Audio Koans: The Zen of Sound

Click on any link below to read all the articles in the three-part Spring/Summer 2003 AUDIO KOANS series exploring the relationship between zen wisdom and sound:

1. If a Tree Falls In The Forest...
2. Sound of One Hand Clapping?
3. Zhàozhōu's Dog

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Like this topic? Explore five-part Winter/Spring 2002 MYSTIC AUDIO series, from the Critical Noise Archive, exploring the relationship between spirit and sound:

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

Audio Koans: Zhàozhōu's Dog

Zen Monk Zhao Zhou (778–897) was asked by one of his students if even a dog possessed Buddha nature. In western terms, the question might’ve been: Does a dog possess a soul? Or: Is a dog a sentient being?

To which the monk reportedly replied, “Wu.”

“Wu,” is translated as ‘No’, but through the abstract prism of Zen logic the answer is universally accepted as ‘Yes’.

Personally, I don’t think Zhao Zhou said ‘Wu’, –not at all.

Why do I believe that?

Because ‘Wu’ is a very un-Zen like response; not because of what it means, but because of what it is: A straight answer.

I believe Zhao Zhou’s real answer has been corrupted over the years by chains of brains too brittle to belong to Zen masters.

So what did Zhao Zhou say when asked: "Does a dog possess Buddha nature?"

I think the old monk answered as though he were a dog, imitating its sound on behalf of all canines everywhere: He didn’t cry back ‘Wu’; he howled back ‘Ah-woo’, or simply 'Woo!'

As anyone who’s ever been to a zoo or wolf preserve knows, when wild dogs or wolves howl, it in fact sounds just like ‘Ah-woo’ (pitch ascends on ‘woo’), or 'Woo'.

"Ah-woooooooooooo!"

Makes a little more sense, no?

Or you can scoff, grasshopper, but I'm still going with ‘Ah woo’.

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Click on any link below to read all the articles in the three-part Spring/Summer 2003 AUDIO KOANS series exploring the relationship between zen wisdom and sound:

1. If a Tree Falls In The Forest...
2. Sound of One Hand Clapping?
3. Zhàozhōu's Dog

Audio Koans: One Hand Clapping?

Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1769), the father of Rinzai Zen, reportedly asked his students: “What is the sound of one hand?”

However, in modern practice, the question is often asked in the following manner:

“What is the sound of one hand clapping?”

Apparently, Hakuin would have been happy with a simple demonstration of a hand being thrust out in front of the practitioner, as an appropriate response.

But in regards to the modern version of the question, I have my own less esoteric thoughts on the subject:

The sound of one hand clapping is not the sound of two hands clapping, because the movement of one hand can't be described as clapping at all. Clapping is the sound produced by smacking or slapping two objects together. Thus, one hand making a clapping motion in space is not clapping, but rather it is waving.

So the real question is:

What sound does a waving hand make?

And this is the answer: Well, depending on the vigor of the waver, a waving hand making a repeated waving motion can sound like anything from a soft pulsing heart-like beat or breath; to a slow moving fan blade; to a helicopter propeller chopping through the air.

None of these sounds are audible from afar. However, if you make these motions with your hand next to your ear, you will certainly detect them for yourself.

Call it clapping if it humors you, but it’s not.

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Click on any link below to read all the articles in the three-part Spring/Summer 2003 AUDIO KOANS series exploring the relationship between zen wisdom and sound:

1. If a Tree Falls In The Forest...
2. Sound of One Hand Clapping?
3. Zhàozhōu's Dog

RIP Eve Frumkin

Eve Frumkin died in March of 2003.

We were not friends or even associates, but Eve nevertheless left a significant impact on my professional life. The official story will list her as senior vice president/director/producer at Ammirati Puris Lintas. Her clients included Burger King, Compaq, General Motors, Nestle, and UPS. But to me, she was simply 'Eve from Ammirati', and whenever the receptionist announced her presence on the line, I always knew that those words signaled a potential adventure was waiting.

The truth is, Eve was a woman whom I knew only as a voice at the other end of a line. But we spoke often enough that I not only knew her by name, but considered her as a VIP client, requiring more than a response, she required a real human connection.

