Project Information

YSWN Spatial Audio Workshop Resources

Posted on by kristinawolfemusic

Resources for the YSWN Spatial Audio Workshop given by Oli Larkin and Kristina Wolfe

Here you can find instructions on how to get started using the spatial audio project template (link to box folder) in Reaper.  To review the topics discussed during the workshop, click here.

Step 1: Download and Install Software and Plugins

In order for the template to work properly, you will need to download and install the following:

  1. REAPER (free-to-try DAW) https://www.reaper.fm/
  2. Blue Ripple Sound O3A core (free plugins): http://blueripplesound.com/products/o3a-core

    brsarrow
    download the package suitable for your system
  3. (Optional) Ambix & MCFX plug-ins: http://www.matthiaskronlachner.com/
    khron
    scroll down the front page or search ambiX v0.2.7
  4. (Optional) IEM plug-in suite: https://plugins.iem.at

    iemedit
    convenient download button

 

 

Step 2: Download and Open the Reaper Template Project

  1. Download the YSWN Spatial Audio Workshop Box folder containing the Reaper template and other resources
  2. Install Blue Ripple Sound O3A core plug-ins by running the .exe (windows) or pkg file (mac)
  3. Open the project in Reaper.
  4. Reaper will attempt to load all of the necessary plugins.  If it is not successful, you will see an error message outlining what is missing.  Double check your plugin installations and reinstall if any of the plugins you just installed are listed in the error message.

 

Notes from the YSWN Spatial Audio Workshop

Posted on by kristinawolfemusic

This is a sections where you can find a summary of the workshop, answers to some of the questions posed (TBA), and an overview of the concepts discussed (TBA).

Outline of the hour:

  • Welcome and intro
  • 5 minutes of listening

Overview of Ambisonics (Oli)

  •     Different types of surround sound
  •     Benefits of ambisonics
  •     Overview of ambisonics

Ambisonics from a creative standpoint (Kristina)

  • Listening (Bells)

How to set up a fixed media ambisonic project (Oli)

  •    Why we use reaper?
  •    Show workflow
    • visualization
    • signal flow, decoder and speakers
    • panning a mono sound
    • playing an ambisonic recording
  •    Show how to make recordings using an ambisonic mic (Zoom H2n)
  •    Manipulating the sound field using ambisonic processing effects (Ambix directional loudness)

5 Minutes Q&A

============================================================================

Approaches to Spatial audio:

  • Amplitude panning
    • Stereophony, Quadraphony, 5.1, 8 channel “octophonic”, VBAP, DBAP, Auro3D
  • Sound diffusion / loudspeaker orchestra
  • Binaural recording
  • Soundfield synthesis techniques
    • “Wave field synthesis” WFS, Ambisonics
  • Object -based techniques
    • Dolby Atmos™, DTS-X

The advantages of Ambisonics:

  • compose/produce in one studio and deliver on a different speaker configuration
  • gracefully down-mix to different formats including stereo and mono
  • easily transform the entire sound-field with rotation, mirroring, zooming
  • ambisonic microphones are practical for capturing 3D sound on location
  • you can also mix in 3D by “encoding” or “panning” mono or stereo sources
  • distribute your work with Youtube 360 and Facebook 360
  • suitable for binaural VR and 360
  • it’s free, with lots of nice free plug-ins

Disadvantages of Ambisonics:

  • most DAW software doesn’t support “speaker agnostic” high track channel counts required, traditionally preferring cinema formats
  • When decoding, “regular” speaker setups of rings of speakers are preferred (5.1 is an “irregular” setup)
  • small sweet spot, especially with first order ( decoder optimisations can address this)
  • different decoders change the quality of the sound
  • when panned sound is not as localised to speakers as other techniques (multiple speakers contribute to the sound field reconstruction)
  • working with lots of loudspeakers / channels can be confusing and frustrating!
  • limited places you can play your music

Free / cheap Ambisonics software:

Links to info on Ambisonics

Listening to your own voice: tweaking player audio input emmitter and imitating facial obstruction in Wwise and Unity.

Posted on by kristinawolfemusic

In Getting Real-Time Microphone input into Wwise in Unity using the Ak Audio Input Plugin [SCRIPT], we managed to incorporate live audio into reflective and spatialised game audio.  Thankfully, this process seems to have improved in the later versions because it no longer seems necessary to duck the unity audio.

However, there are some phenomenological issues with listening to your fully spatialised voice from the perspective of the standard assets ‘rigid body first person’ player.  If you place the Audio input script on the camera, the spatial audio events behave as though the player’s body does not exist (because there is no body!).  This is not a problem when the sound source is separate from the player, but is unrealistic in the first person.  When we hear our own voice, we hear is resonating in our head, but not localised in the ear.  If you sing, you will notice that you hear your voice as coming from below your ears (because it is!).  This can be quickly imitated by attaching two planes very near the lower part of the player view.  Place your obstructing ‘face’ plane in front of your voice plane.

snip.PNG

The Face Plane

For my tastes, I found that placing the plane as a child of the main camera player at pos (-0.02, -0.2, 0.31), rotation (0, 90, -90) and scale (0.1 0.07, 0.052).  These numbers were done in game and you may find ones you prefer.  For me, that most closely resembled my own vocal experiences.  Place an AK surface reflector component on the face plane and choose your surface texture.  I thought wood was useful, but if you tried absorption coeffs for skin it might be more realistic.  Making your face plane longer would also obstruct sounds in a way similar to the body.

The Voice Plane

I placed the voice below and a little to the left (-0.019, -0.52, 0.54) at scale (0.09, 0.03, 0.06).  I added an akspatial audio emitter and an ak emmitter obstruction/occlusion.

The result more closely resembles the experience of singing and hearing your own voice as you project out into the space.  You dont hear the reflections that reach your ear from behind, so it is more realistic if you project your computationally expensive early reflections outward so that you can hear then return.  There are likely even more accurate ways to do this (I am thinking of a cone with a sphere or even a model face) but this was very satisfactory to me.

 

player
This is a close up of the two planes when the ‘player’ is looking up.  The face plane obfuscates the voice.

Levels of Attention

Generally, spatial audio is excellent at rendering the experience of highly localised sounds and bringing the binaural sense of space into focus. This breaks down when the ‘source’ is too close to the ‘receiver’ as is the case when the player’s live voice is the spatial audio emitter. It seems important to remember that when exploring spatial acoustics using your own voice, you are not actually listening to your voice.  You are far more interested in how the sound is projecting and bouncing off the walls.  Perceptually, the echoes are much louder than your voice.  That means that if the game audio is to mimic this altered state of attention then you must recreate the perceptual level without regard to the actual level.   With these two planes, I chose to mimic how I hear space when I am vocalising as a way of exploring space.

view.PNG
Conclusion: a simple plane to slightly occlude your voice may improve the listener experience.  Just remember to turn of mesh renderer so the player doesn’t have to look at it.

Join Vraasp and the Covesea Caves Project at TAG!

Posted on by kristinawolfemusic

VRAASP is teaming up with the Covesea Caves project to present at the Theoretical Archaeology Group conference in December!

We will be presenting at the session:

‘In the Mix’: Recalibrating Music, Heritage and Place moderated by John Schofield (Archaeology, University of York) and Liam Maloney (Music, University of York)

Our proposal abstract!

Composing with place: a retextured and sonified 3D model of the Sculptor’s Cave, NE Scotland

Kristina Wolfe, University of Huddersfield; Ian Armit, University of Bradford; and Lindsey Büster, University of Bradford

A sense of ‘presence’ in a place often results from a convergence of unique acoustic and environmental characteristics that render it ‘special’—a found-and-then-cultivated sonic landscape.   The Sculptor’s Cave in Moray, NE Scotland is such a place, as evidenced by its recurrence and longevity as a locus for ritual activity.

