Ask Slashdot: Sounds We Don't Hear Any More? 790
J. L. Tympanum writes: While discussing music with my 24-year old son, the Typewriter Song (Leroy Anderson) came up. Within 10 seconds he had it playing on his laptop, but he didn't really get the joke because he had never seen a typewriter, nor heard the characteristics sounds — the clack of the keys, the end-of-line bell, the zip of the carriage return — that the typewriter makes. What other sounds do we not hear any more? More points for the longer they lasted (typewriters were around for over a century).
Sorta related... the teletype machine (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Sorta related... the teletype machine (Score:4, Informative)
It has been a long time since I have answered the phone, and heard the tone from a misdialed fax machine. Fax machines aren't completely dead, but they are far less common than they used to be. I think only lawyers are bureaucrats still use them.
Re:Sorta related... the teletype machine (Score:5, Insightful)
It has been a long time since I have answered the phone, and heard the tone from a misdialed fax machine. Fax machines aren't completely dead, but they are far less common than they used to be. I think only lawyers are bureaucrats still use them.
They're still used pretty extensively in the British military, especially when it comes to the logistical arms. We used them a lot when we had to get paper work sent out to the upstream depot ASAP for top priority supply demands. Everything else was sent via the computer systems, but as those systems sent stuff off in batches at a particular time of day, we needed a way of bypassing the "batch cycle" as we called it and getting the top priority stuff dealt with immediately.
For that matter... phones. (Score:4, Interesting)
How many people have actual mechanical-ringer phones any more? I have one specifically for the purpose of being heard anywhere in the house, but don't actually use it to talk.
Re:For that matter... phones. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
Up here, those phones wouldn't even work anymore, at least not without a converter. The telephone company stopped supporting pulse dialing almost 3 years ago.
Re: (Score:3)
We must have just beaten the cutoff date when that nasty thunderstorm took out our power for a couple of days about then. Our only means of communication was to use an ancient Radio Shack pulse-dialing phone (no... we hadn't dumped our land line yet) or spend enough time at a local coffee shop charging a cellphone. The trouble we had using that phone during the time the power was out wasn't whether the phone company was acceptin
Re: (Score:3)
When I was a kid, I made a phone out of an old radio, a tape recorder microphone and a telegraph key. It didn't work well, but it was kind of fun.
Re: (Score:3)
Fax machines are still very common in medical claims processing and mortgage underwriting. For medical claims, think Medicare - very old people, who insist on filling out paper forms. It's easier to fax them than scan and email - especially since the email has to be secure, because of HIPAA.
Oh yea.....we have two servers (Rightfax) that process faxes from all over our company (nursing homes and rehab). Faxes still used VERY extensively in healthcare! They like that hard copy...
Re:about fax (Score:4, Informative)
Theres also providers who will provide you with a fax number that forwards to email.
Also, the DECWriter (Score:3)
pidib pidip pidip pdawww... Or something like that as it wrote each line. And then the paper feed. And sometimes it furiously printing in both directions....
http://everything2.com/title/D... [everything2.com]
One on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Hard to explain to my kid that you needed lots of sheets of fanfold paper when you wanted to use "the computer".
Re: (Score:3)
Steam Engines (Score:5, Informative)
Related - the clack of wheels on the tracks (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I think he was referring to the chuff of the piston valves. You're thinking of clickity-clack.
Hey, McGruber! The Cumbres & Toltec is waiting for you. Ball's in your court...
Re: (Score:3)
Hence the subject "Related - the clack of wheels on the tracks".
Slashdot posts have subject lines? I've occasionally fallen and read TFA, but I've never stooped so low as to read a subject line.
Re:Related - the clack of wheels on the tracks (Score:5, Informative)
Guess you don't live in a cold part of the world in the winter, or where it can hit 35C+ in the summer. Around here in Canada, we use 30-50m segments that aren't welded because the tracks shrink and expand so much. Once the temps drop to -20C here, you can lose over an 3cm, and once it gets over 35C with the train's on them they can expand over 10cm causing them to warp off the bed.
