open-plan aargh!

[RachD]

Kiss Me? Sugar High?

Steve Winwood

[mooncalf]

Steve Winwood

Enough about the music - you didn't answer my questions.

[Little Monkey]

I work all alone - all the time. I talk to my dog, play loud music, and sometimes even talk to the clay. When the clay starts answering back, I know I need to talk to people SOON - before I go even more bonkers than I already am.......

Can't wait for my studio neighbour to come back - then we can argue about what music to listen to, throw clay at each other over the wall, and I can be entertained by him and his friends having their weird conversations when stoned.

Potty Wee Monkey

[RachD]

Now what? My point was to examine your behaviour - to question your actions towards people by making a silly comparison. It's called reductio ad absurdum. I think we understand that. It however makes me look stupid in the process. Then I am stupid so it's ok.

I meant I enjoyed the challenge of your reductio ad absurdum.
(You are far from stupid, Mooncalf)

[RachD]

Enough about the music - you didn't aswer my questions.

(But not enough n's)

[mooncalf]

(But not enough n's)

I am stupid, I know that because I'm quite clever. I'm also silly but mostly deliberately.

[JoC]

What I hate at work is, people with their headphones on listening to a CD! Trying to get their attention to ask them a question! aargh!!!

Tee-hee! (Oops...)

When I put my headphones on it means I really really really don't want to be asked anything other than extremely vital-urgent-the-safety-of-the-planet depends on it questions .Only person who asks those is the boss who I see approaching (which gives me time to stuff my head in a report, avoid eye contact and hope that she thinks I'm too busy ). I have to do a lot of reading at work and music does help me concentrate (but not enough obviously...).

Anyone else asking me things in my immediate work environment is usually just asking something daft - which I enjoy sometimes .

I've had a huge office to myself in the past and that didn't work for me either, after several years I realised it was lonely and boring! Best situation I ever had was sharing an office with one other, who like me, was a lone person working on their own specialism.

So for me it's limited open-plan at the moment, moving to a mega-open plan environment in just over a month ...I'm sure things are all happening back to front!!!

Time for a change perhaps...

I've been listening to either Kelis-Tasty or Goldfrapp-Black Cherry for the last few weeks.

[Lynn]

I currently have an office all to myself.

I have peace to work, I can put on my music, I can do anything I want to.

[RachD]

Tee-hee! (Oops...)

When I put my headphones on it means I really really really don't want to be asked anything other than extremely vital-urgent-the-safety-of-the-planet depends on it questions .Only person who asks those is the boss who I see approaching (which gives me time to stuff my head in a report, avoid eye contact and hope that she thinks I'm too busy ). I have to do a lot of reading at work and music does help me concentrate (but not enough obviously...).

Anyone else asking me things in my immediate work environment is usually just asking something daft - which I enjoy sometimes .

I've had a huge office to myself in the past and that didn't work for me either, after several years I realised it was lonely and boring! Best situation I ever had was sharing an office with one other, who like me, was a lone person working on their own specialism.

So for me it's limited open-plan at the moment, moving to a mega-open plan environment in just over a month ...I'm sure things are all happening back to front!!!

Time for a change perhaps...

I've been listening to either Kelis-Tasty or Goldfrapp-Black Cherry for the last few weeks.

...hold on, let me turn the volume down, then I can hear what your saying....

[JoC]

heck I have to keep taking my earphones out when I want to ask someone a daft question!

(now I'll confess the real reason I use them is to protect my colleagues from me)

[RachD]

Whilst we're on the subject, can anyone tell me if the left and right headphone HAVE to go in the correct ears?

[El Salsero Gringo]

Whilst we're on the subject, can anyone tell me if the left and right headphone HAVE to go in the correct ears?

No. You can put them in the wrong ears, someone else's ears, or indeed any body orifice at all. The only caveat is that it might be uncomfortable (especially if you choose your nostrils), and the sound quality is likely to suffer.

Let me know if you need diagrams.

[mooncalf]

No. You can put them in the wrong ears, someone else's ears, or indeed any body orifice at all. The only caveat is that it might be uncomfortable (especially if you choose your nostrils), and the sound quality is likely to suffer.

Let me know if you need diagrams.

I do like a nice caveat. So much more comfortable than a tie.

[RachD]

I do like a nice caveat. So much more comfortable than a tie.

Any editing needed on that one, Mooncalf?

[JoC]

No.

Any idea why they bother suggesting a left and a right?

[El Salsero Gringo]

Any idea why they bother suggesting a left and a right?

Well...

If you're listening to a stereo track then the studio engineer wants you to hear the mix the same way around as he did when he set it up.

And, speaking only for myself, I found that my iPod earpieces stopped causing me random yet excrutiating pain roughly every other day, *after* I noticed the little 'L' on one and the 'R' on the other.

[JoC]

So are there particular sounds that are always recorded for the left and right ear respectively I wonder, like particular frequencies for example, does the left ear prefer bass? I simply must know more! I'll have to go plug in and listen to all my music through head phones to research this further (if I couldn't think of anything better to do that is).

[ducasi]

Any idea why they bother suggesting a left and a right?

Something to do with the wave-forms being inverted and how your brain is used to processing the sounds I think. Or was that when you mess up the wiring to your speakers???

Anyway, if you get the headphones the wrong way round it's like turning your back to the musicians – and then they might think you don't like them.

[El Salsero Gringo]

So are there particular sounds that are always recorded for the left and right ear respectively I wonder, like particular frequencies for example, does the left ear prefer bass? I simply must know more! I'll have to go plug in and listen to all my music through head phones to research this further (if I couldn't think of anything better to do that is).

Both ears ought to be equally sensitive as each other, biological variations notwithstanding, unless you've damaged the hearing in one ear. Your brain interprets the differences between the what it hears in each ear to give you an idea of which direction a sound comes from. For high frequences, the ear in which the sound is louder is assumed to be nearer to the sound; for lower frequences it's the phase difference between the ears that counts more. It's a complicated subject and much studied; there are a lot of subtleties about the way the brain interprets anything, least of something complicated like music.

In classical orchestras it's tradition to seat the musicians in a particular way - violins on the conductor's (and audience's) left, cellos and basses on the right, brass at the back and so on. If you're aware of this and you listen to a classical piece left-right reversed it just sounds 'wrong'.

For pop/rock, I imagine it makes less difference; the vocalist is usually placed in the centre of the mix with the other musicians around them.

Hope that's of interest.

[mooncalf]

Both ears ought to be equally sensitive as each other, biological variations notwithstanding, unless you've damaged the hearing in one ear. Your brain interprets the differences between the what it hears in each ear to give you an idea of which direction a sound comes from. For high frequences, the ear in which the sound is louder is assumed to be nearer to the sound; for lower frequences it's the phase difference between the ears that counts more. It's a complicated subject and much studied; there are a lot of subtleties about the way the brain interprets anything, least of something complicated like music.

In classical orchestras it's tradition to seat the musicians in a particular way - violins on the conductor's (and audience's) left, cellos and basses on the right, brass at the back and so on. If you're aware of this and you listen to a classical piece left-right reversed it just sounds 'wrong'.

For pop/rock, I imagine it makes less difference; the vocalist is usually placed in the centre of the mix with the other musicians around them.

Hope that's of interest.

Here's a report on some research that suggests that we may hear differently with our left and right ears. Of course I found it on the internet so it may all be nonsense.
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?RelNum=5480