The Covesea Caves Project (Armit, Büster) and the using Virtual Reality and Archaeoacoustic Analysis to Study and exhibit Presence project (VRAASP; Wolfe) have collaborated on a retextured and sonified 3D model of the Sculptor’s Cave, based on an archaeologically-informed field walk and creative realization derived from the acoustics inherent to this enigmatic site.  The resulting work will use place as material, with the field work as programme note, in order to exhibit the unique features of the cave (both archaeological and modern) as interactive and present heritage.

Imagined and Editorialized Sonic Experiences in Ghost Stories of Wales and Ireland

Posted on by kristinawolfemusic

In previous posts, I pasted quotes that were reported to be first hand by writers in the 2nd century.  In these quotes, I am interested in the way that authors in the 19th century emphasized the role of sound when describing the acoustic sensibilities of cultures that they were not part of.  There are a surprising number of books of ‘fairy tales’ of ‘other’ cultures that were written for an english speaking urban audience.  In these stories, it is most interesting to me that sound plays such an elaborate role in setting exotic scenes.  It raises the following questions:

  1. who is doing the listening in these stories?  Is the author the one who has heard these sounds or are these accounts the imagined experiences of a ‘foreign’ seeming cultural perspective?
  2. Is attentive listening considered a rational means of knowing to the target audience?  If not, are these descriptions reflective of the author imagining this other culture to be less educated in the ‘western’ sense?
  3. What is the intended purpose of these stories? Are spirits considered by the intended audience to be real, frightening, ridiculous, or …?
  4. Do such florid accounts of sound in the context of spiritualism reveal a change in the attention to sound in the 19th century?

There are similar stories which incorporate sound in works such as Yeats’ Celtic Twilight , but those tales were not as theatrical as these next quotes.  These come from two 19th century books of Irish and Welsh Ghost Stories told by American English Literature Philosophers (David Russell) McAnally in British Goblins Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions, and Journalists such as Wirt Sikes in Irish Wonders The Ghosts, Giants, Pooka, Demons, Leprechawns, Banshees, Fairies, Witches, Widows, Old Maids, and other Marvels of the Emerald Isle.

 

