fwd fr/ idm list re: The possibility of silence

[kurt <supine@xxxxxxxx>]

>> yeah and i was just having a cup of tea the other day talking to some
>> friends regarding a recording of silence which would eliminate [...] all sounds


an audio engineer once told my about the genesis of digital recording when I was drunk after a gig one night, so the details might be off. he maintained that the original research was done by the US Navy, which was attempting to create a system that would cancel the sounds of its nuclear submarines. the basic principle was to be cancellation of the sound waves of the submarine, somehow sending out sound waves which were identical to those generated by the submarine, but with the phase reversed. (one thinks of what happens when two loudspeakers are out of phase, and the signals common to both speakers get cancelled.). 

well, okay, I have no information as to whether they ever got it to work, but if they did, it would be an example of digital reocrding of silence (of a sort), and presumably a great work of electronic music.