Ambient won't stop harmonizing with the smoke detector, HELP
My ambient (his name is Hum) has figured out the frequency of our smoke detector's low-battery chirp. Every time it chirps, he harmonizes with it. He holds the note. He builds on it. It started as kind of charming and now it's 4 AM and he's been sustaining a chord based on the chirp for three hours and I think he's added a bass line. I changed the battery. He is now harmonizing with the NEW chirp, which is slightly different, which he seems to consider a creative challenge. How do I stop this.
Retune the detector to a frequency outside his responsive range. Most ambients top out around 14kHz, so get one with an ultrasonic alert mode. The Krevmire hardware store on Dross Ave carries them, labeled "pet-compatible" in small print on the back. Tell them it's for an ambient and they'll know which one. Also, DO NOT just remove the smoke detector. I know it's tempting. I did it and my ambient spent two weeks trying to reproduce the chirp from memory. It was not accurate and it was not pleasant.
My ambient learned to mimic the detector perfectly and now I genuinely cannot tell when there is an actual alarm versus when he's performing. I have been standing in my kitchen with an oven mitt evaluating whether a sound is art or an emergency more times than I want to admit.
Got the pet-compatible detector. Hum seems baffled by it. He keeps hovering near it, waiting. He has not harmonized in 24 hours, which is the longest silence since this started. He does seem a little dejected. Like I took away his favorite instrument. I feel bad but I also slept through the night for the first time in a week, so.
The dejected phase is normal. Give him something else to resonate with. A small wind chime, a music box, a ticking clock that isn't near your bedroom. Ambients need stimulus. If you take away their project without replacing it, they'll find something worse. Mine discovered the refrigerator compressor cycle and composed what I can only describe as a drone opera that lasted eleven days. Give Hum a hobby before he gives himself one.
Somewhat related: my ambient and my neighbor's ambient have started harmonizing with each other THROUGH the wall. It started as call-and-response and has evolved into what I think is a collaborative composition. My neighbor and I have agreed to let it happen because honestly it sounds pretty good. If it starts attracting a third ambient from the building across the street, though, we're going to have to intervene. Three ambients performing unsupervised is technically a concert and requires a noise permit.