After she had remained in-doors for a day or two several of her acquaintances came to her room to enliven her imprisonment, and while the little party were merrily chatting, strange sounds were heard,[pg 114] and all trembled and turned pale as they recognized the singing of a chorus of Banshees. The lady’s
The song of the Banshee is commonly heard a day or two before the death of which it gives notice, though instances are cited of the song at the beginning of a course of conduct or line of undertaking that resulted fatally. Thus, in Kerry, a young girl engaged herself to a youth, and at the moment her promise of marriage was given, both heard the low, sad wail above their heads. The young man deserted her, she died of a broken heart, and the night before her death, the Banshee’s song, loud and clear, was heard outside the window of her mother’s cottage. One of the O’Flahertys, of Galway, marched out of his castle with his men on a foray, and, as his troops filed through the gateway, the Banshee was heard high above the towers of the fortress. The next night she sang again, and was heard no more for a month, when his wife heard the wail under her window, and on the following day his followers brought back his corpse. One of the O’Neills of Shane Castle, in Antrim, heard the Banshee as he started on a journey before daybreak, and was accidentally killed some time after, but while on the same journey. The wail most frequently comes at night, although cases
are cited of Banshees singing during the daytime, and the song is often inaudible to all save the one for whom the warning is intended. This, however, is not general, the death notice being for the family rather than for the doomed individual. The spirit is generally alone, though rarely several are heard[pg 113] singing in chorus. A lady of the O’Flaherty family, greatly beloved for her social qualities, benevolence, and piety, was, some years ago, taken ill at the family mansion near Galway, though no uneasiness was felt on
she died in a few days, the chorus being again heard in a sweet, plaintive requiem as the spirit was leaving her body. The honor of being warned by more than one Banshee is, however, very great, and comes only to the purest of the pure.
Many years passed, the chieftain reformed his ways, and his youthful crime was almost forgotten even by himself, when, one night, he and his family were seated by the fire, and suddenly the most horrid shrieks were heard outside the castle walls. All ran out, but saw nothing. During the night the screams continued as though the castle were besieged by demons, and the unhappy man recognized, in the cry of the Banshee, the voice of the young girl he had murdered. The next night he was assassinated by one of his followers, when again the wild, unearthly screams of the spirit were heard,
Her long, white drapery falls below her feet as she floats in the air, chanting her weird warning, lifting her hands as if in pitying
Though generally the only intimation of the presence of the Banshee is her cry, a notable instance of the contrary exists in the family of the O’Reardons, to the doomed member of which the Banshee always appears in the shape of an exceedingly beautiful woman, who sings a song so sweetly solemn as to reconcile him to his approaching fate.
The night before the battle of the Boyne several Banshees were heard singing in the air over the Irish camp, the truth of their prophecy being verified by the death-roll of the next day.
The fairies do much singing, seldom, however, save in chorus, and their songs were formerly more frequently heard than at present. Even now a belated peasant, who has been at a wake, or is coming home from a fair, in passing a rath will sometimes hear the soft strains of their voices in the distance, and will hurry away lest they discover his presence and be angry at the intrusion on their privacy. When in unusually good spirits they will sometimes admit a mortal to their revels, but if he speaks, the scene at once vanishes, he becomes insensible, and generally finds himself by the roadside the next morning, “wid that degray av pains in his arrums an’ legs an’ back, that if sixteen thousand divils were afther him, he cudn’t stir a toe to save the sowl av him, that’s phat the fairies[pg 100] do be pinchin’ an’ punchin’ him for comin’ on them an’ shpakin’ out loud.”
The amusements of the fairies consist of music, dancing,[pg 099] and ball-playing. In music their skill exceeds that of men, while their dancing is perfect, the only drawback being the fact that it blights the grass, “fairy-rings” of dead grass, apparently caused by a peculiar fungous growth, being common in Ireland. Although their musical instruments are few, the fairies use these few with wonderful skill. Near Colooney, in Sligo, there is a “knowlageable woman,” whose grandmother’s aunt once witnessed a fairy ball, the music for which was furnished by an orchestra which the management had no doubt been at great pains and expense to secure and instruct. “It was the cutest sight alive. There was a place for thim to shtand on, an’ a wondherful big fiddle av the size ye cud slape in it, that was played be a monsthrous frog, an’ two little fiddles, that two kittens fiddled on, an’ two big drums, baten be cats, an’ two trumpets, played be fat pigs. All round the fairies were dancin’ like angels, the fireflies givin’ thim
The amusements of the fairies consist of music, dancing,[pg 099] and ball-playing. In music their skill exceeds that of men, while their dancing is perfect, the only drawback being the fact that it blights the grass, “fairy-rings” of dead grass, apparently caused by a peculiar fungous growth, being common in Ireland. Although their musical instruments are few, the fairies use these few with wonderful skill. Near Colooney, in Sligo, there is a “knowlageable woman,” whose grandmother’s aunt once witnessed a fairy ball, the music for which was furnished by an orchestra which the management had no doubt been at great pains and expense to secure and instruct. “It was the cutest sight alive. There was a place for thim to shtand on, an’ a wondherful big fiddle av the size ye cud slape in it, that was played be a monsthrous frog, an’ two little fiddles, that two kittens fiddled on, an’ two big drums, baten be cats, an’ two trumpets, played be fat pigs. All round the fairies were dancin’ like angels, the fireflies givin’ thim
light to see by, an’ the moonbames shinin’ on the lake, for it was be the shore it was, an’ if ye don’t belave it, the glen’s still there, that they call the fairy glen to this blessed day.”
At weddings they are frequently unseen guests; at funerals they are always present; and sometimes, at both weddings and funerals, their presence is recognized by aerial voices or mysterious music known to be of unearthly origin. The spirits of the good wander with the living as guardian angels, but
When the Banshee loves those whom she calls, the song is a low, soft chant, giving notice, indeed, of the close proximity of the angel of death, but with a tenderness of tone that reassures the one destined to die and comforts the survivors; rather a welcome than a warning, and having in its tones a thrill of exultation, as though the messenger spirit were bringing glad tidings to him summoned to join the waiting throng of his ancestors. If, during her lifetime, the Banshee was an enemy of the family, the cry is the scream of a fiend, howling with demoniac delight over the coming death-agony of another of her foes.
Here, a long straight row of columns is known as the “Giant’s Organ,” and tradition pictures the scene when the giants of old, with their gigantic families, sat on the Causeway and listened to the music; there, a group of isolated pillars is called the “Giant’s Chimneys,” since they once furnished an exit for the smoke of the gigantic kitchen. A solitary pillar, surrounded by the crumbling remains of others, bears a distant resemblance to a seated female figure, the “Giant’s Bride,” who slew her husband and attempted to flee, but was overtaken by the power of a magician, who changed her into stone as she was seated
