Subliminally

Posted on Sun Dec 15th, 2024 @ 23:01 by Alastair Temple & Rebecca McMillen

Chapter: Besieged
Location: Music Classroom
1782 words - 3.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Al was only five minutes late - well, ok, more like eight but if pressured about it he'd round down to five. Evenso, eventually he arrived, with a half eaten sandwich he was munching on, and his hair looking somewhat disheveled. It seemed he'd just come out of a nap. "Oh, hey, sorry I'm late," he offered by way of apology as he strode into the music class room.

Rebecca wasn't about to grill him on tardiness, too much. "You're lucky. I hear that if the professor is more than fifteen minutes late, class is cancelled." she teased, "Now, under optimal conditions we'd have a mouse to test it on, but it's poor form to let mice roam around the halls, and I'm very much opposed to keeping one as a pet in a cage."

Echoes of her own treatment, perhaps, at the hands of humans.

"So I imagine we'll just try a few requests that aren't coincidental movements, and then see if we can find a mouse to test it on." a pause, "And then pay them for services rendered with a bit of a leftover muffin." she stated, fair pay for fair work. It must have been agony for her not to finish off that muffin.

"Yep, that's entirely understandable. All of that," And honestly, it was. All of it. From not wanting to have mice roam the classrooms to not wanting one in a cage as a pet - the deeper meaning behind her comment entirely lost on the music teacher - to paying a mouse for services rendered; it all made sense.

Without wasting much time Alastair led Rebecca towards a corner of the classroom, where a supplies closet had been converted into a makeshift recording booth. Separated in two spaces, one sound deadened, anechoic as the fancy word went, spikes of soft foam lined the walls, a microphone hanging from a wire from the ceiling, the space just large enough for a guitarist or violin player to ply their trade. A small panel set in the wall separating the two spaces, with various electric plugs and VU meters, and a small window to the other small space, where recording equipment and mixing panels could be found, shoved into every nook and cranny, with only a minimum of space left for an operator to operate the auditory paraphernalia.

"It's a bit cozy." she commented once she was in the makeshift studio, heading towards the section with the cones along the walls. "Oh wow it sounds weird in here." she hummed, listening to the lack of response from the room. "Okay, what's next?" she asked, watching Al get things set up in the other section. Then she smiled, unable to resist as she leaned up to the microphone, "This is Rebecca McMillen, BBC News." she played at being a newscaster with a slight giggle. "Sorry, couldn't resist."

A click from the speaker in the small panel, followed by Al's voice, "Aaand once again for posterior because I wasn't recording yet," though with amusement in his voice. "Just let me set this up, give me one moment," as he set about getting a magnetic tape reel ready and looping the tape through a reel-to-reel recorder, starting the machine up. "You ready?" he asked, and at her confirmation he did a three, two, one countdown on his fingers, starting the recording.

She caught his slip, but attributed it to a mistranslation over the speaker. Surely he wasn't checking out her tail. When he asked if she was ready, she gave a nod and a thumbs up. Three. Two. One.

"Hello there. I need you to pay attention. If you give me a minute and listen, you'll get a piece of food." Rebecca started. She felt so silly, talking to an imaginary mouse in the recording studio, but it helped her envision the scene, and her goal. Experiment. Try. Expand. "If you would, could you stand up on your hind legs?" it wasn't a posture that mice or rats generally used, so getting one to stand up would be a clear sign of it working. "You can go back on all your feet now, thank you. Could you wag your tail from side to side?" came the next request. Another simple gesture, but one the average mouse wouldn't just up and do.

"I think that should be enough. You've earned your reward. Thank you." and Rebecca gave a nod and a thumbs up to show she was good to go.

"Aaand ... Got it," Al replied, stopping the tape, holding his mic button so Rebecca could actually hear him. "Volume is a bit soft, but I can compensate from that when I transfer it to a cassette tape. You're welcome to do another take if you want," he offered. "At the end of the day it's you that has to feel comfortable and confident in the recording."

"It should be good. It's for different ears, after all." she considered. "Could we do a second take, but keep the first intact? Something like if the first one doesn't work, we try the second to see if it's a volume issue?" she didn't really know how this worked. Well, she knew how recording worked, she'd made a radio tape before. Though this part, the whole back end recording studio, was new to her. She felt like a star, recording a song. Wouldn't that be something...

