Sounds

I've always been semi fascinated by skeuomorphs, especially by the funny range of old sounds new technology adopts. Here are some interesting sound projects that tickled my fancy:

1. Cleartones

Last year I was fortunate enough to play a little role in the birth of Cleartones – the elegant, hand made minimalist ringtones and notification tones - by my good friend Hugo Verweij. Today he released the next level:‘Cleartones Organic’. A set of wonderful ringtones and notifications, all recorded on acoustic instruments like metal bells, glass bowls, marimba and vibraphone. I can’t say the first set of ‘Classic Cleartones’ aren’t good, but these are just so much better!
As Hugo explained: “After a successful start I wanted to take the Cleartones project to the next level. It became clear that people actually like having clean and unobtrusive ringtones, but how to create new Cleartones without having it sound too similar to the ones I already made?
To really set the new Cleartones apart from the original ones which were created using electronically generated sounds, I decided to record sets of solely acoustic sounds. Bells, chimes, woodblocks, vibraphone and marimba’s. And what is a better place to find sounds like that than a studio of a professional percussionist?
So I asked Marijn Korff de Gidts to spend some time with me and my recording gear. His studio is filled with percussion instruments. We recorded everything that fits into the category ‘clear, elegant, simple, pleasant’, and is suitable to be used as a ringtone or a notification tone for text messages, voicemail or email: glass bowls, glockenspiel, Tibetan bells, even an Indonesian gamelan as shown in the pictures above. I decided only to do a little editing on the material to keep it as pure as possible and preserve the character of the sounds. This resulted in a beautiful new pack of minimalist ringtones: Cleartones Organic.”
The only question is when these will pre-isntalled on all the new iPhones…
A generation of electronics is going extinct, and its death rattle sounds like a rotary phone. Or the static of a cathode-ray-tube TV. Or the banshee screech of a dot-matrix printer. For many of us, those sounds can elicit waves of nostalgia, yet as new technology becomes sleek and silent, we’re in danger of losing those sense memories. Thankfully, three friends are taking steps to preserve the soundtrack of bygone eras. Welcome to the Museum of Endangered Sounds.

I'm fascinated by.... Skeuomorphs.

Last night, I was wondering why my iPhone dings like a vintage bell when I get a text message. Why does new technology use sounds that are antiquated? With the development of new technology you would think new sounds would replace old sounds. When they invented the telephone, it rang the way it did because it's mechanisms required it to do so. But now.... Why does my mobile phone still use that ring? What is this phenomenon? What made that ring special amongst all the other telephone rings in history?

I have found the answer!

A skeuomorph play /ˈskjuːəmɔrf/ skew-ə-morf, or skeuomorphism (Greek: skeuos—vessel or tool, morphe—shape),[1] is a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues to a structure that was necessary in the original.[2] Skeuomorphs may be deliberately employed to make the new look comfortably old and familiar,[3] such as copper cladding on zinc pennies or computer printed postage with a circular town name and cancellation lines.

An alternative definition is "an element of design or structure that serves little or no purpose in the artifact fashioned from the new material but was essential to the object made from the original material".[4] This definition is narrower in scope and ties skeuomorphs to changes in materials.

 

 

Must find out more.