So if I walk outside, the next time a train goes by I can hear it hit every clack clearly. Since it's around -20C right now, I can hear it inside my house about 300m away if I pay attention.
Re: (Score:3)
When I lived in Alaska I could tell how cold it was based on the time it took for my snots to freeze up my nose.
7F is when it starts. By 0F or -24C it freeze instantly. Same with my Windows fogging up after I leave my heated garage. Usually in the lower 48 and lower Canada this would change based on humidity but at sub zero temperatures it fogged at the right time every time based on the current heat as it was dry
Re: (Score:3)
Like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T... [wikipedia.org]
The bit of London Underground's District Line that until last year I lived next to was bolted. Possibly because it was a long, raised stretch with alternating bridges over roads and embankments between, but I don't know.
Re:Related - the clack of wheels on the tracks (Score:5, Insightful)
Most lines are welded now, so it doesn't happen any more.
Not the same way, or as often, but you still get the clack as you go over a rail joint; they're just expansion joints [wikipedia.org] and less common. I recall a problem that I ran across in high school, that posited a one-mile continuous length of railroad track, and asked 'if the track expands by one inch, and buckles rigidly, so that it bends only at the middle, and is otherwise straight, how far off the ground is the rail at its midpoint?' The answer is, surprisingly, almost 15 feet (do the math: Pythagorean theorem, hypotenuse 1/2 mile + 1/2 inch, one side 1/2 mile, solve for third side). And you'll still get the rail clacking going over points and frogs in areas where you have switches.
Re: (Score:3)
I used to take Amtrak to Sacramento to visit my parents after they retired from Silicon Valley in the 1990's. The first and last time I ever heard a steam hose hissing was when some kids put debris on the track in Oakland that the train ran over and a broken steam hose banged against the carriage underneath my seat. The train slowly came to a halt from traveling at 65 MPH. An engineer spent ten minutes replacing the hose. We were on our way as if nothing happened.
Unless you mistyped and meant to say that your parents lived there in the 1890's, that wasn't a steam hose, that was an air hose.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah Steam locos are really in the "rare, but not gone" category. Though I guess that applies to a lot of these sounds. Another rare, but not completely gone: the scrape of a phonograph needle across an LP.
The whine of the flyback transformer (Score:5, Insightful)
I always knew that one day I'd no longer be able to know a CRT was in the room from the high-pitched flyback transformer sound, but I always expected it would be because of my own loss of high-frequency hearing. But the CRT pretty much disappeared before that. Length of time: less than the telephone.
Re:The whine of the flyback transformer (Score:5, Interesting)
Good riddance to CRTs. I always hated that sound. Every so often when I go to an office that has an old TV running, ugh. That sound always drove me nuts.
When composite-input TVs came out my dad would leave the TV on with the cable box and VCR off and I'd ask him why the TV is still on. He'd say "it's not on." It most definitely was and that annoying whine was driving me batty.
I used to take apart my TVs to put baffling in to cancel out that sound. I am 43 now and I can still hear past 17.5KHz. Why? Because it was drilled into me by my mom to not blast my ears with headphones, and when using power tools I use hearing protection. I have an even greater appreciation for my hearing now because once I got a sinus infection so bad it spread to both ears and I had 95%+ hearing loss for more than three months when my inner and middle ears filled with fluid, and there was so much pressure it perforated my eardrums, so I'm even more strict about hearing protection having experienced near-total deafness for an extended period. Since then certain frequencies cause some pain due to reverberation because those frequencies seem to be amplified to me - it may be due to scar tissue where my ear drums perforated or something, I don't know and haven't bothered to find out.
But flyback transformer whine? Ugh. Same with PC power supplies that are going bad - they have a very similar high pitch whine. When I go to my old office to maintain the servers for my partners, I need to stay out of the lobby because the power supply whines like mad. No one else in the office can hear it.
