One Hundred Sounds in Eight Seconds

Last Friday, November 7th, to mark my one hundredth sound posted in the One Sound Every Day category, I sequenced forty two equally sized micro samples extracted from sounds I had posted here on AudioCookbook.org. Due to a trip scheduled out of the country, I ran out of time and did not compile all of the available ninety nine sounds into the piece. As promised in the original post, I have now managed to complete the chronologically sequenced compilation of micro samples into eight seconds of chaotic noise. I extended the one hundredth sample of Caribbean surf as an ending to the staccato sequence.

100 Micro Samples

The Sounds of Failing Hard Drives

Slashdot.org has an article about a site that is hosting the sounds of thirty five different hard drives failing. Although the recording quality is generally poor there are some really interesting sounds including a Maxtor drive with a stuck spindle producing a “futuristic cell phone melody”. You can read the article and checkout the sounds here, although it might be a bit busy due to the site being slashdotted.

Also, click the image to see a video of a remix of Nude by Radiohead made entirely out of sounds captured from old computer peripherals including a dot matrix printer, scanner, cassette drive, hard drives, and so on. The remix and video was created by Glasgow based artist James Houston.

Caribbean Surf and Tide Pools

I recently recorded the sound of Caribbean surf and the gurgling of the waves as they receded from tide pools on a beach near Playa del Carmen in Quintana Roo, Mexico. I did my best to shield the wind from the mic, but the cheap foam wind screen I brought with me was painfully inadequate.

To try and repair the sound I edited a few instances of clipping, and ran the lot through a a high pass filter to reduce some of the wind noise. Finally I compressed the audio to bring out some of the gurgling and splashy sounds.

Caribbean Surf

Warped Space Flute

This sound is the seventh entry in my series of FM synthesis experiments. There are some very strange high frequency overtones audible in the first half of the sound. If you can bear the high frequencies, I suggest looping this sound and then listening to it for about thirty minutes.

As you listen say to yourself, “I will stop smoking cigarettes. I will stop smoking cigarettes.” If you are a non-smoker afterward and were not a non-smoker before, let me know and we’ll start a business.

Warped Space Flute

Subterranean Sonar

Number six in my series of FM synthesis experiments is a grainy, low frequency stomach growl that makes me imagine subterranean seismic activity. For this example I played a randomized patch three times at different positions on the keyboard while exploring the patch.

One word of warning: I have not filtered out any subsonic frequencies or tested the audio on equipment that is capable of producing them.

Subterranian Sonar