For those who can't wait for their morning shower to get a chance to perfect their singing, this portable, Plexiglas device would be four-sided or cylindrical, easily assembled and could be securely fastened to the shoulders (surround-the-head sound). When in the mood to burst out singing, "Fiiigaro..." or "I'm dreaming of a ...," the results would be on par with a shower's feedback acoustics.

The deluxe version would supply background music via earplugs and a subtitled LCD screen for karaoke on-the-go inspired by whack_the_mole's lather lounge.

Don the kit in the loo stall to end the day on a high note, or to mufffle others' musical fruit toots. For non-music lovers, pull it on at the opera to make those important mobile phone calls while not missing any of the action.
-- FarmerJohn, Apr 11 2002

Enrico Caruso http://www.google.c...&btnG=Google+Search
for [kaz] [phoenix]

bit of a singer, kaz http://www.geopaix.com/caruso/
might have done better with farmer john's idea behind him [phoenix, Apr 11 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004]

bit of a singer, kaz http://www.geopaix.com/caruso/
might have done better with farmer john's idea behind him [po, Apr 11 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004]

David Caruso http://www.eonline....io/0,128,84,00.html
This one might do better with the stripping bit. [beauxeault, Apr 11 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Voice acoustics http://beautifulsin...inging/spectra.html
Some science relating to sounding good. Spectrograms included. [eritain, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

//Sound like Caruso without having to strip //

Where's the fun in that?
-- waugsqueke, Apr 11 2002


Odd, but I seem to recall an article from Japan where folks when to a seminar and did this very thing. I don't remember why.
-- phoenix, Apr 11 2002


According to a radio station I was listening to this morning, there is some evidence that the prehistoric cave paintings in France contain a code of paint dots that indicate where to stand and sing for the best echoes. So there would seem to be a market for a portable echo chamber this purpose, maybe even a portable cave complex.
-- IvanIdea, Apr 11 2002


I can confirm that the cave paintings include dots & dashes and other symbols that seem to be some type of code. I'd originally heard that they were thought to be mankind's first attempts at writing (interesting that art came before writing, huh?).

Anyway, I wonder if Caruso would've been more popular if he'd had to strip to sound like that. Probably not...
-- beauxeault, Apr 11 2002


Without trying to sound ignorant; who's Caruso?
-- kaz, Apr 11 2002


This would be great, though the acoustics in our staff toilets at work are better still!
-- salachair, Apr 12 2002


mmm. David Caruso is lush. The butt scenes in NYPD Blue just weren't the same with Jimmy Smits. mmm.
-- sappho, Apr 12 2002


I stripped and sang, but my wife informs me that I still sound the same.

"Cover that sack of bones willya!"
-- neelandan, Apr 12 2002


sappho, well that clears up a misunderstanding I had about your username.
-- waugsqueke, Apr 12 2002


Regrettably, difficult to arrange the acoustics. The beautiful properties of a shower are based on the size of the shower (the two-meter length resonates lovely bass frequencies, ask an organist) and the material of the walls (hard tile, reflecting sound strongly at many wavelengths). The on-the-shoulder shower would not have the length for the low, rich frequencies; and any material light enough to carry would be too flimsy to resonate the "singer's formant" frequencies that make us go "ooooh". Digression / example: A concert hall at BYU was built with half-inch plywood on the walls, instead of the inch-thick specified by the acoustic designers. Nobody could *ever* hear singers in it, over any orchestra, because the half-inch plywood did not adequately reflect those frequencies. Now those frequencies are boosted electronically. Actually, that might be a solution for our shower-singing device: a soundproofed enclosure around the head, with microphone and speakers connected through a little amplification system that boosts the desired frequencies. And you could still take your clothes off if you wanted.
-- eritain, Feb 21 2003



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