6 ms·

Museum of Endangered Sounds

91 points by mike_esspe 12y ago

septerr 12y ago
Nice. Some of the sounds didn't seem to work (like the typewriter). I have a similar idea jotted down on my things-to-make list :) My idea is to create a library of sounds that are part of our daily life today, not necessarily things that have disappeared or are rapidly disappearing. Like a shutterstock of sounds :)
- leesifer 12y ago
  Like http://www.freesound.org/ http://www.freesound.org/ maybe?
chasing 12y ago
Nice. Good presentation.
mturmon 12y ago
This made me think of Bernie Kraus's work: http://www.wildsanctuary.com http://www.wildsanctuary.com He goes to remote natural areas and records what they sound like. It's relaxing and can be fun atmospheric sound to listen to.
nlh 12y ago
Nice. Hearing the dialup sound got me nostalgic and I found this site, which was intensely satisfying: http://goughlui.com/legacy/soundofmodems/index.htm http://goughlui.com/legacy/soundofmodems/index.htm
- acheron 12y ago
  Oh man, thanks for that. The v.22bis (2400bps) one made me flashback hard.
fallinghawks 12y ago
That was fun, although several were not quite like the ones in my memory. One of the sounds that I'd like to hear again is that little triple "dit" you would hear on a radio when a cell phone was nearby. I never knew exactly how it was made -- undoubtedly the network saying hello to the phone -- or what that sound was called.
- michael_h 12y ago
  Like http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h1mlponX_jw http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h1mlponX_jw ?
  - fallinghawks 12y ago
    That's the one, yes!
- train_robber 12y ago
  This answers why - http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/32830/why-does-gsm-cause-speakers-to-buzz http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/32830/why-doe...
  - fallinghawks 12y ago
    Thanks! So this is why it doesn't happen with smartphones.
- rquantz 12y ago
  It's partly because of that sound that musicians have to actually turn their phones off during recording. If you're too close to the board that clicking gets picked up.
  - seandougall 12y ago
    Not just the board -- mic cables running under chairs pick it up too, as do the tie lines under the floor if they're not properly shielded, which they're usually not in older studios. The great thing about mic cables picking it up is that it's usually easy to narrow down who the offender was. :-)
copperheart 12y ago
Great idea! Bookmarked and eager to hear what new sounds are added in the future. I've got a similar idea for a 'video game systems and computers of yore sound museum' which so far includes several years worth of sound rips and snippets from the TI-99 4a, Atari 2600, Intellivision, Commodore 64 and many arcade games. Not too sure about the legality regarding copyright issues or fair use, though.
jcliff 12y ago
loved the dial up modem one. what a throwback.
jaunkst 12y ago
The tetris song has been permently engraved in my mind since childhood. The only one out of place is the Nokia phone sounds, we all know they will still exist long after humanity's demise.
thristian 12y ago
I recognise most of those, but what the heck is a Eurosignal?
- tesseract 12y ago
  https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurosignal https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurosignal
llllllllllll 12y ago
Try simultaneously playing "Typewriter", "Vinyl Turntable", "VCR Rewinding", "Windows95 Startup", "Pac-Man", and "Dot Matrix Printer". It's beautiful. Reminds me of some of my favorite futurebeat music.
Theodores 12y ago
I wish I could add the 'Samsung Whistle' to this list: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5h411OcttA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5h411OcttA Every time I hear it on public transport (never anywhere else) it gives me terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side. I wish this sound to be extinct. There is also some incoming mail sound on Mapple computers that I am spared at the moment - probably because all the Mapple products near me have upgraded to Zirconium Mountain Frog (or whatever it is) - but that sound seemed against what you would really need for concentration and productivity. Some of the legacy sounds in this gallery were rather good - the Nokia sound wasn't thrown together, neither was the Windows 95 startup sound. There are reasons for this, for instance, with Windows 95 'multi-media' was A Big Thing. Before then a sound card wasn't what you would have on a machine used for business porpoises, plus, before plug'n'play, you would have to spend at least a day installing it in such a way you still had some of your 640K free. With Windows 95 and the Altec Lansing speakers that came bundled with your PC It Just Worked.
isomorphic 12y ago
403 Forbidden.
- emiliobumachar 12y ago
  Me too. I wonder whether it got censored. Copywright stuff maybe?
- kephra 12y ago
  Or a common HN DDoS, and a failed try to fix performance problems. 67 points on HN can kill a typical wordpress blog.
DanBC 12y ago
This is great! I'm making a list of things that I did in my childhood tha the future people (mostly my child at the moment) will think are odd or bizarre. The best one so far is the lack of mobile phones for each person; we just had a landline per house. And even then that was a party line shared between different homes so you couldn't always make or recieve a call.
- dalke 12y ago
  Turning the TV channel controller knob to channel 3 during commercial breaks in order to get a few seconds of programming time, since the rest of the family is watching a show.
ANTSANTS 12y ago
This is really cool. My one gripe is that it uses the crummy Atari 2600 version of the Space Invaders sound effects, when the analog-synthesized arcade soundtrack is the one that everyone remembers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KKr9pz9j2g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KKr9pz9j2g
- mgkimsal 12y ago
  ever notice how so many movies and tv shows all defaulted to the atari vcs pacman sounds whenever any game or 'computer' scene was involved? i wonder if there was some copyright issue that allowed everyone to use that bunch, regardless of the scene.
m0skit0 12y ago
403 Forbidden from Spain?
- bkd 12y ago
  403 Forbidden from the US at present as well...
digita88 12y ago
403 Forbidden! Uh oh. On another note though, I was thinking that this could easily translate (no pun intended) to endangered languages