These ruins raise their castellated walls and towers, noble even in decay, sometimes in the midst of a village, crowded with the miserably poor, sometimes on a mountain, in every direction commanding magnificent prospects; sometimes on an island in one of the lakes, which, like emeralds in a setting of deeper green, gem the surface of the rural landscape and contribute to increase the beauty of scenery not surpassed in the world. Ages ago the voice of prayer and the song of praise ceased to ascend from these sacred edifices, and they are now visited only by strangers, guides, and parties of humble peasants, the foremost bearing on their shoulders the remains of a companion to be laid within the hallowed enclosure, for although the church is in ruins, the ground in and about it is still holy and in service when pious hands lay away in the bosom of earth the bodies of those who have borne the last burden, shed the last tear, and succumbed to the last enemy. But among all the pitiable spectacles presented in this unhappy[pg 037]
This form presents a peasant who is returning home from his work, or from a fair, when he sees a light travelling before him. Looking closer he perceives that it is carried by a dusky little figure, holding a lantern or candle at arm’s length over its head. He follows it for several miles, and suddenly finds himself on the brink of a frightful precipice. From far down below there rises to his ears the sound of a foaming torrent. At the same moment the little goblin with the lantern springs across the chasm, alighting on the opposite side; raises the light again high over its head, utters a loud and malicious laugh, blows out its candle and disappears up the opposite hill, leaving the awestruck peasant to get home as best he can.
nothing. ‘Put your foot on mine, David,’ says Llewellyn to one of the company; his own foot was on the outward edge of a fairy ring as he spoke. David put his foot on Llewellyn’s, and so did they all, one after another; and then they heard the sound of many harps, and saw within a circle about twenty feet across, great numbers of little people dancing round and round. And there was Rhys, dancing away like a madman! As he came whirling by, Llewellyn caught him by his smock-frock and pulled him out of the circle. ‘Where are the horses? where are the horses?’ cried Rhys in an excited manner. ‘Horses, indeed!’ sneered Llewellyn, in great disgust; ‘wfft! go home. Horses!’ But Rhys was for dancing longer, declaring he had not been there five minutes. ‘You’ve been there,’ says Llewellyn, ‘long enough to come near getting me hanged, anyhow.’ They got him home finally, but he was never the same man again, and soon after he died.
The harp is played by Welsh fairies to an extent unknown in those parts of the world where the harp is less popular among the people. When any instrument is distinctly heard in fairy cymmoedd it is usually the harp. Sometimes it is a fiddle, but then on close examination it will be discovered that it is a captured mortal who is playing it; the Tylwyth Teg prefer the harp. They play the bugle on specially grand occasions, and there is a case or two on record where the drone of the bagpipes was heard; but it is not doubted that the player was some stray fairy from Scotland or elsewhere over the border. On the top of Craig-y-Ddinas thousands of white fairies dance to the music of many harps. In the dingle called Cwm Pergwm, in the Vale of Neath, the Tylwyth Teg make music behind the waterfall, and when they go off over the mountains the sounds of their harps are heard dying away as they recede. The story which presents the Cambrian equivalent of the Magic Flute substitutes a harp for the (to Welshmen) less familiar instrument
The music of the Tylwyth Teg has been variously described by people who claim to have heard it; but as a rule with much vagueness, as of a sweet intangible harmony, recalling the experience of Caliban: The isle is full of noises;Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not.Sometimes a thousand twangling instrumentsWill hum about mine ears. [48]
 One Morgan Gwilym, who saw the fairies by Cylepsta Waterfall, and heard their music dying away, was only able to recall the last strain, which he said
Many heard their music, and said of it that it was low and pleasant; but that it had this peculiarity: no one could ever learn the tune. In more favoured parts of the Principality, the words of the song were distinctly heard, and under the name of the ‘Cân y Tylwyth Teg’ are
They were soon on the top of the highest mountain in Wales, and surrounded by a vapoury company of goats with shadowy horns. These raised a most unearthly bleating about his ears. One, which seemed to be the king, had a voice that sounded above the din as the castle bells of Carmarthen used to do long ago above all the other bells in the town. This one rushed at Cadwaladr and butting him in the stomach sent him toppling over a crag as he had sent his poor nannygoat. When
It went towards a spring in that field called Ffynon yr Yspryd, (the Fountain of the Spirit,) where ghosts had been seen before, and crossing over the stile into the common way, it whistled so loud and strong that the narrow valley echoed and re-echoed with the prodigious sound. Then it vanished, much to the young woman’s relief.
In North Wales the cry of the golden plover is a death-omen; these birds are called, in this connection, the whistlers. [90] The same superstition prevails in Warwickshire, and the sound is called the seven whistlers. Thunder and lightning in mid-winter announce the death of the great man of the parish. This superstition is thought to be peculiar to Wales, or to the wilder and more secluded parts of North Wales. [91] Also deemed peculiar to Wales is the Tan-wedd, a fiery apparition which falls on the lands of a freeholder who is about to die. It is described as appearing somewhat similar to falling stars, but slower of motion. ‘It lighteneth all the air and ground where it passeth,’ says ‘the honest Welshman, Mr. Davis, in a letter to Mr. Baxter,’ adding, ‘lasteth three or four miles or more, for aught is known, because no man seeth the rising or beginning of it; and when it falls to the ground it sparkleth and lighteth all about.’ [92] It also comes as a duty-performing goblin, after a death, haunting the graveyard, and calling attention to some special grave by its conduct, as in the following
The Tolaeth Death Portent—Its various Forms—The Tolaeth before Death—Ewythr Jenkin’s Tolaeth—A modern Instance—The Railway Victim’s Warning—The Goblin Voice—The Voice from the Cloud—Legend of the Lord and the Beggar—The Goblin Funeral—The Horse’s Skull—The Goblin Veil—The Wraith of Llanllwch—Dogs of Hell—The Tale of Pwyll—Spiritual Hunting Dogs—Origin of the Cwn Annwn. I. The Tolaeth is an ominous sound, imitating some earthly sound of one sort or another, and always heard before either a funeral or some dreadful catastrophe. Carpenters of a superstitious turn of mind will tell you that they invariably hear the Tolaeth when they are going to receive an order to make a coffin; in this case the sound is that of the
Other groaning spirits are sometimes heard. A girl named Mary Morgan, living near Crumlyn Bridge, while standing on the bridge one evening was seized with mortal terror on hearing a groaning voice going up the river, uttering the words, ‘O Dduw, beth a wnaf fi?’ (O God, what shall I do?) many times repeated, amid direful groans. The conclusion of this
In the villages the Cyhyraeth is heard passing through the empty streets and lanes by night, groaning dismally, sometimes rattling the window-shutters, or flinging open the door as it flits by. When going along the country lanes it will thus horrify the inmates of every house it passes. Some old people say it is only heard before the death of such as are of strayed mind, or who have long been ill; but it
heard at first at a distance, then comes nearer, and the last near at hand; so that it is a threefold warning of death. It begins strong, and louder than a sick man can make; the second cry is lower, but not less doleful, but rather more so; the third yet lower, and soft, like the groaning of a sick man almost spent and dying.’ A person ‘well remembering the voice’ and coming to the sick man’s bed, ‘shall hear his groans exactly like’ those which he had before heard from the Cyhyraeth. This crying spirit especially affected the twelve parishes in the hundred of Inis Cenin, which lie on the south-east side of the river Towy, ‘where some
testified that the Cyhyraeth is often heard there, and that it is ‘a doleful, disagreeable sound heard before the deaths of many, and most apt to be heard before foul weather. The voice resembles the groaning of sick persons who are to die;

