
The second collection of listener-produced stories from our Sound Off competition.
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Dallas Taylor
Before we get started, I have some exciting professional news. My sound agency, Defacto Sound, which is the same team that makes this very podcast, recently sound designed and mixed a feature length movie with a worldwide theatrical release. The film is called Sketch. It stars Tony Hale, who played Buster Bluth on Arrested Development and Darcy Cardin, who you might know as Janet from the Good Place. It's about a young girl who loses her mother and copes with her pain by drawing monsters through a magical turn of events. These creatures start coming coming to life. It's a beautiful coming of age story with lots of fun sci fi monster action mixed in and my team and I at Defacto Sound were responsible for all of the sound from the dialogue to the foley to the ambiences to the creature sound design and mix. On top of that, I personally got to mix the movie in Dolby Atmos, which was so much fun. And over on my YouTube channel I did a whole documentary about me mixing it. What's cool about Atmos is you not only get front, side, side and rear speakers, I also got to control the height of these sounds. So I was able to literally make monsters crawl over you in the ceiling. This is a huge milestone for Defacto Sound and I'm so proud of my entire team. Sketch comes out in theaters worldwide on August 6th, so check your local movie listings and get tickets to go see it. It's a family film and I'd say it's probably appropriate for roughly kids 10 and older. Again, the movie is called Sketch and if you see it, take a picture of my name in the credits and tag me on Social. There's also a link in the description where you can find showtimes near you. This episode was made in partnership with Riverside, a fantastic platform for studio quality remote recording. With Riverside, each participant records locally in up to 4K video and uncompressed WAV audio. The files continually upload while you're talking, which minimizes any delays after the recording is finished. I'll go into more detail later in the ad break, but Riverside is by far the best solution I found for remote video interviews. To sign up, visit riverside.com before you check out, click the I have a coupon button and use promo code 20K to get 20% off your Riverside subscription.
Unknown
You're listening to 20,000 Hz the stories.
Behind the world's most iconic and fascinating sounds.
Dallas Taylor
I'm Dallas Taylor. I always love hearing new voices on 20,000 hertz. So last spring we held a competition called Sound off where listeners could submit their own fully produced story about sound. Basically, it was their chance to craft a mini 20,000Hz episode that's five minutes or less. The results were incredible. We ended up with so many great stories that we needed three whole episodes to collect our favorites. This one is the second episode. We'll call it the Silver Collection. The Gold Collection will follow later this summer. Enjoy. Story one Primary Sense G' Day.
Steve Ransley Richardson
I'm Steve Ransley Richardson and I live in Hobart, Tasmania, a state of Australia, with my wife, Ness hi and our two cats, Banjo and Hugo. I have a deep love and appreciation for sound. I would even go so far as to call it a FaceTime destination with all aspects of sound, not just music, although I am a musician, but from the natural sounds such as waves crashing on the beach, the awesome sound of a thrashing locomotive, or even something as gentle as a clock chime. But my relationship with sound goes a lot deeper and that's what I want to share with you. I was born and raised in and around Brisbane in Southeast Queensland. Some of you may know Brisbane as the home of Bluey. I have a condition called osteoporosis pseudoglyoma, which is a genetic condition that affects my eyesight and my skeletal structure, which is very porous. So sound emerged very early in my life as a primary sense. That's not to say that other senses didn't also take up like smell, taste and touch, but I think sound took precedence over everything else as far as the music was concerned. I took piano and drum lessons as a kid, picked up the guitar as an adult, and for a time I was even a trumpeter in my high school band. Sound would also form the backdrop for a lot of my imaginary worlds. I imagine some people with vision may have done the same thing as kids. They might use an image or scenery to form part of their play. Usually it was just the sounds around me. For example, I'd always hear the washing machine on Spin Dry and pretend that I was on a ferryboat going across the river. Variable speed fans also made good boat motors and usually all of these sounds and play were recorded. I was fascinated with the recording process, so I'd use one ratty old tape recorder after another to capture the sounds and play going on around me, and as the years progressed, the fascination only deepened. I ended up training as an audio engineer and I've spent the last 30 years in the community radio industry working for a station that turns printed word into sound on Reading Radio. This is AUS Tactical Talks, news, views and analysis from the nation's Armed Forces whether it's Air force, Army or Navy, we've got you covered with a variety of resources, including publications from Australia's defence forces and online platforms. We'll keep you up to date with the latest happenings in the defence forces community. And I'm pleased to say the equipment I use today is much better than that of my childhood. Upon reaching adulthood, I had to learn to get around independently. Using public transport like everybody else was really important to me. With the use of a white cane, I learned to walk to my local bus stop and navigate my way to the nearest train station. Trains were a good way to get around because of all the audible announcements. And equally important was the audible traffic lights that let me know when it was safe to cross the street. One of the little tricks that a lot of blind people use is a thing called echolocation. We can make various sounds or clicks to let us know whether we're under an awning or near a building or near a particular type of fence. I'm also a bit of a fan of modern technology. However, with most of it being electronic, you need adaptive software to use it. For example, I love my iPhone, but I wouldn't be anywhere without voiceover telling me what's on the screen.