Re:The whine of the flyback transformer (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm using a CRT monitor right now, a 21" IBM P275 with a Trinitron tube. Right now I'm enjoying near perfect color reproduction, blacks that are actually black, zero input lag, no ghosting, nothing that resembles backlight bleed and no stuck/dead pixels. Haven't noticed flyback whine for years but that's probably down to my age. LCD is still inferior to CRT in many ways and you have to wonder what CRTs we would have today if development had continued. LCD has also taken a step backwards recently with the introduction of LED backlights, they make for thinner panels and lower power consumption but uniformity of many recent panels is really poor.
Having said that, my CRT will probably have to go this year, most probably late in the spring when the heat the thing generates is no longer welcome. My desk is also sagging from the weight of it sitting there for nine years.
Re:The whine of the flyback transformer (Score:5, Informative)
Right now I'm enjoying near perfect color reproduction, blacks that are actually black, zero input lag, no ghosting, nothing that resembles backlight bleed and no stuck/dead pixels.
I'm experiencing the same except for the wider colour gamut, better contrast ratio, and far sharper picture that comes from spending more than $50 on a modern LCD.
CRTs haven't outperformed common LCDs for about 5-10 years, and even in the early days if you actually bought a proper LCD like an NEC Spectraview you ended up with something that no CRT could match. Go shopping somewhere other than Wallmart when your CRT finally dies and you'll hate yourself for having lived with that garbage so long. Check out some high-end offerings from all those same companies that produced high-end CRTs for colour critical applications back in the day like Eizo, or NEC, (they are still in the business and they are also the source for panels used in medical imaging etc if you like colour accuracy) and don't base your view of technology on what you somewhat throws at you during Black Friday sales.
I had a high end trinitron screen as well. It was a great screen back in the day but I don't miss it.
Re: (Score:3)
Its a performance trade-off. The best panels for pixel persistence are also the worst for colour accuracy. Pick what you want. Are you a graphic designer who colour matches professionally? Pick one type. Are you a hardcore gamer? Pick another. Its an unfortunate state of things. But some things are certain no one at any colour specialist, hospital, or professional gamer is using a CRT ... unless they can't afford one (I've seen some ratshit hospitals in the past few years).
Re:The whine of the flyback transformer (Score:5, Insightful)
Also typical CRT noise: The Degaussing Powowowowowoing when switching it on (or whenever you liked to do it at the touch of a button on some models).
Re: (Score:3)
Lucky you - I got older and I hear that sound all the time! :)
my mother and my father (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:my mother and my father (Score:5, Insightful)
I hear my mother every time my daughter laughs and I see my father every time I shave. I hear him every time I lay down in bed to sleep at night and make exactly the same tired groan he used to make.
No, I didn't record my parents either, shame on me. Even worse, we had a flood in the 90s and lost a ton of pictures. But memory is better. The sounds are sweeter and the pictures are all photoshopped.
Re:my mother and my father (Score:5, Insightful)
But memory is better. The sounds are sweeter and the pictures are all photoshopped.
This is a beautiful sentiment.
Modem connection tones (Score:5, Funny)
Nerrrrr! Squawk! BONG! BONG! BONG! Scrrrrch! Doot!
Re:Modem connection tones (Score:5, Interesting)
I could listen to this all day. And probably will.
Re:Modem connection tones (Score:5, Funny)
Dude, what you talking about? You don't hear that anymore? Just search for dubstep on YouTube.
Re: (Score:3)
Mod this man up. The sounds of crappy old tech haven't gone away, they've gone mainstream.
Re:Modem connection tones (Score:5, Interesting)
Nerrrrr! Squawk! BONG! BONG! BONG! Scrrrrch! Doot!
I ran a BBS and loved those sounds the negotiation, hand shake, and the connect; meant someone was logging in, One's entire purpose of running a BBS.
After 8 lines I did have to silence them.
Re:Modem connection tones (Score:4, Interesting)
Yah, I worked at an ISP back then and it when customers would complain that they were getting a slow connection, I'd have them hold the phone up to the modem speaker and try to connect so I could hear it and determine the connection speed and protocol. The BONG! mentioned above pegs it as a 56k modem string :) v.90 i believe.
