Thai Drum Samples For Sesame Workshop

One of my favorite jobs as a young studio assistant at Elias Arts –then Elias Associates–, circa 1991, was scouring the city for unusual ethnic and exotic instruments, which I was then directed to supervise restoration and sample for use in our own in-house sample libraries.

In those days samples were stored on 5” floppy disks and Winchester Drives, and triggered on quarter million dollar keyboard interfaces called Synclaviers.

In order to locate unusual instruments, I visited not just music instrument dealers, but also art galleries and pawnshops all over Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Some of the finest exotic instruments were found in chic furniture shops. I once saved an Thai Glong thad type of barrel drum from the basement of ABC furnishings, where it was destined, it seemed, to be sold as a decorative coffee table.

But I was not about to let a drum constructed for a classic Thai ceremony waste away doing nothing so much as supporting the latest issue of Vogue magazine. True, it is not within my means to save every drum, but at least I could save this one.

Eventually, I designated that singular drum as the voice of several percussion tracks on an interactive Sesame Workshop Project I later produced through my own audio company, Blister Media.

Sometimes I think that maybe despite all the other high profile ad campaigns I produced, or the profits made for various multinationals, or the markets moved as a result of one successful marketing strategy or another, –that my own real purpose in life, as a music producer, on planet Earth, was simply to save that drum so that it could teach kids the world over for a time, the joy of rhythm and song.

I don't endow all inanimate objects with souls, but I know every musical instrument I've ever played has had one.

Software Plug-ins, I'm not so sure about. Probably not, but even my vintage electronic Minimoog has a mind of its own.

It was in fact the task of sampling another drum –a red and white, hour glass shaped Asmat drum with a lizard skin top– a small Tibetan Bell and a weathered pawnshop autoharp, with which I made my first small contributions to future commercial recordings.

Once we finished capturing the sound of all the new instruments, Alex Lasarenko had many of them hung on the walls, alongside Jonathan Elias' vintage ARP synthesizer.

The ARP was legendary for having been used to score the famous ALIEN trailer where the moon-like egg cracks open and the audience is creepily reminded that, ‘In Space No One Hears You Scream’.

To my eyes, the collection resembled the trophies assembled by a big game hunter, of which Jonathan certainly was in the world of commercial music production.

A life hanging on a wall may not seem so different than life as a coffee table, I suppose, but at least we took those instruments down every once in a while and played them.

And the Thai drum was mine. I took it home.

Speaking of Animism, I would not be surprised if some of my original samples continue to live a life quite independent from my own, voicing melodies and rhythms on ever new commercial recordings, year after year.

Quite likely, I'll die before they do!

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Click on any link below to read the entire Mystic Audio Series:

1. Glossolalia: Speaking In Tongues
2. The Ur-Song
3. Theta Waves, Mantras & The Lord's Prayer
4. Atomic Rhythms
5. Thai Drum Samples For Sesame Workshop

Atomic Rhythms

In an article titled 'Music and the Brain', author Laurence O'Donnell reports:

“Classical music from the baroque period causes the heart beat and pulse rate to relax to the beat of the music. As the body becomes relaxed and alert, the mind is able to concentrate more easily. Furthermore, baroque music decreases blood pressure and enhances the ability to learn. Music affects the amplitude and frequency of brain waves, which can be measured by an electro-encephalogram. Music also affects breathing rate and electrical resistance of the skin. It has been observed to cause the pupils to dilate, increase blood pressure, and increase the heart rate.”

Some suggest meditation acts on the brain mechanism the same way as music does, but that it works from the inside out.

I sometimes wonder if there is not a universal frequency, to which perhaps the Ur-Song is tuned, that Monks somehow align with when they chant ‘Aum’.

In The Secret Power of Music, David Tame writes:

"…science is beginning to suspect that matter is all composed of one fundamental something, and that the frequencies or rhythms of this something determine the specific nature of each object and atom."

Or as I like to say:

Sound is everything is sound rinse and repeat ad infinitum.

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Click on any link below to read the entire Mystic Audio Series:

1. Glossolalia: Speaking In Tongues
2. The Ur-Song
3. Theta Waves, Mantras & The Lord's Prayer
4. Atomic Rhythms
5. Thai Drum Samples For Sesame Workshop

Theta Waves, Mantras & The Lord's Prayer

When asked how to pray, Jesus advises in Matthew 6:7:

"But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking."

