Jodi Krangle

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Percussion

Dangerous Beeps: An Interview With Michael Schutz – Part 2

January 26, 2022 by Jodi Krangle

“I think doctors use a term called modifiable risk factor, I’ve learned, because I talk to a lot of doctors now, and so there are some things we can modify and some things that we can’t. And so these alarm sounds are very much a modifiable risk factor, and we need to work together to figure out the better set of sounds to use and how to implement them. But it’s definitely something that we can do to improve, because I hope that when the time comes and I’m spending time in a hospital, or my parents are in the hospital, or people I care about, these kinds of things are in a better state. Because there’s no technical reason we have to be subject to this so-called ‘beeping hellscape.’” — Prof. Michael Schutz

 

This week we continue my interview with Associate Professor and MAPLE Lab director Michael Schutz as we talk about making a better hospital beep, the importance of turning scientific discovery into progress, and MAPLE Lab’s latest experiments on giving sounds more “pop”.

As always, if you have any questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes.  If you have questions for me, just visit www.audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find all sorts of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter (on the www.audiobrandingpodcast.com web page) will let you know when the new podcasts are available.

 

The Structure of Sound

We start the second half of the interview with a closer look at hospital alerts, how many more of them there are today, and why Dr. Schutz doesn’t see that trend changing anytime soon. “If we think about the whole device landscape in hospitals as sounds being an auditory interface,” he explains, “then the question becomes what’s the best way to structure the sound, not so that they’re most alarming, but so that they’re the most communicative.'”

 

All Over the World

Dr. Schutz explains the challenge and importance of turning scientific discoveries into genuine progress, and how even something as seemingly simple as updating the sound of hospital alerts can have far-reaching results. “Thinking a little bit more about how we can improve them with sound will have huge benefits,” he says, “because hospitals all over the world have many of these devices, and the number of devices is only increasing. So even a small change in the improvement in these can have a major impact on human health.”

 

The Bells and Whistles

“I think the language itself that we talk about the frills is revealing,” Dr. Schutz tells us., “If we’re talking about the things that are nice but not necessary, the literal term is bells and whistles: we’re talking about the things that produce sound.” We talk about how easy it is to overlook sound itself even while trying to improve the soundscape, and his lab’s latest research on innovative ways to make important auditory alerts stand out from the background noise without having to make them louder.

 

Episode Summary

  • Why hospital beeps are getting worse
  • Turning discoveries into reform and progress
  • How subtle changes can create a major impact
  • The overlooked importance of sound

 

Get your complimentary mini e-book and learn how to create your personalized and branded audio branding strategy with my Top Five Tips for Implementing an Intentional Audio Strategy.

Do you need a voice talent for your next project? Visit my voice-over website to find out more about how my voice can help you with your audio brand.  You can also subscribe to the Audio Branding Podcast on YouTube to watch the show’s latest episodes.

Please leave the Audio Branding Podcast a written review or a spoken review so others can find the show on their favorite podcast player!

This interview episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco.

 

Connect with Dr. Michael Schutz:

Website: www.michaelschutz.net

MAPLE Lab: www.maplelab.net

“Death By Beep” on TEDx Talks: https://youtu.be/Ap8geRll6F0/

Dr Schutz’s ScienceDirect Article on Improving Auditory Interfaces: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000368702100079X/

Follow Dr. Michael Schutz on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maplelab.mcmaster/

Connect with Dr. Michael Schutz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-michael-schutz/

Follow Dr. Schutz directly (@michael_schutz) and MAPLE Lab on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MAPLE_Lab/

Filed Under: Filmmaking & Sound Design, Research, Research & Technology, Sound Design Tagged With: Auditory Alarms, Beeps, Death By Beep, Hospitals, MAPLE Lab, McGurk Effect, McMaster University, Michael Schutz, Music Cognition, Percussion

Dangerous Beeps: An Interview With Michael Schutz – Part 1

January 19, 2022 by Jodi Krangle

“Ultimately the sound is almost irrelevant to the musical experience, with the important caveat that what matters about the sound is the psychological process it triggers in the mind of the listener. So it obviously plays an important role there, but what really matters is how it’s being perceived and how it’s being heard. So if there’s something like a gesture that can change the perception, then you have changed the music, because music is something that really exists only in the mind of the listener.” —  Prof. Michael Schutz

