Please note: all blogs are transcripts of the accompanying YouTube video published on the same day. Please scroll to the bottom to view the video. Today’s episode will not be converted to a podcast episode but feel free to visit the podcast here.
If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration -Nikola Tesla
I am no audio expert. I won’t even claim to be. I am learning. And, no, I am not using the SADIE system for this audio experiment as the title may indicate. I’m Sadie Alexa Knight, I produce audiobooks since June 15 2021. It’s now almost March 2022 and I’ve narrated over 40 audiobooks, many of which are already published. I love it. I literally had an itch to do it and dove right in. There was no dipping a toe in first to test the waters. I took it on myself and learned myself using the learning techniques that suit me best. I learn best by starting at the trunk of the tree, so by familiarizing myself with the big picture. Then, I list my questions and organize into categories. At which point, I then researching each category until I feel comfortable before moving onto the next. During learning the big picture (or the tree trunk first), of course branches sprout. During my learning process, in which I attacked various angles of audio, my mind was blown away. Since my mind is so blown away, please excuse the length of this video. See timestamp at 12:50 to go straight to the audio experiment section where I’ll be boosting the frequencies of a passage using the Solfeggio scale.
This auditory journey went from a lifetime of compliments on my voice coupled with my love of books. I also hated the mainstream expectations of Monday through Friday 8 to 5. So I jumbled it all together and became an audiobook producer. Without delving too deep, I had a real shit childhood. There was lots of darkness and I was in a constant state of anxiety. To get away, I read about places I wanted to be and people I wish I could become. I then turned to writing and that escape took me further. Not really having a voice growing up, I developed a softer, thinner voice without much saturation. Audio people, this makes sense to you. My love for reading and my nice voice (sorry if that sounds conceited!) led me to the world of audiobook narration. And although most narrators would just stop at learning how to meet the specs to get the files to pass through for publication, I went further. I wanted to know why my voice sounded the way it did, where the issues and perks were, and what I could do to produce a better file for the clients who were paying me. I see clients paying me as exchanging the value I can offer with the labor that takes away from their own dreams and family and takes food from the mouths of their own. It means a lot to me. I knew my files weren’t the best. My goal is to make them the best.
So, I started off with a focus on passing file specifications to get the book I was narrating published- peak, RMS and noise floor. So, I first learned to record using a free software- Audacity- and setting myself up there. This preparation stage sent me down a hallway of mics (dynamic vs condenser, and large-diaphragm vs small, XLR vs USB) and interfaces (vs mixers). This led me to learning input gain which led me to EQ, Compression, thresholds, ratios, attack and decay, Effects, wet and dry tracks. This brought me deeper into the rabbit hole to other DAWs where I could sweep the EQ which led me to researching what all those bands on the multiband compressor actually do. This tunneled me down further to mic patching, busses, sample and bit rates, looping. All this brought me to the headbanging experience of converting a 48k wav file to a 41k MP3 until I finally found iTunes for conversion.
Of course, I then dove into the anatomy of a waveform, the spectogram, plot analysis spectrum, formants, intensity levels. Then, naturally, after that, some linguistics, fricatives, the cardinal vowels, speech analysis came into play. I studied Praat software thanks to a YouTube Channel ‘Listen Lab’. Side note: the man who runs that channel is a professor at the University of Michigan and is a genius when it comes to speech acoustics. I studied where certain letters sat on the frequency spectrum. This then prompted me to recognize the relationship between sound (I.e.- energy, frequency) and mathematics. Synethesia suddenly made perfect sense. Tibetan Singing Bowls were no longer just cool bowls that sang. Now I understand what that song was all about. I finally understood what binaural beats were besides just being beats you hear binaurally. I then learned more in depth about Nikola Tesla, one of my few heroes- and what exactly he knew that we didn’t about that quote- energy and frequencies and understanding life. I’d heard of the Solfeggio Scale but I hadn’t really known what it was so I then looked into that. This concept brought me to so many places I wish I could stay forever. The Solfeggio concept was already in the realm I was living in currently- a place of spirituality and healing.
Solfeggio replaced with the modern day Twelve-tone Equal Temperament. These frequencies aren’t really considered healing. They’re quite bogging and some would even call them toxic. Losing touch with those magical frequencies, no wonder societys collective panties are in a bunch. On my own personal journey, as I mentioned prior- I had a shit life. I’m not ‘woe is me’ but, rather, I’ve been finding my own avenues of relief. The woes started at birth but reared their ugly head in early 2018. That year consisted of a deep depression and addiction, to homelessness, heartbreak, separation, suicide, then counseling, self-reflection, and a journey of walking my own path backward to better understand why the things that took me down in 2018 were allowed to shake me so hard. I went back to my roots, my childhood. I’m still kind of healing in that place and I admit it’s a scary place for me. I’ve even quit smoking cigarettes. But, something was lacking.
I still felt an imbalance so I knew I had to go deeper and have taken huge efforts to heal my mind and my heart. I’ve accepted that this effort will be a lifelong part of my life. I’ve done the outward work, the internal work, now I have to focus on the more spiritual, deeper, healing aspects that we can’t see or feel intensely in a way that we notice it. I’m doing sound healing. My niece is my love-bug and those familiar with this channel know the extent and depth of my love for her. I play Suduaya for her. He’s a French guitarist who does psyambient trance music. She loves it. We also enjoy most classical music. Her brain is young. She’s only four. She has a lot of development. A lot of benefit from this type of music and frequencies will help the synapses in her brain fire properly and will help develop parts of her brain that are undeveloped in modern society.
