I complain often about the amount of noise which Thais make. However, one kind of noise which I do not mind is the sound of young ones playing music.
From my condo, I can hear someone practising what sounds like a trumpet. Close to the canal which I visit daily, I can hear someone in a shophouse practising piano.
I haven't identified which homes the sound comes from, but I enjoy listening. I want to call out messages of encouragement.
The playing sounds so crisp when it's live, so to speak, compared to recorded music played through a stereo. One day, as I walked towards the canal, I heard a mother giving her children instruction in pronouncing English vowels.
I have only ever heard that once. I should have called out encouragement on that occasion, too.
Your comment "the amount of noise which Thais make." brought to mind "Dr Suess" "How The Grinch Stole Christmas"
ReplyDeleteMusic was what first brought me into contact with Thai people. Since childhood I have liked the Asian melodic sense. A few years ago a Filipino friend pointed me in the direction of Bird Thongchai, Sek Loso and Flure. That got me started and since then most of my intake of current music is from Asia.
One of my Pinoy favorites "Alipin" by Shamrock:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_cZEE_zSyQ
Here in AMerica the mainstream seems to have lost much of it's melodic sense and replaced it with an African-ized emphasis on beat. Alot of the current music is totally devoid of original composition and the only vestiges of music are the bits of "sampled" tracks the underpin the crude rhymes of rap. Fortunately that genre is fading.
You mentioned how different live vs recorded music sounds, the primary reason is audio processing.
Recorded sound is generally subjected to limiting of the transients and overall dynamics by devices called limiters and compressors. These devices enable the very wide difference in loudness in live music to fir within the constraints of recorded media and especially radio/tv broadcasting. They are also use an "srtistic" tool to blend instruments with widely different sound levels and attack vs decay level profiles.
In radio and tv transmission peaks are squashed down to stay within the average level of sound so that an overall higher level can be sent to the transmitter without causing distortion on peaks.
One thing I have noticed is that in Thailand there tend to be very wide swings in transmission quality among radio stations. Some FMs for instance blatantly overmodulate and sound distorted on any but the most expensive receiver. We have mush makers like that here but pressure from higher quality digital media in the hands of the public has forced some improvement lately.
Lino,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the explanation for why live music sounds so much better. Yes, Thai radio stations do something strange to their sound, so it sounds crap on almost any receiver. It's irksome, and puts me off listneing to more of it.
Thank you also for the link to the Thai furniture shop guy.
He's environmentally conscious. Well,of course. That should please PC New Yorkers. Personally, I don't care if the man describes himself as a "warm modernist" or "organic minimalist" - as long as he sells good furniture. If his green credentials get in the way of that, then you can keep him over there.
In Bangkok, as far as I know, people can still just shop. They can leave their politics at the door, and look about in someone's shop without having the owner's politics thrust in their face.