19th Century Sonic References to Pausanias

Posted on by kristinawolfemusic

In References to Sound in Pausanias’ Description of Greece, I pasted a number of accounts of sound from the 2nd c. AD.  In the 19th century, this work becomes somewhat popular to read and in 1898 J.G. Frazer published an annotated version of Description of Greece re-tracing Pausanias’ steps and asking local people.  What interested me about this commentary was how Pausanias’ accounts seem to have rendered everything acoustic and magical to the author.

 

Ten or twelve minutes beyond the mill the horses are left and thetraveller sets forward on foot. As we advance the glen grows wilder andmore desolate, but for the first half-mile or so it is fairly open, thetrack keeps close to the bed of the stream, and there is no particulardifficulty. A deep glen now joins the glen of the Styx from thesouth-east. Here we begin to ascend the slope and cross an artificialchannel which brings down water to the mill. All pretence of a path nowceases, and henceforward till we reach the foot of the waterfall thereis nothing for it but to scramble over rocks and to creep along slopesoften so steep and precipitous that to find a foothold or handhold onthem is not easy, and stretching away into such depths below that it isbest not to look down them but to keep the eyes fixed on the ground atone’s feet. A stone set rolling down one of these slopes will be heardrumbling for a long time, and the sound is echoed and prolonged by thecliffs with such startling distinctness that at first it sounds as if arock were coming thundering down upon the wayfarer from above. In theworst places the guides point out to the traveller where to plant hisfeet and hold him up if he begins to slip. Shrubs, tough grass, and hereand there a stunted pine-tree give a welcome hold, but on the steepestslopes they are wanting. The last slope up to the foot of the cliff—avery long and steep declivity of loose gravel which gives way at everystep—is most fatiguing. As I was struggling slowly up it with theguides, we heard the furious barking of dogs away up the mountains onthe opposite side of the glen. The barking came nearer and nearer, andbeing echoed by the cliffs had a weird impressive sound that suited wellwith the scene, as if hell-hounds were baying at the strangers who daredto approach the infernal water. However, the dogs came no nearer thanthe foot of the slope up which we were clambering, and some shouts andvolleys of stones served to keep them at bay.
The gorge may be said to be divided in two at the village of Divritsa,where the mountains recede a little from the river, and the scenery ofthe two parts is somewhat different. In the first half, ending a littleabove the village of Divritsa, the river sweeps round the base of highsteep mountains, which on the south side of the gorge are wooded totheir summits and broken every now and then by a profound glen, thesides of which are also wooded from top to bottom. The mountains on thenorth side are in general not wooded, but bare or overgrown with bushes.This would detract from the beauty of the scenery if the path ran on thesouth side of the gorge, from which the barer slopes of the mountains onthe north would be visible. As it is, the path runs along the steepsides of the mountains on the north side, and the eye rests continuallyon the mighty wall of verdure that rises on the other side of the river.I had the good fortune to traverse this wonderful gorge on a brightOctober day, when the beautiful woods were just touched here and therewith the first tints of autumn. Far below the river was seen and heardrushing along, now as a smooth swirling stream of opaque green waterwith a murmurous sound, now tumbling, with a mighty roar, down greatrocks and boulders in sheets of greenish-white foam.
That Pausanias had travelled widely beyond the limits of Greece andIonia is clear from the many allusions he lets fall to places andobjects of interest in foreign lands. Some of them he expressly saysthat he saw; as to others we may infer that he saw them from theparticularity of his description. In Syria he had seen the Jordanflowing through the Lake of Tiberias and falling into the Dead Sea, andhad gazed at the red pool near Joppa in which Perseus was said to havewashed his bloody sword after slaying the sea-monster. He describes atomb at Jerusalem, the door of which by an ingenious mechanicalcontrivance opened of itself once a year at a certain hour, and he oftenalludes to Antioch which for its vast size and wealth he ranked withAlexandria. In Egypt he had seen the Pyramids, had beheld with wonderthe colossal statue of Memnon at Thebes, and had heard the musical note,like the breaking of a lute-string, which the statue emitted at sunrise.The statue still stands, and many inscriptions in Greek and Latin carvedby ancient visitors on its huge legs and base confirm the testimony ofPausanias as to the mysterious sound. From Egypt our author seems tohave journeyed across the desert to the oasis of Ammon, for he tells usthat in his time the hymn which Pindar sent to Ammon was still to beseen there carved on a triangular slab beside the altar. Nearer home headmired the splendid fortifications of Rhodes and Byzantium. Though hedoes not describe northern Greece, he had visited Thessaly, and had seenthe blue steaming rivulet rushing along at the foot of the ruggedforest-tufted mountains that hem in like a wall the pass of Thermopylaeon the south. He appears to have visited Macedonia, and perhaps, too,Epirus; at least he speaks repeatedly of Dodona and its oracular oak,and he mentions the sluggish melancholy rivers that wind through thedreary Thesprotian plain and that gave their names to the rivers inhell. He had crossed to Italy and seen something of the cities ofCampania and the wonders of Rome. The great forum of Trajan with itsbronze roof, the Circus Maximus—then probably the most magnificentbuilding in the world—and the strange beasts gathered from far foreignlands, seem to have been the sights which most impressed him in thecapital of the world. In the Imperial Gardens he observed with curiositya tusk which the custodian assured him had belonged to the Calydonianboar; and he noticed, doubtless with less pleasure, the great ivoryimage of Athena Alea which Augustus had carried off from the statelytemple of the goddess at Tegea. In the neighbourhood of Rome thebubbling milk-white water of Albula or Solfatara, as it is now called,on the road to Tibur, attracted his attention, and beside the sylvanlake of Aricia he appears to have seen the grim priest pacing sword inhand, the warder of the Golden Bough. The absurd description he gives ofthe beautiful and much-maligned Strait of Messina would suffice to provethat he never sailed through it. Probably like most travellers comingfrom the East he reached Italy by way of Brundisium. Of Sardinia he hasgiven a somewhat full description, but without implying that he hadvisited it. Sicily, if we may judge by a grave blunder he makes inspeaking of it, he never saw.
At Ano-Phanari I heard of remains of an ancient fortress in theneighbourhood, and set off with a guide to visit them. A walk of a fewminutes in a north-easterly direction brought us to the top of themountain, where the remains are to be seen. The situation is aremarkably fine one. Precipices descending towards the sea encircle thesummit on the north and north-east, and the views across the SaronicGulf to Aegina, Salamis, and Megara are magnificent. Some mediaevalremains, comprising walls and two or more ruined chapels, are to be seenon the summit, and on its southern side, towards the village, there is aruined fortification wall built of large irregular blocks. Thus theancient fortress which occupied this commanding situation appears tohave been repaired and inhabited in the Middle Ages. What the name ofthe place was in antiquity we do not know.The villagers called my attention to several holes in the rocks betweenthe fortress and the village from which streams of warm air issue. Theair from one of the holes was hot enough to warm me, though the morningwas cold. In this particular hole, too, I could hear a rumbling sound asof water boiling or wind blowing underground.
Ten or twelve minutes beyond the mill the horses are left and thetraveller sets forward on foot. As we advance the glen grows wilder andmore desolate, but for the first half-mile or so it is fairly open, thetrack keeps close to the bed of the stream, and there is no particulardifficulty. A deep glen now joins the glen of the Styx from thesouth-east. Here we begin to ascend the slope and cross an artificialchannel which brings down water to the mill. All pretence of a path nowceases, and henceforward till we reach the foot of the waterfall thereis nothing for it but to scramble over rocks and to creep along slopesoften so steep and precipitous that to find a foothold or handhold onthem is not easy, and stretching away into such depths below that it isbest not to look down them but to keep the eyes fixed on the ground atone’s feet. A stone set rolling down one of these slopes will be heardrumbling for a long time, and the sound is echoed and prolonged by thecliffs with such startling distinctness that at first it sounds as if arock were coming thundering down upon the wayfarer from above. In theworst places the guides point out to the traveller where to plant hisfeet and hold him up if he begins to slip. Shrubs, tough grass, and hereand there a stunted pine-tree give a welcome hold, but on the steepestslopes they are wanting. The last slope up to the foot of the cliff—avery long and steep declivity of loose gravel which gives way at everystep—is most fatiguing. As I was struggling slowly up it with theguides, we heard the furious barking of dogs away up the mountains onthe opposite side of the glen. The barking came nearer and nearer, andbeing echoed by the cliffs had a weird impressive sound that suited wellwith the scene, as if hell-hounds were baying at the strangers who daredto approach the infernal water. However, the dogs came no nearer thanthe foot of the slope up which we were clambering, and some shouts andvolleys of stones served to keep them at bay.
The gorge may be said to be divided in two at the village of Divritsa,where the mountains recede a little from the river, and the scenery ofthe two parts is somewhat different. In the first half, ending a littleabove the village of Divritsa, the river sweeps round the base of highsteep mountains, which on the south side of the gorge are wooded totheir summits and broken every now and then by a profound glen, thesides of which are also wooded from top to bottom. The mountains on thenorth side are in general not wooded, but bare or overgrown with bushes.This would detract from the beauty of the scenery if the path ran on thesouth side of the gorge, from which the barer slopes of the mountains onthe north would be visible. As it is, the path runs along the steepsides of the mountains on the north side, and the eye rests continuallyon the mighty wall of verdure that rises on the other side of the river.I had the good fortune to traverse this wonderful gorge on a brightOctober day, when the beautiful woods were just touched here and therewith the first tints of autumn. Far below the river was seen and heardrushing along, now as a smooth swirling stream of opaque green waterwith a murmurous sound, now tumbling, with a mighty roar, down greatrocks and boulders in sheets of greenish-white foam.
LXXXVII. DELPHI.—The site of Delphi, till lately occupied by the modernvillage of Kastri, is in the highest degree striking and impressive. Thecity lay at the southern foot of the tremendous cliffs of Parnassus,which form a sheer wall of rock, about eight hundred feet high. Overthese frightful precipices Philomelus drove some of the defeatedLocrians. Just at the angle where this vast wall of rock bends roundtowards the south it is rent from top to bottom by a deep and gloomygorge, some twenty feet wide, where there is a fine echo. Facing eachother across this narrow chasm rise two stupendous cliffs, whose peakedsummits tower considerably above the rest of the line of cliffs. Theyare nearly perpendicular in front, and perfectly so where they fallsheer down into the gorge. The eastern of the two cliffs was calledHyampia in antiquity; from its top Aesop is said to have been hurled bythe Delphians. It has been suggested, though perhaps without sufficientreason, that when the later writers of antiquity, especially the Romanpoets, speak of the two summits of Parnassus, they are really referringto these two cliffs. In point of fact the cliffs are far indeed frombeing near the summit of Parnassus; but seen from Delphi they completelyhide the higher slopes of the mountain. In winter or wet weather atorrent comes foaming down the gorge in a cascade about two hundred feethigh, bringing down the water from the higher slopes of the mountain. Atthe mouth of the gorge, under the eastern cliff, is the rock-cut basinof the perennial Castalian spring, a few paces above the highway. Thewater from the spring joins the stream from the gorge, which, afterpassing over the road, plunges into a deep rocky lyn or glen, which ithas scooped out for itself in the steep side of the mountain. Down thisglen the stream descends to join the Plistus, which flows along thebottom of the Delphic valley from east to west, at a great depth belowthe town.

