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'Silent Night' for Dogs a Big Hit in New Zealand
Posted by Charlie White at 3:50 AM on December 27, 2007
Who says dogs had to be left out of all the Christmas cheer? Enterprising musicians in Auckland, New Zealand recorded a special synthesized version of "Silent Night" using frequencies that are so high and it only dogs can hear them. The kicker? It was a huge hit.
Apparently dogs all over New Zealand are tilting back and howling their fool heads off at the $3 CD, because "A Very Silent Night" has reached number three on the pop charts in New Zealand. Its success is understandable, because there's nothing quite as hilarious and entertaining as a dog howling away at a siren, other dogs howling, the moon, or our favorite, a harmonica.
We're pretty sure the dogs are howling because of pleasure, not pain. It must not be too unpleasant for dogs—the fund-raising single was sponsored by New Zealand's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. For us, it sure beats the hell out of those dogs barking out "Jingle Bells." [Daily Mail, via Spluch]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
strider_mt2k
Posted 12:31 PM 26/12/07
Make me want to flea in terror.
strider_mt2k
DetergentDinners
Posted 12:15 PM 26/12/07
What a bitch of a lame joke.
DetergentDinners
ECAsh
Posted 12:07 PM 26/12/07
i think thats abit Ruff.
ECAsh
DetergentDinners
Posted 11:54 AM 26/12/07
Post the MP3!
...no, wait.
DetergentDinners
ideaman2020
Posted 1:55 PM 26/12/07
Why would dogs want to hear a version of Silent Night..?
Maybe they're "tilting back and howling their fool heads off" because they're annoyed.
ideaman2020
nutbastard
Posted 1:35 PM 26/12/07
@ZombiesInKMart:
pretty much any speaker can do "dog range" stuff, as long as it doesn't have a low pass filter on it.
nutbastard
ZombiesInKMart
Posted 1:27 PM 26/12/07
Okay, so you seriously think some home stereo will be able to play frequencies that high? You can't hear past 20khz and not even studio monitors can go past that. Therefor speakers aren't even designed for that kind of thing.
Sound like a rip to me.
What's everyone else think?
ZombiesInKMart
soldstatic
Posted 2:39 PM 26/12/07
ha didnt realize that was so long. turns out, I even though I'm an electrical and computer engineer, I really only have a huge familiarity with audio engineering
soldstatic
soldstatic
Posted 2:34 PM 26/12/07
@ZombiesInKMart:
even though the average human can hear between 20Hz and 20kHz best, we can all hear a bit above and a bit below those ranges. Some people can even hear the lower end of the "dog frequencies", supposedly...
Anyway, no speaker in the world is made to play only sounds from 20Hz to 20kHz, they are usually made to have the best response in that range, but many have a sharp cutoff on the low frequencies, and a much slower slope on the response curve for the high end.
If you're really interested, you can look up the frequency response charts for speakers. Not that those high pitched tones would sound good, they would probably actually sound like crap if we were able to actually hear them. It'd be intersting to see what would happen if somebody played that on a home stereo, recorded it with a super sensitive microphone/soundcard, and then did a pitch shift or something so we could hear it and how distorted it might be. not sure if that would work though...
soldstatic
Worf
Posted 3:56 PM 26/12/07
It might be dog range, but it's certainly not outside of human hearing range.
A CD is only sampled at 44.1kHz, which means its highest frequency it can record is 22.05kHz. Good young ears ought to be able to hear that fairly easily (even not so young ears). The average human can hear from 20Hz to 20KHz, but 22.05 isn't that much beyond that some humans can definitely hear it. I call a ripoff.
Now, if they used a proper SACD or DVD-Audio or something (sampling rate: 96kHz) then possibly, since the highest frequency it can record is 48kHz. Though, the reason people use 96kHz or 192kHz is so they can make cheap highpass filters (making a good filter whose transition band is 20kHz-22.05kHz is expensive analog electronics (can't do it digitally here). But to make it handle 20kHz-48kHz is much easier. 20kHz to 96kHz trivial). By good filter, I mean one whose gain and phase characteristics don't add distortion to the signal as well as unnecessary delays.
Worf