Happy 2007 Update – About Critical Noise

Happy New Year!

–Or if you've arrived to this post via a search query–

Welcome.

So, what's this blog all about?

CRITICAL NOISE is about SOUND in all its many facets–

–From natural phenomena to sonic branding and other musicological topics. And as it can be heard in the ecology, our educational institutions, entertainment, industry, advertising and everything in between.

This blog is not a personal dairy, nor do I even think of it as about me, so much as it's about my experience with sound. I do keep a professional journal but I don't use it to write about the sometimes esoteric topics presented here. Critical Noise is like the op ed section of a newspaper that only reports about sound.

I attempt to post one article a month, up to 3000 words per article (they do get long). I may post an article in its entirety initially, but then later break it up into a bite size installments before archiving, if only to test the patience of those who do stumble here from search engines.

And few people want to read a 3000 word think-piece on the relationship between early childhood development and bird song as much as I may want to publish it. But if you are one of those people, you've come to the right place (Aural Intelligence ).

None of the articles published here are time sensitive, although some links may naturally expire. If you love the subject of sound, you'll equally enjoy my most recent entry as you will something I posted several years ago.

Want to get started? You can start at the top and work your way backwards but I suggest you head over to the index and sort entries by tag or subject.

So, who am I to assume such an interest or fair degree of expertise in these topics?

My name is Terry O'Gara. (A select list of clients and accounts can also be found listed in the left margin).

Beginning in 1991 I've made a living producing commercial music, sound design and sonic branding projects. And since 2003 I've provided brand and image marketing solutions, in the capacity of a creative consultant, to independent artists, artist management and creative entrepreneurs doing business in the advertising and entertainment industries. Interested parties are welcome to contact me via email to the address listed in the left hand margin.

Along the way I've been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to produce, direct audio or otherwise contribute to a fair number of projects that went on to be recognized by the Advertising Entertainment Complex and international design community. So, yes, I've got a few awards. Earning them was once important to me. I only mention them now by way of providing readers with credentials.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

* I was a key member of the first team of music supervisors supported by a commercial music house.
* I was a senior producer on the first Olympic music library delivered with Meta tags and a digital database.
* I was one of three internal supervisors/ producers that created that first Meta tagged music library –pre iTunes.
* I was the senior producer for the first commercial music company to offer product ‘sonification’; and in this capacity I produced –or was part of a team that produced– sonification assets for AT&T and TeleTV, an early interactive Television platform.

I was also the senior producer for the first company to produce corporate audio identity systems, where I became the key architect of standard operating procedures for production at what turned out to be the first U.S. bi-coastal music production house and the leading sonic branding enterprise of its time.

Additionally, I was an early adopter of pre Protools computer technology as a musical instrument and recording tool; and co-founded the first dedicated interactive music production house that catered to Silicon Alley. Blister Media was the first music company to provide music, sound design and code as a standard service. Mix Magazine, in their Interactive Audio supplement suggested Blister Media's hybrid practices were a portent to ‘The Future of Music Production’. And as such, Blister Media was the first music house to provide such services for Sync-To-Broadcast events/experiences, such as for MTV's webRIOT.

I've also produced sonic identity and music imaging promo packages for ABC, CBS, Disney, E!, ESPN, Fox, HBO, MTV, TBS, TNT, TNT Asia, The Comedy Channel, PBS, VH1 and not to mention TV and Radio projects for many household brands.

The best part of it simply was –and is– the opportunity to work with other uniquely talented and creative people in the earnest attempt to create remarkable advertising, accessible information and maximized entertainment entertainment experiences.

And so much the better if we burn a blazing trail while doing it.

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THE MUSIC PRODUCER'S SYLLABUS

Young people (or the simply curious) interested on just exactly what a commercial music producer is and does on daily basis are invited to read a number of articles I've composed explaining as much and collected under the the series title:

The Music Producer's Syllabus

Academic Institutions and persons are of course invited to print, distribute and expand on The Music Producer's Syllabus for limited educational purposes. Kindly credit and notify the author via email, and provide a trackback or originating URL.

