I knew about this a while ago, but it wasn't until I happened upon DavidOrr's blog and read this blogpost that I was reminded of the Mosquito Ringtone. And now I want to bring it to you and make you aware of it too.

What is this Mosquito Ringtone? Back in 2005, Howard Stapleton created a device that emitted a extremely high pitched sound. The sound was played at 17.4 kHz. The device was set up outside of a grocery store. The result? Teenage loitering dropped dramatically in the area.

So how does it work? The human hearing range goes from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. As people age, their ears experience damage over time and the hearing range drops. The frequencies to drop out of the range are the higher frequencies as the ear gets less sensitive. By the time most adults are in their 40's, the highest they can hear has dropped down to 14 kHz. Most people under 25 can hear frequencies up to 17.4 khz. So what happens if it's out of your range? You just can't hear it. All the time, birds chirp in ultrasonic frequencies to communicate, yet we are unable to hear them. A dog whistle works in the same manner.

This fact was utilized in creating the Mosquito Ringtone. The device, marketed as the Mosquito, is designed to help deter teenage loitering in public areas in curfew hours. Namely gang loitering that would disturb business. By using the device, the high frequency sound at 17.4 kHz and at a very loud 85 dB is heard by almost everyone of ages under 25, and not at all by those over that age. This was proven many times to deter people of the target age from congregating in the places where the Mosquito was located.

Being marketed worldwide, it has met with opposition though. Some say that it infringes on the rights of people. Others cite the harmful effects of ultrasonic sounds. Namely, ultrasonic sounds disturb the equilibrium mechanism in our ears and can cause disorientation, dizziness, and headache. Also, adults who can't hear the frequencies wouldn't be able to protect their young children and infants who can hear the frequencies. Some cities have banned the use of the device.

Of course, any thing like this can be turned around. Recently teens have figured out that with a sound that adults can hear, they could use it as a ringtone to bypass school disciplinary action. Being marketed as the Teen Buzz, it is a high pitched ringtone designed for teens to hear only. Sounds like fun to me. :3

More information can be read about the Mosquito Ringtone here.

You can tell your ear's "age" by the frequency that you can hear at. So come one come all and test your hearing!! :D Below are the listed frequencies and their corresponding "ages" and a video to test you out. Have fun, and post your hearing age! :D

If the highest you can hear is....
22 kHz - Superhuman. :D
20 kHz - Your ears are as fresh as a baby's.
18 kHz - You've got the ears of my grade school brother! *gasp*
17.4 kHz - You're younger than 25. Majority of NG falls here. :P
14 kHz - You're in your forties. Want to buy a Mosquito for your teenage kids? :3
11 kHz - You're in your fifties. Retirement's around the corner. Might I suggest the Oldies section?
8 kHz - Well.... your ears.... work. That's about it.

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Have fun everybody!

-HFX ^_^
P.S. I can hear up to 19.8 kHz! :D My hearing's nearly a newborn's hearing! :D

