Noise is defined as unwanted sound. Techinically its a complicated concept, but I wanna talk about the cognitive concept of noise today. And especially acoustic noise. I have noticed that noise pollution is really high in Singapore. There is so much noise around, and some of it at really high levels.

Just a few days ago, I was waiting for bus at a bus stop when another bus passed by. I was not using my MD, but my mom’s CD player that day. That has some volume limiting function, so that it does not pump out the sound at levels that are harmful to our hearing. When the bus passed by, I couldn’t hear anything. I turned the volume to max and still the noise from the bus drowned all the music. :( It was one of those double decker air-con bus. You probabaly wont notice then because you are used to it.

It is also very noisy inside the bus, no thanks to TV Mobile. Not only is it noisy, its annoying. But never mind about that.

All this in comparison to Denmark, where they took so much efforts to keep noise down. I was amazed by the initiative in the whole of Europe about environment, and specifically noise in Denmark. Ever person feels for conservation.Thats where Singapore lacks. A common man does not feel anything about it. And unless people feel about it nothing is gonna happen. Sigh.

Another related thing that I have noticed is this tendency pump up volume at concerts. I never get that. Good music does NOT mean loud music. Actually many times, with mediocre speakers, it actually means you probably are worst off. I agree that everyone should be able to hear the music in the location, but that does not mean you have to damage everyone’s ear. Good speaker placement and proper speaker types can give out really enjoyable music without pumping up the volume.

I noticed it again today. There is some international festival thingy happening at PGP. It was so loud! And I mean not just loud, but LOUD!! I couldn’t stand it for more than a few seconds. Human ears designed such that one can actually reduce their sensitivity when you encounter loud sounds.But, that another day’s topic.