. Before I even begin to blogulate, let me advise that I am savoring (gobbling) the extremely addicting Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookie (I bought five boxes) that some shameless street pusher in my business office...mmmm...mmmhrff...that's good!
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Anyway, make a point to download not one but two This Week in Amateur Radio Internationals this weekend. One for this week ending March the 7th, and one for the week ending on February the 28th. Nestled at the core of each program: a tasty Random Access Thought. Not just any Random Access Thought! But two of my favorite and most heavily post produced efforts! I really should have posted for the 28th sooner because one of my more truly eclectic Random Access Thoughts: "The History of Backward Recorded Sound" was up for an encore performance.
Anyway, make a point to download not one but two This Week in Amateur Radio Internationals this weekend. One for this week ending March the 7th, and one for the week ending on February the 28th. Nestled at the core of each program: a tasty Random Access Thought. Not just any Random Access Thought! But two of my favorite and most heavily post produced efforts! I really should have posted for the 28th sooner because one of my more truly eclectic Random Access Thoughts: "The History of Backward Recorded Sound" was up for an encore performance.
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This unique and certainly quite esoteric offering first took flight in April 2005 as an exclusive production solely for play over the shortwave giant WBCQ. But now that TWIAR Internet podcasts are a weekly must do, this presentation is more universally available.
This unique and certainly quite esoteric offering first took flight in April 2005 as an exclusive production solely for play over the shortwave giant WBCQ. But now that TWIAR Internet podcasts are a weekly must do, this presentation is more universally available.
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Because it was top of mind at the moment, I decided to put focus on the arcane alchemy of reverse recorded sound, first engineered for use in film animation and motion pictures from the 1940s and then continuing the saga (eh...) into the 1960s with the emergence of Musique Concrete and tape music where, thanks to the development of the first commercially available analog audio synthesizers such as the MOOG, notes and noises of all sorts could then summarily sped up, slowed down, played backwards and even sliced and diced to achieve some truly remarkable effects.
Because it was top of mind at the moment, I decided to put focus on the arcane alchemy of reverse recorded sound, first engineered for use in film animation and motion pictures from the 1940s and then continuing the saga (eh...) into the 1960s with the emergence of Musique Concrete and tape music where, thanks to the development of the first commercially available analog audio synthesizers such as the MOOG, notes and noises of all sorts could then summarily sped up, slowed down, played backwards and even sliced and diced to achieve some truly remarkable effects.
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From the tape music, we move into the twilight zone of back masking in music, beginning with the Beatles' audio masterpiece Number 9, where subliminal and maybe not so subliminal messages were parked in reverse gear just so us kids could spot our fingers on the vinyl and force the record backward against the groove and the needle to hear the words of...SATAN???? Then! An easy leap to the equally hellish commentary to be unearthed deep within the folds of reverse speech where the conscious mind says the nice politically correct words in forward time but speaks the not-so-nice, not-so-politically correct realities in time reverse.
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Lots of backward noises, forward sounds, reversed melodies and forward tonalities abound! The RAT as a separate element will soon be available for download at http://www.twiar.org/n2fnh/RATParts The WAV file to watch for will be RAT0504O2_BACK_BCQ_R1.CAB. In the associated promo, PROMO_RAT_BACK_BCQ_R1.CAB, a young nine-year old Zachary learns how to say his name backwards into to a microphone and then play the recording backwards so what he said forwards is now heard backwards, which was his name said backwards which now sounds like he said it forwards with a Swedish accent. Savvy?
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This photo taken with my Sony PSP displays a edit screen with two audio clips. Both are the sound of a cast iron bathtub being dropped. Both are ready to be played backwards.
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This photo taken with my Sony PSP displays a edit screen with two audio clips. Both are the sound of a cast iron bathtub being dropped. Both are ready to be played backwards.
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. Whereas "The History of Backward Recorded Sound was a Sonic Extravaganzo in the extreme, "The Story of Reginald" allows my extensive post production technique to stroll down a more dimly lit, more tightly refined and far more subtle three o'clock in the morning avenue in sound.
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But Mister Continelli is at his best as a teller of tales, when he sits back, pipe in hand, with a thin wisp of tobacco fragrance rising above, to tell us True Believers one hell of a really cool bedtime radio story. "The Story of Reginald" is Bill's recollection of working as a security guard at a dog biscuit plant in 1970s Buffalo, New York. The tale intertwines radios, a CB walkie talkie bad guy, radios, social intrigue, radios and radios. Savvy?
Adding environmental sound to Bill's reminiscences required subtlety. Background ambiances such as Buffalo's city traffic was aged, distant, muted and tinged with brown. Effects for radios were quite authentic though in some cases, were played in reverse to mask content since what might have been heard on track may also have been inconsistent with the story line. "The Story of Reginald" is a must save for your MP3 player personal library.
. You can download this week's This Week in Amateur at http://www.twiar.org/ or even better yet, connect to: http://www.twiar.org/n2fnh/RATParts and look for file number RAT071127_REGI.CAB. Right click on the title and "Save Target As" to your hardddrive. Use your WinZIP or IZArc to extract the select RAF audio WAV file inside!
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