Unknown
10:50Am for notifications, docked messages, phone 6.
Steve Ransley Richardson
To 5 search for the PC I use a screen reader called Jaws for windows in the kitchen. Both my wife and I use a set of talking scales and a talking microwave. Door open, door closed People often ask me whether because I'm blind, I have better hearing. My response to that is pretty universal. I never say my hearing's better than anyone else's, but I just use it differently. I guess one of the things that I fear most is one day not being able to hear. But every morning is a blessing to me when I wake up and I hear the sounds around me. The chirping of birds in the trees outside, the sound of my clocks chiming the hour, the sound of a train whistle if I'm close enough, the meow of the cats, and the voice of my wife. This story was written and produced by Steve Ramsey Richardson, freelance audio producer in Hobart, Tasmania. Contact me at steverickyahoo.com that's S-T-E-V-E-R-I C K at my yahoo.com story 2 the.
Wesley Slover
Quiet airport my fellow 20,000 Hz listeners are surely no strangers to the concept of noise pollution, that unwanted sound can have a negative impact on an environment. Now, one of the places where noise pollution really drives me nuts is in airports. I wanted to better understand this, so I reached out to Christopher Birch. He's the guest experience director at San Francisco's airport. Starting in 2016, Christopher spearheaded an initiative called the quiet airport. The quiet airport started because he had received complaints in surveys about noise, in particular, noise from announcements.
Unknown
For a very long time, we considered that type of noise to just be part of the airport landscape. So we convened a small group to take a look at that. We chipped away, and in 2020. So as the pandemic was really setting in, we executed the first initiative, which was to basically ban the airlines from making airport wide announcements when they were really more relevant to one area. We basically said, if you want to communicate with your customers over a PA System, it needs to be in the very local area just at your gate, in the adjacent gate. We weren't banning announcements. We were just sort of trimming the area where they would occur and trying to make that a better experience.
Wesley Slover
To continue expanding the quiet airport initiative, Christopher needed to get people on board, no pun intended. So he and his group started small. Rather than imposing a complex system, they cast a vision.
Unknown
We came with a problem statement that nobody disagreed with. Everyone that we brought into the fold and asked to participate on this project agreed with the fact that it's too dang loud and there must be some things that we can do about that. Our next phase of that was to eliminate what we call canned announcements, things that happen on a regular schedule that are recorded. We really started to enjoy our quieter environment. So we started to look at our concessionaires and our tenants in terms of the type of noise that was emanating from their spaces. That's a tough situation because customers can't move away from those areas. They're stuck there, right? They're waiting for a flight or whatever or dining or what have you, and there's really nowhere to go. So we wanted to be mindful of those locations. We moved on again to another element, and this is actually where we got, I would say, 75% of what we were looking for in terms of quieting the airport down and being more intentional and mindful about the sound coming out of speakers we got from reconfiguring our paging zones.
Wesley Slover
By reconfiguring paging zones, they could make announcements only in places where they're relevant. For example, a final boarding call would only be in that terminal, since that information isn't relevant anywhere else. They were effective in removing announcements, But I wondered if this created a problem. Are they sure people aren't missing important information. The cool thing is they could pretty much instantly measure the efficacy of their announcements. So one example Christopher gave is with no smoking announcements. They removed them and there wasn't an uptick in smoking in the airport, so they knew they could safely get rid of them. We might assume that more information is better, but attention is a limited resource.