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I hope you enjoy reading Critical Noise.

Comments are invited.

Spread the knowledge.



Terry O'Gara


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(This article last updated January, 2009)

Sonic Lives Leave Sonic Booms

I once had a teacher who delivered a summation of 20th century world history as the culmination of advances in contraceptive techniques. Depending on one’s interest, history may be described through the varying disciplines of politics, war, religion, art, or gender relations –to name but a few choices.

So setting aside the lasting effects of World War II, the subsequent cold war, the nuclear arms race, the space race, the civil rights movement, feminism, the invention of the automobile and interstate, the development of capitalism, communism, globalism, and the increasingly widespread distribution of fresh water, electricity and human rights across the globe, apparently one may dispense with all that and rather convincingly argue that the story of all human achievement may be summed within the story of The Pill.

But I only mention this in passing because this blog examines life through a different filter than one is usually accustom: It is an examination of life connected by distinctly appreciable and audible moments, though not necessarily in chronological order –We live in a non-linear age after all. For now, let us imagine the first gasp of breath to the last, and all the music in between.

I think that even those without a proclivity for music must have a deep, biological connection to sound. What else accounts for the murmur of nostalgia? –Soft but present critical noise –like whispers– though barely detectable they nonetheless endure in memory.

You were born and you cried, and would like to believe that though that cry is now many years distant, it too still exists. That, indeed, it will even out live you, that sound waves never die. That instead, they continue to spread across the universe, growing thinner, and ever fainter, ever fainter, but never ending. And that though some lives are quieter than others, I believe that –like jets– every life produces and leaves in its wake a sonic boom.

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Photo collage by Terry O'Gara

Critical Noise

CRITICAL NOISE examines the impact sound has on our lives.

About my life, in particular:

My childhood was spent in the Caribbean, South America, the mid east, Europe and the American Southeast. As a toddler my Peruvian nanny called me 'Xaui' –pronounced 'chowie', and which describes a songbird –a prophetic sign if ever there was one.

I grew up a violinist, violist, dancer, composer and amateur ethnomusicologist; and became an early (and obsessional) adherent of microcomputer-enabled composition and sampling technologies. I spent fifteen years as a commercial music and sound design producer, producing national and international projects out of both New York and LA. Along the way, I fulfilled Senior Producer, Executive Producer and Creative Directorial roles at three acclaimed music houses: One being the leading sonic branding house in the country; another, the leading sound design firm; and the last, a pioneering interactive enterprise called Blister Media, which I co-founded and rode the dot com bubble like a methamphetamine cowboy.

My contributions can be heard on hundreds of Television and Radio commercials, and in theme parks, kiosks, installations, and a variety of electronic devices, web sites and electronic games.

And I've also been known to step up to the occasional open mic.

Much of my life has been defined by sound, –or that's the way I've simply chosen to define it. Which brings us to the origin of this blog. Without actually keeping a formal dairy, I find myself writing often about my sonic experiences: Mystical, Commercial, Natural, Primal, Tonal, Physical –and Musical.

And I can't help but want to consider and comment on the similarly sonic experiences of others, as relayed to me –either through something I read, or via direct conversation.

I've thus decided to create a repository –this blog: CRITICAL NOISE– where I can 'park' these thoughts –nearly all disparate from one another save for having to do with all things audio. I guess that means I will eventually get around to writing about everything in the known universe, if I live long enough to do so. And when I am done, I suppose you can say that I will have a produced a document of my life as it was lived through sound.

If nothing else, I hope that by putting these thoughts to these virtual pages, I might also banish a host of interloping mumbles and murmurs currently occupying my mind. And by so doing, free enough space that therein new melodies form where once words lay cluttered, and stir my senses again with the sublime power of music.