I’m on the road, staying in a hotel tonight, preparing for a seminar. I’m watching CNN (NH election returns) for the first time in perhaps five years. We don’t have any cable or satellite TV at home (just DVD & VHS).
So I’m watching this interview with Vanessa Kerry (John’s daughter) and the sound seems totally disconnected from the video. It lines up, sorta. Her lips and tongue seem to be ahead of the video. Very disturbing.
Is CNN or TV always like this? Is this a satellite propagation delay? Is it a hotel TV system delay? It’s totally weird and feels like brainwashing.
I am reminded of an audio trick that Dan Healy used when mixing the Grateful Dead‘s live shows in the mid-1980’s. He’d take the vocal track and run it through a stereo delay (not reverb). Channel one would be set to 15 – 50 ms. Channel two would be set to 45 – 70 ms. He’d pan one delay channel hard right and the other hard left, with the “dry” original vocal channel dead center (equally loud between both channels).
The net effect was that you’d hear each phoneme (syllable) first in the center, then in the left, then in the right. The timings were carefully chosen, because 50 ms is the binaural integration time of human hearing. To the casual listener, you didn’t notice the effect, except maybe it sounded “thicker” or some other qualitative but unquantifiable manner. Of course, the Dead’s audience was anything but casual listeners. If you are highly sensitive, you can hear the specifics. It added a trippy dimension to the vocals, a little trick to get your attention.
Are TV viewers so drugged on sugar and carbs and alcohol that they don’t notice? Or just don’t care? Or perhaps, that’s “just the way it is” and it doesn’t matter?
January 27, 2004