‘Vain repetitions’ is also translated as ‘babbling’.

I’ve heard it suggested that the lesson being given here is against producing the kind of rote chanting common to eastern religions, whereby the practitioner repeats a word or phrase over and over. That is, don’t confuse the recitation of a mantra for prayer.

Jesus was concerned that repetitive chants lost their meaning –became, in fact, 'vain repetitions' when delivered by rote, with no conscious intent behind them.

He therefore prescribed the following as a model for prayer:

Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

We call this prayer ‘The Lord’s Prayer’, because it is the prayer Jesus used to teach his disciples how to pray. Given that context then, shouldn’t The Lord’s Prayer be a model of conscious prayer; not a prayer itself; and certainly not chanted or repeated verbatim by rote, as it so often is?

The Catholic Encyclopedia reports:

“In many monastic rules, (The Lords Prayer) was enjoined that the lay brothers, who knew no Latin, instead of the Divine office should say the Lord's Prayer a certain number of times (often amounting to more than a hundred) per diem. To count these repetitions they made use of pebbles or beads strung upon a cord, and this apparatus was commonly known as a "pater-noster", a name which it retained even when such a string of beads was used to count, not Our Fathers, but Hail Marys in reciting Our Lady's Psalter, or in other words in saying the rosary.”

But to my mind, this is in fact exactly the opposite of what Jesus intended.

He said: “…when ye pray, use not vain repetitions.”

Vain repetitions have their place though. It is said that chanting in a such a way to stimulate a deep meditative state induces the brain to slow down from its normal beta state (13-30Hz) to the alpha (8-12 Hz) or the even slower theta state (4-8 Hz).

And apparently that’s a good thing. Theta waves are linked to “creativity, intuition, daydreaming, and fantasizing and is a repository for memories, emotions, sensations. Theta waves are strong during internal focus, meditation, prayer, and spiritual awareness.” (crossroadsinstitute.org)

Therefore, one might conclude, that in fact:

When ye pray, by all means use such vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for by thinking not –and despite reports to the contrary– you will be rewarded with abundant creativity.

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Click on any link below to read the entire Mystic Audio Series:

1. Glossolalia: Speaking In Tongues
2. The Ur-Song
3. Theta Waves, Mantras & The Lord's Prayer
4. Atomic Rhythms
5. Thai Drum Samples For Sesame Workshop

The Ur-Song

Carl Jung believed that we are born, not just with our physical bodies, but also with a collective consciousness. He suggested this collective consciousness was composed of “the residues of ancestral life… (whose) origins can only be explained from assuming them to be deposits of the constantly repeated experiences of humanity.”

How else to explain, for instance, universally accepted sounds, terms, symbols, etc– for ‘Mother’?

Along these same lines there are those who believe that part of this collective consciousness includes or contains what has been called an ‘Ur-Song’, that is: A basic, fundamental and universal sequence of notes, forming a melody; and so named because of the Mesopotamian City of Ur, regarded as the first civilization.

Some academics think of melodies as symbols, and indeed a motif can heighten dramatic intent via deft symbolic use. So, it's not a great leap to consider that that this Ur-Song while itself not literally a symbol –not a graphic one, anyway– is nevertheless equivalent to a symbol, –or in fact it is a musical or sonic symbol– and therefore worthy of semiotic analysis.

FYI: Semiotics, is the study of sign processes, or signification and communication, signs and symbols, both individually and grouped into sign systems. (Wikipedia)

So what does the Ur-song sound like you ask? There are several theories, with one being that it is simply a descending minor third. Sometimes I’m inclined to think that it is the bass line from Pachelbel’s Canon, –the sequence having become so ubiquitous that I now recognize its integration into many pop compositions (do sol la mi fa do fa sol). However, most of the articles I’ve read indicate that the Ur-Song is more probably sung as: ‘sol sol mi la sol mi’. But you probably know it better as 'nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah' or 'Na-nana-nah-na nah nah', a common children's taunt sung upon said to be sung upon the universal melody.


Indeed, it’s heard on every playground around the world. Of course, the lyrics and exact rhythm change depending on the culture and language, but the tune is always the same.