Re:Modem connection tones (Score:5, Interesting)
At work we once had a bank of modems, and to check which modem went to which phone number (people sometimes switched them without telling us) we would have to call the number on a voice phone across the way and then run over to the modem bank to see which lights were on. Often the modem lights wouldn't stay on long enough from a mere phone call.
Rather than run fast and risky in a crowded, wiry data center, I discovered that if I whistled certain frequencies mirroring the connect sound, the modem would think I was another modem and spend a longer time trying to connect. Thus, by learning to speak modemese, I could walk instead of run.
A computer room steward saw me doing this and told his shift buddies about "the crazy lonely guy who flirts with modems". Referring to their squawky sound, somebody joked about modems being consolation partners after I allegedly got dumped by a Dalek. Good Times!
Dial-up (Score:2, Insightful)
Dial-up connection sound.
Somewhat recent...
Mechanical Adding Machines (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
I think that there are medicines to treat that these days.
A telephone being dialed. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
TV sign-on and sign-off (Score:5, Informative)
With almost every TV station broadcasting 24x7, you don't hear these sounds much anymore.
Duration: presumably from the 1940s or 1950s throught at least the 1980s.
Re: (Score:3)
With everything coming through a cable box... the sound of static on a dead channel.
Cha Ching (Score:5, Interesting)
Cash registers haven't made the Cha Ching sound in a long time. Yet people still say, "Cha Ching!" when they encounter a monetary windfall. I wonder how many of them don't even realize its onomatopoeic origin.
Line printer (Score:2)
The sound of a line printer spewing out paper a line at a time. LPD "on fire"
Darl MacBride (Score:2)
Videocassette (Score:5, Interesting)
That funny sound the videocassette makes when you push it in the VCR, and the tape winds around the drum, and finally it starts playing.
Before the typewriter ... (Score:3)
The scratching sound of a quill pen against paper - done in by the typewriter.
The sound of a hammer and chisel carving Latin into marble tablets - done in by the quill pen and paper.
The squishy sound of a reed stylus forming cuneiform symbols in clay tablets - done in by hammer and chisel.
Don't know if any of them had a song.
Mimeograph (Score:5, Interesting)
Easy (Score:4, Insightful)
Rotary phone.
Floppy drives (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Luckily youtube can help :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
"Snap-ah-ah" (Score:5, Interesting)
"As he relaxed, he was pierced by the familiar and irritating rattle of some one cranking a Ford: snap-ah-ah, snap-ah-ah, snap-ah-ah. Himself a pious motorist, Babbitt cranked with the unseen driver, with him waited through taut hours for the roar of the starting engine, with him agonized as the roar ceased and again began the infernal patient snap-ah-ahâ"a round, flat sound, a shivering cold-morning sound, a sound infuriating and inescapable. Not till the rising voice of the motor told him that the Ford was moving was he released from the panting tension."--Sinclair Lewis, "Babbitt"
Movie projector. Reel-to-reel tape recorder. (Score:5, Interesting)
The very characteristic rattle of a motion picture projector--most familiar from 16 mm projectors in classrooms or 8 mm projectors showing home movies, but also faintly audible in many movie theatres. Probably around 1900 to 1980 or so.
The whine of a reel-to-reel tape recorder rewinding, rising in pitch as the diameter of the remaining tape decrees, followed by the dramatic snapping noise as the end of the tape comes off the reel. 1945 to 1990 maybe.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
The groan-tick-click as a cassette reaches the end.
horse drawn transport (Score:3)
clippety clop
Lost sounds (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Lost sounds (Score:4, Insightful)
Still camera film rewind (Score:4, Interesting)
Reach the end of a roll of film and it auto-rewinds with distinctive hum.
From a travelogue I wrote in 2003:
As the light started to dim and elephant to disperse, I heard a familiar hum. The film has reached its end and was now returning to the start. I felt a sense of completeness. Previously, I had toyed with the idea of visiting one of Bangkok's inevitably overtouristed sites. But that now seemed wrong. A rushed viewing of an overcrowded temple in a polluted city was not a fitting close for an epic Asian adventure. Better to stop here, at the last frame of the roll. To end with elephants.
