The N2FNH Sound Effects Library: Part 2 - Sounds from the Internet!

No matter how many sound effects libraries you have in your possession, there will always be some sound or noise that you need that you do not have on a storage disc, a magnetic tape or a non-volatile memory card. This leaves you with two options: produce the effect yourself (something which I will detail further in the next installment) or you can turn to the Internet.

You can view the Internet as an endless planetary ocean of digital detritus (a five dollar word - used in crossword puzzles and by science fiction writers everywhere) text, sounds, images, videos, all reduced to their digitally diatomic lowest common denominator, liberally sprinkled across an equally endless coral reef of web pages, each page covering yet another equally endless array of subjects, topics,thoughts, ideas and opinions.

Pursuant to this metaphor, you should be able to find just any sound or noise you may want, but of course, it's not always so easy. Go to Google and insert an argument such as SOUND EFFECTS AUDIO CLIP or SOUND EFFECTS WAV and you soon discover that SOUND or SOUND EFFECTS more often than not refers to voice clips from popular motion pictures and television shows. If this is what you were looking for to begin with, then you're all set. Otherwise you may need to spend a few extra minutes refining your search strategy and then trolling around for just the right source.

There are a number of sound effects web page categories:

1) Non-commercial or Commercial List Sites - A list of sound effects websites.
Akin to an online 411 directory assistance. An individual or group has scrutinized the Internet. The result is a list of site recommendations: sometimes nothing more than a wholesale rundown, sometimes select personal choices.

2) Non-Commercial Websites - Free audio file downloads:
An individual or non-profit group harvests public domain audio content from other Internet sources or creates custom in-house or in-the-field recordings and posts the product for royalty-free access via a web page or an FTP site. Find Sounds is a good example of a non-commercial website which offers no cost, good quality content. Wave Surfer offers an online site navigation
file directory for free sounds by category. They even offer a free CD ROM of movie clips and effects. The downside is that many such websites provide recordings where the fidelity is abysmal. You may find exactly what you need: only to discover that the playback is has been brutally clipped or there is a noise level or an alien interference pattern that is difficult or impossible to remove.

I once came across a clip of MOTHER computer sounds from the motion picture "Alien" but the recording contained a wide band noise artifact which could not be removed.

3) Commercial Websites - Free audio file downloads:
A business in the business of selling sound effects CDs or sound effects hard drives offers preselected free audio files as an enticement to purchase a much larger package. Companies like The Hollywood Edge and SoundDogs provide free MP3 downloads. In some cases,these may be down sampled to 11 KHz/8 Bit and lower and so will be of lesser quality but with a decent
digital audio editor, the file can reverse engineered for improved fidelity. There is at least one truly obnoxious, virtually parasitic website. Try placing a search argument such as WAR OF THE WORLDS+SOUND EFFECTS into Google and invariably you will find reference to Audiosparx. Audiosparx has found a way to take your search entries and back link them to their web page. Click the link and there will be little at Audiosparx that relates to your search. They want you to purchase their custom produced libraries.

4) Pirated Sound Effects Libraries - Free...but risky!
It would appear that there are a number of website locations dedicated to the idea that media should be free. Free of purchase cost, free of copyright royalty, free of copyright restriction. In the world of multi-media, bootleg sound effects records seems laughable, but it is indeed serious business to legitimate purveyors like Sound Ideas who ask customers in their newsletter
to report cases of piracy with a promise to prosecute the offender. Beyond the legal risks, such sites may be focal points for unseen digital predators: the viruses, the worms and the programmers who breed them.

5) eBAY- The Island of Misfit Toys!
It is here on eBAY where you can bid or BUY NOW on millions of records that somebody else no longer wants. I was able to secure a copy of Sound Ideas Cartoon Express for less than a fourth of the manufacturers original suggested retail price: likewise the same with Sound Ideas The Sounds of War. Unlike pirated copies, they were not free. They were cheap, but not they were not free. In my next installment: ROLLING YOUR OWN!

