Freesound Forums

nice post

On Point!!!
For that reason, during all sacred native ceremonies, they won't allow any cameras because "spirits don't like it" or sacred stuff is not meant to be captured! Also whenever there is a magic moment and you reach for camera, often it fails to work! Maybe cuz magic is meant to be captured with you eyes only <3

I can agree and understand the concept. There is magic in every corner of the lives we inhabit. Unless someone is going to pat me down, I might well sneak a small recorder into a ceremony that would rather I not do so. This is not out of blatant disrespect; although I fully admit it might well be considered so depending on who is witness to it. Rightly (or possibly very wrongly) I decided years ago that I would try to record these types of events, and take the consequences upon myself. I don't necessarily prescribe to the 'Steal the soul' concept, but perhaps the Native populations are talking about a similar recording alters reality concept as this thread started with. I admit I would feel more shame if I thought the recorder brought the session down than if someone simply told me not to do it. For me myself, the magic of a recording and the magic of a sacred ceremony are very close in nature and should not mutually exclude.

Even in the context of this thread, I have not said I NEVER get the good bits when I need them, but all good bits take patience. There is no doubt that expectations need to be maintained to a minimum and allow the process time to work.

The theory still stands as it were, but I documented it such that I wanted to stir up discussion. And I am way glad it did that in the end.

There are a lot information .. I don't read this text

Hi- when i was growing upward (as opposed to outward) we just called it "Murphy's Law".....anything that can possibly go wrong, will. That along with Hobson's Choice (take or leave it) sums up the human condition...lol

Totally agree. 👍. I've been trying to just let the recorder record for longer periods of time as well. For me, any natural sound is a good sound that can be used.

I have the same issues with video as well. For example, I'll be jamming a mix I've made and there will be crows or birds flying in sync with the music as if they are dancing in the sky. I'll quickly turn off whatever I'm listening to so I can record a video of it and before I can capture it they fly away!
Can we get hearing aids that record audio all the time, and contact lenses that are always recording video of everything we see.... Yet?

Thanks for your post, very interesting information

It is pure pareidolia. Nothing about it can be empirically tested or reproduced, and for every instance of the universe "knowing" you've hit record, there are fifty instances where someone else hit record and nothing in particular changed.

I fear for the mental health of anyone who runs too far with such ideas...

A little tip for your next field recording trip: set a countdown (15 minutes or more) on your watch or phone. Every time the alarm goes on, get your recording setup ready and hit record, no matter where you are. Let randomness have a little space.

Interesting idea ! I'll keep it in mind, thank you !

I'll share a bit about my field-recording process.

I use a set-and-forget method. I place the recorder somewhere and leave it.
Usually, I also begin recording before I have arrived at the place where I intend to make the main recording. This gives me time to narrate the time/date and my intentions so that I know the context of the sounds later.
Usually, my intentions are just to "record whatever happens", although I do sometimes take interest in a particular creature or environmental sound.

Therefore it is mostly circumstance and environment which govern my decision to begin recording. I seldom set out to target and record something in particular, but when I do, I succeed because I keep the recorder in hand and activate it before I even step outside to do the task.

This method has ensured that I miss very little. Whatever I hear is what the recorder hears - there is no "losing the sound" due to delays in powering on the device. There are a few things I have managed to hear but not record, and they were interesting, but I don't lament them because I understand missing out to be a consequence of existing. We always miss out on the overwhelming majority of things that happen, and this is not a problem. This should be celebrated rather than feared. If we had the ability to miss out on nothing, to perceive it all, that would derange us.

Now I suppose someone could say that the universe allows this because anything that did not want to be remembered or heard could simply ensure that it is quiet when I'm present, but of course I am only present while placing and retrieving the device.

I have captured a vast range of things I was unaware ever happened. For instance, I sometimes manage to record rainfalls that were too light and brief for me to hear indoors. I step outside, see dry ground and clear sky, assume nothing happened, and then discover rainfall in the recording. This would suggest that hitting record makes more things happen, provided I were one to entertain such beliefs. In practice, it is random, and some beings are overly predisposed to interpret forms and patterns from randomness.

Now, as for what all of this means to the others in this thread, and how they might interpret it or allow it to shape their actions, that's up to them. All I can say definitively is that it has worked well for me.

At the risk of nit-picking, this isn't a "quantum effect" being discussed, but "observer effect" [the only quantization involved is in the analog-to-digital converter]. And like most human misinterpretation of randomness, it is mostly an illusion.

Unfortunately, popular misunderstandings of quantum mechanics cause people to assume a rather anthropocentric and one-dimensional view of what these mechanics are and how they affect us. It's akin to a form of religion - a thing people cannot be bothered to actually understand (most religious people do not read their own holy books), but which is full of ideas they like and can adapt to their personal zeitgeist. This results in a personalized, syncretic belief system full of unfalsifiable and untestable claims.

Not to get off-topic or anything...