There’s an interesting read over in The Independent’s science section on the audio in horror films:
It is probably the most scary scene in cinematic history. The shower curtain is drawn back and actress Janet Leigh lets out a spine-chilling scream that warps into a frenzied cacophony of staccato music as she confronts an unseen, dagger-wielding madman.
When Alfred Hitchcock put the soundtrack to his 1960 masterpiece Psycho he was almost certainly unaware that the discordant musical notes he was adding to the disturbing shower scene were in fact based on the sort of non-harmonic sounds used in the distress calls of wild animals.
Scientists have found that many of the emotionally-evocative moments in some of the most popular films are enhanced with a sound score that exploits the human brain’s natural aversion to the “non-linear” sounds widely used in the animal kingdom to express fear and distress.
Electronic Musician takes a look at how audio data compression works in this comprehensive feature:
Audio- (as well as video-) data reduction, also known as data compression, is one of the most important media technologies to come along in recent years. Many capabilities that you take for granted — streaming audio, fast music downloads, and DVD surround sound, to name a few — simply would not exist without the ability to reduce audio data to a fraction of its size while retaining most of its fidelity.
But many people have only a vague idea of how those key technologies operate. Other articles in EM have covered the how-tos of compression in various formats. This one examines the principles that underlie audio-data compression in order to help you get the most from the technology. When you know what’s under the hood, you’re in a better position to understand when using audio-data reduction is appropriate, what the impact will be on fidelity, and how to select the right data-reduction scheme for the application.
Great talks & examples by John Schaefer, Jamshed Barucha, scientist Daniel Levitin, Professor Lawrence Parsons and Bobby McFerrin on music and how it affects us – from the World Science Festival.
There’s an interesting podcast up on The Guardian’s website on why humans make and listen to music, featuring science writer and former editor at Nature, Philip Ball.
Posted by Asbjoern Andersen, Epic Sound 
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