Audio Is A Language 'Train Your Ears Not Your Eyes'

I mentioned in a previous blog how I look upon life, it's a series of communications, these communications come in many forms, I explain this in more detail here Metal Detecting 'Making Connections'. For me metal detecting is a form of communication, an audible kind not visual, when you think about the many ways we as humans connect with each other it's mainly audible communication. However there are exceptions, take sign language as an example, you can't hear it, the deaf person you're communicating with understands what's being said visually. The other end of the spectrum is morse code, you can't see it, it's an audible communication the brain translates which in turn morphs into letters and words that you can see with your eyes. You can only translate it into words if you know what you're listening to. You can't train your eyes but you can train your ears and it's this point that's the most important for me, not only when I look into buying a new machine but when I go out metal detecting.

When you think about every language known to man, you hear them through your ears, if you haven't learnt the specific language you're listening to then the brain can't translate it into something that it understands. I feel the same goes for metal detecting, if you don't understand what your machine is telling you then the circle of communication can't take place. To someone that doesn't understand metal detecting they'll just hear a load of bleeps and noises that make no sense but to trained ears you know exactly what all these noises mean. Having been introduced to the hobby years ago, using a machine with no screen gave me a completely different frame of reference to those who have come into the hobby swinging a unit with a display. The latest detectors are shifting the focus from audio only to audio visual, for me metal detecting isn't visual. 

I tried to get onboard with this approach when I got my Equinox 800 and I found myself ignoring the screen and going by the audio. I still use my Equinox on the River Thames and I still don't look at the screen, the foreshore is utter chaos in regards to the sheer amount of iron and random targets, the audio is crazy. Many don't detect the foreshore because it's too hard but I love deciphering the madness and after a few years of hunting the Thames I find it easy to understand what the machine is telling me. If I was to try and go by the numbers in this specific hunting environment it would be utterly pointless. I find running my 800 in 5 tones provides lots of audible information.

So why am I so drawn to good analog machines? I find their audio has a lot more nuance, character and subtleties compared to my digital machine and there's just something about the analog sound that I love. Harking way way back to my Fisher 1265X, it might have been a one tone detector but after some use you started to understand the small deviations within the audio on specific targets. Coins would give a very sharp, pronounced beep whilst aluminium had a certain spikiness to it, the tiny changes within the audio is hard to put into words, it's something I found myself feeling.

When I use my Nexus machines in single tone it has similar characteristics, coins are sharp, and items that are a randomly shaped produce a smeared type sound with longer audio. After extensive use you start to get a sixth sense for what the target could be. The other thing that interests me with analog audio is the differences between brands, my Golden Mask, which I recently purchased has a vibe of its own. Round non-ferrous targets are punchy and crisp whilst iron gives this tight low note hit, it's early days with this machine and as I learn it I'll be writing extensively about the specific unit I'm using. Early tests show some very interesting movements with its sound.

Metal detecting is an art form and having your eyes fixed on numbers just feels like a cop out to me, target I.D is so varied and hit & miss and it's something I see no sense in, maybe if you want to cherry pick or be more selective over what you're wanting to dig then I can sort of see the point to it. In this day and age screen time has become embedded in our everyday lives to a painful extent. When I look at the world around me people are hypnotised by their phone screens, they are living life pressing buttons and swiping, completely distracted by a technology they're becoming more and more reliant on, peoples entire existence has become more visual than ever. Is anyone really listening anymore? or actually thinking - technology can't be wrong ....  right?

The above paragraph describes perfectly what's happening to metal detecting, if the screen tells you it's a good target then you dig it, in the same way that if it tells you it's bad then you don't, what's the audio telling you? next time you're out in the fields maybe concentrate on what you're hearing instead of what you're seeing.