What follows is an address list of just a few vendors and sound effects fanboys. Some may offer additional outbound links to even more locations:

http://www.bargus.org/files/sounds/

http://www.coppoletta.net/ctastuff/ctasounds.htm

http://www.findsounds.com/types.html

http://www.freeaudioclips.com/

http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/254761

http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/pir/PIRsfx.shtml

http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/sound-effects.html

http://www.sdrm.org/sounds/

http://www.sounddogs.com/htm/soundeffects.htm

http://www.stdimension.org/MediaLib/medialibe.htm

http://www.trainweb.org/reynolds/nyc98snd.html

http://www.wavsurfer.com/

Amateur Radio Repeater IDs: And an almost completely forgotten Random Access Character!

This week's episode of the Random Access Thought was designed and assembled in January 2006. The topic is Amateur Radio Repeater IDs. While the vast majority of stateside VHF and UHF repeaters rely solely on controller-generated CW IDs, there are those machines whose station identifications have taken a far more creative turn, usually in the form of clever professionally announced custom voice recordings or select audio clips from popular television programs or big time motion pictures edited to fit the needs of the repeater ID. Some excellent examples sourced from the Internet play this week on This Week.

In this edition, actually the first of two Random Access Thought programs on Repeater IDs, an early and virtually forgotten voice character known as PacketMan visits with Mother Radio with his audio collection of IDs, Much like some of the other voices within the program ensemble, PacketMan speaks with a digitally peculiar and somewhat truncated AX25 burst before each sentence. PacketMan appeared in both Repeater ID RATs and at least one Christmas Special Since then, PacketMan has been MIA. It has been suggested that PacketMan may have morphed into another voice character: TANK. Unfortunately, I am not always privy to these guys' personal lives.

Back then, Mother Radio spoke with a much slower cadence and her tone was a bit screechier. These days MR (Beverly Krasnov) belts it out at a brisker clip and enunciates with more of a Gravel Gertie tone. Plus she's a bit older and certainly a bit bitchier.

In the promos that precede, a much younger sounding Zachary takes a look at a much slower speaking Tick-Tock's collection of obscure television broadcast public service announcements. Folks living in downstate New York who are downloading This Week in Amateur Radio International Podcast Edition #183 may recognize the music used in the RAT promo from "Don't Cross the Street in the Middle of the Block" and "Like Father Like Son", two public service announcements that aired on TV stations back in the 1960's.

In the QSL promo, a then much younger Zach speaks over the two meter radio to a now much older Bryannah about This Week in Amateur Radio reception reports and in this week's BLOG promo, a now much older Zach hangs with the fail-to-launch Cigman talking about fast cars and hot chicks. "Fast cars and hot chicks? What else is there?" Cigman Krasnov c. 2008.

FOUR SOUND EFFECTS THAT MADE TV HISTORY!..in Jolly Olde...

The British Broadcasting Corporation is no stranger to topics of an esoteric nature. So it should come as no surprise that they discuss the equally esoteric subject of sound effects. I came across this interesting article at the BBC website.

The address is: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7365120.stm

The subject is: FOUR SOUND EFFECTS THAT MADE TV HISTORY

Worth a quick read and not only that, it is possible to purchase the BBC Sound Effects Library at Sound Ideas.

In fact, do a Google search on BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP for additional detail on how sound effects were created previous to the advent of electronic audio synthesis and developments in digital sound design using analog tape machines and audio processors.

Callbooks! We Find (More) Callbooks!

Trolling for additional amateur radio callbooks deep within the Google-verse, I have come to the conclusion that there are many many online resources to scope out. Two more web sites worth noting:

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4X/4Z CALLBOOK - http://QRZ.co.il/

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NATIONAL HAM RADIO CALLBOOKS - http://www.souz.co.il/hamradio/callbookse.htm

Both sites appear to be based in Israel but the NATIONAL HAM RADIO CALLBOOKS offers a compendium of global callbook addresses on one page.

Back By Request! The Process is More Important than the Result!

For the week ending July 19th, The Random Access Thought offers an encore performance by request! I received the following e-mail from a pair of faithful This Week in Amateur Radio Listeners! For the week ending July 19th, This week's Random Access Thought is an encore performance by request! I received the following email from a pair of faithful This Week in Amateur Radio listeners:

We faithfully listen to the Full Version of TWIAR weekly using an MP3 download from your website played through Winamp into desktop speakers connected to our personal home computer using Windows XP operating system.