Unknown
Yeah, I think that the amount of announcements that we did as a default was inhibiting communications rather than enhancing them. The fewer announcements, the better. The fewer announcements that occur, the more likely that customers are going to listen to them. And we just figured the trade off was worth that.
Wesley Slover
Now that there's significantly less noise pollution, it provides Chris an opportunity to use sound to make a better experience for his customers. All of this really gets to the core of what makes someone like Christopher successful as a guest experience director.
Unknown
There's a very specific tie in to revenue. Airports are mostly nonprofits. The more revenue the airport brings in from things like concessions, the cheaper it is for airlines to operate. And the cheaper it is for airlines to operate, the more service they offer. This was one of the most impactful things that we've done, and it was extremely cheap because it did not really cost us anything. We didn't need a consultant. We didn't have to install or purchase new equipment. We did this by reducing what we could to the point that we got to our goal.
Wesley Slover
This piece was adapted from an episode of the Collab Collection, a podcast where I collect stories and useful insights about creative collaboration. I make it for creative professionals who are interested in the ways people work together to make stuff happen. This was written and produced by me, Wesley Slover, and thanks to Christopher Burch for speaking with me.
Dallas Taylor
Borrowed Notes I'm Andrew Meredith.
Andrew Meredith
I've always been fascinated by comments about modern composers, quote, stealing music from the past. The reason is because that's just what composers have always done. They take inspiration from the past but add their own twist to it. Sometimes the similarities are just random and not planned, like this tune, old Tom Bombadil from Rings of power by Bear McCurry compared to this song centerfold by the Jake Isles Band from decades before.
Unknown
Now, let the song begin.
Steve Ransley Richardson
Let us sing together of sun, stars.
Unknown
Moon and mist, rain and cloudy weather.
Andrew Meredith
And other times it was an intentional start to their new tune, like Gruntelda's Lair from Banjo Kazooie by Grant Kerkope, being based on the Teddy Bears Picnic by John Walter Bratt. So let's work our way backwards and see how far this trend can go for film music directors will sometimes add temp tracks to their scenes to give the composers an idea of what kind of music they're looking for. Many of these for composers like John Williams or James Horner are very well documented, but one I haven't seen much was for Danny Elfman first score, Pee Wee's Big Adventure. A few notable examples include the stolen bike scene compared to the psycho shower scene composed by Bernard Herman, the studio chase compared to the Wicked Witch of the west theme from the wizard of Oz scored by Herbert Stothart, and the scene telling the tale of Large Marge being the DSCH motif from Shostakovich. The example here from his String Quartet Number eight. Going back a little further, we find many composers giving inspirational nods to Beethoven like Brahms in his First Symphony compared to the last movement of Beethoven 9. Beethoven wasn't completely original either, as this famous Ode to Joy theme appears in Mozart's Misericordius Dolmani. The further back we go, we start hearing a lot more of repeated ideas rather than melodies like this from Monteverdi's Vespers for the Blessed Virgin and Gabrielli's Canzon Number seven. At this point, the majority of music composed was for the church and the amount of reuse of Gregorian chants were numerous. For one prominent example, check out 20,000 Hz episode on the Dies Irae for.
Dallas Taylor
Hundreds of years, composers and songwriters have been using this melody to evoke feelings of dread and despair. It's called the Dies Irae.
Andrew Meredith
I truly find it fascinating to learn where composers were influenced from and how they took something from the past to bring it into the present in a new way. This is only a small portion of a script I'm currently working on with this topic that will be uploaded to my YouTube channel under my name, Andrew Meredith, where you will find film score analysis as well as some music educational topics. Sadly, that's all the time I have for this sound off. But of course a massive thanks to Dallas Taylor and everyone at 20,000 hertz.
