Jump to content

Awesome TED Talks - Hearing Color / Synthetic Voices

Rate this topic


Kevin Ashe

Recommended Posts

I heard this on the radio and thought I should post it here! I really enjoyed them! Both talks touch on related aspects of vocal training, vocal science, and vocal "ideology."

Hearing Color

https://ideas.ted.com/the-sound-of-color-neil-harbissons-talk-visualized/

 

Synthetic Voices

https://www.ted.com/talks/rupal_patel_synthetic_voices_as_unique_as_fingerprints?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did not watch the videos yet but I did look over the written description on the website for "The sound of Color".

Assigning a sound to a color is in line with using the opposite to teach yourself perfect pitch from years ago. I think it was Keven Burg? 

Any way the idea was to associate a Color to a given pitch. The color was not a set in stone association for all people but each individual would choose which color best represented a specific pitch. Associate one pitch at a time and learn to recognize the pitch by similar attributes between the two. For Example, maybe F# is Bold and vivid to you and you sense the same thing with the color RED. Perhaps Ab always sounds Muddy and Dull, so maybe that would make you think of Brown. 

To be honest it is just another way for you to pay closer attention to sounds and frequencies and to notice slight differences or characteristics between them.

Granted it is not the same as having a chip implanted in your head that when you hear F# you would actually SEE red, but the Pitch can still be visualized in your mind when you hear it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, MDEW said:

I did not watch the videos yet but I did look over the written description on the website for "The sound of Color".

Assigning a sound to a color is in line with using the opposite to teach yourself perfect pitch from years ago. I think it was Keven Burg? 

Any way the idea was to associate a Color to a given pitch. The color was not a set in stone association for all people but each individual would choose which color best represented a specific pitch. Associate one pitch at a time and learn to recognize the pitch by similar attributes between the two. For Example, maybe F# is Bold and vivid to you and you sense the same thing with the color RED. Perhaps Ab always sounds Muddy and Dull, so maybe that would make you think of Brown. 

To be honest it is just another way for you to pay closer attention to sounds and frequencies and to notice slight differences or characteristics between them.

Granted it is not the same as having a chip implanted in your head that when you hear F# you would actually SEE red, but the Pitch can still be visualized in your mind when you hear it.

Yes, I recall hearing about that method also.  "Association" is the key here as there are likely differences from one system to another as to exactly what those associations are, i.e. this guy with the "tone generator" has one set of color to tone associations, Robert Lunte's system uses another set. I don't recall if he spoke on how the color associations were chosen for the system he's using however, the 4 Pillars is a simple logic of more cutting and edgy suggests warmth, more energy, so red is a "rational" choice, just as blue is for curbing/rounded phonations, yes?  

So regarding improving pitch, I've never tried it yet, I've got to believe color association with notes has to produce some desired results. We can exploit the association "trick" for all it's worth in numerous aspects of life, not unlike exploiting muscle memory to improve vocal agility, coordination, and control. 

:DancingChicken: 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now I have watched the videos.

My first thought is that a lot of people believe that "Perfect" pitch cannot be learned. Even though this man had a computer chip implanted in his brain that converted Color to Sound, he had to first Learn that a certain pitch represented a certain color. If it is not possible to recognize and retain the difference between one pitch and another then this would never work to begin with. He even had to use his own impressions of the pitches and tones to imagine ideas of "Warmth" "Beauty" "texture" and so forth to imagine "Pictures" made by the different sounds. Not only that but then he started to "See" different pictures made by the frequencies of Sounds in his environment. A bird whistling a G# and a Motorcycle idling at a similar frequency would still give him an impression of the same color group. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For the synthetic voice conversion....that should have been easy years ago. All you have to do is map the spectrum of the "patients" voice  for the source and use the appropriate gender and age group from a list of actors and actresses for the filter. That is already done now in singing. It is kind of flip flopped though....You sing and the voice comes out as your favorite singer. 

Now that I think about it, years ago you could record your voice saying Ah or OH on an electric piano or synthesizer and play your voice on the keys. prosody(emotional expression) is cadence, volume and meter. speech would be a mixture of pitch, volume and a type of morse code.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...