 

References to Sound in Pausanias’ Description of Greece

Posted on by kristinawolfemusic

Part of my research into sound involves going into texts and looking for descriptions of acoustic events.  There are not many of these in everyday writings (and even fewer the farther back in time you go).  Small selected quotes like the ones below can help contextualise the perception of sound (or at least a culturally acceptable account of a sound experience from the writer or the imagined perspective of the ‘character’). Over the next few posts I will simply paste these quotes.  They are interesting to me and I will be examining them in detail, but I am sharing them because they might be interesting to others as well.

Pausanias’ Description of Greece is a “lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from his first-hand observations.” (wiki)

 

There is also a building called the Erechtheum. Before the entrance is an altar of Supreme Zeus, where they sacrifice no living thing ; but they lay cakes on it, and having done so they are for- bidden by custom to make use of wine. Inside of the building are altars : one of Poseidon, on which they sacrifice also to Erechtheus in obedience to an oracle ; one of the hero Butes ; and one of Hephaestus. On the walls are paintings of the family of the Butads. Within, for the building is double, there is sea-water in a well. This is not very surprising, for the same thing may be seen in inland places, as at Aphrodisias in Caria. But what is remarkable about this well is that, when the south wind has been blowing, the well gives forth a sound of waves ; and there is the shape of a trident in the rock. These things are said to have been the evidence pro- duced by Poseidon in support of his claim to the country.
1. In the city there is a water-basin : it was built by Theagenes, with regard to whom I have already mentioned that he gave his daughter in marriage to Cylon the Athenian. This Theagenes, having made himself tyrant, built the water-basin, which is worth seeing for its size, its decorations, and the number of its columns. Water flows into it, called the water of the Sithnidian nymphs. The Megarians say that the Sithnidian nymphs are natives of the country ; that Zeus had an intrigue with one of them ; and that Megarus, a son of Zeus and this nymph, escaped from Deucalion’s flood to the tops of Mount Gerania, which up to that time had not borne the name of Gerania, but then received it, because Megarus in swimming followed the cries of some flying 2 cranes (geranoi). 2. Not far from this water-basin is an ancient sanctuary : at the present day statues of Roman emperors stand in it, also a bronze image of Artemis surnamed Saviour. They say that some men of the army of Mardonius, after scouring the Megarian territory, wished to make their way back to Mardonius at Thebes, but by the will of Artemis night overtook them on the way, and missing the road, they strayed into the mountainous part of the country. To try if a hostile army was near, they shot some bolts which, striking the neighbouring rock, gave out a mournful sound, whereat the archers redoubled their exertions. At last their arrows 3 were spent in shooting at imaginary foes : day began to break : the Megarians came down on them, and, fighting in armour against men who had no armour and but few missiles, they slaughtered most of them. For this the Megarians had an image made of Saviour Artemis. Here, too, are images of the Twelve Gods, as they are called : they are said to be works of Praxiteles, but the image of Artemis was made by Strongylion.
The Megarians have yet another acropolis, which takes its name from Alcathous. On the right of the ascent to this acropolis is the tomb of Megareus, who, at the time of the Cretan invasion, came from Onchestus to fight for the Megarians. There is also shown a hearth of the gods who are called Prodomeis (‘ builders before ‘), and they say that Alcathous first sacrificed to them when he was about to begin building the wall. Near this hearth is a stone, on which they 2 64 MEGARA bk. i. attica say that Apollo laid down his lyre when he was helping Alcathous to build the wall. Another proof that Megara belonged to the Athenians is this : Alcathous appears to have sent his daughter Periboea with Theseus to Crete in payment of the tribute. When he was building the wall, as the Megarians say, Apollo helped him in the work, and laid down his lyre on the stone ; and if any one chance to hit the stone with a pebble, it sounds exactly like a lyre
3 that is struck. 2. This surprised me; but what surprised me far more than anything was the Colossus of the Egyptians. At Thebes, in Egypt, when you have crossed the Nile to the Tunnels (Sziringes), as they are called, you come to a seated image which gives out a sound. Most people name it Memnon ; for they say that Memnon marched from Ethiopia to Egypt and onward as far as Susa. The Thebans, however, say that the image represents, not Memnon, but a native called Phamenoph. I have also heard some people allege that it is Sesostris. This image Cambyses cut in two ; and now the part from the head to the middle of the body is thrown down ; but the rest of it remains seated, and every day at sunrise it rever- berates ; and the sound may be best likened to the breaking of the string of a lute or lyre.
There is also another temple, and statues stand all round it. 9 This temple is opposite the one of Chthonia : it is called the temple of Clymenus, and here they sacrifice to him. For myself I do not believe that Clymenus was an Argive who came to Hermion : the name is a title of the god who is said to reign underground. Beside the temple of Clymenus there is another temple with an image of Ares. 6. On the right of the sanctuary of Chthonia is a 10 colonnade called by the natives the Colonnade of Echo : if you speak, the echo repeats the words at least thrice. 7. Behind the temple of Chthonia are places, one of which the Hermionians call the place of Clymenus, another the place of Pluto, and the third the Acherusian Lake. All of them are enclosed by stone walls. In the place of Clymenus there is a chasm in the earth, through which Hercules, as the Hermionians tell the tale, dragged up the hound of hell. 8. At the gate, through which a straight road leads 11 to Mases, there is a sanctuary of Ilithyia within the city wall. They propitiate the goddess on a great scale daily with sacrifices and incense ; and besides all this a vast number of votive offerings are made to her. But no one, unless perhaps the priestesses, is allowed to see the image.
Egypt. 7. It is strange in any case that a man should have no 16 respect for the god of Olympia, and should give or take a bribe for the contest ; but it is stranger still that one of the Eleans themselves should have dared to do so. It is said, however, that Damonicus, an Elean, did so dare in the hundred and ninety-second Olympiad. For Polyctor, son of Damonicus, was pitted against Sosander of Smyrna (whose father’s name was also Sosander), in the wrestling-match, and Damonicus was so exceedingly anxious for his son to be victorious that he bribed Sosander’s father. When this leaked 17 out the umpires imposed a fine. They did not, however, impose it on the sons, but visited their displeasure on the fathers, for it was they who were the wrong-doers. Images were made from the fine thus levied : one of them is set up in the gymnasium at Elis, the other in the Altis in front of the Painted Colonnade, as it is called, because anciently there were paintings on the walls. Some name it the Colonnade of Echo, for the echo repeats a word seven times or even oftener.
3 2. They resolved also to send a sacred envoy to Delphi. So they despatched Tisis, son of Alcis, because he was a man of the first quality, and was believed to be a great adept in divination. On his way back from Delphi he fell into an ambush which was laid for him by some Lacedaemonian soldiers belonging to the garrison of Amphea. As he would not submit to be taken prisoner, but stood on his defence, his enemies wounded him till a voice from the unseen 4 cried to them, ‘ Let go the bearer of the oracle.’ Tisis reached Ithome and reported the oracle to the king, and not long afterwards he died of his wounds. But Euphaes assembled the Messenians and laid the oracle before them :
I have also been told that the griffins are spotted like the pards, and that the Tritons speak with a human voice, though others say they blow through a pierced shell. Lovers of the mar- vellous are too prone to heighten the marvels they hear tell of by adding touches of their own ; and thus they debase truth by alloying it with fiction.
7 Alcamenes. Adjoining the sanctuary of Hercules are a gymnasium and a stadium, both named after the god. 5. Above the Chastener stone is an altar of Apollo, surnamed Apollo of the Ashes : it is made of the ashes of the victims. There is here a regular system of divination by means of voices : this mode of divination is, to my knowledge, more employed by the people of Smyrna than by any other Greek people ; for at Smyrna also there is a sanctuary of the Voices out- side the walls, above the city.
3 out to copy Orpheus, followed his example. They say that Eleuther won a Pythian victory by his strong sweet voice alone, for the song was not his own. It is said, too, that Hesiod was excluded from the competition because he had not learned to accompany himself on the lyre. Homer came to Delphi to inquire of the oracle ; but even if he had learned to play the lyre, the loss of his sight 4 would have rendered the accomplishment useless. 3. In the third year of the forty-eighth Olympiad, in which Glaucias of Crotona was victorious, the Amphictyons offered prizes for minstrelsy as hitherto, and added competitions in flute -playing both with and without the accompaniment of the voice. The victors proclaimed were Melampus, a Cephallenian, in minstrelsy ; Echembrotus, an Arcadian, in singing to the flute ; and Sacadas, an Argive, in flute- playing. This same Sacadas was also victorious in the next two
