces a time-varying electric field, which induces ... All these induced fields…
Neither of the RF chambers I used had the foam cones on the floor; just carbon tiles.
I understand that you begin to hear your heartbeat and so on, but surely anyone who is even slightly deaf (e.g. even from just prolonged listening to loud music) wouldn't hear these very low-decibel sounds?
So it can't be the lack of sound, as a slightly hard of hearing person hears the noise floor drop out quite frequently. (Correct me if I'm wrong here; it's just my assumption). Is it that these sounds become so annoying, such a nuisance?
If someone had a noise-free keyboard (maybe touch) and were coding in there, would anything be a distraction? Would anything limit your stay?
I find sitting into a dead-silent room with a laptop (e.g. somewhere where you can't even hear a clock tick, nor any street sounds, nothing) to be completely maddening initially...but then after about 2-3 minutes you can immerse yourself and do something with extreme concentration.
I don't get why people can't spend more than 45 minutes in there. I understand that you begin to hear your heartbeat and so on, but surely anyone who is even slightly deaf (e.g. even from just prolonged listening to loud music) wouldn't hear these very low-decibel sounds? So it can't be the lack of sound, as a slightly hard of hearing person hears the noise floor drop out quite frequently. (Correct me if I'm wrong he…
Well apparently one can hear one's own circulatory and nervous system: http://theresonator.blogspot.com/2007/04/john-cage-visits-an... > Cage entered the chamber expecting to hear silence, but as he wrote later, he "heard two sounds, one high and one low. When I described them to the engineer in charge, he informed me that the high one was my nervous system in operation, the low one my blood in circulation."
I can attest to this. We have an anechoic chamber here at Michigan State and I've also been in the testing chamber at EV (Electro-Voice). Hearing the blood in your head and ears is quite odd, but the disorientation from not being able to place yourself in space is even stranger.
I'm sure many people could, starting with the Deaf. I'd certainly enjoy a break from the incessant yammering of humanity.
I'd certainly enjoy a break from the incessant yammering of humanity. It's not just a break from humanity, it's a break from everything (including nature, which typically fills the void when humanity is absent). If you haven't been in a very quiet space, it becomes disorienting very quickly. The quietest space I've been in has been After about 15 minutes I wound up opening a window to let a little wind noise into the…
Ah, I was wondering about that. (Now scrolls up to delete question asked elsewhere.)