Sounds

Hearing the sounds of paragliding is breathtaking

Usually when you think of things that take your breath away, you don’t think of sounds. It’s the spectacular view or the amazing feeling or the perfect performance. But this video that highlights the sound of paragliding is pretty breathtaking. I closed my eyes and listened and felt the nature around me. I kind of…

What Are The Most Unforgettable Technological Sounds?

Technology marches on, but in its wake it leaves plenty of old items — and the memory of the odd collections of beeps, gear turns, and robotic voices that used to accompany them. Today, we want to know about the technological earworms that get stuck in your head. Whether it’s the grinding sound of your…

Where on Earth is this freaky lava pool? Why do people hate love locks? Is it true that fire ants love the suburbs? And what do the soon-to-be-lost sounds of the industrial age sound like? All your answers are here, in this week’s landscape reads! A Campaign to Ban Love Locks In Paris Who hates…

Awesome recording of space sounds exactly like a tropical rainforest

Birds singing, frogs croaking, animals walking, the sound of rain hitting trees, ponds, and the wet soil—if you listen to this video with your headphones you would believe you’re listening to the recording of a rainforest. But the truth is that you’re listening to space: CHORUS consists of brief tones which sounds like a chorus…

This wonderful sound is a turbine engine’s worst nightmare

Turbines are huge, intricate, beautiful machines. And if you drop something inside of them, they double as musical instruments. But as YouTuber AgentJayZ demonstrates, the delightful xylophone sound that makes is actually horrible. Why? If you’ve got a screw in there and you turn it on, you’re going to be the owner of a brand…

Watch the visualization of a tech sound your kids will never know

You know what’s missing from technology these days? Sound. We have noises but no sound. We open our laptops and we’re automatically connected to Wi-Fi. Our phones only squeak for alerts, they don’t provide a soundtrack for the future. The old dial up modem handshake though? Now that was real sound. That was like hearing…

What Different Languages Think Different Animals Sound Like

Hello. Hola. Bonjour. Ni Hao. We all say things differently because each language has their own words. Like, duh. But what about how different languages think animals sound? We’re not exactly saying words as much as we are simply enunciating simple sounds and yet, different languages have their own take on each animal sound too.…

This Incredible Soundboard Website Has Pretty Much Every Sound You’d Ever Want to Hear

I’ve found your new favorite website: Funswitcher.com. It has pretty much every sound known to mankind. From TV show theme songs like Community and Buffy, to video games sounds like Super Mario Star. Hell it even has sounds for having an orgasm and your favorite memes. You will lose hours to this website and you…

Finally, A Bottle That Can Store Sound

It’s a common trope in cartoons, but in the real world, you just can’t get a bottle to hold sound. And what kid hasn’t tried? No verbal messages in a bottle for us, thanks to the laws of physics. At least, that used to be the case. The Re: Sound Bottle designed by Jun Fujiwara…

Here’s the Next Thing You’re Going to Hate About Facebook: Beeping Sounds

Facebook often tests out experimental features on a small sliver of its billion users before rolling it out to the rest of the world. Today, it’s notification sounds. It’s awful. Please, please let this remain a bad experiment. Notification sounds are generally horrible, harkening back to a time when we received notifications so infrequently that…

How to Get the Classic Mac Sounds Back Into OS X Mountain Lion

This morning I had a bad case of nostalgia. I listened to the classic “Quack” Macintosh system alert sound in a YouTube video and I thought about the good old days, when computing felt magical and smelled of new. https://gizmodo.com/what-to-do-with-an-original-1984-macintosh-5269088 Of course, there was no Quack in the Sound preferences pane. Apple got rid of…

13 Tech Sounds You Don’t Hear Anymore

If you remember what a modem sounds like, chances are you’re old. And that’s not the only tech sound that’s being quickly forgotten. Our friends at LaptopMag have complied a list of noises that may soon disappear from the collective nerd consciousness. As we move toward an age of quiet gadgets that do everything possible…

What the Hell Is That Weird Noise at the Oscars?

I flipped over to the Academy Awards because, I dunno, sometimes I just do things, but there is this weird sound happening throughout. WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!? It sounds like somebody is playing Atari during all of the presenters and acceptance speeches. Are you guys hearing it too, or is this bad acid? Somebody…

Listen and Watch How the Sound Effects of Transformers 3 Were Made

Soundworks Collection has a great little feature on a very big movie called Transformers 3. Heard of it? Sure! In this video you get to see how the movie’s sound effects were made using dry ice, electric guitars and more. We already know the creative sound methods used in Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon…

Celebrate the Birth of Your Nation with a Toot From This DIY Fog Horn

The beauty of this DIY hand-pumped fog horn lies in the fact that the parts are interchangeable—the annoying sounds one could create with it are literally endless! Sadly, the same can not be said of the device itself. Use it too much and it will most certainly end; if not by your hand then surely…

A Modem Dial-Up Sound Slowed Down 700 Percent Is Pure Creepfest

The sound of waiting for your dial-up modem to connect probably induces enough nightmarish flashbacks as it is. But when you slow that same smattering of scratches and clangs down 700%, you get the soundtrack to the scariest part of every Wes Craven movie ever. It’s agonizing. Don’t worry, there’s an antidote! It’s called Jurassic…

Animals’ Most Amazing Acoustic Feats

From deafening monkey howls to snapping crustacean claws, animals use powerful sounds to do everything from claim territory to stun prey. “There’s such an enormous range of abilities and loudness in animals, it’s very easy to get swept up by it all. I just love this stuff,” said bioacoustician Christopher Clark of Cornell University. While…

A Cacophony of Failing Hard Drives

Lovers of failure, train your ears on this fine list of failing hard drive sounds that Boing Boing discovered this weekend. Hard drive lovers, perhaps you should just move along. [Data Cent via Boing Boing, Image: Flickr]

This Creative Robot Paints What Cars Sound Like

Electric cars get a lot of attention, and some of it has focused on a seemingly insignificant detail: the sounds their engines make. Nils Voelker’s little robot certainly doesn’t think those sounds are insignificant—it turns them into art. Nils impressed us a few months ago with his light-drawing robot, but he says it was just…

Thin Latex Metamaterials Are the Noise Cancelling Tech of the Future

If you want peace and quiet, current technologies require a compromise: settle for thick, unsightly foam or use thinner panels that don’t block bass. A new technology developed in Hong Kong, however, is both super thin and super effective. The researchers at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Kowloon have made their noise-canceling…