In his book, The Secret Power of Music, David Tame describes this phenomenon:

“…in all lands, children from the age of eighteen months to two and a half years have been found to spontaneously sing melodic fragments with the intervals of second, minor third, and major third.”

Even Leonard Bernstein described a belief in the legitimacy of the Ur-song.

As it happens, I’m also a true believer:

When I was two years old –and living in San Juan de Marcos, Peru– my parents recall this incident: Upon seeing a motorcyclist having troubles with his bike, I spontaneously sang out, “Ha ha ha la moto”, and the words were carried upon the following melody: ‘sol sol mi la sol mi’ –what else but the Ur-song!

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Click on any link below to read the entire Mystic Audio Series:

1. Glossolalia: Speaking In Tongues
2. The Ur-Song
3. Theta Waves, Mantras & The Lord's Prayer
4. Atomic Rhythms
5. Thai Drum Samples For Sesame Workshop

Sound Byte: Car Alarms

Car Alarms: Need I say more?

Brian C. Anderson of the Daily News suggests Car Alarms Are Useless, So Ban Them. Reminding us these annoying devices are designed to aggravate he informs us:

“More than 80% of the calls to New York's quality-of-life hotline concern noise, and many are car-alarm complaints, police say.”

Why am I not surprised?

“Top models like Viper and Hellfire boast sirens that hit a painful 125 decibels — as loud as a disco, and it's sounding right outside your window.”

Not to mention that sometimes all it takes is another passing vehicle to trigger that disco, and usually does so at five in the morning

A mockingbird once took up residence outside my window, and I could swear the thing had learned how to sound out the baneful electronic wale of a Toyota Rav4 being violated.

These pulsing devices are not without their hidden merits, though. Catch me bright eyed during a blue sky afternoon and if I hear an alarm go off I’m likely to break out into 3 or 4 eights of a jubilantly fragmented post modern dance. So there you go, it is like a disco.

Glossolalia: Speaking In Tongues

And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:4)

While a student at the North Carolina School of the Arts, I made the acquaintance of a pair of Pentecostal students. Since I have always had an interest in the religious studies, I pressed them for background on their beliefs. To my amazement, they could each produce glossolalia, –or ‘speaking in tongues’– quite readily.

I recall the silent services at CFS, the Quaker high school I graduated from. Quakers are so called because when inspired by God they sometimes quake. Sometimes one of my fellow students would be moved to address the community, but I never witnessed anyone possessed by the spirit of God in that setting. And those who did contribute did so in plain English.

It is thought that those who speak in tongues might actually be speaking in any number of common human languages. But my new Pentecostal friends explained to me that they exclusively spoke a pre-Babel langauge. They considered the pre-Babel language to be the ‘Ur Language': the original tongue, named not after Babel –as one might think– but after Ur, an ancient Mesopotamian City and beleived to be the world’s first civilization.

The story goes that after God smashed the Tower of Babel, He disrupted men’s communications by subjugating them with different languages. The logic being that by making harder for men to communicate with each other, they would never again be able to collaborate on such a structure as threatening as a heaven reaching skyscraper.

If that were the case, I’d say our modern cities are long overdue for a divinely ordained catastrophic event.

In 1983, the arty punk band Talking Heads released an album called ‘Speaking In Tongues’. On it, David Byrne sings,: “Everything’s stuck together.” Now that's a lesson in spiritual quantum physics that I can readily understand.

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Click on any link below to read the entire Mystic Audio Series:

1. Glossolalia: Speaking In Tongues
2. The Ur-Song
3. Theta Waves, Mantras & The Lord's Prayer
4. Atomic Rhythms
5. Thai Drum Samples For Sesame Workshop

Sound of the Year: 2001 – The Silence

The 2001 Critical Noise Sound of the Year belongs to The Silence that befell the world in the immediate aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001.

We did not all feel The Silence at the same time. Nor did we all drop into that vast pit of darkness together for the same reasons. It was not even a physical silence we sensed, but a disturbing quietude we felt inside, as if we might drown in that hole that had grown inside our hearts.

For some, The Silence arrived immediately, while witnessing the surreal events of the day in real time. For others who jumped into action by professional necessity or instinct, it came afterwards, with weary or anxious rest. And in those cases, it often came on with an inexplicable feeling that one had just returned from a tour of duty on Mars.

