This is a cross-post from ABD Engineering & Design: https://www.abdengineering.com/blog/the-abcs-of-open-office-acoustics/, posted 8/10/17.
Continue reading “The ABCs of Open Office Acoustics”
Author: Ben Wolf
Georgian food in Portland
My sister spent about a year in the country of Georgia with the Peace Corps. Over Christmas and New Years, myself and my other sister met up with her, and we spent a week in Italy and a week in Georgia. While we were in Georgia, I was exposed to the wonder that was Georgian cuisine: bread, cheese, potatoes, meat (you know, the good stuff). If you’ve never tried khinkali or khachapuri, do so as soon as possible – you won’t be disappointed.
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A Rocket in Flight
Continue reading “A Rocket in Flight”
All Shook Up
Recently, I was in a production of the musical All Shook Up, which was put on by the Canby Community Theater. Musicals are interesting things for musicians – you can be onstage or hidden away in a pit, in costume or not, but either way you have to play along with the actors, so it’s never exactly the same show. One night, this person could be slightly rushing their lines, and the next, someone else is milking it more than usual, but we have to roll with it. The rehearsal schedules are weird, too – usually, there are daily rehearsals for the week or two beforehand, then 6 or 7 shows over a couple of weekends. Even though it can be a pain, I really enjoy playing them. I got my feet wet with Urinetown (ehrm, maybe I should rephase that…) back in college, then a production of The Drowsy Chaperone last year, and now All Shook Up.
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Flower
An interesting departure from the typical origami balls I like to construct. I had first found a pattern for an origami leaf which I folded up fairly quickly, but it didn’t seem right to leaf it at that (not sorry). So, I dug around and found a shape I could use for the petals. I made all of them from a metallic foil paper, attached them to a bamboo skewer, and cut up a strip of yellow paper for the stamen. This piece went to a friend on a special occasion.
Loudspeaker Design
I’ll often come across new acoustical inventions that will “change the world,” and usually these claims have next to no basis in reality (I will save the “cone of silence” for a future post – it’s a running gag in our office). There is some misunderstanding (if I’m being generous) or blatant misrepresentation of what’s actually going on and what is actually possible.
The Acoustical Society of America publishes quick reviews of recent acoustical patents. I saw this one for a novel loudspeaker design and literally burst out laughing.
This loudspeaker design is a good example of wishful wizardry in full bloom… [At] low frequencies, the speakers are driven “push-pull,” allowing the back chamber volume to be reduced to almost nothing. Of course, the resulting low frequency output is also reduced to almost nothing. That side effect is not mentioned in the patent.
Farandola Gemma
This was one of the earliest pieces I made, and the first where I cut my own paper.
Disturbing Laughter
This little gem comes from a 1967 governmental document on noise control. I feel that the author’s bias may have been peeking through a bit here…
“…children’s laughter or other equally disturbing noises.”
The Cistern auralization
This comes from my time back at RPI. One of the projects in the department was live auralizations of spaces. Basically, you play into a microphone, and a bunch of speakers make it sound like you’re in a different space (on a related note, this was one of the techniques I used in my Master’s thesis).
This particular auralization was set up in the main concert hall at EMPAC on campus to be used for an upcoming concert. The space it is emulating is a cistern (giant underground water tank) at Fort Worden State Park in Washington. It has a reverb time of about 40 seconds and a very smooth decay curve. This means that if you play a note, it will hang around for a very long time, so you can play chords with yourself.
Being part of the acoustics department, I had the chance to go in while it was being set up and tested. Being a musician, I had my trombone nearby. So, naturally, I got set up and just started playing. It’s a weird experience. I was in there for at least 2 hours just noodling around, but it felt so much shorter than that (that’s what this video is from). I went back in and set up some recording equipment and played for another couple hours, but that recording unfortunately failed – some setting or connection got messed up and I was left with a crackly, unlistenable mess. Ah well – you live and you learn.
There were also some tour groups that came through that day, and one of them caught some video.
Presented for your enjoyment:
Continue reading “The Cistern auralization”
Welcome
Welcome!
At the top left, you will see the calendar – that has all the info about my upcoming concerts.
Featured Music is the “highlight reel” of songs I’ve played, and Recordings will (eventually, hopefully) contain all of the recordings that I can get a hold of.