Devlog #3
So I should probably introduce myself. I’m Duncan, and this is the development log newsletter for Loud Numbers - the data sonification podcast that I’m making with Miriam Quick.
I wear a lot of hats. The main one at the moment is as an information designer, working mostly on climate- and environmental-related projects. I’m also a journalist, a generative artist, an environmental scientist and lots more. You can see some of the projects I’ve worked on recently at my website.
When I came up with the idea of a data sonification podcast a few years back, I was sure someone would have done it already. I looked and looked, and I couldn’t find one. Then I figured someone else would be in the process of making one, so I waited a bit, but it turns out that no-one was. Eventually I realised that if I wanted this to exist then I’d have to make it myself, so now here we all are.
Other than the “this needs to exist” factor, the main reason why we’re making this podcast is to demonstrate the power of sonification when done well. Music has the power to tell stories and stir emotions in a way that shapes on a page can only dream of, and I really feel like there’s a lot of fresh creative landscape here to explore. I’m super-excited that you’re joining us on that journey.
Let’s talk about what we’ve been up to this week.
Alcohol Sonification
Image credit: U3144362 // CC BY-SA 4.0
This week Miriam refined the music for our beer episode in which, as regular readers of this newsletter will know, we’ll sonify scores describing the aroma and taste of beer, as assessed by a trained expert.
Here’s a test sonification we shared earlier this week. The sound of the alcohol content of different drinks, from water at 0%, through beer, wine and whiskey, all the way up to pure alcohol at 100%, for those who like to have fun with the chemistry set.
(click the image above to hear it)
Like data visualisation, sonification works through mappings – the louder the sound, the higher the number; the more notes in the chord, the more complexity, and so on. Much of Miriam’s time so far has been spent experimenting with these mappings to find out which work best for different kinds of data and how they can be combined.
One thing we noticed when we took a browse around the sonification landscape (soundscape?) is that the vast majority of sonifications stick to mapping data to pitch or volume alone. Pitch and volume are great, but they’re the musical equivalent of painting in primary colours - good for getting across a strong statement, harder for conveying subtlety.
Instead, we mapped the alcohol percentage of each drink to an audio effect, pitch bend, so that the boozier the drink, the woozier the effect.
Scripting Beer
I’ve made a start on the script for our beer episode. Scripting feels very different to other kinds of writing. It’s bittier, more casual, and I have to read every sentence out loud as I write to make sure it doesn’t sound ridiculous.
The beer episode is a particularly tricky one to write, because it revolves around an interview with a professional beer taster and we’ve not done that interview yet. Instead of transcribing answers directly, I’m writing in questions that will be replaced by answers in due course.
Working from a script means the episodes will have a tighter narrative, and sound more polished and professional. We won’t use it verbatim when we record - otherwise we run the risk of sounding overly stiff, but it should still cut out most of the umms and ahhs of improvised conversation.
Ultimately, my goal is for the dialogue in Loud Numbers to match the quality of the kinds of scripted conversations you hear on 99% Invisible or Radiolab - informative, packed with fascinating information, but still casual and accessible.
Loading Data
So far we’ve been coding our sonifications using Sonic Pi, which uses Ruby – a coding language new to us both. Here’s a way we found to load an external data (.txt) file into Sonic Pi, ready to be mapped to a sound. This works for a one-column .txt file with no headers or variable names.
The Microsoft Sound
Finally, I wrote a Twitter thread about one of the key sources of inspiration for our beer episode. A sound burnt into my childhood brain. The sound of the future of the past. The Microsoft Sound.
The Microsoft Sound, which you might know as the Windows startup sound, was composed in 1995 by legendary producer and musician Brian Eno. In this interview, he explained that he made 84 tiny little pieces of music, each only a few seconds long. In the process, he broke a creative logjam in his work.
We love it because it’s like a little musical flower opening. There’s so much going on, but it doesn’t feel overpowering. You can play it ten times, and every time you’ll hear something new - just like properly tasting an interesting craft beer.
Our favourite fact about it, though, is that it was composed on a Mac computer. “I’ve never used a PC in my life,” Eno says. “I don’t like them.”
That’s all for this week. If you’ve got a friend who you think would be interested in the podcast then forward this message over to them or get them to visit loudnumbers.net. The more the merrier, right?
In the meantime, thanks for reading, and if you have any questions then don’t hesitate to hit reply. We’re not a huge faceless company, we’re just a pair of music and data enthusiasts who like getting emails from people. We’d love to get one from you.