For still others The Silence arrived when the evidence that a loved one had been lost proved irrefutable.

And for still others, they finally sensed its overwhelming emptiness when the question 'Why?' yielded absolutely nothing.

But if even if we did feel for a moment that we were enveloped in muffled darkness, and even in the light of day, it was only so that our hearts and minds might pause and recalibrate the order of things.

Words fail us still, but no doubt we will all emerge in time and make sense of this world again.

+ + +

HOW THE SOUND OF THE YEAR IS SELECTED:

The Critical Noise Sound of the Year goes to that sound source, event, entity, happening or concept which so effectively produces wide response and reaction, whether intentional or not, such that it stirs collective emotion, inspires discussion, incites action, or otherwise lends itself to cultural analysis and resonates across the globe.

9/11: Sirens and Silence

The following entry was composed on the fifth anniversary of the event, and inserted here for context.

On 9/11, Michael Sweet and I were in the compact penthouse office that housed Blister Media's recording studio. It was early; we were tired; and so we had the blinds drawn. We had arrived especially early that morning for two reasons. I had promised to messenger some elements to Cheryl Richman at McCann/NY for delivery by 9AM; and we were obligated to present another set in a long line of deliverables to our client, Sesame Workshop.

An architect who shared our floor rushed in and told us that a plane had hit one of the towers. We ran up to the roof to assess the situation, finding one building with a smoking hole in it, and another seemingly intact, but also damaged.

Among the sounds I was conscious of hearing that morning were first and foremost sirens from every kind of emergency vehicle –ambulances, fire trucks, police cars– and moving in every direction from every part of the city.

Despite the fact that our offices were more than a mile away, it was still possible to make out objects falling from the towers. Intermittent debris seemed to flake off the south tower, but from the north, a shocking procession of what we at once knew to be mortals fleeing some even greater horror within.

I knew that each building potentially held thousands of people, and each was a city unto itself, so I realized the magnitude of casualties must be immense. We still didn't know the tragedy was the result of a terror attack, so how to find meaning in this chaos?

It was then, briefly, that the sirens receded from my senses and I felt as though I stood in a silent bubble –a vacuum– watching the world change, from the surface of my skin to the sky above me, and right before my very eyes. And for those few moments, before another fire truck raced down Fifth or Park, all I could hear was the sound of my own blood rushing though my ears.

Too Many Notes To Choose From?

I returned to New York from Miami after attending the 2001 Winter Music Conference with the interesting observation that DJ's were not only trading in their turntables for laptops and recording software, but many were also abandoning the tag 'DJ' in favor of the more expansive title of 'Producer'. It didn't take a genius to realize that this trend would eventually result an increase in the number of creative audio options available to advertising agencies. And in fact, where there had once been a few music houses, soon there many boutiques, and the choices so plentiful that an ad shop never had to use the same audio house twice.

A lot of studio guys who had been in the business for years were still paying off their Neves and Studers would find themselves sweating bullets. But, since my partner and I were basically kids with laptops ourselves, I argued that if we could squeeze into the industry, then there was still room for more competition.

Now, whether or not this is actually true maybe for up for debate, but one thing is certain: The New Economy favors small, fast and lean –and over leveraged, top heavy post production companies were going to find themselves forcibly downscaled or simply overtaken by the unforgiving forces of market evolution.

The title of this article, 'Too Many Notes To Choose From?', is inspired by Emperor Joseph II's famous comment to Mozart that there were ‘too many notes’ in his music. Mozart replied there were neither too many nor to few notes than the composition required of it.

–Terry O'Gara

Too Many Notes To Choose From?
By Terry O'Gara
First published in Shoot, April 13, 2001

There has been a discussion in the music production community as to whether the number of people entering an already crowded field is reaching a saturation point. Ultimately it's a matter of perspective, but I think the repercussions are generally positive for all involved.

The reality is that many talented people out there now bypass the rigors of training at a large shop, and directly approach an agency. The reason being that you no longer need a multi-million-dollar studio to create first-rate music. A modest investment and your hobby can become a viable way to get immediately into the game. Or so it may seem. If you can manage to pound the pavement and find a way to stand out from the rest, then who's to prevent you from competing?