I was a bit younger than her; her career was nearing its end when mine was just beginning. But I did everything I could during our phone conversations to engage with her befitting her accomplishments and status. If Eve had simply asked me for estimates and had I simply bid those jobs, I would not feel the loss I feel now. The fact is, she engaged me, and made an effort to connect to me, making sure that though our relationship was virtual, it was real.

As it happens, some jobs I won, some I lost. But as long as the work was world class and the paper work delivered on time, all was good with the world. In this respect Eve Frumkin taught this music producer an important lesson when I was still clawing my way into the industry:

You can do anything you want
As long as it's great,
under budget,
on time
and fulfills the marketing objective.

RIP Eve Frumkin! –with an exclamation mark! –Because I'm sure anyone who knows you, knows that you deserve it.

Audio Koans: If a Tree Falls...

If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?

Yes.

I have a feeling the Zen Monk who thought this was a mind bending cryptic puzzle was also a pot smoking fourteen year old who slept through Physics.

Those who answer ‘No’ invariably –an inaccurately– define sound as entirely a sensory response: the effect of electrical stimulus upon brain cognition by a vibrating eardrum. However, unless one is hallucinatory, human ability to sense sound is wholly dependent on an external source causing (air) molecules to vibrate. It is these vibrating particles that comprise sound, not one's ability to sense them.

To clarify, sound and the sense of hearing are two different things.

So, if a tree falls in the forest and there's no one there to hear it, yes, it still causes air molecules to vibrate and therefore makes a sound, independent of any individual capacity to sense those vibrations.

* * *

Click on any link below to read all the articles in the three-part Spring/Summer 2003 AUDIO KOANS series exploring the relationship between zen wisdom and sound:

1. If a Tree Falls In The Forest...
2. Sound of One Hand Clapping?
3. Zhàozhōu's Dog

It Was 20 Years Ago Today

Advertisement for then state-of-art microcomputer based Computer Music Instrument, The New England Digital Synclavier II – From the back pages of the Computer Music Journal, Volume 7, No. 1, Spring 1983.

Needless to say, I wanted one!

Synclavier, Synthesizer

This Is Where The Story Ends

Here's the message, do you care about the medium?

Media has evolved, and instead of growing bigger, it has gotten smaller –along with our attention spans, I might add. As such, it demands shorter, faster delivery times.

It's as if there's hardly time to finish and you've only just started to say, 'Once upon a time...'

Therefore neither composers nor sound designers can continue take the same approach to the application of creative sound solutions to other media platforms as they have in the past with film and traditional video formats.

There is simply no longer any time to tell a STORY, only to convey a MESSAGE, and nothing conveys a message as rapidly or efficiently as a SYMBOL.

At the same time, the number of platforms on which to broadcast that message is multiplying. It is not just a convergence of technologies, but a convergence and deconstruction of communication delivery techniques, and our concept of Story will not go unchallenged.

In 1998, when I co-founded Blister Media, Silicon Alley's first interactive music and sound design company servicing advertising agencies, I initially found myself confounded in any attempt to define a narrative or story element in the new media and sometimes cross platform projects we began taking on.

One can certainly think of audio elements provided for an Interactive Interface or Electronic Game Play as 'helping to tell the story', but only if one loosely defines any framed experience as story.

Me, I'm a purist: There is no story without conflict or dramatic action.

In other words, Is Navigation Narration? I think only when it serves an objective purpose, i.e. when it represents a Journey. Clicking a link is not the same thing as experiencing a Story, although certainly, hyperlinking concepts and platforms do and will continue to contribute to Storytelling techniques.

High-order electronic games that deliver an interactive film-like experience, such as HALO, do indeed provide a story experience. But small electronic puzzle games, as often do not.

Additionally, many such experiences, such as a telephone connection tone or an audible response confirming an action or command on an electronic device, may only last a single second.

Some clients will remain happy with a set of stock clicks and bells, but others will develop or commission a proprietary family of sound and value those elements as brand assets.

