Code Sings
Code SingsWhen was the last time it sounded good to you?
(I knew something was missing in AnalogiesFromMusic.)
From the DataMusicProject...
Waxing futuresophic... If in the future the computer experience becomes much more audio based, as it probably will with technologies akin to voice recognition and speech synthesis, then it will become very important to colour the words with more than just intonation. Just like bold and italics, we'll need style for sound. It's conceivable that user interface designers will make use of the human ability to use background music to convey atmosphere. Just like a soundtrack in a movie. Similar technology could be used to provide a better sense of the system state. Consider that when your computer memory runs low, it usually displays a bang box and plays a panic audio clip. However, since the primary channel will be full (the computer will be talking to you), an ominous background score may cleverly convey this information instead. Many games currently have context-sensitive musical scores already. Of course, this would mean that technogeeks would finally have a soundtrack in real life... -- SunirShah
It's certainly been suggested (in more than one place, I think: my brain says SiliconSnakeOil by CliffordStoll, and The PsychologyOfEverydayThings (aka TheDesignOfEverydayThings) by DonaldNorman) that the various subtle noises made by "old-fashioned" machinery provide lots of useful information about the state of the machinery, and that it's a shame computers don't give similar feedback. These writers aren't thinking of background music, but clicks and hums and buzzes and such. (Because hard discs still aren't completely silent in their operations, we do get a little of this now.) -- GarethMcCaughan
If you're really in need of a vacation, you can tell the system state from the electronic hum. [1]
You can also hear system state if there is interference between the system circuits and the sound card. Interference between the graphics card and the sound card can be used to track screen updates and the number of pixels that your system is pushing around. This is especially useful when debugging graphics algorithms, such as dirty-rectangle optimizations. I find it works best when you have a powerful graphics card, such as a high-end 3D card, that contains a lot of chips, and the graphics and sound cards are in adjacent slots. You also need to plug headphones into the sound card and turn the volume way up - and remember to turn off all system sounds if you value your hearing!
On machines with power-management features, the fan is a useful source of noise. You can tell when the CPU is busy or idle by the fan noise. I have also used this to detect bugs in graphics optimizations that are not visible on screen.
-- NatPryce
From http://www.midi.org/
"Ground loops will cause horrendous hum, buzzes, and other noises, especially when connected to computerized gear or lighting equipment. The noises are caused by differences in voltage potential from one end of the cable to the other. The remedy, of course, is to run balanced audio lines and to NEVER physically connect the chassis grounds of different pieces of equipment together. MIDI instrument designers understand ground loops. In fact, a major design goal of MIDI, as seen in the electrical specification on pages one and two of the MIDI 1.0 Detailed Specification, is to prevent any ground loops that might occur with the MIDI cables. This is done by using a balanced current loop through an opto-isolator and only grounding the MIDI outputs. The MIDI IN connector is not grounded to the receiver's chassis. When done correctly, there are no ground loops and no hum or other noises caused by the MIDI setup.
"Designers of personal computers are not generally audio engineers and apparently have not heard of ground loops. In fact, given the noisy fans and screaming disk drives that go into the PC, it is a wonder they can hear at all. All that noise forces some audio professionals keep the computer in a closet or another room. But the primary source of ground loop problems in PC audio is the PC soundcard MIDI interface."
A workmate of mine was writing a music system recently that flew off the handle. It so happens that the most commonly used processor instructions are on the high end of the 32-bit scale. He got to a point during the debugging stage where he could tell where it was reading the music data from by the pitch and "degree of noise" of the sound. -- MichaelAbbott
"What's the buzz? Tell me what's happening!"
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