IF BAD SOUND WERE FATAL, AUDIO WOULD BE THE LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH

If Bad Sound Were Fatal, Audio Would be the Leading Cause of Death

William B. Snow & the Enhanced Orchestra

I can’t remember the exact year but it was probably around 1969 that Bill Snow of Steinberg & Snow (Bell Labs) fame came to our house in Tustin, CA for lunch. Of course, this was a thrill and we were avid listeners as he told us of his many years of research at Bell Labs during the formative years of the development of motion picture sound.

Bill Snow’s discussion of the 1933 stereophonic broadcast was the most memorable. He said that the recording and broadcast is remembered for its stereophonic aspect, but what was most significant to him (and most neglected—this is late 60s remember) was that the orchestra was enhanced by +3 dB. Leopold Stokowski was the conductor. Stokowski wrote in his book entitled Music For All Of Us (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1943).

When electrical instruments are relatively perfect, they will free musicians from our present constant preoccupation with the imperfections and technical difficulties of instruments. We shall be able to give all our feeling and thought to the inner essence of the music, because the instruments will respond with extreme sensitivity to every difference of feeling in the player and the music.

V13N1P16 1985

2003 NOTE: While I have always been totally fascinated by the challenge of “fidelity” in musical reproduction. (Paul Klipsch took away the word “high” from me with the remark, “You wouldn’t call your wife highly faithful, would you?”)

There is today no substitute for “live” music. We still don’t know all the parameters present in a live performance. Yes! I enjoy recorded music, which has come an astounding distance in my lifetime, but one live performance easily disabuses me of the belief that we have achieved fidelity.

A Puppy Named Pedro

For several days we heard what sounded like a dog whining in the deep woods. Returning to the house one morning after the morning chores, I heard a whimpering distress cry under the low rear deck to the house.

I was able to gradually coax out a little black and white puppy that was very hungry and afraid of the two German Shepherds hovering over him. After two full bowls of dry dog food, which the puppy lay in while eating it, he decided to totally wholeheartedly and without wavering in loyalty become a Davis dog. Since we now have a Poncho, Patch, Punch, Pete and Princess—why not have a Pedro. The first time we drove away in the truck it ran piteously after us, providing a clue as to how it might have come to be starving in our woods.

This morning, two weeks after Pedro’s arrival, I watched him run joyously through the woods with Patch and Princess, at one point grabbing Patch by the tail and pulling hard. Pedro has a speedy learning curve such that:

1. He knows not to go near Princess’s feeding dish if he wishes to remain among the living,

2. His dish is the one on the far left—but he still insists on taking a quick glance at the other two first,

3. A rifle in my hands means a walk in the woods,

4. When Patch and Princess have their noses in the ground up to their eyeballs, he can run in under their bellies a have a chance at a mole,

5. He has learned that cats are fast with their claws if you’re deaf to their warning hisses, so he now has a built in bypass when the cats are in his path,

6. He’s found that his soulful brown eyes and rotary rear end will get any lady visitor to pick him up,

7. Finally, he’s found that if he sits still and endures having his ticks taken off with the long nose pliers, he gets a food treat for his stoicism. At one point he got so many ticks on him he had enough to start an independent political party.

Speaking of ticks—I’ve been able to better understand politicians through a careful observation of tick behavior. First, find a host with blood, then attach yourself to them and tax their supply. As soon as you’re well established, bring in others on your back until you have enough to totally drain your host. It’s not commonly known that when ticks bite politicians, they exchange mutual infections. The politician goes on the tax and anti-gun committees that are then headed up by the ticks who have been in turn infected by politician and have swollen to enormous size and power on federal blood.

These committee heads that are, in actuality, disguised ticks, can be discerned by two telltale clues. First they can’t reason logically and believe things are animated and evil. Second, they cannot imagine even in the wildest stretch of their imagination that any individual is responsible for his or her own acts. A special subspe