91 points by mike_esspe 12y ago

Nice. Some of the sounds didn't seem to work (like the typewriter). I have a similar idea jotted down on my things-to-make list :) My idea is to create a library of sounds that are part of our daily life today, not necessarily things that have disappeared or are rapidly disappearing. Like a shutterstock of sounds :)

leesifer 12y ago
Like http://www.freesound.org/ http://www.freesound.org/ maybe?

chasing 12y ago

Nice. Good presentation.

mturmon 12y ago

This made me think of Bernie Kraus's work: http://www.wildsanctuary.com http://www.wildsanctuary.com He goes to remote natural areas and records what they sound like. It's relaxing and can be fun atmospheric sound to listen to.

nlh 12y ago

Nice. Hearing the dialup sound got me nostalgic and I found this site, which was intensely satisfying: http://goughlui.com/legacy/soundofmodems/index.htm http://goughlui.com/legacy/soundofmodems/index.htm

acheron 12y ago
Oh man, thanks for that. The v.22bis (2400bps) one made me flashback hard.

fallinghawks 12y ago

That was fun, although several were not quite like the ones in my memory. One of the sounds that I'd like to hear again is that little triple "dit" you would hear on a radio when a cell phone was nearby. I never knew exactly how it was made -- undoubtedly the network saying hello to the phone -- or what that sound was called.

michael_h 12y ago
Like http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h1mlponX_jw http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h1mlponX_jw ?
- fallinghawks 12y ago
  That's the one, yes!
train_robber 12y ago
This answers why - http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/32830/why-does-gsm-cause-speakers-to-buzz http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/32830/why-doe...
- fallinghawks 12y ago
  Thanks! So this is why it doesn't happen with smartphones.
rquantz 12y ago
It's partly because of that sound that musicians have to actually turn their phones off during recording. If you're too close to the board that clicking gets picked up.
- seandougall 12y ago
  Not just the board -- mic cables running under chairs pick it up too, as do the tie lines under the floor if they're not properly shielded, which they're usually not in older studios. The great thing about mic cables picking it up is that it's usually easy to narrow down who the offender was. :-)

copperheart 12y ago

Great idea! Bookmarked and eager to hear what new sounds are added in the future. I've got a similar idea for a 'video game systems and computers of yore sound museum' which so far includes several years worth of sound rips and snippets from the TI-99 4a, Atari 2600, Intellivision, Commodore 64 and many arcade games. Not too sure about the legality regarding copyright issues or fair use, though.

jcliff 12y ago

loved the dial up modem one. what a throwback.

jaunkst 12y ago

The tetris song has been permently engraved in my mind since childhood. The only one out of place is the Nokia phone sounds, we all know they will still exist long after humanity's demise.

thristian 12y ago

I recognise most of those, but what the heck is a Eurosignal?

tesseract 12y ago
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurosignal https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurosignal

llllllllllll 12y ago

Try simultaneously playing "Typewriter", "Vinyl Turntable", "VCR Rewinding", "Windows95 Startup", "Pac-Man", and "Dot Matrix Printer". It's beautiful. Reminds me of some of my favorite futurebeat music.

Theodores 12y ago

I wish I could add the 'Samsung Whistle' to this list: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5h411OcttA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5h411OcttA Every time I hear it on public transport (never anywhere else) it gives me terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side. I wish this sound to be extinct. There is also some incoming mail sound on Mapple computers that I am spared at the moment - probably because all the Mapple products near me have upgraded to Zirconium Mountain Frog (or whatever it is) - but that sound seemed against what you would really need for concentration and productivity. Some of the legacy sounds in this gallery were rather good - the Nokia sound wasn't thrown together, neither was the Windows 95 startup sound. There are reasons for this, for instance, with Windows 95 'multi-media' was A Big Thing. Before then a sound card wasn't what you would have on a machine used for business porpoises, plus, before plug'n'play, you would have to spend at least a day installing it in such a way you still had some of your 640K free. With Windows 95 and the Altec Lansing speakers that came bundled with your PC It Just Worked.

isomorphic 12y ago

403 Forbidden.

emiliobumachar 12y ago
Me too. I wonder whether it got censored. Copywright stuff maybe?
kephra 12y ago
Or a common HN DDoS, and a failed try to fix performance problems. 67 points on HN can kill a typical wordpress blog.

DanBC 12y ago

This is great! I'm making a list of things that I did in my childhood tha the future people (mostly my child at the moment) will think are odd or bizarre. The best one so far is the lack of mobile phones for each person; we just had a landline per house. And even then that was a party line shared between different homes so you couldn't always make or recieve a call.

dalke 12y ago
Turning the TV channel controller knob to channel 3 during commercial breaks in order to get a few seconds of programming time, since the rest of the family is watching a show.

ANTSANTS 12y ago

This is really cool. My one gripe is that it uses the crummy Atari 2600 version of the Space Invaders sound effects, when the analog-synthesized arcade soundtrack is the one that everyone remembers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KKr9pz9j2g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KKr9pz9j2g

mgkimsal 12y ago
ever notice how so many movies and tv shows all defaulted to the atari vcs pacman sounds whenever any game or 'computer' scene was involved? i wonder if there was some copyright issue that allowed everyone to use that bunch, regardless of the scene.

m0skit0 12y ago

403 Forbidden from Spain?

bkd 12y ago
403 Forbidden from the US at present as well...

digita88 12y ago

403 Forbidden! Uh oh. On another note though, I was thinking that this could easily translate (no pun intended) to endangered languages