[Closed] HANS ZIMMER

Anthony wrote
It's not good that I can only come here once a day now and have to read over 70+ posts that I have no comment on. Damn the new job!

Frost/Nixon

Casi Divas

Angels & Demons

Madagascar II

Christodoulides wrote


It's never been proved, just a myth like the myriads of others humans like to spread.

Here's how it goes:

Supposedly, LP's (because they were direct 'scratchings' / markings of the actual sound waves on the vinyl's surface which were later reproduced exactly by the needle (head) in an analog way instead of the binary digital form of the audio cd and the reproduction by laser beam in digital instead of analog) could descend a bit below the lower minimum auditory limit of the 20 hz for the human hearing * (the lower limit varies between human being though, some (very, very few though) descend to 16 or even 10 hz but nothing's actually 'heard' below 20hz, you just MAY feel it, never hear it) and that, while not audible it is said to have attributed the particular "warmth" and "depth" to sound which LP lovers accuse CDs to lack.

Now, lower frequency ranges in the sound are indeed partly - but not solely - responsible for the warmth and depth of a sound (whilst high ones are responsible for clarity) but the whole thing is nothing but a myth, for 3 main reasons:

1) Nobody got into the laboratory / studio and actually had his hearing frequency scientifically measured.
2) People who carry these claims always know in advance what they are listening to and that filters their perception tremendously (see below for more)
3) As psychoacoustics and academics of sound / sound engineers will tell you, the whole theme it's subjective up to a very large degree as our hearing system which functions on sensations and not clear-cut events, is possibly the most advanced and deeply complex thing we have in our bodies and it has - and never will - never functioned in the simple way the LP lovers put it to be, i.e. IT IS THAT AND NOT THIS. It takes experiments and researches you'd never thought possible and still, nobody would ever be sure, at least with today's scientific standards.

It's SO VERY complex. To put it very roughly for everyone to understand - you only need to take into account that sound waves (ups and downs of air pressure) enter your ear, are filtered and amplified via the movement of 3 inter-connected bones which form a marvellously functioning, united system and which themselves vibrate the ear drum which then passes them to the cochlea and the sound nerves which transform mechanical energy to electrical (electrical signals) which are - and this is where things get very complicated - passed to the brain as electrical signals and as such the auditory events are analyzed and rendered as acoustical / musical sensations. That's what Psychoacoustics study, an area which is very premature and preliminary itself and i think you realize now that listening to stuff in your very own house to stuff you control and you know about in advance (something which - as i told you before - is very crucial as to how unbiased and 'real' your acoustical perception is, and that is proven) and actually CLAIMING that you KNOW what you're listening to, is - at least - ridiculous.

You'd never believe (and believe me, I've been there) what specially designed audio experiments on perception in a sterile environments (specially formed studios) in situations TOTALLY UNCONTROLLED by you would do to your standards on what you thought you were listening to all this time, up to that point. You'll be shocked, amazed and never listen in the same way you did before;

Or at least never claim you actually know exactly how you listen, even again

Here's a paragraph from a Time's article i always held dear to my beliefs

Martijn wrote
D., am I correct in deducing then that the whole bone resonance story is a myth as well?
At least I can imagine that, even though there might be a measurable frequency at which bone starts to resonate, this too would be completely dependent on other factors like -to keep to the human biology alone for the moment- thickness of the skull, blood pressure, cavities, et cetera?

If so, it obviously doesn't matter what frequency at what time was clipped to whatever level, as it would be experienced subjectively and differently every single time.

If NOT though, I 'd still like to find out if there was at one point a time where music for CD was *indeed* clipped.

Even though you go to great and coherent lengths at explaining the subjectivity of the whole experience (and you're quite right too, and thanks for taking the effort to explain it so fully), I still am looking for any kind of objective data that might be used to convince the non-believers.

Scribe wrote
Has anyone heard any news about Zimmer's other supposed projects this year? (Frost/Nixon, Casi Divas, Angels & Demons, Madagascar II....)

Scribe wrote
2009 will be the year of Giacchino... Lost Season 5, Star Trek, and Land of the Lost

Anthony wrote


I don't even want to think of disagreeing with you, but isn't this the Hans Zimmer thread?

PawelStroinski wrote
I've heard they are supposed to make references to Elfman.