[78-L] fwd: The Fading Sounds of Analog Technology

[Julian Vein]

David Lennick wrote:
> http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/the-fading-sounds-of-analog-technology/?src=me&ref=technology
> 
> The Fading Sounds of Analog Technology
> 
> I’ve always loved the musical "Company," a Broadway show by Stephen Sondheim 
> that opened in 1970. It was about a 35-year-old Manhattan guy, still unmarried 
> even though all of his best friends are married couples. The set, the tone and 
> the score were all ultra-chic, ultra-modern, ultra-urban. So urban and modern, 
> in fact, that the first thing you hear as the show begins is a busy signal — in 
> its day, the ultimate technological symbol of a fast-paced, full-up lifestyle.
> 
> After a few repetitions of that insistent, one-note beep, the overture begins 
> building off of its rhythm. The busy signal became a musical theme for the 
> entire opening number.
> 
> But when I went to see the revival of the show in 2006, the busy signal was 
> gone. Mr. Sondheim later told me that nobody knows what it is anymore.
> 
> I had to admit that he was right. When’s the last time you heard one? These 
> days, voicemail (or just sending a text) has almost completely eliminated the 
> busy signal. Still, that left the opening number of “Company” stripped of the 
> original idea — and a really clever one — that had inspired it!
> 
> Then there’s the record-scratch sound, still used frequently in ads and comic 
> scenes to indicate someone’s train of thought going off the rails. Isn’t it 
> weird that we still use that sound? For the most part, the last 20 years’ worth 
> of viewers and listeners have never even heard that sound in real life! (In a 
> 2008 NPR segment, the host asked some teenagers if they could identify the 
> sound. They couldn’t. “I have no idea…. I know I saw it on TV.”)
> 
> And then there’s the rewind/fast-forward gibberish sounds — of TAPE. What will 
> they do in the movies, now that random-access digital video formats deprive 
> producers of that audience-cueing sound?
> 
> What about modem-dialing shrieks? Sure, we’re all thrilled to have always-on 
> Internet connections. But wasn’t there something satisfying, something 
> understandable, about that staticky call-and-response from our computers to the 
> mothership?
> 
> We’re losing the dial tone, too. Cellphones don’t have dial tones. Only 
> landlines do, and those are rapidly disappearing. And without the dial tone, 
> how will movie producers ever indicate that someone’s hung up on a character? 
> (Even though that was an unrealistic depiction to begin with.)
> 
> Funny thing is, we’re replacing these sounds mainly with… nothing! What’s the 
> sound of broadband? Of rewinding a CD?
> 
> The point, of course, is that as digital technology takes over, we’re losing 
> the sounds of analog technologies. And sometimes that’s a real loss. Cash 
> registers don’t go "ka-ching" anymore, either. But we still SAY "ka-ching," and 
> there’s your proof — sometimes, our culture simply cries out for a certain 
> audio meme, a certain sonic cue that used to have real meaning.
> 
> Every now and then, in fact, you find a case where the old analog audio cue is 
> so important, the manufacturer actually installs a recorded version of it — 
> right into the otherwise silent digital device — because the sound has a 
> purpose. Digital cameras, for example, play a digitized version of an analog 
> shutter. I recently tested an electric motorcycle that plays a recording of a 
> gas motorcycle, just so you don’t mow down unsuspecting citizens sharing the 
> roadway with you.
> 
> I’m not going to play Andy Rooney here and bemoan the pace of technological 
> progress. Something’s always lost when we move from one format to another; 
> that’s just the way it goes.
> 
> At the same time, I’d like to commemorate the loss of those record scratches, 
> busy signals, tape-rewinding chatters, and ka-chings. Maybe with a moment of 
> silence.
> 
> --
> 
> About Pogue’s Posts
> David Pogue’s technology column has appeared each Thursday in The Times since 
> 2000. Each week, he also writes the Times e-mail column “From the Desk of David 
> Pogue,” creates a short, funny Web video for NYTimes.com, and posts entries to 
> his Times blog. In his other life, David is an Emmy-winning correspondent for 
> CBS News, a frequent contributor to NPR’s “Morning Edition,” creator of the 
> Missing Manual series of computer books, and father of three.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
I remember a few years ago a TV journalist visiting a modern newspaper 
office in the USA, and finding it silent. He suggested that they play 
recordings of clattering typewriters and someone shouting "Hold the 
front page!"

When I worked in telegrams, we were subjected to the sound of 
typewriters, teleprinters, telex machines and belt systems transferring 
messages round the building. Where are they now?

      Julian Vein