Personal soundscapes

We move through various soundscapes in our daily lives. While our level of
personal control over these soundscapes and their effect on our health and
wellbeing both vary widely, what they all have in common — so far — is that
nobody plans them on the basis of their effects on us. They are mostly
generated by accident, as a result of some other intention. Only recently have
researchers and sound workers started to map the outcomes, personal, social
and economic, of these modern soundscapes on us all.

At The Sound Agency we distinguish six major soundscape categories:
personal; home; work; car; public buildings; public transport; and outdoor. Each
of the next six issues of SoundsInteresting will focus on one of these categories. Here
we look at the first, and the newest: personal soundscapes, by which we mean
an individual soundscape that you can carry around with you.

Taking control
Personal soundscapes are a recent creation. Short of the children's practice of
sticking our fingers in our ears and humming, none of us was able to create a
portable personal soundscape until the arrival of the TPS-L2 Sony Walkman in
1979. Today, personal soundscapes are becoming the norm, particularly among
the young. In 2003, 35% of the UK population owned a personal stereo, with
MP3 at that time an insignificant factor. Now digital is doing to CD what CD did
to tape: over 3 million iPods have been sold worldwide since November 2001
and the music industry is reinventing itself to supply the new way most people
listen to music — digital, mobile and personal. With the inevitable fusion of digital
music players and mobile phones, a personal stereo will very soon be in almost
everyone's pocket.

This epidemic of ear buds can be seen as a defensive response to the
increasing clamour of modern living. Sussex University's Dr Michael Bull has
found that one of the main drivers behind the popularity of personal stereos is
people's desire to regain some active control over their own space, particularly
in urban environments where we are assailed by constant visual messaging and
high levels of ambient noise. The simple fact that people have chosen what they
are listening to makes them feel less dominated. Other motivations can include
subverting unwanted visual messaging; transforming unpleasant or mundane
activities; removing feelings of responsibility for events in the immediate vicinity;
and (particularly for women) deflecting unwelcome attention.

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Counting the cost
However, with the rise of the personal stereo have come grave concerns about
a potentially disastrous increase in noise induced hearing loss (NIHL). 85 dB is
generally acknowledged to be the sound level beyond which one's exposure
should be limited, with recommended exposure times in Europe starting at 8
hours for 85 dB and halving with every 3 dB increase. (Each increase of 3 dB
produces the experience of doubling in volume.) At 100 dB, the recommended
exposure time is just 15 minutes.

Most personal stereos can produce well over 100 dB at high volume settings,
the effect of which is usually compounded by being delivered deep into the ear
by bud headphones. Although few people probably start at such high volumes,
the ear/brain mechanism adjusts almost like a compressor, making any given
volume seem less impactful after a time. This means that people tend to edge
the volume up at regular intervals, ending up at a much higher level than they
would choose from a standing start. If you can hear the sibilant sounds of drum
tracks from someone else's personal stereo, they are almost certainly damaging
their hearing. The general rule of thumb for users is that you should be able to
hear someone talking to you while you listen to your music. If you can't, your
hearing is in danger.

For young people today, danger is becoming damage. In his book The Power of
Sound, TSA creative consultant Joshua Leeds reports that between the seventh
and twelfth grades the average American teenager listens to 10,500 hours of
rock music — just slightly less than the entire number of hours spent in the
classroom from kindergarten through high school. Joshua also notes that 35%
of the 30 million Americans suffering from hearing loss are victims of NIHL, as
apposed to the effects of ageing — and most disturbingly he reports that a
university study found that 61% of college freshmen exhibit some hearing loss.
It's likely that much of this damage in young people results from personal stereo
abuse; other causes are loud gigs and clubs. This wouldn't be such a concern if
it weren't for the fact that NIHL is irreversible: hearing does not convalesce or
regenerate after being injured. We can only start to imagine the future social and
economic cost of this very recent phenomenon. Severe hearing loss makes
communication very difficult, and often causes isolation and depression as a
result; for any economy, the effect on productivity and economic activity of half
an entire generation going partially deaf would be nothing short of catastrophic.

