
How Ambient Chill Became the New Silence - wyndham
https://www.topic.com/how-ambient-chill-became-the-new-silence
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egypturnash
Lately I've been spending a lot of my working-with-a-laptop-at-a-cafe time at
places that have outdoor seating. And another chunk of that time has been
sitting outside at a very nice park I live nearby.

There is no music except for occasional snatches of it from passing cars.
Instead there is the wind in the trees, various birds having their
conversations, and perhaps kids playing if I'm near the playground. It's
really kind of wonderful.

I find myself thinking that a cafe whose playlist is nothing but natural
ambient sounds - maybe you walk in and the playlist is "jungle fauna", or
"rainstorm", or "tranquil beach" \- would be really cool, but I also know that
running a small cafe is a ton of work and a great way to probably lose a ton
of money. Maybe I'll suggest that at one of the cafes I work inside of on a
regular basis.

~~~
DEADBEEFC0FFEE
I went through a period of listening to natural sounds, rivers, forests, rain,
thunder, waves, etc. It's surprisingly easy to detect loops and repeats.

There are some nice apps for blending sounds.

Seems like a good space for ML to play, producing unique, but authentic
feeling sounds.

~~~
thepaulstella
I do enjoy myNoise, but I find their mobile apps to be usability headaches a
lot of the time.

~~~
frosted-flakes
Just use the website. Add it to the home screen (on Android) and it functions
like an app. The only downside is that it requires Internet to load the noise
generator.

Stephane Pigeon of myNoise.net made the website himself, but hired out the app
development.

------
SignalsFromBob
I look forward to the day that society treats combating noise pollution with
the same level of seriousness as combating other types of pollution. It
appears that day is still far off.

~~~
johnchristopher
Things are slowly moving at the European level but some initiatives were
recently taken. See
[https://ec.europa.eu/environment/noise/directive_en.htm](https://ec.europa.eu/environment/noise/directive_en.htm)
and [https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/75/air-
an...](https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/75/air-and-noise-
pollution)

------
mancerayder
I have tinnitus because I've spent the last two decades playing music through
headphones to block out conversations and often music at work and in my
commute. I'm still equally distracted/disturbed by other people's noise as day
one.

~~~
eikenberry
You had your ear wax checked? I thought I had tinnitus for years, then one
time when getting checked on for a nasal infection the nurse commented on how
waxy my ear was and asked if I'd like it removed. I thought sure and wow... my
tinnitus immediately and completely went away. Just saying, get that checked
if you have tinnitus. Turns out ear wax build-up is a major cause of it (it
pushes against the ear drums).

~~~
mancerayder
Is there a home remedy for this, or is this ear wax extraction something only
a medical professional can perform?

~~~
hyperdimension
Sure, hydrogen peroxide poured into your ear will dissolve it, but it might
take a few "rinse and repeat" cycles.

------
pmoriarty
_" ambient music for shopping spaces, these days, is meant to soothe you or
pump you up, and generally nudge your habits toward consumption"_

Fortunately, we do have some resistance to this in the form of portable music
players.

I virtually never hear any music at any of the venues or stores I visit,
because I'm always listening to my own.

~~~
iamatworknow
Maybe I'm alone here but I almost think this is worse. Granted the
manipulative aspect of using specific music to set a mood in public places can
be kinda gross, but I don't like that the alternative is that now everyone's
in their own bubble and further isolating themselves from the people around
them.

~~~
pmoriarty
In my experience, people are already almost completely isolated even without
headphones.

With or without headphones, the only strangers who come up and talk to me are
people who want something from me, like beggars, people seeking directions, or
people trying to sell me something. As someone who's not very social around
strangers, I rarely initiate conversations with strangers myself.

Listening to my own music just makes getting through the world more pleasant
for me. It doesn't make me significantly more isolated.