Dallas Taylor
After the break, the pings and plunks of Pinball and the irresistible pull of very loud music here at 20,000 hertz. We've tested lots of platforms for recording remote interviews, and with most of them there's some kind of gotcha that makes us very wary of actually using it to record a guest. But with Riverside we get reliable studio quality recordings every time. The way Riverside works is that each person records audio and video locally on their device. Throughout the interview, the files automatically upload to Riverside. That way you can get started right away and you never have to worry about losing everything if you don't click a specific button. But speaking of buttons, if the person you're interviewing has a bad mic or is in a loud environment, just click the Magic Audio button. It's an AI powered audio enhancer and equalizer that removes background noise and gives you a rich, pristine sound. Once you're in post production, Riverside has a built in AI integrated editor that will save you a ton of time. We've found it super handy for things like removing filler words, cleaning up audio, and fixing eye contact. To sign up, visit riverside.com before you check out, click the I have a coupon button and use promo code 20K to get 20% off your Riverside subscription. That's Riverside.com and promo promo code 2.0K Congratulations to Kyle Power for getting last episode's mystery sound right. That's the official Sonic logo of Wikimedia, the organization behind, you guessed it, Wikipedia. To find this sound, Wikimedia held a global competition in 2022. They received more than 3,000 submissions from 135 countries. Here's a quick montage of the finalists. The winning sound was created by an American engineer named Thaddeus Osborne. And here's this episode's Mystery Sound. If you know that sound, tell us at the web address mystery.2000. Anyone who guesses it right will be entered to win a super soft 20,000Hz t shirt. Getting a new business off the ground can feel overwhelming. You'll need a website, a payment system, a logo, and a way to advertise to new. Thankfully Shopify has you covered with all of these and more. Shopify powers 10% of all E commerce in the US. That includes giants like Mattel and Gymshark, but also thousands of people who ask themselves what if I just try this With Shopify, you'll get website templates and built in AI tools to craft a beautiful web store that fits your brand. With their marketing and email tools, you can spread the word wherever people are scrolling so you can find and keep new customers. And if you're ever feeling stuck, Shopify's support is always available to share their advice. Turn those dreams into and give them the best shot of success with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com 20k. That's shopify.com 20k shopify.com 20k in business there's an old saying. Better, faster, cheaper. You can only pick two. But what if you didn't have to pick some of the most innovative companies in AI and beyond are proving that it is possible to have all three, thanks to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, or oci. OCI is the next generation of cloud. It's built for serious performance across infrastructure, databases, app development, and especially AI. You can run massive workloads in a high performance environment and spend less while doing it. When it comes to speed, OCI block storage gives you more operations per second. As for the price, OCI costs up to 50% less for computing, 70% less for storage, and 80% less for networking. And when it comes to performance, OCI delivers lower latency and higher bandwidth than other clouds. Time after time. This is the cloud built for AI and all of your most challenging workloads. Try OCI free right now with zero commitment. Head to oracle.com 20k that's oracle.com 20k. Bumpers and bells.
Unknown
I'm in Alameda, California, just a couple minutes outside of Oakland. And here between a Cambodian restaurant and a store that sells tarot cards and is a very special museum. Meet Evan Phillippe.
Evan Phillippe
Thanks for coming today. This is Evan Phillippe. I'm the current executive director for the Pacific Pinball Museum here in Alameda.
Unknown
There's more than 100 pinball machines here which are free to play with your admission.
Evan Phillippe
Drop a marble in, shoot goes up into the playfield, out. Oh, cool. It landed in one of the pockets. Let's try another one.
Unknown
This one is Bagatelle. It's from the 1800s and Evan calls it the grandfather of pinball. It's a pretty simple game. You launch a marble up a chute and around a wooden board and it bounces off of all these metal pins.
Evan Phillippe
Yeah, we're just trying. This is where pinball gets its name, really, because they were pins that were used to divert the ball.
Unknown
I have never questioned that in my life.
Evan Phillippe
Yeah, no. It surprises a lot of people when they come in.
Unknown
Bagatelle is not pinball like we know it today. There's no flippers, no lights, and no sound effects. It's hard to believe, but bumpers and bells did not get popular until the late 1940s.
Evan Phillippe
And then really, especially in the 1950s, you start seeing games that have bells inside of them. They're larger, they've got a lot more room, and you have things like coin slots that are in the front which are kind of fun.
Unknown
This one is called Humpty Dumpty and it's the first ever pinball game with flippers. It's from 1947.
Evan Phillippe
When I think in my mind's eye and imagination. What is a pinball machine? What does it look like? What does it sound like? It's really that era.
Unknown
Then in the 60s and 70s, something huge happened. Famous people started showing up on pinball machines.
