They've made digital doorbells that 'sound' 'like' actual doorbells, cell phones with ring tones that ring like the phone in a 1940's detective thriller, etc. Has anyone yet thought to make a digital clock that ticks like the real thing? Surely there are few more soothing sounds than the regular ticking of a clock. Veterinarians recommend wrapping one in a small blanket for kittens to help them sleep (reminds them of mommy's heartbeat, I guess).
Thing is, like all the other senses, sound is one of those things that's very difficult to fool - we pick up on ersatz sounds very easily. Even if you don't pay attention to such things, you might hear a digital piano in a song - no matter how well done - and think to yourself that it sounds a little off. I can just imagine that what we think of as a regular, unchanging sound - the clock's inflexible up/down ticking rhythm - is actually made up of a million tiny variants in tone. Each tick and every tock as individual as snowflakes. The digital version would just be one tick, and one tock, cycled over and over and over again, and we'd know it's wrong, because it would never change - whereas the real world is constantly stumbling over itself.
D.
4 comments:
Ha, I have the first two things you mentioned...
And yes, they do have digital clocks that tick. Though as you observed, it really isn't the same (nor is the doorbell - our doorbell is bugging us a little, but less than it would if we chose one of the other tones...)
That's one thing about digital that I think is generally ignored: we often just settle for the least grating option of a seemingly endless series of lame choices. I have yet to hear a ring tone that I like, and one of the most annoying two hours of my life was spent on a bus outside the Lincoln Tunnel while the woman two rows in front of me tested every single one of her dozens of teeth-grinding tones over and over. I think she may have had OCD...
D.
I hate the sound of a ticking clock.. one of my least favourite sound by far.. I also hate the sound of a ringing telephone..
Two of my most hated sounds.
Depends on the tick and the phone, really. But I generally like clocks and dislike phones.
D.
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