Q. HOW IS THIS MUSIC MADE? IS IT DONE WITH SYNTHESIZERS?
A. No, it isn't synthesizers, but it does involve live instruments combined with high-end sample play back equipment. Synthesizers aren't adequate because they create sounds electronically - usually resulting in sounds that indeed seem "electronic" to the listener.
Sample playback equipment on the other hand contain actual recordings of real instruments. Sleepwave's music uses both sample playback equipment and live instruments because there are many sounds that simply cannot be mimicked very well on even the best sample playback equipment.
Q. SO DO YOU SIMPLY LAYER PARTS ON TOP OF ANOTHER?
A. The process is much more labor intensive than simply layering random improvisation. In order to produce music that is as true to the color and character as the produced by live instruments nearly every note needs "tweaking" of various envelope parameters. A trained musician should easily be able to distinguish between a recording of live instruments and a recording of sampled instruments. Since Legato Waveforming requires the use of sampled instruments painstaking effort was made to make it so realistic to even fool the trained musician where possible. Indeed, it would be easier to produce this music with a full piece orchestra to achieve the same results - except that live instruments simply are physically incapable of producing music as soothing as is possible with Legato Waveforming.
Q. WHAT IS LEGATO WAVEFORMING?
A. Waveforms in the frequency domain are responsible for the color and character of a sound, and can only be appreciated with the human ear. When we do Legato Waveforming we leave this waveform of the instrument as pristine and original as possible, but what we do modify are some of the "envelope parameters" of each note that each instrument makes.
More precisely, every instrument produces a volume-vs-time curve that looks like a wave - and that's what we modify. We can modify this wave-shaped curve so that it starts out soft and gets louder, or starts abruptly instead of gradually. Legato Waveforming is the process of modifying each note so the attack is very soft, and then we stretch out the waveform so it blends in smoothly to the next note. "Legato" comes from Latin meaning softly flowing, and "Waveforming" is the modifying the envelope parameters that give shape to the wave-like volume curve.
This allows us to take a plucked guitar sound, and make it sound bowed - as if it were played with a bow like a violin has. We can also take a flute going up or down a scale and blur the edges of each note into the next. Both of these examples (bowed guitar, or a blurred flute) cannot be done with live instruments, but both processes do result in more soothing music than is otherwise possible.
Q. WHAT OTHER TECHNOLOGY MAKES SLEEPWAVE MUSIC SO LULLING?
A.) One technique is how we manually smooth out all the peaks and valleys of our recordings (Amplitude Equalization). Amplitude equalization is normally done automatically with what are called "sound compressors" or "limiters" - our experiences have convinced us that those methods are destructive to the quality of the music, so we do it manually. Serious classical music listeners, on the other hand, want "dynamics" (lots of variety between loud and soft sections of a piece of music). We however are producing soothing music to lull people to sleep or at least make them very restful.
Another technique is that we try to keep a fairly periodic tempo (consistent tempo) throughout the music. This again, is more conducive to inducing a sleep enhancing environment, than if the tempo were more expressive. The intent of our music is to lull, not to impress with expression or dynamics (although we have yet to hear feedback that indicated the music was anything less than beautiful). A periodic tempo also makes it easier for the listener to hum along with the music - a technique that is invaluable for helping getting infants to sleep.
Another thing we do is produce music where our tempo range is within the restful range of the human heartbeat. Infants especially are conditioned to the rhythmic sounds of a mother's heartbeat. Adults also relax more when the beat is in the range from 40 to 60 beats per minute. Our music tends to be closer to 40 than to 60 to encourage deep sleep.
Yet another thing that is unique to SleepWave music is that it is engineered to play at low volumes. At low volumes the human ear is less sensitive to the very high and low frequencies as it is to the mid range frequencies. Most receivers now have a "Loudness" button for implementing a "loudness contour" that is supposed to remedy this situation (don't worry, 99% of stereo owners didn't know what that button was for either). Sadly, on most receivers the loudness contour is poorly implemented (usually they do nothing for the high frequencies, and the curve for the low frequencies is usually quite inaccurate). Therefore the loudness contour (based on
Fletcher-Munson curves) was embedded in this music. You may still use your loudness button, though since depending on your amp it may not make enough difference to tell a difference at low volumes.
Lastly, our technique of Progressive Lulling is similar to efforts by others, but with a key difference. Rather than only paying attention to the tempo - we considered complexity of the song, polyphony, diatonic nature of the song, instruments, and lab testing. |
