SQUAREWHEELS.org.uk
Sound-effects

Introduction

I am a musician, and appear to have a “musician’s ear”; thus I am perhaps more inclined than most to recognise and enjoy some of the many sounds to be heard in everyday life. For instance, I find that memories need not just be represented by photographs: sound-recordings can instantly transport a person (whose eyes are closed, for best results!) to the situation where the recording was made. Several of you (mostly from “across the pond” in the USA) have written to me to comment on how my recordings of the London Underground brought memories of a not-so-recent visit to London flooding back to you.

As a young child I used to mess around with a beaten-up⁽¹⁾ Sony Cassette-Corder; at the suggestion—and with the guidance—of my brother I took it along when my parents went to use a large astronomical telescope on a mountain in California (which, being ancient, made many interesting and distinctive noises) for the last time. Pretty soon I was making various other home-made tapes, including covert recordings entitled Mealtimes with Granny (!) and such-like, which have proved surprisingly entertaining (and revealing!) in their own way, fifteen years later.

One thing led to another, and in 1997 I bought a MiniDisc recorder with the specific aim of making better-quality recordings of the “Hastings” DEMU (see the [Hastings Diesels Ltd] website). My MD-recorder soon got used for recording many other types of sounds (see, for instance, my Concorde page!).

This page was created early on, as a place to share some of my earliest recordings that were made when my new “toy” was indeed new. The sound-clips section is certainly in need of overhaul and updating of content, but I hope you will find something there to whet your appetite.

2004 August 17

Plans for the future

Making progress…

Since creating this page I have recorded many fantastic noises (thunderstorm, DEMUs at East Croydon, Doleham and Ore; Hastings unit on tour; lots of good stuff from the Northern Line; Leyland Leopard coach in preservation; Lend-Lease rail-joints near Chilham in a 4-CIG; to name but a few).

I have also been slowly gathering knowledge, understanding, and (working!) equipment & software to allow me to get on with producing both this section of the website, and the compilation-CD:

In 1999 I purchased a Sony MDS-JE530 MiniDisc deck; in February 2004 I finally had a desktop computer that behaved itself (don’t ask); and in July 2004 I tracked down the (ludicrously expensive! £65 for a wire with a transducer on one end!) Edirol UA-1D optical-to-USB audio hookup lead, allowing me to take the optical output of my MiniDisc deck and feed it into my computer via USB. This helps guarantee that I’m producing the best quality (as there is no Digital-to-Analogue conversion and subsequent re-sampling to Digital). And finally in November 2006 I got a 250GB HDD to give me space on the desktop computer for the MiniDisc samples.

Sound-effects pages

The existing sound-clips will be re-sampled from the MiniDiscs, converted to mp3 format, and will replace the existing clips: this should produce better quality without increasing file-size much. This will allow me (and you) to be rid of RealPlayer (hurrah!).

The content-page carries only a basic list of links to the sounds at the moment; more information about each clip will be provided.

Compilation CD-R

Once the clips are sampled, it’s a relatively minor matter of choosing & editing the clips required to assemble the relevant compilation. I remain committed to making progress with this project: it’s still just a question of time. Thanks for bearing with me; messages of support, or of change-of-address/lack-of-interest/death, et cetera, are always appreciated! <grin>

2007 April 23

(1) – Well, it was once I’d got my grubby little hands on it!