5 from Alexandria in the Troad. 3. The people of this city of Alexandria say that Herophile was keeper of the temple of Sminthian Apollo, and that, in reference to Hecuba’s dream, she predicted in an oracle the things which we know came to pass. This Sibyl dwelt most of her life in Samos, but she also came to Clarus in the district of Colophon, and to Delos, and to Delphi ; and whenever she came 6 to Delphi, she used to stand on this rock and sing. However, she died in the Troad, and her tomb is in the grove of the Sminthian god with an elegiac inscription on the monument : Here am I, the plain-speaking Sibyl of Phoebus, Hidden under this tomb of stone ; A voiceful maiden once, now voiceless for ever, Here fettered by strong fate. But I lie under the sod near the Nymphs and this Hermes, As a reward for having kept the temple of the Far-Shooting god. The Hermes stands beside the tomb : it is a stone figure of the square shape. On the left there is water falling into a basin and chs. xii-xiii THE SIBYLS 517 images of the nymphs.
5. In the present acropolis is a sanctuary of Fortune of the 5 Height, and beyond it a sanctuary of the Dioscuri. The images both of the Dioscuri and Fortune are of wood. The theatre is built at the foot of the acropolis and on the stage of the theatre is the statue of a man with a shield. They say it represents Aratus, the son of Clinias. 6. Beyond the theatre is a temple of Dionysus : the image of the god is of gold and ivory, and beside it are female Bacchantes in white marble. [They say that these women are sacred and that they rave in honour of Dionysus.] The Sicyonians have other images which they keep secret ; but on one night every year they convey them from the Tiring-room, as- it is called, to the sanctuary of Dionysus, escorting them with lighted torches and the music of their native hymns. The image which they 6 name Bacchius, and which was set up by Androdomas, son of Phlias, leads the way, and it is followed by the image called the Deliverer, which was brought from Thebes by the Theban Phanes, at the bidding of the Pythian priestess. Phanes came to Sicyon at the time when Aristomachus, son of Cleodaeus, mistaking the meaning of the oracle, lost the chance of returning to Peloponnese. On the way from the sanctuary of Dionysus to the market-place there is on the right a temple of Artemis of the Lake. A glance shows that the roof of the temple has fallen ; but whether the image was carried elsewhere, or how it perished, they cannot tell.
11 8. On the right of Lycosura are the Nomian mountains, as they are called. There is a sanctuary of Nomian Pan on them, and they name the place Melpea, saying that here Pan invented the music of the pipe. It is most obvious to suppose that the Nomian Mountains were so called with reference to Pan’s pastures (nomai), but the Arcadians themselves say they are named after a nymph.
over the tomb, lest the Tithoreans should come and filch the precious earth; 1 that at Marathon every night the dead warriors rose from their graves and fought the great battle over again, while belated wayfarers, hurrying by, heard with a shudder the hoarse cries of the combatants, the trampling of charging horses, and the clash of arms. 2
7 6. At Marathon there is a mere, most of which is marshy. Into this mere the barbarians, ignorant of the roads, rushed in their flight, and it is said that this was the cause of most of the carnage. Above the mere are the stone mangers of the horses of Artaphernes, and there are marks of a tent on the rocks. A river flows out of the mere : near the mere the water of the river is good for cattle, but where it falls into the sea it is briny and full of sea-fishes. A little way from the plain is a mountain of Pan and a grotto that is worth seeing : its entrance is narrow, but within are chambers and baths, and what is called Pan’s herd of goats, being rocks which mostly resemble goats.
It would not be right for me to pass over the victories and 4 the other glories of the boxer Euthymus. By birth Euthymus was one of the Italian Locrians who own the country near Cape Zephyrium, and he passed for the son of Astycles. But his country- men say that his father was not Astycles, but the river Caecinus, which divides the lands of Locri and Rhegium, and is associated with the wonderful phenomenon of the grasshoppers. For the grass- hoppers in the Locrian territory, as far as the Caecinus, sing like any other grasshoppers, but across the Caecinus the grasshoppers in the Rhegian territory utter never a cheep. Of this river, then, it is said 5 that Euthymus was the son. Though he won a victory in boxing at Olympia in the seventy-fourth Olympiad, he was not to be equally successful in the next, for Theagenes, the Thasian, wishing to win victories in the same Olympiad both in boxing and the pancratium, beat Euthymus at boxing. But Theagenes could not win the wild olive in the pancratium, being exhausted by his contest with Euthymus.
1. Sixty furlongs from the springs of the Ladon is the city of Clitor. The road from the springs of the Ladon is a narrow defile beside the river Aroanius. At the city you will cross the river Clitor, which falls into the Aroanius not more than seven furlongs 2 from the city. Amongst the fish in the Aroanius are the so-called spotted fish. They say these spotted fish sing like a thrush. I saw them after they had been caught, but I did not hear them utter a chs. xix-xxn CLITOR STYMPHALUS 399 sound, though I tarried by the river till sunset, when they were said to sing most.
hey say that the Thracian women plotted his death, because he had persuaded their husbands to follow him in his roamings, but that they did not dare to carry out their plot for fear of their husbands ; how- ever, when they had drunk deep of wine, they did the deed, and from that time it has been the rule for the men to march to battle drunk. But some say that Orpheus was struck dead by the god with a thunderbolt on account of certain revelations which he had made to chs. xxix-xxx ORPHEUS 481 men at the mysteries. Others say that his wife died before him, 6 and that for her sake he went to Aornum in Thesprotis, where there was of old an oracle of the dead : he thought that the soul of Eurydice was following him, but having lost her by turning round to look at her, he put an end to himself for grief. The Thracians say that the nightingales that have their nests on Orpheus’ grave sing sweeter and stronger.
In after time, they say, Earth resigned her share to Themis, and Themis made a present of it to Apollo, and Apollo gave Poseidon the island of Calauria off Troezen in exchange for the oracle. I 7 have also heard that shepherds feeding their flocks lit upon the oracle, and that they were inspired by the vapour, and prophesied at the prompting of Apollo. 4. But the most generally received opinion is that Phemonoe was the first prophetess of the god, and first sang in hexameters. But Boeo, a woman of the country, in a hymn which she composed for the Delphians, says that the oracle of the god was instituted by Olen and others who came from the land of the Hyperboreans, and that Olen was the first to give oracles and sing in hexameters. The verses of Boeo run g thus : Here verily a mindful oracle was established By Pagasus and divine Agyieus, sons of the Hyperboreans ; u.nd in enumerating other Hyperboreans she names Olen at the end of the hymn : 506 DELPHIC TEMPLE bk. x. phocis And Olen, who was the first prophet of Phoebus, And first composed a song in ancient verses. But as far back as tradition goes it mentions no other man, but only women as the mouth-pieces of the oracle. 9 5. They say that the most ancient temple of Apollo was made of laurel, and that the boughs were brought from the laurel in Tempe. This temple must have been in the shape of a shanty. The Delphians say that the second temple was made by bees out of wax and feathers, and that it was sent to the Hyperboreans by 10 Apollo. Another story is that the temple was built by a man of Delphi named Pteras, and that hence the temple got its name from its builder. They say that a city in Crete was named Apteraei after this Pteras, with the addition of a letter. As to the story that they made a temple out of the fern that grows on the mountains by twining the stalks together while they were still fresh and green, 1 1 I do not admit it for a moment. Touching the third temple, it is no marvel that it was made of bronze, since Acrisius made a bronze chamber for his daughter; and the Lacedaemonians have a sanctuary of Athena of the Bronze House to this day ; and the Forum at Rome, a miracle of size and style, has a roof of bronze. So it cannot be improbable that Apollo should have had
3. The people of this city of Alexandria say that Herophile was keeper of the temple of Sminthian Apollo, and that, in reference to Hecuba’s dream, she predicted in an oracle the things which we know came to pass. This Sibyl dwelt most of her life in Samos, but she also came to Clarus in the district of Colophon, and to Delos, and to Delphi ; and whenever she came 6 to Delphi, she used to stand on this rock and sing. However, she died in the Troad, and her tomb is in the grove of the Sminthian god with an elegiac inscription on the monument : Here am I, the plain-speaking Sibyl of Phoebus, Hidden under this tomb of stone ; A voiceful maiden once, now voiceless for ever, Here fettered by strong fate. But I lie under the sod near the Nymphs and this Hermes, As a reward for having kept the temple of the Far-Shooting god.
In the temple there is an altar of Poseidon, because the possession of the oldest oracle was shared by Poseidon. There are also images of two Fates ; but instead of the third Fate there stand beside them an image of Zeus, Guide of Fate, and an image of Apollo, Guide of Fate. Here, too, you may see the hearth on which the priest of Apollo slew Neoptolemus, son of Achilles : the story of the death of Neoptolemus has been mentioned by me elsewhere. Not far from the hearth stands the chair of Pindar. It is of iron, and they say that whenever Pindar came to Delphi he used to sit on it and sing his songs to Apollo. Into the inmost part of the temple few enter : there is there another image of Apollo made of gold.