All this contemplation has led me to do a subtle experiment with what basic audio abilities I currently have. I wondered what it would do, if anything, if I took a passage of narration and kept it raw (with noise reduction, of course) but only boosted the frequencies on the Solfeggio scale. 6 notes on the Solfeggio, so 7 different readings of the same passage, each one boosted only at one of the Solfeggio frequencies. This would be comprised of the first reading without any boosts and the 6 readings thereafter boosted at a particular Solfeggio frequency. Will it make a difference? Will it make you feel different things? What if I just played each without telling you which frequency I boosted? Note your feelings for each entry and close your eyes. Music, harmony, frequency/energy is intended to not only be heard but felt. Feel the words and frequencies.
Also, take note that sound healing is widely used. There are even certain areas of the body correlate to a hertz when it comes to healing. An example is 30-100 Hz increasing cognitive functions in the brain and ultrasound, high frequency sound, being used to treat ailments such as chronic pain although, ironically, the ultra sound frequencies can also damage hearing. Even ailments, like depression, can be zoned into a certain frequency range.
My strange Sadie hypothesis is that, based on what I know about the frequency ranges, lower-vibration humans operate at a Hz lower than around 100 Hz, or even in the sub-bass range of 20-60 +/- Hz because this range is felt more than heard; it has a sense of power to it. Sensitive people can feel the energy of that pissed-off coworker or friend who had a shit day. The reason I speculate this is toxic humans would be rumbly, noisy, buzzzzzey, an inner energy and intent of not wanting to share the warnth. To go a bit further, I could see a low-vibrational human vibing at around 250- 500 +/- Hz, too, based on that area being a bit muddy-sounding when boosted. So I could imagine if a person has a lot of negative energy around them, as in ‘boosted’, their ‘song’ would be muddy, bordering on honky. Also, if you envision the loudness scale, the lower you are, there’s all these other frequencies on top of you. That’d be muddy, like a person bogged down. Yet the higher-vibing peeps are floating, like on Cloud 9 like the saying goes.
Enlightened humans would vibrate on a frequency of light, so the sparkle/bright/airy zone. When you get to around 6/7 kHz and higher, there’s clarity, brilliance, presence. I could see the ones on their way to awakening at 10kHz or above and the really enlightened ones at greater than 18 or 20k. Their energy-field would more outward, radiating from inside, a sharing of the light as opposed to a swallowing of it. They’d be floating, flying, all that air and room around them, less noisy frequencies to clog their spiritual pores. Ok, Audio folks, I am so sorry if that was like โwhat in the fuckeruck?โ This is mainly an INFJ channel who just happens to have an audiobook narrator as the person responsible. If something stirs an interest, I attack that shit at all angles and the research sends me down rabbit holes.
Before we begin, here are your Solfeggio notes, courtesy of the Benedictine Monk Guido D’Aresso; also known as โJust Intonationโ. As each passage plays, remember take notes on how it made you feel as you listened with your eyes closed.
Solfeggio Notes:
- 396 Hz- creates a strong magnetic field of energy which helps and gives power to achieve goals. Liberates guilt and fear. (noted: 21Hz difference from 417)
- 417 Hz- Wipes away negative energy or undoes situations that held negative outcomes (noted: 111 Hz difference from 528)
- 528 Hz- โthe miracle noteโ . Corresponds to the MI note (MI- ra gestorum; this means โmiracleโ in Latin). Self-healing, positive transformation (noted: 111 Hz difference from 639)
- 639 hz- attracts love and raises energy, the โlove frequencyโ. Balances emotion. (noted: 102 Hz difference from 741)
- 741 Hz- acts as a magnet to block out negative energy (anger, jealousy…) (noted: 111 Hz difference from 852)
- 852 Hz- a miracle tone for awakening intuition; helps one gain access to a higher energy source
One thing I noted in this chart is the most common difference in hertz between most of these scales is 111. Does 111 hold significance? Why?
This will probably be a flop with dialogue but here is today’s passage:
Of all endless variety of phenomena which nature presents to our senses, there is none that fills our minds with greater wonder than that inconceivably complex movement which, in its entirety, we designate as human life; Its mysterious origin is veiled in the forever impenetrable mist of the past, its character is rendered incomprehensible by its infinite intricacy, and its destination is hidden in the unfathomable depths of the future… -Nikola Tesla
Passage boosts: 1) raw, no boosts, 2) 528 Hz, 3) 852 Hz, 4) 741 Hz, 5) 396 Hz, 6) 417 Hz, 7) 639 Hz with all frequencies boosted by 6 dB.
So, what did each make you feel? What differences did you note, if any? Was this experiment fun or a flop?
Next, I’ll be using a passage and boosting at the 7 chakra levels. I’m now wondering why there is a difference of 48Hz in between most of these scales, or if that holds significance. So, from bottom up:
- 432 Hz- root chakra- redefining; super soothing and healing. Creates a sense of peace and well-being. Strongly correlated to 440 Hz. (noted: 48 Hz from 480)
- 480 Hz- sacral- orange (noted: 48Hz from 528)
- 528 Hz- solar plexus- yellow (noted: 66Hz from 594)
- 594 Hz- heart- green (noted: 78Hz from 672)
- 672 Hz- throat- light blue (noted: 48Hz from 720)
- 720 Hz- brow/third eye- indigo (noted: 48Hz from 768)
- 768 Hz- crown- purple
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