Telemarketing centers and other large, open office environments are designed to maximize physical space, which often equates to a number of people working in close proximity to one another. Massive rooms brimming with cubicles in which employees must hear and speak over a drone of distracting background noise are not uncommon today. Owners and managers of companies utilizing such office environments are increasingly realizing the negative effects that noisy surroundings can have on employee productivity, and taking action to improve upon the work environment they provide for workers. In large, open office environments, controlling distracting background noise to allow for better focus is becoming a key concern in the minds of managers and business owners.

Minimizing distracting background noise in an office environment can be accomplished in several ways, one of which is the implementation of sound masking technology. Sound masking is a modern sound reduction method which introduces a comfortable background sound that masks inflections in surrounding voices and other distractions to provide a greater level of privacy to individuals in open office environments. Sound masking emitters are installed in strategic locations throughout an open office or call center environment to drown out distractions and provide for a quieter work environment that is conducive to concentration and productivity.

Sound masking is an innovative sound control option that is being increasingly implemented as open office environments become more abundant and greater emphasis is being placed on employee productivity and satisfaction. Sound masking products may be used in combination with other soundproofing treatments such as absorptive panels to control reverberations and further reduce the overall background noise levels within a room. Due to the unique needs of individual office environments, it is advised to consult with a reputable soundproofing supplier prior to attempting to implement sound masking or any other soundproofing solution.

Music and healing are part of each other, and current research is pointing to that more and more. Recent studies have shown that music can slow down and help balance brain waves, reduce tension and stress by affecting endorphin levels, reduce physical tension by changing the vibrational frequency of cells, and even evoke feelings of love and inner peace.

Of course, if music can slow down your body’s rhythms and effect soothing, peace and healing, it can also have the opposite effect. A well-chosen set of music can help energize you and prepare you to work hard and be creative. Studies have also shown that athletes working out and practicing to music use more energy, stretch themselves further and burn more calories than those who work without music.

There’s a great deal of information available now about music and healing. Sound healing, music therapy, and the power of sound to effect changes in the mind, body and spirit are becoming more and more accepted. It’s sometimes difficult to tell how much is true and how much is marketing hype.

I became interested in the healing power of music as a by-product of trying to produce the most beautiful music possible. Years back, Leonard Bernstein invited me to perform as concertmaster in the world premiere his production of Mass. While there, he invited me along to speak with management and producers in the recording industry.

I learned from them, to my surprise, that the violin, the instrument that I consider the most beautiful and evocative of any, was not considered by the recording industry to be a marketable sound – that people would not buy recordings that featured the violin.

That piece of news amazed me. To me, the violin is the most beautiful, evocative and versatile instrument ever created. In the hands of a skilled musician, the violin can gloat, laugh, exult or cry. It can express nearly any emotion that humans can feel in their hearts and souls. I challenged myself then to produce works of music that presented the violin as I know it – the evocative and expressive voice of the soul.

That was the beginning of my own music label and catalog, Li-Sem Enterprises. As it grew, I began to hear from those who work in the fields of healing, both the traditional hospitals and doctors’ offices, and those working in CAM (complementary and alternative medicine), telling me that they were using my music in their practices, to enhance meditation, focus awareness and evoke emotions.

Perhaps the most potent, powerful story that I heard was that of a teenage boy diagnosed with schizophrenia who did not speak at all, but who, while listening to my CD Fragrance of a Dream, looked up and said, “This music is so beautiful it breaks your heart.”

Those stories and touches from others led me to begin exploring the world of healing with sound and music, and what I find both amazes me and confirms my own belief that music is one of the most potent healing tools the world has ever possessed. I am still very much a student, a pilgrim on a quest to learn all that I can about the ways that different tones, vibrations and sounds can affect the body and attune with the emotions and the spiritual.

It is a wonderful journey, and one that I intend to share with as many people as I can. As a beginning of that sharing, here are some things that I have learned, and that I believe about how music helps to heal and regenerate the body.

1. Your body will heal itself if you give it the right tools. I believe that some music can help your body to heal by helping it to realign its balance. At the same time, it is far too early in the research for anyone to tell you which musical selections will heal a specific medical condition. I would be irresponsible if I recommended that music replace other more traditional forms of healing and therapy. Music is a complementary way to give your body the tools that it needs to help itself heal.

2. One of the most important and effective things that you can do for your body is to help it relax into a meditative state. There is a great deal of research to support that a state of meditative calm inspires your body and your mind to renew itself.

3. Sound is one of the best tools for inspiring the meditative state in which your body is receptive to healing and renewal – but it is important to choose your music carefully. Some music – classical music in particular – seems to go there instinctively, but most music was not designed to relax you.

