• can@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago


      xkcd 1683

      Title text: “If you can read this, congratulations—the archive you’re using still knows about the mouseover text”!

      • Pretzilla@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Close but the whole thing needs to be a progression of screen grab of phone cam shot of desktop monitor with full moire interference lines

    • CptEnder@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Fun fact: what that audio guy was describing is called “room tone” and correct it’s used for both patching and as a base sitting under all the other audio elements for the mix (music, dialogue, sound FX) and is a common practice after a on location shoot is wrapped to have the whole set “hold for tone”.

      The reasoning being it captures the 3D soundscape of the ambient noise in the space and how those noises bounce off surfaces and people that our ears definitely notice when it’s missing like your post says! The reverb of a small office room and a gym would have very different room tones for example. And an absolute void in audio is extremely distressing and it’s why you almost never have absolute 0dB in a sound mix unless intentional.

      Source: work in professional production

      • Natanael@slrpnk.net
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        8 months ago

        This is also why all online meeting tools and teleconference systems also have a background tone. It tells you that you’re still connected, you’re live.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    As someone who has done plenty of sound recordist work, it’s known as ‘room tone.’

    Also, I feel seen because I’ve had to explain that so many times. Even to people who really should know.

  • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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    8 months ago

    Terry Pratchett writes about this, how there is a difference between the sound of someone not being there and the sound of someone hiding and not making any noise.

    He often writes about how things like bird song can be a type of silence and how a train that always passes at the same time every night, not passing at that time, can wake you up from its absence.

    • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net
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      8 months ago

      I used to live right next to a big ol’ belltower. It’d chime every hour and on special days, it’d be chiming throughout the day. A friend came to stay and was baffled at how I could sleep and work through it all

  • bstix@feddit.dk
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    8 months ago

    True silence is usually not an issue though, but there might be other reasons to record the silent room. Like getting the impulse response data, aligning the DC offset or getting the noise profile for noise reduction.

    In other words: It’s mostly used a reference rather than the explanation given in the post.

    • gla3dr@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      Yeah, what this person is referring to is called “room tone”, it’s not silence.