Evan Phillippe
Let's look at Captain Fantastic, which is a great game from 1976. So this is.
Unknown
This is. Oh my God. This is an Elton John.
Evan Phillippe
Elton John game. It's based off of the movie Tommy the who Fever dream of a movie which is worth seeing once.
Unknown
Ain't got no distractions can't hear no.
Dallas Taylor
Buzzes and bells don't see lights are flashing he blessed my sense of smell.
Steve Ransley Richardson
Always had a replay Never tells at.
Unknown
All that death diamond blind. Try playing the meme.
That song still slaps. But unfortunately it's not what the Captain Fantastic game sounds like. So you would see celebrities like Kiss and Dolly Parton and Evel Knievel in the artwork of pinball machines around this time. But the machines were not sophisticated enough to play music or voices.
Evan Phillippe
I think they absolutely would have if they had the technology at the time.
Unknown
But in 1979, the world was introduced to Gorgar me.
Gorgar me.
Steve Ransley Richardson
Lil Gorgar is the first and only.
Evan Phillippe
Talking pinball game given life and breath by Williams Electronics.
Unknown
Thanks to a primitive voice chip, Gorgar could say 8 different words.
Evan Phillippe
It's doing one job, it's not doing anything else. It probably has 30k of memory on.
Unknown
It with the technology got better over time. And that's when pinball met something mysterious and spooky and altogether intellectual property. That's what I wanted to hear. The Addams family, released in 1992, is one of the best selling pinball games of all time.
Andrew Meredith
The stars of the Addams Family movie, Raoul Julia and Anjelica Huston have provided speech for the game. And this is one of the first.
Evan Phillippe
Times something like that happened. And now it's so consistent. I mean people make the make the movie, they make additional tracks, they read an audiobook of that movie, they do a media tour, they do a song associated with the movie.
Dallas Taylor
It's ridiculous.
Evan Phillippe
And they've really done that ever since.
Unknown
These days, just like in Hollywood, everyone wants to focus on well known ip.
Evan Phillippe
You still see original IP games, but very often now it's based on a show or a movie or an event that's well known.
Unknown
And if you're in the pinball IP game, there's one lucrative niche that you can always bank on.
Evan Phillippe
We have games based on Kiss, Rush, Led Zeppelin. Some people think it's a bit of a cheap way to produce a game because it's just themed off of band art. But they sell well. They sell to a crowd of people that will buy the game no matter what, and they've really let these companies survive.
Unknown
No matter what. It sounds like every pinball game ends the same way. You lose your last ball and it's game over. Oh, okay, one more round. The Pacific Pinball Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday in Alameda, California. No quarters required. This story was reported, written and edited by me, Eric Johnson, and was produced out of Lightning Pod in San Francisco. If you or your business needs help starting a podcast, please get in touch at LightningPod FM.
Dallas Taylor
A beautiful destruction.
Unknown
It'S the spring of 1988. I'm 11 years old as I sneak into my sister's bedroom. Nobody else is home, so I have a few minutes to linger over the stack of records in the glass stereo cabinet beside her bed. R.E.M. the Waterboys, camper Van Beethoven and the Pogues. She has a decent vinyl collection, but I never actually hear her listen to these records. In the kitchen, there's occasionally a staticky, thin AM radio station playing the likes of Neil diamond or John Denver. But mostly I come from a music free home, so it certainly isn't natural that I would become a musician. After years of smuggling these records from my sister's bedroom to mine, I've realized that I really love music. But it's more than that. I slowly begin to discover that what I'm actually interested in is the powerful sensation of sound itself organized as music. The punchy rhythms tearing through the hand me down speakers is what captivates me the most, so it's probably inevitable that I'd soon find myself sitting behind a drum set. I'm 17 and standing in front of an Ampeg SVT Bass amp with an A10 speaker cabinet in a musty, cramped rehearsal space. The bass player cranks the amp, plucks the A string, and the frequencies just explode, vibrating deep in my chest. That one note contains the physical force that I've been searching for. I quickly move to the drum kit and pound out a driving beat matching his chugging eighth note pattern. The atmosphere is on fire. My insides burn and pulse. This is it. I have learned how to generate the very sounds I've been pursuing all this time. I meet other musicians who talk about why they love music, but their focus seems less primal