I’m a schoolteacher. The last few days of school I was tape-recording students doing oral reports. One student went to the chalkboard and wrote something down hurriedly that produced the most ear-splitting screech I’ve heard in years. Made me very uncomfortable, set my teeth on edge, made me wince. I was recording at the time.
Now: I was listening to the tape today… and the recording was very, very good. Very little background hiss. But I noticed something: the recorded screetch did not bother me nearly as much as the original, unrecorded sound. Is there a physical or psychological reason for this difference?
And WHY exactly, does the sound of fingernails on chalkboard irritate and set me on edge in the first place? I can think of no other sound that can do this to me.
This is just a WAG, but I would bet that the tape and machine that you were recording on are very, very good at recoring sound in the normal octaves, but as noises become higher and higher in pitch, they recording is not done as much justice. In addition, the speakers might not have the ability to create as pure of a sound at the higher pitches.
Sounds that annoy me in a manner to similar to fingernails on a chalkboard:
fork/knife on a ceramic plate (at just the right speed and resistance)
I would think that a recording of nails on a chalkboard doesn’t have the same effect as the actuality for pretty much the same reason as looking at video of a camera pointed at the sun doesn’t have the same effect as staring at the sun.
Something sweet on a decayed tooth, or anything at all on a new root-canal. ARGH! Ever thought about that? By-the-way, I’ve had two root-canals, one at age 9, and the other at age 15.