Garbage Truck Compressing

I had my sound recorder handy at last week's garbage pickup, and recorded the dulcet tones of a garbage truck working its compressing magic.

I hear both an A4 and an A♯4.

Garbage Truck

Link

Air Conditioner Conditioning With A Hum

This giant, industrial strength air conditioner sits atop a building on the campus of Sacred Heart-Griffin high school near my house. The other day I was walking by and noticed it emitting a loud musical hum. It's a note just sharp of a D4.

Warning! Bridge Raising!

Last week I was walking down Harrison Street, headed towards Printer's Row for a leisurely lunch. Wouldn't you know the bells of the Harrison Street Bridge were a-banging, as the bridge was about to go up.

It's two notes played together at an octave interval -- a B♭3 and a B♭4.

Grocery Store Checkout Sounds

I surreptitiously captured a bit of my checkout experience recently at the local County Market, a regional chain of grocery stores.

Unidentified store music hovers in the background while the sound of my groceries being handled mixes with the beeps of the register.

The beeps are D#5 exactly. The store music is in F.

Post Office Garage Watch Out Beep

I work pretty close to the main Chicago post office. When I walk down the sidewalk to my train, I'll occasionally have to stop because a car, mail truck or semi will be exiting from the post office's big garage.

I'll know to stop because a device of the garage door will start making a steady, loud beep.

It's not the most pleasant C6 I have ever heard, but it does stop me in my tracks.

Elevator Dings

We have three elevators in the six story building where I work (the elevator lobby pictured is not in my building -- our elevator lobby is festooned with dark red 1970's disco bricks).

I hit the UP button and was surprised when two elevators simultaneously stopped on my floor. The tones of the two elevators were slightly different. One appeared to be a G5, while the other seemed closer to a F#5.



I again tried taking an elevator later in the day and got the F#5 elevator.



A while ago I had actually noticed that the elevator dings were slightly different, on the rare occasions when they would simultaneously ding. By having the tones slightly off from each other, a person will know that more than one elevator is arriving at a given floor. Pretty cool, I think.

I will attempt to pin down the tone of the third elevator in the near future.

Metal Fence Finger Pings

When I walk by fences made of vertical metal bars, I almost always drag my index finger along them to see what interesting tones they might make. This one here (not pictured) produced, of all things, Middle C#.

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!

Chicago 'L' Ding-Dong

This is a recording I made of the "DING-DONG" and "doors closing" of the Chicago 'L' near the Berwyn stop on the Red Line. The notes of the ding-dong make a 4 and 1 on the Western scale, just slightly sharp of F#4 and C#4. Recorded 6/20/2006 using my trusty digital voice recorder.