It was the last photo that camera ever took. Digital cameras today emulate some of the noises of film: film advance, mirror clack (even for those that have no mirrors), but not rewind.
Actually rewind sounds of all kinds have mostly disappeared. Reel to Reel, audio cassette, VCR tape. Backup tape rewind still happens but not many hear it anymore.
Comment removed (Score:3)
Museum of Endangered Sounds (Score:5, Informative)
60 Hz. hum in audio equipment (Score:3)
Up until perhaps about the year 2000, almost everything electronic with a speaker that plugged into the wall, except for really good audiophile equipment, had a faint 60 Hz. hum audible during periods of silence in the program material. One easily learned to ignore it, but it was there. (It was very hard to avoid it in phonograph cartridges, for example).
The ubiquity of 60-Hz hum (or 60-cycle hum as it was called then) was the basis of a plot point in Theodore Sturgeon's psychoanalytic SF story, "The Other Man," for example.
Re:60 Hz. hum in audio equipment (Score:4, Funny)
Come join the light side of the force with our sexy 50Hz.
5 , 4,We are go for Main engine start, 3 (Score:4, Insightful)
A space shuttle liftoff
And before that a Saturn V liftoff
Animal calls (Score:4, Interesting)
Cheetahs, tigers, rhinos... the list goes on.
Bonus Points for how long they were around? (Score:3)
How about the clip-clop of horse's hooves on cobblestones? Or does it have to be things that became rare in our lifetime?
If the latter I'd go with the sound of a telephone bell. The mechanical ringing bell that was on so many different models of phones.
What do I win?
bells...real deal bells. (Score:3)
Rotary phone (Score:3, Interesting)
Fast Forward (Score:3)
He realized at one point it was just repeating the same text in the booklet, and fast-forwarded to make sure.
Some fucking kid in the comments asked why he "added that annoying fake fast-forwarding sound." I think I cried a little.
Manual Adding Machines & Flash Bulbs (Score:3)
Adding Machines were ubiquitous growing up in offices & flash bulbs in your Kodak Brownie were the norm.
Recent but obsolete software (Score:3)
For example:
The Windows 95 startup sound - https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
The ICQ uh-oh sound - https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
RIngtones, notification sounds and alarms from old phones that we no longer use. I've found that I can still instantly recognize sounds from handsets that I haven't used in years, even old versions of Android (e.g. the default alarm clock from my Nexus S running Gingerbread).
Spanish Guitar (Score:4, Insightful)
and introducing acoustic guitar
Plus
Tubular Bells
Yep, its been over 40 years since Mike Oldfield released his first album
Old TV (Score:4)
The CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK of an old VHF tuner knob.
Neuromancer will need cliff notes (Score:3)
Line printers (Score:4, Interesting)
There were two main types: the drum printer and the chain printer. The drum printer was cheaper and therefore much more common. The drum, which contained all the characters in a given font, rotated once for each row printed. An entire row was printed simultaneously; a separate solenoid-driven hammer in each column fired at the right instant to print the desired character in that column. You could easily tell from across the room whether your program had failed to compile or if execution ended with a core (!) dump. The burst pages between jobs had their own highly characteristic sound.
A related sound is that of ripping fanfold line printer paper to separate jobs. Who uses any kind of fanfold paper these days? Or even paper...?
Oh, and let's not forget the sound of the Hollerith (IBM punch card) reader...
Branches like bells after an ice storm (Score:4, Interesting)
Tree branches ringing against each other like crystal bells after an ice storm. Once every 1 or 2 years in Northern New Jersey we would have an ice storm. It would completely coat trees in a thick layer if solid ice. The next day the world would be utterly silent, save for the tinkling and chiming of branches as unsern breezes would bang them against each other. For that matter, simply walking unplowed snowy streets with hardly anyone around, snow crunching underfoot is very rare to me. But I think due to global warming perhaps we don't get ice storms that crystallize the tree branches, or the 3 feet of snow I remember.
Sounds I don't hear any more (Score:4, Funny)
Sounds I don't hear any more: anything above 10kHz.