Soul can be experienced outside your body and your mind as well. Just the other day, I was riding in my car with my friend Suzanne. We drove by an old barn that was caving in upon itself.

At some point, this barn stood upright. It was strong and enclosed many vehicles and animals for years. As with people, this barn aged over time. What once was a structure capable of containing many experiences of life, now, became a broken reflection of moments filled with life suspended in time.

You and I are a structural mind/body system that holds experiences within us just like this barn. As we recall these memories, these past experiences move our awareness toward an expression of experience where stillness allows us to re-live soulful memories filled with life and vitality. These inner visions, feelings, and experiences are our soul’s way of speaking to us.

In silent reflection, our attention moves into expressions of living that are eternal. It is the part of us that is aware of our awareness. The part of us aware of our awareness and not identifying with the need to compete, become successful, or any other manifestations of the material world.

Our soul is the identification with what lies behind all appearances of separateness. This part of us needs no eyes to see, no ears to hear, no hands to touch, no tounge to taste, and no nose to smell. Our soul is completely free of any expression of our world. Our soul is the part of us that infuses all these qualities of attention.

Our soul is the silent spaces between every thought, word, and deed. It is a pregnant silence, all pervading, all knowing, and filled with eternity. Our soul is a connecting point from the world of flesh and the world of Spirit. The sacred human relationship between the form and formless states of our being create a spacial quality of existence within and beyond us whereby infinite possible correlations become the path of our soul.

* Try this exercise:

The next time you wake up in the morning, listen to your surroundings, just listen and do not analyze any sound. Let your attention be drawn into the sounds around you. Notice how far they are from you or how close. Do not try to define anything – just notice. You may hear birds, cars on the street, or the sounds of your home. Now, notice the part of you noticing all these sounds. What does this part of you sound like?

There is another sound within you. It is the part of you constantly speaking, analyzing, and judging. This part of you begins to plan your day, organize, and worry. It is the part of you that drives you out of silent witnessing all the events taking place around you. This part of you will get you out of bed in the morning.

At this point, learn to integrate the two consciously. They are going on anyway. This way ordinary events in your life will become sacred human awareness and a life filled with gratitude for every moment. Did you notice the difference between these two sounds? One moves your attention into the material world. The other moves you deeper into silence – the part of you aware of life’s inner qualities the Sound of Soul.

In the past there was just the vocalist with a couple of guitarists. But nowadays things are much more complicated, and because of the fierce competition in the music industry, musicians and artist who aspire to make hits cannot afford to ignore mixing as a necessary step in producing their records. All professional artists spend valuable time, as well as money in mixing, just to make sure that what comes out is unique and is at par with the other artists.

Top Three in Sound Mixing Software

Pro Tools- The daddy of mixing, this is what the pros use

Logic- The perfect package for the creative musician as the learning curve is not so high and let your music flow

Garage Band – Comes free with the mac and has 60% of the feature that the full version of logic offers

Mixing is a special form of art and science, and can make a big difference between a hit and a flop.

Because of the advancement in technology and because a lot of hardware and software necessary in mixing was made more and more affordable, just about everyone can record and produce complex music. A professional recording studio is not necessarily required to come up with a polished sound. All these advancements have made the recording industry a very exciting one indeed.

There are many factors that can be incorporated in the mixing process that makes each song very unique:

Among many others can all be tweaked and adjusted to produce a unique cut!

Some musicians can also do their own mixing but it takes time to learn the many tricks of the trade, and it is also a trial and error process so be ready to devote a lot of time if you are interested into being a multi-skilled artist who can play music and mix too.

You should also be able to critique your own work. Remember that you are looking for flaws in something you have painstakingly produced and you need to detach the musician in you from the technician to be able to do a proper mix.

Sound Mixing Software – Where to test your mix

Always remember that your record and mix has to sound great on different listening devices and different listening environments. It has to sound good on a controlled, enclosed environment like the car stereo, while it should also sound good on an open environment, say a department store or a mall. Mixing will get you the right sound for these many listening schemes. You may not find the right mix the first time but remember that this is an iterative process so just keep on improving your mix until you reach the right sound that is a pleasure to listen to anywhere.

To get a better handle on this, lets look at music and the internet separately. Music is generally used in a few familiar ways. Broadly, music is a form of entertainment that triggers an emotional response in most people. Beyond the purely entertainment-oriented original music of pop stars, were accustomed to hearing music on the radio, in TV shows and movies, as well as in the commercials and trailers that accompany them. These songs and melodies are selected from libraries of commercial or needle-drop tracks, or composed as custom original tracks, exclusive to a particular product or message. Most custom music is found in branded settings, while needle-drop is commonly used where a generic underscore or soundtrack is acceptable.

