Monday, April 26, 2010

What is Good Swiftlets Sound?

( External sound has high pitch) *pictures taken from my Pc while doing Remix*

( Internal sound pitch is low with continuous low sequences. It's not the same when compares with External sound. To most it sounds the same. Many still can't differentiate between Internal sound and External sound)

I had received numerous calls regarding the effectiveness of Swiftlets sound for farm

The questions were…..What are considered good sound? How do we find good sound? How do we know the sound we bought is a good sound? What are the criteria of good sound? …. As usual the lists can go on. .

I hesitated and tried not to discuss too much about it, otherwise it would make those who had purchased many Cd sounds confuse and in dilemma whether what they had bought is worth to buy or which Cd amongst the whole bunch they have is really good.

These were the common questions asked by my readers and sometimes it takes me hours to explain to them. Since there so many of them interested to know and wanting to distinguish between good and poor Swiftlet sound, lets revisit what I had written in my previous articles on sound and further explain thoroughly.. Before that let’s have some clear picture of what is sound.

For humans, hearing (sound) is normally limited to frequencies between about 12 Hz and 20,000 Hz (20kHz), although these limits are not definite. The upper limit generally decreases with age. Other species have a different range of hearing. For example, animal like dogs can perceive vibrations higher than 20 kHz. As a signal perceived by one of the major sense is relative sensitive.

Sound is used by many species for detecting danger, navigation, predation, and communication. Many species, such as birds, marines and terrestrial mammals, have also developed special organs to produce sound. This is vital for survival.

Sound frequency is measured in Herz (Hz) or a thousand of Hz which is Khz. The frequency range of Swiftlet echolocation calls is between 1-16 kHz (fullard et al.,1993). These frequencies fall in the range of human hearing which is about 12-20,000Hz.

That is why we are able to hear the Swiftlet clicking sound in farms. Besides the clicking sound for navigation other sounds that are in high and low pitch are use to communicate and to socialize.

The low and high pitch chirping sound from Swiftlet represents certain socialize behavior, thus if you’re experience enough you would be able to distinguish these sounds. Thru my observation there are sound produced by Swiftlet for certain communication purposes. e.g.: the stress sound is produced to inform others about danger, female in heat creates sound during mating season, etc.

Besides that sounds are use for communicate and socialize during mating seasons. If a played sound consists of tones and pitches that associated with heating sound then during the mating season it would attract lots of birds to approach the source of sound thus entering the farm.

So knowing how to identify and distinguish good and poor sound is very important if you want birds to stay and make nests in your farm.

What is good sound? This frequently asked by my readers. A good sound should consist of high and low pitch (in term of frequency) specially set during recording of sound. It is just like tuning the timing of a car engine prior to racing. If the tuning is not done correctly or simply being tuned then the car performance would be jeopardized.

Don’t be mistaken by the “common sound” which is duplicated from one CD to another. It is being copied or burned. This is done without adjusting its frequencies and its pitches. Furthermore certain parts of unattractive sounds in common sound are not removed prior to editing and duplication and commonly copied and burned and sold to others or passes from one farm’s owner to another.

This is what I call “common sound”. I do not believe in using “common sound”. Every farm should have its identity and this make the farm unique. Using a “popular common sound” the chances are your neighbors might be using it too, perhaps in a roll of shop there are few farms using it. Therefore the uniqueness is gone. Immaterial how expensive the “common sound” is or how some claimed it to be good as long at an area there are more than few farms using the same sound then the uniqueness is gone. So the definition of common sound: A sound uses by many farms.

With many farms using the same sound the conditions of Sound Hypnotism will no longer works. It sounds foreign isn’t it? Have you all ever heard about sound hypnotism? I guess not. Those who are experience in Swiftlet sound knew what I meant. In fact sound hypnotism is not new, it has been there since sound system being employed into farm. It is a matter of how in-depth your knowledge in Swiftlet sound is otherwise sound hypnotism is totally foreign to you even though you may have collections of thousand of swiftlet Cd sound.

This is where the farm identity conditions and uniqueness (hypnotism) come in. Did you ever wonder why certain farms that have so many nests and birds perhaps ten of thousands yet when one build a farm next to this existing farm he is unable to attract birds from this old successful farms? Because the old farm has or indirectly conditioned the birds with it farm identity and uniqueness (hypnotism).

Did you ever wonder why those old Sifus always say never give or exchange your Switlet Cd sound with others”? Because once too many farms are using it then the sound would lose it uniqueness. I strongly believe in that.

A good sound should be carefully mixed with attractive sound of Swiftlet chirping. A combination of many different tunes of low and high pitch that can attract young birds as well as old birds to come into the farm to stay and to make nests.

In order to do this one must understand the interpretation of low and high pitch of the swiftlet chirping and it sequences. Every pitch low or high and it sequences represent certain communications. It’s more complex than we thought. This is beyond sound clarity and sharpness which is the basic of Swiftlet sound recording. Even if the sound of the Cd is very clear and sharp but if it doesn’t have the attractive pitches in it then sound hypnotism will not work.

When I do my sound recording and remix I make sure all the attractive sounds are put into a Cd and setting the right pitch for every chirping. All the Cd sounds that I remixed for my readers are the only copy none of them shared the same copy. All are labeled and recorded specially for every each farm. The purpose is to create uniqueness.

Well it is getting more complex here and I think those that are not well versed in Swiftlet farming might be confused.

That's all for now, anyway shall continue further about sound in my next article. (The Importance of Internal Sound)

Good farming All!

..If you are interested in the remixed Sound Pls call James:012-3173811