From: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org (precious-things-digest) To: precious-things-digest@smoe.org Subject: precious-things-digest V10 #130 Reply-To: precious-things@smoe.org Sender: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "precious-things-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. precious-things-digest Wednesday, July 6 2005 Volume 10 : Number 130 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: things noticed during a dull week at work... [handal@r2d2.reverse.net] Re: precious-things-digest V10 #129 [dustin ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 01:37:50 -0400 (EDT) From: handal@r2d2.reverse.net (Richard Handal) Subject: Re: things noticed during a dull week at work... Pete spoke: > Also, if you just have your headphones' plug not quite in the socket > right, so it just makes contact but you aren't getting the stereo > signal, it seems to cut out all the central sounds leaving just the > ones on far left or right [insert technical explanation please Richard > :-) ]. Er, the tip of the headphone plug is the left channel, the ring above it the right, and the sleeve portion of the plug the ground. http://sound.westhost.com/p70-f2.gif When it all works normally the left-hand signal is sent through the wire coming from the tip of the headphone plug through the speaker in the left ear of the headphones, and then it returns to ground [aka "earth" in the UK] at the main part of the plug at its sleeve. http://sound.westhost.com/p70-f3.gif [That's not exactly to scale.] If it's partially inserted just so, the tip of the headphone plug can straddle both the live connection in the jack from the left-hand signal and the live connection in the jack that's providing the right-hand signal. Sound heard in the center of a stereo image is coming through both left and right channels equally. If one channel has its phase reversed, then the reversed-phase center audio of that channel will cancel out the proper-phase center audio of the other channel and one will hear almost none of it. Why redirecting the signal from the channels as could happen with the plug in this position would have the effect of screwing with the phase I don't know. Maybe it somehow goes both directions at once through the headphones. Maybe there's extra gain in one channel which somehow changes the phase relationships between the signal the two channels have. I'm no electronics wiz, although I am a trained audio engineer. Tony is a car stereo nut and deals a lot with phase and imaging issues, so maybe he can shed more light on this than I can. I know it's clearly a phase thing that's happening, but I can't say exactly *why* it happens. > I was listening to Orange Knickers when this happened, and most of the > vocals are removed, but the occasional backing vocal leaps out . . . Tori sings layers of bg vocals in Orange Knickers that are not imaged in the center. When the center audio signal is out of phase they sound much stronger than the vocals mixed to be in the center. Tony--help a brother out! Be seeing you, Richard Handal, H.G. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 01:55:54 -0400 From: dustin Subject: Re: precious-things-digest V10 #129 On 7/5/05, pete" wrote: > ..listening to Tori with only one headphone in an ear at each time, so I > can > listen for my phone: > > > - - Josephine is a completely different song depending which side of your > head > you listen with (east or west, of course) > > I love it when musicians make fuller use of stereo. > > Also, if you just have your headphones' plug not quite in the socket > right, so > it just makes contact but you aren't getting the stereo signal, it seems > to > cut out all the central sounds leaving just the ones on far left or right > [insert technical explanation please Richard :-) ]. I was listening to > Orange > Knickers when this happened, and most of the vocals are removed, but the > occasional backing vocal leaps out - just listen to the way she sings the > "kiss" backing vocal if you can, its really beautiful and now I've heard > it in > isolation it really stands out when listening normally. > > Just thought I'd share that with the world! i once had a blown speaker, i can't remember which one had blown, but i had that speaker turned off until i could replace it. so i was listening to TVAB and when Josephine came on i didn't even know it was the same song. i had forgotten that i had the blown speaker turned off and i just could not figure out why the drums were missing. i kept thinking, "where did the drums go? they couldn't have just disappeared!". then i realized i had the speaker turned off. it sounds really great both ways but at first it's VERY different. i'll have to give the other songs a try. - - dustin - -- for every lie I unlearn I learn something new -- Ani DiFranco ------------------------------ End of precious-things-digest V10 #130 **************************************