VE7BGJ Walter Hendrickson
VA7CHR Cheryl McDuff
Burnaby, B.C. CANADA

Sure hope to hear your "Purpose or Process?" article that Bill did again sometime.

The Process is More Important than the Result is a phrase I first heard coined by Bill Continelli - W2XOY - host of the Ancient Amateur Archives.
The full story comes your way in TWIAR Edition # 797 and TWIARi Edition # 182.

The Guernsey Amateur Radio Callbook!

Since amateur radio callbooks are top of mind for the moment, here is another callbook, apparently a regional online volume identified as the Guernsey Amateur Radio Callbook - Callsigns and addresses of licensed radio amateurs in the Bailiwick Of Guernsey.

A bailiwick is defined as the area which a bailiff has jurisdiction or a territory within which power can be exercised. In it's roughest form, a vicinity.

As I come across additional documents of this sort, I will remark within these august pages!

The TRCALLBOOK!

While doing a Google Search on a fellow ham by name of Ilhan Arikan TA5A, I came across this interesting online amateur radio callbook: http://trcallbook.org/

The website appears to require registration to make use of the database but this can be bypassed if one clicks on http://trcallbook.org/callsign/anycallsign. Anycallsign is defined as any stardard amateur radio callsign.

Here is the web site's mission statement:

This web site is dedicated to radio amateur all over the world with no intention of commercial proposes. The website has been developed and designed in order to provide simple, fast and secure services to our visitors. We intend to help people to reach the information about all the radio amateurs in the world easily from secure and reliable website. Also, all radio amateurs in the world, who have a valid licence of radio amateur, can apply for being a member of our website. The membership of our website is completely free of charge. All registered members of our website can easily update their information and profiles from the Internet and there is no paper work or forms to be completed. All operations are interactive and browser-based.In general, we aim to be the most reliable source on the Web and guide for people who are interested in finding radio amateurs in any place of the world. We also aim to help radio amateurs to publish their profiles on the Internet and keep their profiles
up-to-date by using our services, which are all free of charge.

73 & 55 TB2NHI mailto:info@trcallbook.org

By the way, I met Ilhan along with Yasar TA5M and the rest of the Radio Active Guys during a keyboard-to-keyboard QSO using packet radio via the Internet to the Adana Gateway.
The Adana Gateway offered radio coverage across southern Turkiye and over the Mediterranean into the TRNC - The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The gateway was constructed and maintained by Ilhan. If Ilhan was the tech guru, then Yasar was the teacher. For a number of years, I would receive e-mail from Yasar offering personal insight into world events, both historical and contemporary. Also, I had an equally interesting packet conversation with Mustafa Topukcu - 1B1A during a nice tropo opening between Adana and the TRNC one evening. It has been a number of years since I've heard from the Radio Active Guys. I hope all is well.

High Technology Complaints and Curious Observations! Part 1!

Cellphones, Blue Tooth accessories, voice recognition telephone answering systems and universal remote control units: just a few of the fantastic high tech devices we take for granted every day...and just a few of the high tech devices that can truly annoy us. That's the subject of the next Random Access Thought coming up on This Week in Amateur Radio for the week ending July 12th. Our host Boleslav Krasnov, along with Mother Radio, Marilyn, Bix and My Number
One And Only Son Zach cover the beat with the futuristic toys that can really frustrate.

This edition was recorded in January along with the associated RAT promo that features Cigman Krasnov and a fellow Pub Pal discussing the very same topic. Be sure to download TWIAR edition #796 and TWIARi edition #181 for the Random Access Thought!

The N2FNH Sound Effects Library! Part 1: The Commercially Available Sounds!

WHENIWASAKID! From about the age of eight and on through my late teens, my one favorite pre-computer age geek thing to do was record sounds off the television with my trusty reel-to-reel tape machine. And there were several of those, each of which I used and used until they could be used no more. Among the recorders: a Wards Airline three inch reel-to-reel portable with a coily cord microphone, a Mercury five inch portable job, a fifteen pound WebCor seven inch vacuum tube machine, my father's equally tube driven Roberts and another Wards Airline Model Number GEN3659A. This last one I know the model number because I won one of those on eBAY, although at the moment that tape recorder is on display in a bedroom closet. My best guess is that I got the idea of making sound recordings from watching a 1955 episode of The Adventures of Superman. It was the story of "The Talking Clue"!