than mine and much more intellectual. They're enamored with theory and technical skill. When I try to explain my need to have the music rearrange my insides. They look at me like I'm a caveman chasing loudness for its own sake. That's when I can see it in their eyes. We're not the same. My problem is simple. I love music, but I need volume. It's the pairing of the two that really elevates me. Music contains the beauty I so deeply crave, but only volume contains the power to permeate my rough, thick skin and vibrate those piano wires that reside so deep inside of me. But ironically, the thing that I love most is destroying me physically. I've realized that volume is the key element in the magic I'm seeking, but my eardrums are paying the price. Earplugs are out of the question. That would be like eating cake without sugar or watching a sunset with your eyes closed. I need to experience it raw, regardless of the consequences. I'm 48 now. This morning over breakfast, I listened to my oldest daughter talk about her upcoming freshman year of college. But to be honest, I wasn't really listening. I was mostly lip reading. My family knows the drill by now. They know the price I've paid for my musical pursuits. But every time they need to repeat themselves, a little part of me dies inside. Unfortunately, this story doesn't end with a neat moral. I know I've dug my own grave, and it makes me genuinely sad every time I ask my girls to repeat what they just said to me. But if I'm honest, I'm not sure I'd do things any differently. In the end. This isn't a story about someone who loves music or about the psychology of sound. I think the story of my life is about a basic human need to feel something so deeply that you'd sacrifice a part of yourself just to experience it. Even if my hearing eventually fades completely, music played at full volume will create a beautiful destruction deep inside me. And maybe that's all I was ever really chasing to begin with. The story and music you just heard were lived, written, recorded, produced and mixed by me, Rob Feecher, here in my home studio. I don't have a podcast band or business to promote. I just hope it lets the world see me a little clearer than it did before.
Dallas Taylor
20,000 Hz is produced out of my sound agency, Defacto Sound. Hear more by following Defacto Sound on Instagram or by visiting defactosound.com this episode.
Wesley Slover
Was written and produced by the wonderful.
Steve Ransley Richardson
Listeners of 20,000 hertz.
Dallas Taylor
It was story edited by Casey Emerling.
Andrew Meredith
With help from Grace East.
Dallas Taylor
It was sound designed and mixed by Brandon Pratt A huge thanks to everyone who submitted a story for our Soundoff competition. Regardless of whether your story was chosen, we loved hearing every single one of them. Take a moment to subscribe to my YouTube channel Dallas Taylor MP3. Over there you'll find video exclusives including my behind the scenes trips to all kinds of incredible audio locations like Jeopardy. Saturday Night Live and Disneyland. You can also find these stories on Instagram and TikTok under that same name. Dallas Taylor MP3 thanks for listening. Before we go, a reminder that our new video series is now live on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. I've gone to the set of Jeopardy, SNL, Disneyland, Galaxy's Edge and the one coming up is all about me mixing Sketch, the film my team and I worked on coming out on August 6th. To see these stories, follow me on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok under the name Dallas Taylor MP3. All of these links are also in the show notes.
Twenty Thousand Hertz – Episode: Sound Off: Pinball Pings, Borrowed Melodies & Airport Acoustics
Release Date: July 30, 2025
Host: Dallas Taylor
Description: The stories behind the world’s most iconic and fascinating sounds.
In this special episode of Twenty Thousand Hertz, host Dallas Taylor delves into the remarkable submissions from the "Sound Off" competition, where listeners shared their personal stories about sound. Due to the overwhelming response, the episode is divided into three parts: the Silver Collection (this episode) and the upcoming Gold Collection. This episode features three captivating stories: "Primary Sense G' Day" by Steve Ransley Richardson, "Quiet Airport" by Wesley Slover, and "Borrowed Notes" by Andrew Meredith. The episode also includes unique behind-the-scenes updates from Dallas and showcases the vibrant sounds of the Pacific Pinball Museum.
Steve Ransley Richardson shares his profound relationship with sound, shaped significantly by his condition, osteoporosis pseudoglyoma, which affects his eyesight and skeletal structure. Living in Hobart, Tasmania, Steve recounts how sound became his primary sense from an early age, influencing his career choice as an audio engineer.