This episode’s guest is the Associate Professor of Music Cognition/Percussion at McMaster University.  Drawing on his interdisciplinary training in music, psychology, and computer science, he directs the MAPLE Lab, which researches Music, Acoustics, Perception, and Learning, while also conducting the McMaster Percussion Ensemble and serving on faculty at the Honors Music Institute in Pennsylvania.  Designated a “University Scholar” in recognition of his innovative merging of music performance and perception, he’s received the Ontario Early Researcher Award and the 2019 Alumni Award from the Penn State School of Music, as well as numerous grants to support his research. Before McMaster, he spent five years as Director of Percussion Studies at Longwood University, taught percussion at Virginia Commonwealth University, and performed frequently with symphonies.

His TEDx Talk “Death by Beep” is now available on the TED website and the below YouTube link. His name is Professor Michael Schutz and you’ll want to hear his suggestions about how to fix a very real problem that’s happening right now in hospitals all over the world.

As always, if you have any questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes.  If you have questions for me, just visit www.audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find all sorts of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter (on the www.audiobrandingpodcast.com webpage) will let you know when the new podcasts are available.

Listening to the Echoes

The show starts with Dr. Schutz recounting a memorable early experience with sound, how he first discovered the mystery of echoes as a child by dropping his lunchbox and listening to the sound bounce off a neighbor’s house, and then the day that he received his first drum set, a Rototom that sparked his passion for music. “I just remember,” he recalls, “at the moment thinking that there’s something really fascinating about these percussive musical sounds.”

Questions of Psychology

We continue with his introduction to psychology, and how his early skepticism about the importance of body language while playing the marimba gave way to the understanding that music and psychology have a lot in common, and that in some ways music stands at the forefront of psychology. “I realized,” he tells us, “that a lot of the things that we spend a lot of time exploring as musicians are, essentially, you can think about them as questions of psychology.”

Magic Between the Ears

Dr. Schutz goes on to talk about the McGurk Effect, a dramatic example of how what we’re seeing can quite literally change the way we perceive sound, and the surprisingly complex and active role that the listener plays in a musical performance. “Music is something that really exists only inside the mind of the listener,” he explains. “Outside our minds, it’s a bunch of sound waves, a bunch of air molecules bumping together. The magic happens between the ears.”

A Musical Perspective

The first part of our interview concludes with a look at the limitations of audio research and how his team is working to bring a musical perspective into the medical field and find ways to reduce the stress, turmoil, and even accidental deaths that hospital alarms can still cause. “The medical technology’s advanced incredibly over the past half-century,” he says, “but the sounds seem to be stuck with these limitations that went out of date decades ago.”

Episode Summary

  • Dr. Schutz’s childhood sounds and first drumkit
  • The link between music and psychology
  • The McGurk Effect and how sight affects sounds
  • How the listener’s brain creates music
  • Creating a better, safer hospital alarm

Be sure to check back next week for part two as we talk about the prevalence of those flat hospital beeps throughout our lives, the effect they can have on us, and how Dr. Schutz and MAPLE Lab are working to help create a healthier, more natural medical soundscape.

Get your complimentary mini e-book and learn how to create your personalized and branded audio branding strategy with my Top Five Tips for Implementing an Intentional Audio Strategy.

Do you need a voice talent for your next project? Visit my voice-over website to find out more about how my voice can help you with your audio brand.  You can also subscribe to the Audio Branding Podcast on YouTube to watch the show’s latest episodes.

Please leave the Audio Branding Podcast a written review or a spoken review so others can find the show on their favorite podcast player!

This interview episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco.

Connect with Dr. Michael Schutz:

Website: www.michaelschutz.net

MAPLE Lab: www.maplelab.net

“Death By Beep” on TEDx Talks: https://youtu.be/Ap8geRll6F0/

Dr Schutz’s ScienceDirect Article on Improving Auditory Interfaces: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000368702100079X/

Follow Dr. Michael Schutz on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maplelab.mcmaster/

Connect with Dr. Michael Schutz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-michael-schutz/

Follow Dr. Schutz directly (@michael_schutz) and MAPLE Lab on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MAPLE_Lab/

Filed Under: Filmmaking & Sound Design, Research, Research & Technology, Sound Design Tagged With: Auditory Alarms, Death By Beep, Hospitals, MAPLE Lab, Marimba, McGurk Effect, McMaster University, Michael Schutz, Music Cognition, Percussion

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