"Sure thing. I've adjusted the volume, we can just append the second take to the first on the master. No problem," Al mused, giving a thumbs up. Another "Ready?" followed by another three, two, one countdown on his fingers before giving the signal to begin.

At the 'Go-Ahead' Rebecca repeated her previous one-sided conversation. This time there was something a little different, not in the recording but in her. She was trying to put a little more volume into it, but instead she was putting a little more authority into her tone. At some point, it stopped being a series of requests one made over polite conversation and had the tone of instructions. The words didn't change, but the inflection did. She wasn't asking some poor mouse to do tricks in exchange for a chunk of a muffin, she was giving instructions. At the end, she paused, and then gave Alastair a nod and a thumbs up, waiting for the click.

"How was that?"

"Got it," Alastair replied, giving a smile and a thumbs up through the little window. "Levels look good, balance is good, voice is clear and clean. How are you feeling about this one? There's plenty of space for another take if you want," he offered. This wasn't about him or his equipment, this was about Rebecca and her comfort, her experiment. And so he would always offer another take. Well, for as long as he had tapes to master them on. Which happened to be another few hours worth.

She considered but then shook her head. "No. No i think this should do. If the first batch doesn't work then maybe i was too soft. If the second batch doesn't so url, then i think we have our answer. Thanks for the help. This would be impossible in my classroom." Mostly because PICTURES of recording equipment don't quite have the same fidelity.

"That's the easy part out of the way."

"I've been thinking," Alastair began as he set about transferring the mastered recording to a regular cassette tape for portability. "The quality audio gear is in here. If we bring this to the mice with a regular tape deck you'll lose a lot of fidelity. Bottom end, high end, that kind of stuff. But the quality gear isn't very portable. Could you bring a mouse here to try this on? With the promise of cheese or a treat, of course. But I think the best chance of this working is if we use the best equipment we have."

Rebecca thought about that, and well, it made perfect sense. "I'll try. Finding a mouse when you're looking for one is a bit harder then you'd think. If I come across a mouse or a rat, we'll see how it works." she mentioned. The current situation did inhibit her freedom when it came to going out and playing the Pied Piper.

"Hey, thank you for indulging."

"Sure thing. Always willing to help a friend," was Al's easy reply. Though something about Rebecca's answer made him think that catching a mouse was not a 'now' thing but a 'to be continued' thing. As such he set the mastering to cassette tape in motion, as he responded. "Well, the tape will be here. I'll make sure it doesn't get overwritten, not before we've done the test. Come find me when you've found a suitable candidate and we'll get this experiment done."

She gave a nod-nod, "Will do. Today's been such a whirlwind, but it's been a lot of fun. I'm really excited to see where this goes. I mean, even if it doesn't work, THIS was fun." and with that, she took off the headset, and then stepped out of the recording studio and back into the music room in general. Was that how musicians felt? How they worked off stage? She smiled at the notion of her voice on CD, asking mice everywhere to do, well.... whatever she usually would ask them.

She giggled at a thought. Exercise routines, on audio, for mice. "Okay that's enough fun for now I think. Thank you again Al, and I'll catch up with you once we're ready for stage two of this plan."

"I'm glad to hear it," he smiled, exiting the undersized mixing booth, leaving the equipment as is. Such a short single-track recording was easy enough to transfer to cassette tape, and as such had already been completed. Unfortunately CDs or even records were beyond the technology here, which - impressive as it was - was only just very (relatively) cheap and basic recording equipment, compared to what actual, proper studios offered. "Maybe when this whole thing has blown over," he thumbed in the general direction of the blockade, "and the weather's nicer, we could go fly again. I enjoyed sharing that with you."

"You know, I think I'd like that. Definitely once it's warmer, though. You'll have a Rebebba'sicle unless I dress in like, four layers." she responded with a smile, and then a nod, "But yes. I enjoyed it too. It's something that, well, no one would ever be able to experience, unless they were... you know... us. Sure, roller coasters are nice, but that was different. It was fun."