~~~
Ancalagon
You and the parent both have excellent points, and I frankly agree with both
of you. I think, at least in the US, many public spaces are trending towards
isolation of the population. Specifically I'm thinking of gyms (where its no
longer OK to interact with someone with headphones on), or bars/clubs where
the music is literally so loud you cannot talk to someone standing right next
to you. I believe all of this is in some way related to us becoming more
lonely/depressed, and of course we self-medicate in the only way we know how:
consumption.

~~~
filoleg
I think all of those have their place.

There are loud bars/clubs you go to with your friends at times when you want
to let all your energy out and just drink, dance, and listen to music without
having to worry about carrying a conversation.

There are also quieter and more fit for socializing bars and music venues,
where you wanna go to shoot shit with the bartender, have a conversation with
your friend you haven't seen in a while, or just relax and talk to people in
your neighborhood who tent to visit that place often while chilling with a
drink.

And I love the fact that in most cities I've lived in within the US, there are
plenty of both, because I definitely like to utilize all of those options.
More choices is always better.

The only example of yours I heavily disagree with is the gym one. It isn't a
proper place for socializing imo, assuming you are talking about the
weightlifting/cardio stuff. Team sports areas like basketball court or a
soccer field (where I see a LOT of socializing happening) are a completely
different story, however.

------
brontide
…startup

Mutebox

The anti-jukebox that lets you mute restaurants' ambient music to bring back
the vitality of your surroundings. For when your favorite cafe is playing
experimental electronic music and you really came for the sound of espresso
machines and light background noise while you crank out that TPS report. Or,
the jukebox that exclusively plays John Cage's 4'33". [1]

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4′33″](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4′33″)

~~~
foreigner
Yes! Maybe it could work like those song recognition apps. A microphone
identifies the background music and then it plays an inverse waveform in to
your earbuds to cancel it out. I would pay lots of money for that.

~~~
snailmailman
This is exactly how active noise cancellation works on many modern
headphones/earbuds, although I don't think they actually try to identify the
song.

~~~
foreigner
Active noise cancellation devices that I've heard of try to analyze the noise
to predict what it will do next so they know what to cancel out. They're
expensive because they have to be fast enough to react to changes in the
sound, and imperfect because they will always lag behind changes to the sound
they're trying to cancel.

If you could identify the song then you could simply fast-forward it to know
"what it will do next" and the cancellation would be much easier and more
accurate.

------
philwelch
Despite this trend, maybe it’s just me but I have never actually experienced
elevator music. As in music playing in a literal elevator. Sometimes there’s a
TV with weather reports and sports scores and “fun facts” that pop up but no
music.

~~~
gumby
Those TVs in elevators and fuel pumps are evil. You can look away from the
screen but the voices make it hard to think.

~~~
zeta0134
The ones in fuel pumps are the _worst._ In my town I make a point of avoiding
any gas station that has sunk to that level, but they seem to be harder and
harder to avoid especially when traveling.

~~~
smush
YMMV but at least here in the southeast USA, the default GSTV signal can be
turned off by pressing a combination on the 4 soft touch keys on the outside
of the screen. If your buttons are like so,

1 | CONTENT | 5

2 | CONTENT | 6

3 | CONTENT | 7

4 | CONTENT | 8

try the sequence 5 6 5 . Here where I am at, that mutes the sound. Sometimes 7
8 7 also turns the screen off.

But! You need to put it back to screen on, sound on, or the staff will notice
and you risk them changing the combination on you.

~~~
zrail
Around here it seems like I just have to push one button to turn the sound
off. Presumably it comes back for the next customer but I have no idea.

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telotortium
> THE LOGICAL ENDPOINT of the demand for mood-based content might be something
> that’s not created by a human musician, but by an algorithm. Some players in
> the music industry are betting on this. Earlier this year, Warner Brothers
> Music partnered with Endel, a company founded in Berlin that creates
> customized “soundscapes,” mostly for individual consumers. Endel’s songs
> aren’t really songs; they’re endless sonic ecosystems of sorts, for
> activities such as focusing on work or sleeping.

[http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html)

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a_t48
I thought this was going to be about ambient electronic music, which is
something totally different. Genre naming is fun. :) Still a worthwhile
article to me.

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oykot
Next time youre in a casino pay attention to the carefully curated lyrics of
the overhead music they play

~~~
bonestamp2
In the meantime, can you give us any hints?

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tomc1985
I hate this. If the commercial world has any say we will not have quiet
anywhere, ever.

Silence is so wonderful, why must we fill it up with noise?

~~~
dorchadas
I was reading _The Nature Fix_ earlier this year and they mentioned there's
very few places left in America where you can actually be free from human-made
noise at daybreak. It was quite sad, and, as you mentioned, it's only going to
get worse. I quite miss quiet, and wish more people felt the same way.
Instead, it seems many hate quiet.

------
taurath
What I can’t stand is the lyric heavy “upbeat” music in grocery stores, even
when it’s absolutely dreary out or late at night. I’m sure some folks like it.
Maybe I should grocery shop with earbuds.

~~~
jpindar
I do grocery shop with earbuds sometimes, because the store near me plays
nothing but cheezy old love songs. I mean literally every song is a 'romantic'
one. I'm not against all old pop music but that's just too much.