What is required for such projects is neither a slow build to a dramatic statement nor any random selection of stock sound/s.

What they will demand from their creators is adopting a unique Philosophy of Sound for each individual commission.

Evolving Media formats require deftly executed audio solutions that clarify navigation, maximize entertainment value, and in the case of branded experiences, fulfill a communications strategy in the audible equivalent of a blink of the eye.

In short, as it is conventionally defined:

STORY IS DEAD, and the era of STORY IS OVER.

And I believe that we have now entered the ERA OF MESSAGE.

For audiences, this does not mean the end of all stories. Entertainment outlets will multiply and content demands will actually increase by an exponential order. But in a post post-production world, commercial creative artisans producing communication projects will need to possess a deeper understanding of a given client's brand strategy before they embark on development.

Increasingly audiences will share less and less of their time getting to know a brand. Even word of mouth may one day seem to take too long or just too much effort, but an individual consumer just might afford you the time to exchange the electronic equivalent of handshake. If nothing else, you will need to convey your message at first point of contact (with the user/consumer), because you may not get another chance.

And since my specialty is sound, one might reasonably ask how this will affect sonic artisans. Well, the bad news is now you have homework. Because if one can reasonably imagine that a message is to be conveyed using sound as the carrier, then one may also reasonably suggest that in addition to music theory and performance, some study of symbols and sound will be required of future sonic artisans. Thus, archetypes, memes and semiotics will be as important skills to our craft  as Harmony and Technique. The good news is an increased skill set should also result in higher value for your contributions.

Position: Creative Solutions For Creative People

Blister Media is history, and weirdly, I've been getting more calls from people who want to hire me as a writer and an artist, than for music production projects. All that work creating marketing collateral for Blister; writing Press Releases; and placing articles in the industry trades has garned me an added reputation as a marketing consultant. Go figure. But my most recent clients don't even know me as music producer.

As it turned out, a decade standing at the nexus of advertising, marketing, film, entertainment, game developers, PR executives and brand strategists has imbued me with a general understanding of promotions that's proving greatly useful as a free agent.

In January of 2003, Position Management was born, a creative consulting boutique swimming in a big sea of cool opportunities.

Of course, I hope to continue producing music projects in the future. It is true that I already miss the day-to-day affair of knocking out music jobs for Fortune 500 companies. But I also have to admit, I really enjoy the work that I’m doing now, as it offers both creative variety and strategic thinking.

I now say, the tools of my trade are Language, Art, Symbol and Sound. My job, in effect, is to be the artsy kid in class. In a way, that’s always been my job. You are who you are.

Position, Marketing

BLISTER MEDIA: 10.15.98 -12.31.02

We'd worked together since 1991, but didn't begin our formal partnership until the beginning of September 1998. Our venture remained unnamed until mid-October. 'Blister' was not our first choice, but in fact our seventh choice. It seemed that no matter what eclectic name we thought up, someone somewhere already had a music production studio with the same name. Legal fees related to formal trademark searches were draining a tidy hole in our launch budget. Eventually we came to a point of exasperation, where it was like, let's just use the first thing available.

If I had to do it over again, I would have gone into business with our first choice and simply waited for a cease and desist letter to arrive from an offended party. That way, we could have hit the ground running faster and had a little more cash in our pocket when we did –and honestly, I think it would 100% have been cheaper.

We founded our business with a mission to become the Interactive medium's premier audio supplier –delivering not just sound, as was typical for audio shops, but the applicable coding to insure the highest quality integration and playback. In the spirit of the burgeoning dot com age, we added the identifier 'Media'.

Other shops provided 'Recording', 'Mixing', 'Music', 'Music and Sound Design', or simply 'Audio'. I knew we were different because I knew our approach to the process was different. Dramatically so. There wasn't another commercial shop I could think of that considered the issues programmers faced during the construction of these new Interactive experiences.

In fact, there were only two other ventures I could find in those early days that could describe themselves as independent audio production studios defining themselves as leaders in interactive entertainment and the new emerging Internet economy. One was Cathryn Ramin's Team Audio project out of San Francisco, whose roster of talent included Ron Ramin and X-Files composer Mark Snow, and the other was Team Fat, a game audio collective led by George Sanger out of Austin.

