Chapter 8 - The Soundcard

When my son was 13 or 14 he come home after school and announced that: The voices in my head, have voices in their heads.

I have told this story at parties and gatherings and people find it amusing. However, I recall the expression on my sons face when he made the remark. He wasnt terribly amused at the discovery. The voices in his head, really did have voices. His remark startled me, and made me wonder if it was genetics. I wondered if he and I were the only ones.

The soundcard in your head has unlimited fidelity. The voice is flawless. Perfect voice synthesis. In fact for most of us, we never sense any separation at all between the voice and ourselves. We believe, in fact, that the voice in our head IS our self.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot of knowledge A. Einstein.

The FTU is a learning computer. Before the acquisition of language the sound card drivers werent loaded. The little icon sat in the dock, but that funky universal circle with a line

thought it appeared on top of the cute little speaker icon. No language no sound. When you started to acquire language, the sound card drivers auto-installed and you began to hear the inner voice. At first you were completely unaware that the FTU was in learning mode. But it was working in the background, compiling your voice print.

Voice recognition software on a PC has to learn your speech patterns. The more it learns, the more accurate it becomes. Eventually, it is able to detect the nuance of your speech patterns and memorize them. It is learning software. The voice in your head was built in a similar way. As the FTU looked at the phenomenal world around it, it ascribed names and labels to what it saw. It labeled each item, stored the sound file on the HD, and went about its merry way.

Because it has unlimited fidelity, the presence of the voice from the moment the sound drivers are installed, seems natural. It seems like it has always been there, but not so. If it had, we would have come sliding down the birthing shoot asking for a wet-wipe and a smoke. Yo Doc, what up with this bungi cord attached at the navel? Fortunately for all midwives and OBGYNs the sound card is not actuated prenatally.

So where does the synthesized voice come from? More importantly, what is it synthesized from? The answer can be illustrated in the way the soundcard samples, records and emulates sounds.

The principal of Sampling is used in developing the voices on the soundcard. Sampling is the process of recording a tiny sample of a particular sound, and embedding that sample into the silicon of the chip. Then, that sample is applied to output. In the MIDI world (Music Industry Digital Interface) these samples are referred to as Patches. Musicians select different patches to emulate different instruments. In the mEmail world, these samples come from your experience. There is the angry voice of your father, or mother, or sister or brother. You recorded it. You sampled it, and you used it to create the patch that the FTU assigns to angry incoming messages (also angry outgoing messages). There is also the voice of your third grade teacher (Mrs. Salazar) that was sweet and kind and reassuring. You assign this patch to the mEmail you get when something goes well. The voices in your head are the voices of past experience, all recorded, sampled and encoded for playback.

In the virtual world of the FTU, the voice assumes different qualities. Sometimes the voice can be calm and soothing. On the opposite end of the spectrum the synthesized voice can yell, shout, command, insult, and scream. All the voices are like filters, or effect processors. You have programmed all the functions of the synthesizer. What you may not have pondered is that these sound properties are coded into every mEmail.

When the FTU was first fresh out of the box, the voice synthesizer on the soundcard was simple and un-effected. It had not yet sampled, and learned to imbue the emotional voices of your teachers. It was calm and cool and quiet, spoke slowly and carefully. This voice is still the there. It is the original patch, the original sample.

In order to identify the base file, the authentic original voice, you have to perform a reductive process. You have to determine all the voices that are not the one pristine, clear conscious voice without filters or effects. Unfortunately over time, an entire library of voices has been developed. A selection of filters and effects have been applied. If you stop and listen you can become familiar with the voices and identify the voice assignments for each mEmail.

The other good news, is that the soundcard has a volume control. As you become more familiar with your model, you can dial back the sound, literally. You can run the volume test on the soundcard right now. Pretend for a moment that you just came back from the mailbox and you are going through the mail. You open up the account statement from your bank and you glance down the list of transactions. All of them make perfect sense until about half way down the page you start to see charges that are unfamiliar. You keep scanning. Charge after charge that you dont recognize. The amounts are adding up. You get to the bottom line, and there is no bottom line! You have had your identity stolen, and the thief has emptied your bank account. The incoming mEmail is short. The subject line is brief: Arrrggghh! Hit rewind. Replay that sound. Arrrggghh! Can you hear the patch that you have selected for this voice? Can you hear the volume level that you have assigned? Can you hear the inflection?

Lets start by rewinding the sound-bite and simply turning down the volume. Play the sound again in your own head and this time, and set the volume to 50%. Keep replaying the sound until the volume is adjusted. Amazing isnt it? You really do have control over the volume. Now, dial the volume all the way back so that you can just barely hear the sound. Play it again and listen

carefully. Still there, but just kind of in the background? Good. Now lets modify the patch.

The original patch, or default patch for a phrase like Arrrggghh! is probably one of those old patches you developed pretty early in your life. Mine was definitely sampled from my Dads Arrrggghh! Have you ever said to yourself: JeezI sound just like my dad (or mom) Have you noticed too, that the older you get, the more often this happens? Think about it, you have been refining and developing these patches for years. It isnt any wonder that the older you get, the more lifelike they have become.

So, lets replace the patch assigned to our Arrrggghh! file. Lets write another sound file to help us with this. Consider for a moment, that you just came home from school with the best report card of your life. You proudly present your report card to your mom and she says: Thats wonderful! Record the sample sound. Now go back and pick up the Arrrggghh!sound file. Enter the following command directly at the command line: <REPLACE> <PATCH 1> <WITH> <PATCH 2> <RETURN> Now listen to the Arrrggghh! sound file with the new patch. Totally different isnt it?

Understanding the programming of the FTU allows us to change parameters. We can literally change the volume and the quality of the voice that the system uses. Just like in the physical world of computing, it is a simple matter of changing the patch. Because the default patches that were previously assigned go way back to the beginning of the programming it takes a lot of repetition to write this code. It takes awareness. You have to listen to the mEmail, and before you delete it, reassign the patch. Then go to the drop down menu. Select the new patch. <SAVE> and youre done. You can even write a batch file for accomplishing this. Call it whatever you want. I call mine Voiceswitch.exe. When a pain in the butt mEmail comes in, especially in one of those Arrrggghh! situations, I execute the batch file and reassign the voice. As you get better at reading the incoming subject lines, you can reassign the voice even before you read the body of the mEmail.

Remember the basic principle of computing. Heat is bad. The FTU can overheat easily and the soundcard in particular can run hot. Reassigning to cooler patches allows the system to run more efficiently. Remember, less heat less wear. Less wear more ease of operation. Some of the old patches you have been assigning generate a lot of heat. Maybe its time to change some patches and lower the thermometer.