For young people today, danger is becoming damage. In his book The Power of Sound, TSA creative consultant Joshua Leeds reports that between the seventh and twelfth grades the average American teenager listens to 10,500 hours of rock music — just slightly less than the entire number of hours spent in the classroom from kindergarten through high school. Joshua also notes that 35% of the 30 million Americans suffering from hearing loss are victims of NIHL, as apposed to the effects of ageing — and most disturbingly he reports that a university study found that 61% of college freshmen exhibit some hearing loss.

It's likely that much of this damage in young people results from personal stereo abuse; other causes are loud gigs and clubs. This wouldn't be such a concern if it weren't for the fact that NIHL is irreversible: hearing does not convalesce or regenerate after being injured. We can only start to imagine the future social and economic cost of this very recent phenomenon. Severe hearing loss makes communication very difficult, and often causes isolation and depression as a result; for any economy, the effect on productivity and economic activity of half an entire generation going partially deaf would be nothing short of catastrophic.

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Healthy alternatives
Fortunately for those who are determined to take control of their own sound, there are alternatives to loud music delivered through bud headphones. Staying with music as the content, high quality, full cup headphones can satisfy at lower volume levels because they have a wider frequency response and they keep out more of the ambient noise. For bud users, TSA partner Advanced Communication Solutions' SlicSound, worn in the ear, improves the signal-tonoise ratio so that people get more clarity at much lower volumes. Another personal soundscape option is quietness: we at TSA are lucky enough to have some Bose QuietComfort® 2 noise cancelling headphones, and we
enjoy wearing them with noise cancellation turned on and no music at all as we
travel, particularly on trains and planes. A cheaper, lighter but very good
alternative is Sennheiser's PXC250 NoiseGardTM product.

In some extreme environments, the appropriate personal soundscape option is effective hearing protection. European Community legislation stipulates that employers must provide (and employees must wear) hearing protection in ambient noise levels greater than 90 dB. But many of us experience much greater noise levels than this in our daily lives: trains, traffic, building sites, night clubs, gigs — such noise sources generate between 100 dB and 140 dB and they can all create permanent damage, particularly if you are already skating on
thin ice after years of hearing abuse. That's certainly my position as a long-time drummer, and I am keenly aware that if the ice breaks there is no going back, so I have invested in high quality ear protection for gigs. Made by Advanced Communication Solutions, these custom-fitted earplugs are flat attenuating — in other words I hear everything perfectly but 15 dB more quietly. With attenuation ranging from a mild 9 dB to a hefty 35 dB, such plugs can just make urban sound far less threatening, or they can save your hearing.

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Tomorrow's personal soundscapes, coming next year
Inevitably most people will simply stay with their buds, so we are very excited to
be working on a groundbreaking product: soundscape packs for mobile phones.
Our friends at TSA partner SSEYO have written the miniMIXA software that's going to turn next year's mobiles into pocket sound studios, so we are creating a range of generative soundscapes for that environment, in the form of packs that can be downloaded from a website and then uploaded to the mobile device. Imagine walking around while listening to the soothing sound of a bubbling mountain brook, the majesty of rolling breakers on a Californian beach, or the intriguing sounds of a tropical rainforest. The soundscape packs will be generative, composing what you hear on the fly based on programmed rules interpreted by the generative engine inside the mobile phone's software. We won't be limiting ourselves to ‘real' soundscapes; we anticipate that fantasy soundscapes will be popular too. Our initial range should come to market in the last quarter of 2005; within a couple of years, we believe personal soundscape packs will be as widely sold and enjoyed as ringtones are today. Most importantly, they will be designed to be delivered at moderate volume, giving people a real, nourishing and exciting alternative to loud music, and allowing
everyone to explore the fun you can have with designed soundscapes. Meanwhile, we need to make every effort to persuade personal stereo users to watch their volume — hence the Royal National Institute for the Deaf's recent 'Don't lose the music' campaign, which we wholeheartedly support.

Unless and until the world becomes quieter (aurally and visually) people are
going to want their own auditory space. By widening their options from music
alone to a range of designed, generative personal soundscapes, we aim to help
people enjoy sound while protecting their hearing.

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