Key Highlights:
Early Connection to Sound: Steve describes how everyday sounds like waves, trains, and even the washing machine sparked his imagination and love for recording these auditory experiences.
"Sound emerged very early in my life as a primary sense." (03:35)
Professional Journey: His fascination with recording led him to a 30-year career in the community radio industry, where he works for Reading Radio, focusing on turning printed words into engaging audio content.
Navigating the World Blind: Steve discusses the importance of audible cues in his daily life, such as train announcements and traffic signals, and techniques like echolocation that aid his navigation.
"I just use [hearing] differently... Every morning is a blessing when I wake up and hear the sounds around me." (07:04)
Emotional Connection to Sound: Despite fears of losing his hearing, Steve cherishes the sounds that enrich his life, from bird songs to his wife’s voice, underscoring the emotional depth of his auditory experiences.
"I never say my hearing's better than anyone else's, but I just use it differently." (07:16)
Steve's story beautifully illustrates how sound can shape one's identity and life experiences, highlighting the intricate relationship between auditory perception and personal resilience.
Wesley Slover explores the issue of noise pollution in airports and the innovative steps taken to create a quieter, more pleasant environment for travelers. He interviews Christopher Birch, the Guest Experience Director at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), about the "Quiet Airport" initiative.
Key Highlights:
Origins of the Quiet Airport Initiative: Faced with complaints about excessive noise from announcements, Christopher Birch led efforts to reduce auditory clutter in the airport.
"We considered that type of noise to just be part of the airport landscape... we were just trimming the area where they would occur." (08:53)
Strategies Implemented:
"The fewer announcements that occur, the more likely that customers are going to listen to them." (11:43)
Impact on Passenger Experience: These changes not only reduced noise pollution but also enhanced the effectiveness of necessary announcements, ensuring passengers paid attention to important information without feeling overwhelmed by constant noise.
"It was extremely cheap because it did not really cost us anything... we did this by reducing what we could to the point that we got to our goal." (12:17)
Broader Implications: The initiative demonstrates how thoughtful sound management can improve public spaces, leading to a more serene and functional environment without significant financial investments.
Wesley's exploration highlights the importance of sound design in public infrastructure and showcases how targeted interventions can significantly enhance user experience.
Andrew Meredith delves into the fascinating world of musical borrowing, tracing how composers throughout history have been influenced by past melodies and themes to create new, innovative works. He examines examples across different eras, showcasing the evolution of musical inspiration.
Key Highlights:
Historical Perspective: Andrew explains that borrowing melodies is a longstanding tradition among composers, used to evoke specific emotions or pay homage to earlier works.
"That's just what composers have always done. They take inspiration from the past but add their own twist to it." (13:29)
Examples of Musical Borrowing:
Modern Comparisons: Comparing "Tom Bombadil" from Rings of Power by Bear McCurry to "Centerfold" by the Jake Isles Band, illustrating unintentional similarities.
Intentional Influences: Highlighting how Banjo Kazooie’s "Gruntelda's Lair" borrows from John Walter Bratt’s "Teddy Bears Picnic".
Classical Inspirations: Tracing back to Brahms' First Symphony influenced by Beethoven's Ninth, and Mozart's utilization of the "Ode to Joy" theme from Beethoven’s work.
"Hundreds of years, composers and songwriters have been using this melody to evoke feelings of dread and despair. It's called the Dies Irae." (17:39)
Technological Integration in Music: Andrew discusses how film score directors incorporate borrowed melodies as temp tracks to guide composers, using Danny Elfman’s Pee Wee’s Big Adventure where Bernard Herman drew inspiration from Herbert Stothart’s work on The Wizard of Oz.
Contemporary Applications: The narrative extends to how modern IP (Intellectual Property) influences pinball machine sound design, underscoring the enduring legacy of musical borrowing in various entertainment mediums.
"We're not the same. My problem is simple. I love music, but I need volume." (25:18) [Note: This quote seems misattributed in the transcript; it likely belongs to Rob Feecher’s story.]
Connection to Dies Irae: Andrew ties the discussion back to a previous Twenty Thousand Hertz episode on the "Dies Irae," emphasizing its pervasive influence in evoking specific emotional responses through sound.
Andrew's analysis offers a deep dive into the interconnectedness of musical works, illustrating how the past continually shapes and inspires contemporary compositions.
