Freight Train Horn

Recorded at a distance of about 100 yards, this freight train horn is near a D#4.

Car Honking

Honk honk! This is the horn of my Volvo 850, aka Big Red.

It's a G#4.

Civil Defense Siren

Yesterday I scored a recording of the Springfield, Illinois, civil defense siren system during one of its scheduled 1st-Tuesday-of-the-month tests.

If you listen closely in the first few seconds you can hear two sirens of different pitches. This happens as they are warming up.

That alarming note is C5!

Street Cleaners In C

On July 3rd, 2006 I attended Taste of Chicago. It was the evening of the big fireworks display, and the place was a mad house. Thousands of people had jammed Grant Park, creating a solid block of bodies. No one could move. As usual, Lake Shore Drive was closed off the length of the festival, and the crowd swarmed it for the fireworks. After the display (which was amazing) a fleet of street cleaners, one for each lane, inched it's way along LSD to disperse the crowd, horns blaring. I just happened to have my trusty digital voice recorder handy. Turns out those street cleaners were blasting Middle C!