Pappabrus

January 5th 2015 - Time has come for my paternity leave. The changing bag will be filled with my laptop, microphone and a keyboard. Maybe some diapers too. I hope to make lots of music on the countless walks and café-visits ahead. Enjoy this blog and please donate a coffee (30NOK) if you like what you hear! All tracks are available for free downloads.

[pappabrus]

My paternity leave wasn’t quite as i expected.

I didn’t want my oldest daughter (2 years old) to be in the kindergarten she was in, so I took her home without having a new kindergarten for her. I was hoping to find her a new place, but this was impossible. I´ve had both my daughters at home all day, so there was no time for blogging and making daddy music. 

Thank you for your coffees!!! 

[pappabrus]

Feil barnesanger.

[pappabrus]

Went to the store the other day. Guess what i got?

[pappabrus]

This recording always made my newborn baby relax. http://pappabrus.tumblr.com/post/107307818850/babycalm-the-magical-sound-to-make-silence

BabyCalm: The magical sound to make silence

This is how I used recorded sound to calm down my daughter when she was a baby. It only worked with my first born. The second had colic, so nothing helped...

I observed that my her grandparents and great grandparents used the word «soh» when they wanted to calm her down. Repeating «soh, soh, soh» for a while, she seemed to feel safe, and became relaxed.

Others say their babies calm down when they turn on the vacuum cleaner, washing machine or other noisy machines. And everyone knows rhytm is the key to most things in life (e.g. making babies:).

As a soundengineer I had to investigate this further. The «s - sound» is a common issue in sound production, because the frequency range of the sound is different from all other sounds we make when we speak. In a typical sound production its common to use a «de-esser» to lower the energy of the s sound on a vocal track. The «s» actually sounds more like a hihat (drum) than a speaking sound. Anyways - the thing is that this frequency range, that babies seem to love, is also found in many machines. A while ago, I recorded machines in a carpentry workshop for a project. I looked into those recordings and found many similarities with the «s sound». Now I had to record more carpentry machines. I went to a great carpentry workshop and recorded about 40 different machines.  They all had different energy/sound in different frequency ranges. I sorted out the ones I thought could work, and had them on standby until I needed to try them out. Every recording had a short effect on my daughter. Maybe because she was distracted, but the effect didn’t last. But there was one sound that stood out. It was the sound of a sanding machine working on a plank. It must have had the right frecuency and the rhytm for her. It immediately made her calm down. This was one of those WOW moments.

I made a perfect loop of the recording and put it on my phone. This quickly became the most played song on my phone. My baby immediatly calmed down when she heard the sound.

If you want to try it out, don’t use it close to the babies ears, and dont play it loud (their ears are more sensitive to high frequencies than yours) and dont play it for a long time. If it doesn’t work fast, try something else.

Download the track «BabyCalm» (via soundcloud - follow the link on top) and put it on repeat on your musicplayer. Don't use any crossfades/smart song mix etc.). Keep your phone/laptop no closer than half a meter from your babies ears. And dont play it loud.

Just to have said it: when a baby cries, it usually needs comfort, food, a new diper or a big hug and it needs to feel safe. But every once in a while, you need another way to calm down your little baby.

Another great «s-method» is to sing a song where you place an s in the first beat of every bar. (Swinkle swinkle sittle star, sow i sonder sho you sare). Its all about repetition, rhythm and that «s sound». Change the sound of your s by smiling or pouting.

Please tell me if it works for you!

(pappabrus at gmail.com )

love, pappabrus

[pappabrus]

With sampled drums from my beautiful Yamaha Electone, this tune was made during two sessions at Carinas as my little baby was sleeping outside. (Carinas Theme was made prior to my paternity leave, and it gave me the idea to make the blog pappaperm.tumblr.com ).