The episode transitions to an immersive exploration of pinball machines at the Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda, California. Hosted by Evan Phillippe, the museum boasts over 100 playable pinball machines, ranging from the simple Bagatelle to more sophisticated, celebrity-themed games.
Key Highlights:
Origins of Pinball: Evan introduces Bagatelle, the 1800s precursor to modern pinball, highlighting its simplicity and the use of metal pins to divert the ball.
"It's where pinball gets its name, really, because they were pins that were used to divert the ball." (24:20)
Evolution of Features: From the introduction of flippers in the 1940s' Humpty Dumpty to the addition of bells and lights in the 1950s, Evan traces the technological advancements that transformed pinball gameplay.
Celebrity-Themed Machines: The 1960s and 70s saw pinball machines featuring celebrities like Elton John, Kiss, and Dolly Parton, enhancing their appeal despite technological limitations in sound and voice playback.
"These days, just like in Hollywood, everyone wants to focus on well-known IP." (27:36)
Technological Milestones: The introduction of Gorgar in 1979 marked a significant advancement with the first talking pinball game, using primitive voice chips to add personality to gameplay.
Modern Appeal: Evan emphasizes how contemporary pinball machines blend original IP with popular culture, ensuring their enduring popularity and relevance.
Interactive Experience: Visitors can engage with various machines, experiencing firsthand the rich history and sensory delights of pinball sounds, from mechanical pings to thematic melodies.
This segment underscores the symbiotic relationship between sound design and interactive entertainment, showcasing how auditory elements enhance the user experience in gaming environments.
Rob Feecher shares a poignant, autobiographical story that intertwines his profound love for music with the physical toll it has taken on his life. From his teenage years immersed in loud music to the gradual loss of his hearing, Rob's narrative is a testament to the powerful, sometimes destructive, allure of sound.
Key Highlights:
Early Musical Passion: Rob reminisces about his teenage years, secretly enjoying bands like R.E.M., The Waterboys, and The Pogues, and his journey toward becoming a musician driven by a deep need to experience sound physically.
"I need volume. It's the pairing of the two that really elevates me." (27:30)
Physical Connection to Sound: At 17, Rob realizes that the physical force of sound, particularly loud music, fulfills a primal need, leading him to embrace a life immersed in high-volume music despite its consequences.
"Music contains the beauty I so deeply crave, but only volume contains the power to permeate my rough, thick skin." (27:30)
Long-Term Impact: As Rob ages, his relentless pursuit of loud music results in significant hearing loss, affecting his ability to engage with his family and the world around him.
"Every time they need to repeat themselves, a little part of me dies inside." (34:00)
Philosophical Musings: Rob reflects on the essence of his journey, concluding that his quest for profound emotional experiences through sound led to unavoidable personal sacrifices.
"This is not a story about someone who loves music or about the psychology of sound. It's about a basic human need to feel something so deeply." (34:00)
Rob's heartfelt story poignantly illustrates the intricate balance between passion and personal well-being, highlighting the profound impact of sound on one's life journey.
Throughout the episode, Dallas Taylor shares updates about his sound agency, Defacto Sound, and their recent work on the feature-length movie Sketch. He discusses the challenges and achievements of mixing the film in Dolby Atmos, providing listeners with an insider's look into high-level sound design.
Notable Quotes:
On Dolby Atmos Mixing:
"I was able to literally make monsters crawl over you in the ceiling." (00:01)
Promoting Riverside:
"Riverside is by far the best solution I found for remote video interviews." (Various timestamps during ad breaks)
Dallas also highlights contributions from his team, mentions the winners of the "Sound Off" competition, and promotes his YouTube channel, where fans can find exclusive content and behind-the-scenes footage from iconic locations like Jeopardy, SNL, and Disneyland.
This episode of Twenty Thousand Hertz masterfully intertwines personal narratives with insightful discussions on sound's role in various contexts—from personal identity and professional environments to the evolution of interactive entertainment. By featuring diverse stories and expert voices, Dallas Taylor provides listeners with a rich, immersive exploration of the multifaceted world of sound.
Credits:
For more stories and behind-the-scenes content, follow Dallas Taylor on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok under the name Dallas Taylor MP3.