+- Exomusica ll The Musical Science Institute (https://exomusica.tachybunker.fr)
+-- Forum: EXOMUSICA - music science institute (https://exomusica.tachybunker.fr/forumdisplay.php?fid=3)
+--- Forum: Hypothesises / Sound Theories (https://exomusica.tachybunker.fr/forumdisplay.php?fid=5)
+--- Thread: Loud silence - psychoacoustic rituals (/showthread.php?tid=5)
Loud silence - psychoacoustic rituals - tachy_bunker - 07-20-2025
This might be a dumb idea, but i thought, a lot of people have talked about how "loud" silence can be.
It usually refers to social contexts where information is communicated inverbally, at such an importance that other types of communication stop.
It may also be when senses are acute and observing, but there is nothing to observe.
So here is my question: How can we put loud silence into music? And how can we engineer the loudest silence ever?
Characteristic 1: simple visualization & unexpectedness
→ Music with repetitive patterns and at some point, silence. There should be clear progressive indicators to make an audience believe or imagine elements in their head while the silence is happening.
Characteristic 2: duration
→ Obviously the longer we can keep this phenomenon, the "louder" silence becomes.
Characteristic 3: illusory silence
→ Using almost completely cancelling sounds, if they're used binaurally and on a lower volume it might seem like a literal "weighted" silence.
Example ideas on the former characteristics:
C1.1 - Sudden noise followed by silence: emotional screams, industrial textures, musical cluster. The silence becomes an aftershock and might force the listener to reflect or stay in fear freeze. However this might make the loudness of silence shorter too.
C1.2 - Long unfinished progressions. The trick would be a cyclic progression sequence that modulates always, like ii-V-I (simple example but might be longer or more complex progression) and at some point you remove part of the progression. The listener might be able to "bridge" the cycles in the silences.
Another pattern i'm seeing is that here i'm trying to engineer with a "SOUND, SILENCE" order and not "SILENCE, SOUND" order. Maybe using the latter order you can find other alternatives to this, like resolving a ghost progression.
RE: Loud silence - psychoacoustic rituals - Mystlich - 07-22-2025
I believe there are songs that have applied the SOUND, SILENCE philosophy. We could study them; I tried to find a Pink Floyd song that I thought had a long period of silence at the end, but I couldn't find it.
I found other songs that use silence.
The Breeders, Cannonball
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxvkI9MTQw4
More songs that allegedy use the SOUND, SILENCE format were mentioned in this article: https://medium.com/@lucaslafranconi/great-music-pauses-that-will-make-you-happy-c35fee309d6b
Also, I saw a video that involved a room that were so quiet, you could only hear the blood in your ears. Perhaps an illusory silence could be replicated blood-rushing sounds. Or, even, barely audible normal breathing.
RE: Loud silence - psychoacoustic rituals - tachy_bunker - 07-22-2025
(07-22-2025, 03:21 AM)Mystlich Wrote: I believe there are songs that have applied the SOUND, SILENCE philosophy. We could study them; I tried to find a Pink Floyd song that I thought had a long period of silence at the end, but I couldn't find it.Those are really interesting. I have heard many songs using silence but many had a real impact other than being a rest. This with the image of holding breathe almost encapsulates perfectly what i meant, but in past and done ways. Maybe there is a way to do this only with sound and no images or lyrics, which is the ultimate goal of this thread.
I found other songs that use silence.
The Breeders, Cannonball
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxvkI9MTQw4
More songs that allegedy use the SOUND, SILENCE format were mentioned in this article: https://medium.com/@lucaslafranconi/great-music-pauses-that-will-make-you-happy-c35fee309d6b
(07-22-2025, 03:21 AM)Mystlich Wrote: Also, I saw a video that involved a room that were so quiet, you could only hear the blood in your ears. Perhaps an illusory silence could be replicated blood-rushing sounds. Or, even, barely audible normal breathing.Anechoic chambers! They're really quiet. Maybe you're right in the sense that it could have the same effect (recreating bodily rushes), but i'm wondering if this will instead take away from the whole silence thing, as there would be something for people to focus on and lose the psychological impact.