24 July 2008

Sound Masking


My house is like a submarine when it rains. Water pours from every gutter with fury. Pooling into puddles beyond the front porch and around back. My driveway becomes my very own Venetian Lagoon. So even when it's not a torrential downpour, it sounds like one until all the gutters have drained. Needless to say: it's loud. Loud like the "Journey Behind the Falls" I'd imagine. And so of course the sounds of my toilet overflowing last night were masked; eclipsed by these aural distractions.

Imagine someone turning a flashlight on and off in a dark room. Now imagine that the lights in the room are turned on. The flashlight is still being switched on and off, but it's no longer noticeable because it has been masked. Gave me an idea for a movie. The way people cry in the shower to hide their tears. What if we had a character commit suicide in his bathtub, the water overflowing into a cascading tile river. No one would notice our beloved, tortured character because it rained for three days straight. It would be in London. We'd use "10:15 Saturday Night" in the soundtrack. We'd shoot in black & white.

Let me go before I get into architectural acoustics and have you all running for your bathtubs.

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