June & July 2008 Compiled

We posted 16 sounds these past two months. I figured it was time for some compilations, so I whipped up the typical formats:

"Linear", a quick chronological run through all the sounds set to a beat.

Link

"Layers", i.e. all sounds at once. About a minute and a quarter long.

Link

"Mix", whereby I hone in on a few sounds and spin that off into something. 1 min, 39 sec.

Link

Til next time.

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

Gas Generator

We had a pretty short but nasty storm last week, which resulted in us losing power for close to twenty-four hours.

A neighbor (well, technically a neighbor three doors down from us) had a gas generator running during the outage, and was nice enough to let us hook up our freezer to it via a series of extension cords, in order to keep our food from spoiling.

The generator is growling an A3.

Gas Generator

Link

Robin Chirp W/ Angry Squirrel

I was in my bedroom when I heard something that kinda sounded like a beeping. I went outside and realized it was a bird chirp. Seeking out the sound, I saw that it was coming from a robin in our neighbor's tree. There was a feisty squirrel making a racket in the same tree. I am not sure if the squirrel's chattering indicated that he was angry, but for some reason I like to think so.

The chirp seems to be pretty close to a B♭4, with an occasional dip to an A4.

Robin Chirp

Link

Flagpole Clanging

On an extremely windy day, as I was walking home from the train, I recorded the noisy clang of a couple side-by-side flagpoles.

It sounds to my half-assed ear to be around a D4.

Flagpole Clanging

Link

May 2008 Compiled

We posted 16 noises this month. So what could it sound like, put all together?

This is the Linear compile, all the sounds posted this month in chronological order to a beat. This month I twisted it: the second half is the sounds played in reverse chronological order IN REVERSE. You'll see--er, hear.

Link

Now here is the Mix: selected sounds from this month made into something song-like. Helicopter, car, and train are key. Are you ready to rave?

Link

Finally, here are the sounds Wall At Once. I think the aggregate noise of this past month is rather pretty, with major sevenths resonating. Ghost Train holds it all together.

Link

I really wanted to hear Wall At Once with a lot of delay on it, so ta da.

Link

See you next month!

Eerie Freight Train

On my way to work on Tuesday, my commuter train was standing still for a bit. I heard a high-pitched sound. I looked out my window and saw a freight train start moving in the opposite direction.

What then transpired was an eerie, impromptu song containing a variety of notes, among them G#4, G5, G6, G#5, and C6.

Eerie Freight Train

Link

I ♥ My Casio

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Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

--Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy"

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Count me among one of the above-mentioned ape-descended life forms.

My Casio is playing a happily chirpy B4.

April 2008 Mixes

We posted 25 sounds this past month. I sort of went a little crazy with mixes, producing three of them.

First is the compiled mix, which focuses on (what I felt were) the best sounds of the month:


Link

Second, if for some god awful reason you're aching to hear every sound we put up this month AT ONCE, here it is! Brace yourself, it's cacophonous!:


Link

Or, if you'd rather hear them all in a more mellow fashion, listen to the linear mix:


Link

See you next month!

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.

Friendly Gmail Chat Bloop

I use Gmail as my primary email account these days. Gmail has a handy-dandy Chat widget that you can use to connect with other Gmail users.

Every once in a while I'll initiate a chat with another user, or a user will initiate a chat with me.

When I don't have Chat as my active window I'll hear a very pleasant bloop that lets me know when someone has just chatted something to me.

It's two notes played together at an octave interval -- a C4 and a C5.

Goddamn Alarm Clock

Here it is, my morning nemesis. If I hear any sound remotely like this when I am out and about, I involuntarily flinch.

Never has an A5 sounded so goddamned obnoxious.

Backyard Gate Squeak

So the gate on the side of my house that leads to the backyard has a pleasant high-pitched squeak.

It's a B♭6!

A Grocery Store Scanner Of A Different Note

Tim has shared his grocery store experience. Now I must share mine.

I was waiting to pay for groceries at my local supermarket and decided to record the sounds being made by the price scanning device used by the cashier (that's not me in the picture, by the way. Tucking your shirt in to go shopping? Are you freaking kidding me?).

Well, the lane I was in was definitely beeping an A5, though you can hear a scanner in a nearby lane happily chirping a C6.

Gas Pump

I had to visit the neighborhood gas station for a minor fill-up (y'know, the $30.00 kind).

For the past couple of years I have paid at the pump with a credit card rather than actually interact with a human being.

I noticed that the gas pump makes two different kinds of beeps. There is a beep when the gas pump is trying to tell you something, and another kind of beep when it is acknowledging some action taken by the human interacting with it.

For this recording, the first beep you hear is a D5. The gas pump is asking me if I would like a receipt.

My "NO" response is replayed to me in the form of a C6.

Thank you, friendly gas pump!

March Compiled

We posted 21 audio files this month.

As a public service, of course, here are all of them strung together. March 2008 in one listen.


Link

And now with a funky beat...


Link

Windows XP Hardware Connecting Dings

Thought I'd give my sound recorder a breather. Here's a sound from my computer, currently running Windows XP Home edition.

This is the default sound it makes when I attach my iPod or a thumb drive to a USB port while the computer is on.

It is two tones, starting on a C4 and ending on a G4.

Electric Toothbrush!

An unpleasant visit to the dentist prompted me to once again reach for the electric toothbrush.

Honestly, I can't imagine why I would use a non-electric toothbrush, as it wouldn't naturally produce the simultaneous, mellifluous tones of a C#4 and a F4.

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.

Metra Door Dong-Ding

Tim has contributed the lovely strains of the Chicago El doors closing here.

So, I figured I'd record the El's suburban equivalent, a train on the lovely Metra rail.

Unlike the El, the tone starts low and then goes high. The tones go from a C5 to a F5.