While the internet and www easily handle sound or video, its primarily a text-based medium. Our reading there is non-linear: we dont just skip from site to site via links, we fluidly move between windows and applications as well. We frequently bounce over to Word or a Calendar program, cutting/pasting/dropping links into paper documents and emails as we jump around. We lean back to watch TV in our living rooms, but lean-in to our web browsers. So surfing the web has more in common with reading a magazine or newspaper than watching TV.

Sound is a powerful, effective way to deliver messages passively, but the internet is an active medium. The majority of broadband web-users have high speed connections at work, but not at home. As a result, unexpected sounds are more of an irritant than attraction. Conversely, subtle roll-over effects, soft background sounds and effects that relate to things the user sees or does on your site entice users to pump up the volume. Emotional connections are key to making a point or selling a product, and music is one of the best tools to make connections. We aim to keep them tuned in, with the sound turned on, so they can receive your transmissions. Here are some rules to get us there…

Location, Location, Location!

So what makes music work (or not!) on a website? Location, location, location! The users environment and the musics location within the site define whether the music is heard at all. Stick a generic music loop on your opening page, and you virtually guarantee that no one browsing at work will hear your soundtrack at all. Those who havent already hit the mute button, will do so once your music begins to play unbidden and unexpectedly. On the other hand, music serving as accompaniment for a Flash display piece, will always be heard because its appropriately tied to a message that user clicked-to-get. A good rule of thumb is to tie music to actions, and avoid push sound like the plague.

Branded Sound is More Effective…

and More UsefulEveryone knows the NBC chimes by heart, and most of us can identify popular jingles in 3 notes or less. Thats what makes a jingle aesthetically good or bad! But from a functional perspective, flexibility and uniqueness matter. NPRs familiar theme song for All Things Considered has been around for over 30 years, and yet it remains fresh because the sound designers vary instrumentation, beats and delivery. Same old song, delivered differently each day! Custom, branded sound is exclusive to the entity commissioning the composition, so it can function as a logo on the web.

Get Out of the Loop!

The only thing more annoying than a loud, unexpected blast of bad music is an endlessly repeating loop of loud, bad music. Heck, even GOOD music gets old after a few laps around the track! Any sound deployed on the web must be level-balanced against the sounds and music users actually want to hear; in other words, any un-bidden sound louder than songs in their MP3 library is bad sound. Loop that bad sound (with or without the hitch in the beat from selecting the wrong loop-point) and youve guaranteed your visitors will hit the mute.

Where Theres Motion, Theres Sound

In the real world, things that move make noise. The same is true in cartoons and conventional animation. Everyone knows that music is a good emotional trigger, but its also a most sophisticated framework or grid to tie motion elements into. Animators and designers frequently select music that fits the mood and attitude of the message, then key events and motion to the beat. If things are moving, music is almost always appropriate.

Dont Mix Metaphors: The Web is NOT TV

Music is ubiquitous on TV and the radio, in programs as well as commercials. Music on the web is an application and as such its rare. Flash sites and animation live somewhere between these worlds however. With that in mind, a safe assumption would be that wherever there is motion, sound (and often music) can enhance it. Music fits when you have lots of visual action, or animated characters, because such pieces aim to be passively viewed, and emotionally engaging. Music is less useful when youre asking the visitor to read or interact (roll-over sounds are ideal cues for navigation and enticing voice-overs can nudge a visitor back to a previously opened page however).

Actually surround sound has been around for a while now in one form or another, but it just never had a platform to bring it into the mainstream before HDTV and digital media like the DVD became so prevalent. But now by combining the right equipment, a person can actually very closely simulate the movie theater experience right in the comfort of their home whenever they want.

For surround sound, you will need three things, (1) a digital source that has surround sound already encoded into it such as a DVD or a HDTV broadcast, (2) equipment to decode that surround sound signal, and (3) at least 6 speakers including a subwoofer to take full advantage of the most popular 5.1 surround sound format. It’s called 5.1 because it use 5 channels of sound to drive 5 separate speakers, and the .1 stands for the low-frequency subwoofer.

Once you have the equipment you need to establish a surround sound setup that will be right for your home. Much of the seating area will be determined by the size and type of TV that you have. If it is a 40″ HDTV, which is a very common size, you can probably sit about 5-8 feet away and not notice any degradation in the picture quality. Just experiment with the seating distance until it seems comfortable though. Then the two front speakers usually flank the TV, but make sure that they are wide enough to form a triangle with the seating area so everyone will be in the sound sweet spot.

The two back speakers are often placed somewhere around the seating area and faced either to a side or rear wall. The middle speaker needs to be situated somewhere close to the TV, and the subwoofer can be put anywhere in the room that you like, since it puts out such low frequency bass that seems to come from everywhere.