So this was brought to my attention sometime ago, and I'm really wondering if Newgrounds masses realize this.
The term itself isn't a new one to the music industry. Back when the songs were much quieter than they are now, some producers came up with an ingenius idea. "Why not raise the volume of this CD so that it stands out?" And indeed they did that, and it worked. It helped sales, since the CD certainly stood out from the crowd's. Other producers saw this and started to do the same. As soon as every producer hit that trend of increasing their volumes, the general volume was louder and nothing stood out anymore. So what happened next? They raise it up yet another notch.
This was coined "The Loudness War." Producers trying to sell more CD's by making songs louder. It works to a certain extent. It's not so noticeable when all the songs are this loud now, but it's really noticeable when you listen to "remastered" versions of old songs. Compared to the old songs, they sound fresh and better.
Why? It's because of the way human hearing works. Sounds that are louder are automatically clearer and "better". Why is that so? It's rather simple. Practically, any minute detail that was quiet and inaudible is now audible. So a piano sounds richer because you can now hear every single resonating vibration of the strings. It's also why live performances are always better sounding than a recording. And in songs, the sounds that stand out are the ones that are louder.
But here's where the problem comes in. There's only so loud that you can make a sound. Hit above a limit and your sound cracks. So your loud sounds can't get any louder than the ceiling. So which sounds get raised? The quiet sounds. Okay, great. So now your quiet sounds are more distinguishable and clear. But now they also are nearly as loud as your loud sounds. What happens then?
Lack of Dynamics. Simply put, nothing stands out since everything is just as "tall". With that, it kills dynamics. Songs where there are really quiet parts, and really loud parts. Now for some songs, that really doesn't make a difference. But some songs, certainly those that are much more complex in composition, certainly suffer. Certain sounds are supposed to stay quiet so that the louder sounds can stick out better. But if all the sounds are just as loud, it all gets muddy-ed and nothing stands out. Certainly, it also kills out a lot of the expression that comes from wide dynamics.
Now why am I fussing over this? The reason is because too many people are too lazy to raise the volume. That is, they're rather impatient. A lot of listeners will listen to the first ten seconds and instantly establish that the song is too quiet and hence "not good enough." However sometimes the song needs to be quiet so that the full range of dynamics can fit in. So what's required? Turning up the volume on the speakers. However, people don't do that. So the widely dynamic songs are turned down in favor of loud songs that lack any dynamic outside of LOUD.
Below, I've embedded a good video that demonstrates this really nicely.

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And with this in mind, in the future the majority of my songs will be on the "quiet" end. Why? Because I'm in favor of dynamics, and a wide range of dynamics. That's how music should be - quality music.

So please, turn down the volumes on the songs in favor of more dynamics. And when you listen, please turn up the volume on your speaker. I guarantee you'll enjoy the experience much more thoroughly.

For more information, you can read about the Loudness War here.

Thank you to all for reading.

-HFX ^_^

This will be a short post. Couldn't sleep and not feeling up to heart for much at the moment. I'll just give a rather dry run through of what happened.

Back when I was about 9 years old, and I had moved into a new neighborhood, we met this old lady. She was kind and nice, and she soon became a sort of "grandmother" to me. She was really talented. She could speak English, Latin, Spanish, and Polish. She could play the guitar and the piano, and was talented in improvisation and in ragtime. She could sing and dance, and would do so often for her church. All throughout the year she maintained a lovely garden and had good knowledge of gardening. When it was not nice outside, she would be inside making and repairing jewelry. She also was a beautiful artist, making lovely works of art in pencil sketches, paintings, and watercolor.

That was ten years ago, when she was 85. I continued to keep in contact with her even when I moved away for school. I continued to visit her all the time during the year, each year. Especially when it came to the holiday seasons. Come age 94, she was in wonderful health, but she started having accidents. Slips and falls on ice would hurt her back and joints. So then she was restricted to first a walker, and then a wheelchair. She still was perfectly healthy otherwise, she had no other health problems. Then end of last year, she had a stroke.

She recovered fine from the stroke, but it was then that she ceased doing the majority of her activities. After that I haven't been able to reach her. She didn't reply to my calls, only a caretaker would pick up. I wrote a letter to her last Wednesday, hoping that it would reach her before Thanksgiving. I included a well wishing card also.

Come Saturday. I receive a call from her care taker. The caretaker finally found my number within Adele's messy handwritten phonebook. She informed me that Adele was not in good health at all. So I rushed over to see her the next day Sunday. Indeed, she was bedridden and unable to move. It was then that I learned of what had happened. She had a second stroke sometime during January. That one caused her to be unable to do the majority of her activities and rely on a caretaker. Her 95th birthday came in July. Three weeks afterwards she suffered a third stroke, this one paralyzing her left side. She still remained able to speak, eat, read, and communicate properly. On the Wednesday that I had sent the letter, she suffered a fourth stroke. She was now also paralyzed on her right side. She couldn't speak or read properly. She could still react and respond and eat. But on Saturday when the caretaker called me, she stopped being able to swallow - hence unable to eat or drink.

