Thank god for Gregorian Chant...

[julesjones]

Over the last couple of months, I've been noticing low frequency hum on and off, mostly at night but occasionally in the day. At first it was so quiet I thought it might be tinnitus. But for the last few days it's been 24/7 and loud enough to be noticeable even when I open the window to let in traffic noise to mask it. I'm pretty sure it's a major factor in my poor sleep the last few nights, and I now understand why at least one person was driven to suicide by the Bristol Hum.

I can't work with this going on; it's too distracting. And so I have resorted to a technique from my student days, when I was living in a building with people who thought that it was perfectly reasonable to have the top 40 on very loudly at all hours that it wasn't explicitly banned by the college, because the beautiful people never bothered to study, only spods did that. I have got out my CD of Gregorian chant which I bought years ago specifically as white noise to mask other people's taste in music, and put it in the laptop's CD drive.

The volume is even, the emotional tone is too, and I don't speak Latin so I don't listen to the words. It doesn't distract me, to the point where I have owned this CD for two decades and have no conscious idea what most of the tracks actually sound like because I tune them out. Bliss...

ETA: There's a hell of a lot of pseudoscience about LFN, but there's also a solid study on measuring LFN from the University of Salford done for Defra in 2005:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/noise/research/lowfrequency/pdf/nanr45-criteria.pdf
2003 literature survey for Defra: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/noise/research/lowfrequency/pdf/lowfreqnoise.pdf

Comments

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Gregorian chant is lovely... Very soothing.

I also find those 'rainforest' type CDs, godawful in most other respects, also provide good background fill. I can't have music on when I'm working, because I think music deserves respect. If you're going to play it you should at least listen to it! However rainforest CDs don't come under my heading of 'music' they are 'pleasant noise'. You can put them on a loop and listen endlessly because your brain doesn't even register the fact that you've heard it all before.

Re the constant ear noise. You have been and had it checked out medically, right? You need to rule out the fact that it's internal.

[julesjones]

watervole has a set of three "natural noise" CDs that I've been meaning to buy for a while. I think it just got bumped up the priority list -- I'll phone her this afternoon and ask for the catalogue number.

I need to get it checked, though I also need to register with a GP so that I can do that. Tinnitus isn't completely out of the question, given my job history, though it's unlikely because I was always careful about hearing protection. But this is very definitely building related (which is characteristic of low frequency hum, as I've found out this morning) -- it was loud enough yesterday and other noise was quiet enough yesterday that I was able to do a survey.

[supermouse.livejournal.com]

If you need a break, come here. We have good access to public transport and a kitchen table that is usually free of things, and another table upstairs also free of things. If you don't want active company (I am a poor entertainer of people a lot of the time) you are very welcome.

Alternatively, libraries are good.

[julesjones]

Thanks, much appreciated. I can take refuge at kalypso_s's if necessary, but somewhere else to go will be useful.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

I have several "CD"s of Gregorian Chant (and one of Buddhist Chant)

but the current Gregorian Chant CD on the iPod would probably not suit you ... it's Gregorian Chant versions of Rock Ballads

Everything I do, I do it for you
Winds of Change
To be with you
Love Hurts
I want to know what love is
Storm warnings
Beth
Is this love
Tears in Heaven
Nothing else matters
I won't hold you back
I'm not in love

Arghh! Particularly it's mostly just a reasonably clear single voice (or few voices singing in unison) fed through chorus to thicken them up and then stuck in a cathedral echo, over a bad pub version of the instrumental versions of the song. Only recommended if you're having a "oh, I have a worse CD than that" contest :-)

Oh, and Tinnitus, there are various and sundry explanations for it, not just loud music when you were young. One of which is twisty ear canals (which may be where mine comes from). So worth getting checked out anyway.

Good luck!

[artela.livejournal.com]

Looking at that list of tracks you're talking about the group Gregorian Chant - have you seen the stage show?

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

There's a group called "Gregorian Chant"?

It looked interesting on the torrest site and now I've listened to it, I don't think I'll be listening to it again. Not terribly good voices, electronically processed over not particularly inspiring arrangements. Not what I was expecting and less than I require. Sorry if they are a favourite group of yours .... is there a track on there I should go back to and give a second chance?

I hope the live show is better :-)

[artela.livejournal.com]

They're actually called "Gregorian", and they aren't a favourite group of mine, although a bunch of guys dressed as monks doing gregorian chant versions of popular songs was quite fun :-)

I only know of them because friends of ours quite liked tham and subjected us to the DVD of the live show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-M_ZMCJhTo

[communicator.livejournal.com]

I was surprisingly disappointed with the Buddhist chant I bought, compared to Gregorian chant. I like Hildegard of Bingen more than either.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

I went with clare_nce to a Hildegard of Bingen performance at the Proms a few years back ... indeed, it's a lot better than quite a bunch of stuff that's available from companies hoping to make a quick buck from "gregorian/buddhist/native american" chant.

[lisabea.livejournal.com]

Unless it's the singing whale that is my furnace, I don't usually notice those things. A friend was over one day and after an hour of coffee and gossip, she says,"Lisa what the hell is that noise?" I'm all, "Noise? Huh?" And she starts creeping around the house.Checking things out. Turns out some stupid decorative plate on the wall was vibrating (with the furnace) and the spring holding it up was producint this high frequency humming noise. I had never once heard it. Until it stopped.

Something in the house perhaps?

[julesjones]

This has been disturbing me because it's an irregular throbbing rather than a steady hum, and my hindbrain insists on tagging it as a potential threat. Irregular throbbing is *not* entertaining in this context, however much so it may be in others. :^)

Block of flats, which is why I wasn't entirely convinced that it wasn't someone else's stereo or fridge to begin with. But yesterday it was loud enough during the day to go on a mapping expedition, and it was the same volume on every landing in a four floor block. So I think that if it's external noise rather than something generated in my nervous system, it's something about the building itself. I think I'll go round to kalypso_v's the next time it gets bad, and see if I can hear it there -- she lives about a mile from me, so if it's my CNS or a local area thing I'll probably hear it, and if it's some weird resonance in the building, I won't.

Having read through the Defra reports I linked to, I'm not amused. My experience fits the profile of real LFN sensitivity very well, with the exception that I'm ten years younger than the typical age profile. I'll go and bug the doctor for an auditory test, but this is starting to look like real external LNF.