Getting Real-Time Microphone input into Wwise in Unity using the Ak Audio Input Plugin [SCRIPT]

Posted on by kristinawolfemusic

After years of forum posts, Wwise AkAudioInput and Unity can work together!!  In spite of these good tidings, the Wwise-Unity integration documentation on this does not show you how to use microphone input! Luckily, this script will do it for you.

I combine the script at the bottom of this page with routing through the native unity Audio Mixer to reduce/remove the effect of the Audio Source/Audio Listener volume.  Here is a video to show that it works which also shows the routing and ducking.

In Wwise:

This post assumes you know about wwise (or else why would you want a script?).  If new to wise, you can test this script:

  1. Set up a test wwise project
  2. Add an Audio Output sfx to an actor-mixer
  3. Add a really obvious effect like cathedral reverb to the Main Out (just to check and see if it is working)
    • I have tested this on the other effects and on Aux busses such as reflect and convolution reverb and it works also
  4. Make an event and Soundbank with the sfx on it
    • Follow this demo in wwise if you are still struggling

===============

In Unity:

This code is based off the Wwise-Unity integration documentation  and a Unity Microphone tutorial and combines the two (with some buffery stuff) to get the live unity microphone input to wwise for processing using a Unity Audio Source.  It plays both the live sound and the wwise processed sound.  Adjust the levels of each to suit your needs using the AudioMixer routing I have shown.  There should not be irritating latency.  Some possible causes of your latency:

  • A lot of processing in the game
  • the sample rate you input into the script is not the same as your input (i.e. your input is 48K and you put in 44.1K),
  • slow computer (if this is the issue switch to 16 bit audio)

Extremely important:

Ensure that under Edit -> Project Settings -> Audio, “Disable Unity Audio” is NOT checked 

Wwise checks this by default, because, well, you’re using wwise.

  1. Copy the code ‘MyMicrophoneInputBehaviour” script below and add it into your scene in Unity.
  2.  It is best if you have a mono microphone and interface where you can adjust, but a built-in mic is suitable for testing purposes.  In spite of the fact that Audiokinetic insists on mono 16 or 32 bit (float) noninterleaved, I have found it works fine with 24 bit stereo.  I can’t say why.
  3. Check to make sure you have loaded your bank and set up
  4. Remember to add both a Unity Audio Source and Audio Listener.
  5. Add all the wwise components that you would normally use.
  6. Make an audio mixer and route it just as you see here.  Make sure to route the Microphone Audio (MicrophoneInputBehaviour) and the Unity Audio Source through this mixer (unless you like a lot of raw microphone). Voila_Capture 2018-01-24_11-35-33_pm
  7. Press Play, and then Un-check Mute in the inspector! Look at the level meter in green
    • To save your ears, the script automatically sets the Audio Source to ‘MUTE’ on start.  Once you are confident in your levels and setup,  comment out “src.mute = true;” in the “start” function (or make a gui to mute/unmute)
    •  if you get horrible noises (like hypnotoad), check your sample rate/restart your interface/check your settings.  Even if you think you set it right the first time your computer may have changed things back or it never took.
    • If you get crackling (especially in a build), adjust the quality of your graphics/audio (i.e. go from 32 to 16 bit).  There are no many possible reasons for this cracking (as you can tell from a google search.).  I can’t tell you why your audio is crackling, but for me I solved it by switching to 16 bit and reducing the quality of my build.

COPY ALL OF THE CODE  BELOW


// Template code to adapt Unity microphone input to Wwise AkAudioInput

// Basic strategy is to call UnityEngine.Microphone.Start(), which begins periodic calls to OnAudioFilterRead in the Unity DSP audio processing thread (“producer thread“)
// and then to call AkAudioInputManager.PostAudioInputEvent(), which begins periodic calls to AudioSamplesDelegate in an AkAudioInputManager background thread (“consumer thread“)

// Microphone input samples are written to a buffer in OnAudioFilterRead (“producer function“)
// and read from the buffer in AudioSamplesDelegate (“consumer function“)

// IMPORTANT:  ensure that under Edit –> Project Settings –> Audio, “Disable Unity Audio“ is NOT checked

// This code was created for the MSCA VRAASP Project at the University of Huddersfield by Kristina Wolfe and Doug Swanson.  NOt for commercial use.

using UnityEngine;
using System;
using System.Threading;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine.Audio;

[RequireComponent(typeof(AudioSource))]
public class MyAudioInputBehaviour : MonoBehaviour
{
// 
public AK.Wwise.Event AudioInputEvent;

public AudioMixerGroup mixer;

// number of audio input channels (must be 1, since Audiokinetic only supports mono inputs)
public uint NumberOfChannels;

// sample rate of input signal in Hz (should be either 44100 or 48000)
public uint SampleRate;

// set to a reasonable value like 10 seconds
public uint BufferLengthInSeconds;

// used for recording microphone input
private AudioSource src;

// internal buffer of samples produced by microphone in OnAudioFilterRead and consumed by Wwise in AudioSamplesDelegate
private List<float> buffer = new List<float>();

// synchronizes access to buffer since OnAudioFilterRead and AudioSamplesDelegate execute in different threads
private Mutex mutex = new Mutex();

// can be used to stop recording at runtime
private bool IsPlaying = true;

// Wwise callback that sends buffered samples to Wwise (“consumer thread“)
bool AudioSamplesDelegate(uint playingID, uint channelIndex, float[] samples)
{
// acquire ownership of mutex and buffer
mutex.WaitOne();

// copy samples from buffer to temporary block
int blockSize = Math.Min(buffer.Count, samples.Length);
List<float> block = buffer.GetRange(0, blockSize);
buffer.RemoveRange(0, blockSize);

// release ownership of mutex and buffer (release mutex as quickly as possible)
mutex.ReleaseMutex();

// copy samples from temporary block to output array
block.CopyTo(samples);

// Return false to indicate that there is no more data to provide. This will also stop the associated event.
return IsPlaying;
}

// Wwise callback that specifies format of samples
void AudioFormatDelegate(uint playingID, AkAudioFormat audioFormat)
{
audioFormat.channelConfig.uNumChannels = NumberOfChannels;
audioFormat.uSampleRate = SampleRate;
}

private void Start()
{
// start Unity microphone recording (following http://www.kaappine.fi/tutorials/using–microphone–input–in–unity3d)
src = GetComponent<AudioSource>();
src.clip = Microphone.Start(null, true, (int) BufferLengthInSeconds, (int) SampleRate);
src.loop = true;
src.mute = true;
src.outputAudioMixerGroup = mixer;
while (!(Microphone.GetPosition(null) > 0)) { }
src.Play();
src.ignoreListenerVolume = true;

// start Wwise “consumer thread“
AkAudioInputManager.PostAudioInputEvent(AudioInputEvent, gameObject, AudioSamplesDelegate, AudioFormatDelegate);
}

// Unity callback on microphone input (“producer thread“)
void OnAudioFilterRead(float[] data, int channels)
{
// acquire ownership of mutex and buffer
mutex.WaitOne();

// copy samples to buffer (de–interleave channels)
for (int i = 0; i < data.Length / channels; i++)
buffer.Add(data[i * channels]);

// release ownership of mutex and buffer
mutex.ReleaseMutex();
}

// This method can be called by other scripts to stop the callback
public void StopSound()
{
IsPlaying = false;
src.Stop();
Microphone.End(null);
}

private void OnDestroy()
{
AudioInputEvent.Stop(gameObject);
}
}