A decade ago this wasn't necessarily the case. But as the competition multiplies, music houses are definitely going to be niched. They are already. The variety of projects available to an established composer is significantly--and ironically, one might say--reduced. Regardless of what you're able to do, if it's not on the reel already, you won't get the job. Because clients now have such a wide range of talent to choose from, they're more likely to place their bets on someone who has already done exactly what a client wants to do for a current project.

This makes sense from the client's viewpoint--much to the detriment of many composers who need the work to expand their craft and abilities. But if stuck with a smaller budget, clients and composers have to take fewer risks and get it right the first time. Also, because licensing a ready-made track is much easier than creating an original piece of music, a client on a smaller budget will go for the former if it has already been created--by a recording artist or through a stock library, for instance. Whether or not a ready made track can address the branding issues of the advertiser or the campaign doesn't seen to make much of a difference as long as the experience of the spot is riveting. I'm not personally convinced that this is true, but it seems to be the tendency. And branded or not, a licensed piece of music has a good chance of hooking an audience that is already predisposed to listening to it in the first place. Since licensing does appear to be a growing trend, add it to the increasingly competitive climate of the industry.

One new difference does make someone on our side of the business optimistic: The avenues from which a music production house can generate revenue have also multiplied. Advertising dollars now only account for a part of the income pie. I started my career in 1991. Back then we only did commercials. Many houses still only do commercials, as they remain a lucrative business. But today a talented production team can make a living in a host of other media, as well--like electronic games, Web sites, in-store kiosks, special venues, sync to-broadcast and enhanced television projects.

New talents in shops like mine no longer have to sit in their studios waiting for an agency and/or client to believe music-makers can score that campaign right to the Clios. We can dive in and have fun with all sorts of new technologies and the new media they provide. Granted, none of these media generate the dollars that a steady diet of TV commercials does, but this variety keeps you on your toes and does provide composers and producers an opportunity to work differently. It keeps life from getting dull, and you're not allowed to repeat the same formula twice.

The Ethics of Alpha Bits

Having read my response in a chat room regarding the ethics of working on various marketing accounts, the editors of CREATIVITY magazine asked me to re-package and contribute my thoughts to the June 2001 issue.

They titled the article:

CHEW ON THIS
Originally Published in Creativity Magazine, June 2001

Under what circumstances will one person decline to work on brand or product category based on a set of moral or ethical beliefs? A cursory examination of virtually every single brand out there uncovers a yet another moral dilemma for the philosophers in our midst.

Many in our business already to decline to work on tobacco advertising because of the health issues posed by cigarettes. But who feels so strongly about not working for a tobacco company that they would also decline Capri Sun, Country Time Lemonade, Crystal Light, Kool-Ade, Alpha Bits, Frosted Shredded Wheat, Grape Nuts, Oreos, Raisin Brand and Velveeta –or the umpteen other fine products brought to you by the folks at Phillip Morris.

Is there anyone out there who refused to worked on a certain alcoholic beverage because the frogs reminded you too much of Joe Camel? Is working n a red wine OK because it might emulsify fats in your bloodstream? Or is that still questionable, because overuse could contribute to long-term liver damage?

Have those of you concerned about global warming considered this issue when producing a car ad? Give the origins of the VW Bug, does anyone out there still have misgivings about the brand? If you have any concerns about colon cancer, should you really be working on products that feature refined white flour as their primary ingredient? If you’re concerned about cholesterol, should you really be doing “Got Milk?”, Kraft singles or any other kind of dairy product (excluding skim milk, of course)?

Does anyone with a dentist (or a diabetic) in the family object to working on a product that contains sugar? Does anyone working exclusively in print have a problem with his or her role in the continued deforestation of the Pacific Northwest? Are there any vegetarians who feel comfortable working on a McDonald’s spot?

Is there anyone out there who would decline to work on a specific brand but think it’s OK to then watch TV programs sponsored by that same brand? Are anyone’s convictions so strong that they’ve requested divestiture of objectionable companies from the portfolios of companies they’ like to work with (or their pension plans?)?

Will you, the vendor, work with an advertising agency on a seemingly innocuous product knowing that the very same agency has won a multi-million dollar campaign to promote a product you strongly object to?

Can't it be said that consumers must take some responsibility for the choices they make? Or are those brains ours, for the taking?