Thursday, May 29, 2008

Recording Sounds

I had this post thought up but hadn't posted it yet, sorry about the delay!

So, I was on the bus and I was thinking. Somehow my wandering thoughts arrived at a question: "What do I most want to do before the surgery? Will I miss how things heard?" And this made me think of more questions: "Will I wish I had somehow recorded what sounds sounded like to me?" I will still have my left ear to hear sounds with, but still!

I started getting sentimental and felt really silly. But, it was like, "I am losing this ear forever!! Only an implant will make it work. And, the sounds I will hear could be vastly different."

I arrived at my boyfriend's house after getting off the bus. Taking advantage of the fact my boyfriend was talking to a friend that was there too, I whipped out a notebook from my backpack. Chewing on a pen, I pondered how to start.

How DO you describe sound???

Here's some notes from my notebook. These are my laughable attempts at capturing what things sound like, in words, so that I could "remember." I came to the conclusion this was IMPOSSIBLE to do, almost! I will just have to deal with the fact I might have to refer to my left ear to remember how some sounds used to hear and also to my limited auditory memory. And if I get an implant in that left ear, then the "old way of how things sounded" will be forever lost.

Another question this experiment made arise: Are there any things I would want to do before I get the implant??? I think this is the only thing I've really tried to do: record sounds as I hear it NOW and also this blog. I tried to set up a chart with 1 being LOW and 10 being HIGH, to better distinguish what sounds sound like.

Sighing: Just sounds like air

Plastic popcorn wrapper: Crinkle, even though I can't actually say it sounds like a "crinkle." I just know it does. It crinkles at every movement but is not insanely noticeable. It just is. Come to think of it, it may not be as loud as it ought to be???

Pen dropping on notepad: Satisfying sound. It sounds solid and reliable. It is enigmatic in that it's kind of a 6.

Microwave: Kind of annoying because it's like white noise but it isn't TERRIBLE white noise since I think I could grow to not mind it and even like it were it to be projected 24/7 whereas traffic is just NASTY. It's deep, about a 4 or 3.

Popcorn popping: The microwave is the predominant sound, not the kernels. The popping sounds pretty quiet, just like occasional higher bursts of sound.

Popcorn bag: Funny! It's got an odd sound. Maybe a 4.

Moving/shaking paper: It's not that loud. It's just a high pitch sound that changes in loudness with movement.

1 comment:

David said...

Wow such a tough topic.Sound and how does one describe it.
How do you describe a color?
I struggle with describing what the world sounds like to me now, with my new implant. I describe paper, rain, crows, you name it, it is a full time job.
Nice post
Thanks for this!