Zenith Space Command remote (Score:3)
they're not supported for dialling (Score:2)
almost all the telcos have stopped leasing the software on their digital voice switches that reads the click=k=k=k=k=k=k=k of the dial. for that matter, you never hear the zzzziiipppppp-tk-tk-tk-tk-tk of rotary contactors that were the CO side of that dial phone (or the clank-k-k-k-THUNK of the crossbar switch.)
Related: the sound of a thrown telephone. (Score:3)
I mean a heavy Western Electric Bakelite phone with a corded handset, a dial and a bell. Makes a magnificent clatter that ends with a ding. Nothing quite like it.
Re: (Score:2)
What the hell is this? This is not news. Just put this crap in the polls, where questions belong.
Welcome to Slashdot by Dice, Inc.
Re:Ask Slashdot (Score:5, Informative)
What the hell is this? This is not news. Just put this crap in the polls, where questions belong.
While you are technically correct, I happen to think it's one of the more enjoyable threads
on Slashdot in a long time.
There's a lot of unpleasant news which shows up here. One can only take so much
of that sort of reality in a day's time, before despair sets in. So an enjoyable lighthearted
thread is far from the worst that could be on this website, though I certainly agree that
Slashdot these days is a far cry from what it used to be.
Re: (Score:3)
What the hell is this? This is not news. Just put this crap in the polls, where questions belong.
t's interesting because we're seeing the mass obsolescence of both old, established devices (and their industries) and new stuff that's obsolete within a few years of its' introduction. With many newer laptops, you don't even get to hear the CD/DVD because there isn't one - they're going the way of floppies.
Re:24 years old... (Score:4, Insightful)
...and does not know what a typewriter is?
He knows what a typewriter is, he just doesn't know what they sounded like.
My company had one used by the shipping department, to fill out forms. It was retired in 1994, 21 years ago. We had a company BBQ planned for the following Friday, so someone brought a sledgehammer, and we took turns bashing it to pieces.
Re: (Score:2)
...and does not know what a typewriter is?
Probably knows what it is, but never heard one actually used (outside of television). As a prolific writer, I went through and had multiple typewriters around from at least 3rd grade on. By 1983, I stopped using them entirely in favor of computer-based word processors. Plenty of work office had them around longer than that, but kids don't hang around in the office. So, yea, if you were born in 1988 or later, you likely never heard people working on a typewriter.
Re:24 years old... (Score:4, Interesting)
When civilization collapses, everyone who has a typewriter will be looked on with awe and envy.
Not just the high pitched whistling..... (Score:5, Insightful)
, which not everyone can hear, but the "Bonnnnnng" sound of the degaussing coil and the crackling sound of the high voltage hitting the CRT at startup...
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
\m/
Re: (Score:3)
The occasional sonic boom from fighters breaking the sound barrier, it has been years since I heard that while I was on land.
Lived near an Air Base a lot of time, never know when one was coming. I think it was the SST that had the sonic boom stopped, they didn't want it booming every time it flew over and it took nation wise.
Many years ago I did hear a sonic boom in a remote area and surprised, but more so when a cop pulled, drew his gun on me ordering me out of the car, he had thought I was shooting a gun. Apparently he had never hard one before.
Re: (Score:3)
Watching a blacksmith -- or a glass blower -- work is worthwhile, just for the artistry.
And if you're willing to special-case the smithwork, the Japanese government has been deliberately working to preserve the swordsmithing skills.
Re: (Score:3)
What's the joke about the typewriter song? I'm aware of the song, but I didn't think there was any kind of joke associated with it.
You're kidding, right?
Maybe not - probably you're just too young to know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:3)
They would strategize only parking their cars pointing downhill.
I was lucky to be parked on a small hill last summer when my battery suddenly died. Got it started, and took care to park on hills until I got to the hardware store to get a new one :)
With a well maintained engine you can engage the clutch in first gear at less than walking speed and have it start easily.
In Norway stick shifts are very common, to the point that almost all new models still have the option, at least in the low to middle price ranges. Even expensive, non-performance cars are usually available