I visited her and I stayed at her side for three hours. It was sad. I had gone through a lot with her. Even though she was unable to respond, I talked to her for a good while. I also played piano for her to listen to. She was unable to really respond, as she was only skin and bones at that point. Soon I had to leave.

This morning, at around 8:00am, I received a call from the caretaker. Adele had passed away at 7:20am. I spoke to her son. They were going to hold a memorial in April.

Come to think of it, it's saddening, yet not. Adele chose to sign a will four years ago stating specifically DNR - Do Not Resuscitate. That is don't try to save her life. She also stated that she didn't want tube feeding or anything that would keep her alive. She wanted to pass on naturally.

I think that if she was able to have an expression, she would probably have been smiling. She had a wonderful life. Back then when I spoke to the caretaker, the caretaker told me about how Adele had told her about her friends. She mentioned me a lot too since we were close. Everyone else had known of her situation and had visited her before. I was literally the last one to see her. But I think that was because Adele was waiting for me. She wanted to see me once more before she passed.

I think I knew that at the time I went to see her. At the time plan, to come back the next week to see her again. I knew there wouldn't be much time left. However as I talked to her, she seemed somehow ready to pass on. So what I told her before I left was, "Adele, I'm very happy to be able to see you again. I'm hope you're happy too now. I have to go now Adele, but I'll come back next week to see you again. But for now, you should rest well. You've had a wonderful life and we've all come to love you for who you are. I hope you're comfortable now. Please rest well Adele. I love you."

I think she finally was happy and finally rested well.

Requiescat in Pace Adele. (1913-2008)

-Melody.

So I just wanted to make a note of this. For myself and for people.

So far, I had previously been only composing on the piano. Pieces for solo piano. Not that it was bad, yet there were a lot of limitations to what only a single piano could do. Certain layering and vertical harmonies were not possible within the range of a solo pianist and their two hands.

Hence, 10 days ago on the 14th I started messing around with Fruity Loops Studio 8. I had bought the software about a month prior to that since I decided to look into using it. Opened the box back then and looked at the software. After twenty or so minutes of being totally confused, I gave up on it back then.

So fast forward to now. For some reason, I decided to post up a work in progress song. Namely Work in Progress 1. I had nothing really new to post up, and I decided that the recording I made of the song in progress could be posted up so that I could get some feedback on it. And I did indeed. A user by the name of Celtic-games sent me a message asking to use the song in a game. Working it out with him, I decided to rework the song to make it better. After a good few explorations, and superb mastering done by my dear friend Kazm0, the final product arrived. The song is Epic Hip. Celtic-games was quite satisfied and the song now appears in his game Unreal Fill. I think it turned out well.

Of course now, it's been a little over a week. So far I've already learned how to do a lot, including how to mix and just yesterday, how to make automation clips. My newest song Traverse the Woods is telling of some of my progress.

Anyways, I hope to really learn much much more about FL. I'm still in the mystery about how to use many of the VSTi's including 3xOsc and Fruity LovePhilter. But I'm sure I'll learn in due time. And when I do, I'll be sure to give Newgrounds some great electronic music. For now, I'll stick to the acoustics. :P

-HFX ^_^

P.S. Thanks for listening to my rant. But if you had time to read all this, could you please spare a little time to listen and review my songs? I guarantee they sound a thousand times better than this news post. ;) Have fun!

P.P.S. I also have a new banner, profile picture, and icon. Props to those who can figure out the character. ;P

So for those who want to talk to me, if anyone ever feels like they want to, here's my email and messenger : halcyonicfalconx@live.com
That's MSN messenger.
My AIM screenname is Halcyonicfalconx. :D

Made a new header for myself! :D
I hope it looks good. I think it looks great to me. ^_^
That and I also made an icon for myself.

-HFX

PS: This is my first post!