Why do you provide a Reference Tone?
The Reference Tone;
- this MP3 file <= right here
That tone is provided for your own listening safety.
It is the the sound of a rooster crowing, which is the opening sound to a song from Heavenly Music Corporation’s In a Garden of Eden. When I added this song into my Broadcast Pool, back in 1998 * Archival or thereabouts, I realized how startling this sound was, so I decided that it would become the loudest sound that will play on S E B.
So that means: If you calibrate the volume on your stereo so that you can sleep through this rooster’s crow, then you’ve got the perfect level for an overnight session. Adjust it to the point where the crowing grazes just below your level of attentiveness. As in, you hear it, but you aren’t stirred by it.
Reasonable Safety
Okay. So, yes … I have, on occasion, received e-mails from listeners who have heard something ‘startling’ on my station. Typical examples would be:
- Syntonic Research’s “Be-In”
(occasionally contains hippies with cymbals) - The Conet Project
(voices repeating numbers over and over in English, German, etc.) - The Ghost Orchid
(recordings of dead people, uh, speaking) - The lovely Billie Holiday
(powerful vocals in a low-fidelity, high-contrast medium) - My entire Samhain / Halloween Broadcast Disc
(which is intentionally freaky)
As well as other various odd sound effects.
I honestly don’t intend for S E B’s listeners to wake up during these songs… I play them merely to accentuate the overall mood of my stream. I invest significant time into equalizing the volume of songs like these so that they can ‘slide in’ under the Reference Tone.
On the Other Hand,
S E B can get very quiet at times, too, even through headphones. I mean, Richard Chartier’s Of Surfaces is practically inaudible.
Hella Ambient, sure. But, for real.