Team Audio and Team Fat, and then Michael and I at Blister, –all three little boutiques who had figured something out before anyone else had, and in my mind were now racing to corner the market for interactive audio asset production.

I did not think the market was yet big enough for the three of us, so Ramin's and Sanger's ventures made me feel a bit like Lex Luthor from our studio penthouse in New York City. H'm, how best to defeat these two teams whose combined roster read like a league of legends.  If I had been smarter, I might have suggested a collaboration, which no doubt would have led to partnerships and eventual world domination by Fat Blistering Audio today.

Either way, I still thought, 'We're in darn good company!"

At any rate, I'd like to believe that I brought to the table an understanding of market considerations coupled with an ear for maximizing the entertainment value of any given sonic experience, and Michael was a master of interactive composition, and in a pre-mp3 standard world, he had a magical way with compression that insured our audio sounded super streaming off the web.

As for branding, I wanted our message to indicate we carved beauty from chaos. I wanted to say 'disciplined but experimental'. I wanted to signal to our Madison Alley (Madison Ave + Silicon V/Alley, i.e. the ad tech community)neighbors that we were one of them, and not simply a place where bands just hung out and made demos, or the same kind of tired old studio that churned out dittys out of million dollar rooms. We were digital audio pioneers and we were one step ahead of the pack in understanding that interactive game audio techniques were essential to the next wave on advertising and entertainment assets. We eventually settled on the tag 'Music Noise Code'.

I love language as much as I love music –both are different manifestations of communicable sound– that memorable branding and marketing strike my ear as linguistic melodies.

Of course, I was quite pleased that when Mix Magazine's Internet Audio supplement published their April 2001 story about us (Interactive Composition Comes of Age), they even used the tag as section headers to tell three aspects of our story: Music, Noise and Code.

Blister Media – Music. Noise. Code

I still think it rocks.

The Future of Music Production

In the five years Blister Media was in business, we produced audio for both Time Warner and Viacom, and provided music, sound design and programming for a $900,000 Texaco Foundation sponsored Sesame Workshop on-line music learning area –significant because at the time it represented one of the largest grants in Texaco Foundation history.

We also delivered award winning network packaging to HBO Zone and audio for VH1’s 2001 ‘Surveillance’ branding campaign; as well as worked on early web interstitials, electronic games, and provided onsite location sound installations for the NASDAQ Market Site on Times Square; the Swiss RE Center for Global Dialogue in Geneva; and for the Kids Room Venue @ the Millennium Dome in London.

Additionally, Blister Media was the first audio house to deliver synchronized audio elements for Sync-To-Broadcast technology –notably for MTV’s Web Riot; and for the Weakest Link, TBS, Turner, and several other acclaimed projects.

To my surprise, many of our clients began to consider us not just 'audio guys', but creative consultants and asked us to participate on everything from character development, copy changes, design issues, marketing strategies. I'm especially grateful to Eric Zimmerman and Peter Lee over at GameLab; Vincent Lacava and Mark Smith at Pop; and everyone at Sesame Workshop for inviting us so deeply into their process.

Our partnership received mentions in ID magazine, Communications Arts, Creativity, Shoot, Boards; and contributed to a slew of projects that received notice in print, online and around the world. The publishers of Mix Magazine, in their Interactive Audio supplement suggested Blister Media’s synchronistic practices was a portent to ‘The Future of Music Production’

When the bubble burst and our clients disappeared, naturally the business faltered. But what an exciting run for us. It took a year or two after we turned it in in order to fulfill our remaining obligations, both to our clients and to each other. By the time 2005 kicked in we were both looking ahead to new adventures independent of the other. Nevertheless, twenty years from now when my kids ask what I was doing during the Internet Revolution, I can not only tell them that I witnessed it, but I was there on the ground, in Silicon Alley during its peak, that I shared the ride with a good friend, and that we had the time of our lives while it lasted.

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain..." –Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty, from the film 'Blade Runner'