"Ray Henderson (Richard Shakelton), son of police inspector Bill Henderson (Roberty Shayne), has been using his tape recorder to "collect" weird sounds. Unfortunately, Ray is hoodwinked into selling a tape containing the sound of tumblers on a safe to gangster Muscles McGurk (Billy Nelson). When McGurk uses the recorded information to steal evidence against him in an upcoming investigation, Ray is implicated in the crime--and Henderson may be forced to
arrest his own son. If there was ever a job for Superman (George Reeves), this is it!"
Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sitting here right next to me stuffed inside the drawers of a heavy 50's vintage office desk constructed of heavy pine are boxes of audio compact discs and rows of SanDisk and Sony digital memory flash cards. Down the hall in a side closet are additional volumes vertically stacked, all housing ten inch reels of magnetic tape. Each archive is host to a mini-library of sound effects which I have amassed for the past thirty years. This is what I may occasionally refer to as my N2FNH Sound Effects Library.

The aggregate inventory consists of recordings compiled from three principal sources:


1) Commercially available sound effects.


2) WAV and MP3 files downloaded from the Internet.


3) Sounds designed and home brewed in house or recorded in the field.

Sound effects published on both audio and data compact discs can be purchased by anyone and there are many purveyors of this product. The two major players are Sound Ideas and The Hollywood Edge. Both companies offer a bewildering array of effects, detailing just about any conceivable category. It should be noted that these libraries tend to be expensive but I have discovered that there is quite an Internet fraternity of sounds effects aficionados and fanboys along with their affiliated forums.


Here is what I bought with a ten second critique for each. From Sound Ideas,

1) The Hanna Barbera Sound FX Library
Five discs of almost all the best animation effects ever. I say "almost" because there were notable absences.

2) The Sound Effects of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends:
To truly appreciate this three disc set, you have to be closely in tune with what you have heard in the Jay Ward classics. Many of these effects were also present in UPA films. Again, some notable MIAs.

3) The Warner Brothers Sound Effects Library:
The big disappointment! Most are Foley sounds! Not on the list: the Road Runner's rocket jet sound and the Tazmanian Devil's wind up.

4) The Universal Pictures Sound Effects Library: A boatload of classic movie western effects. Every pistol, every rifle and every screaming PTWAAANG! you can imagine!

Missing: the original Frankenstein Thunder, in some circles identified as Castle Thunder, although various versions show on both the Hanna Barbera and 20th Century Fox sets.

From the Hollywood Edge,

1) CartoonTrax:
These are mostly unpublicized vintage recordings from Walt Disney Productions. There are quite a few unexpected gems clearly linked to Disney, along with many other unfamiliar sounds.

I have two additional libraries of note.

1) The Hanna-Barbera Library of Sounds:
An out-of-print two compact disc set version of an equally out-of-print eight vinyl disc set offered thirty years ago exclusively to broadcast radio and television stations. Unfortunately, these recordings are low quality, less common and mostly animal noises. With a digital editor though, these can be nicely cleaned. Some of the effects at large from the newer package
appear in this archive.

2) The O'Connor Crazies:
Still available for purchase! A comparatively low quality compact disc of Hanna-Barbera sound effects lifted from the Hanna Barbera Library of Sound and from a much earlier almost impossible to find vinyl offering from the late 1960's: The Hanna Barbera's Drop-Ins. Much cheaper now than when I bought it. Again, some of the sounds not in the inventory of the Sound
Ideas offering can be found on this recording.

So if you're a fanboy and I can only guess that this might be what I am then, like the Pokemon, you gotta catch them all. What follows is a bit of text on commercially available animation music that I lifted from myself from a forum dedicated to film and television animation.
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There have been a number of compact discs produced in the last few years which have focused on the music of film and television animation. Here are just a few.

1) Hanna Barbera Classics - Volume 1
Rhino Records
Contains main titles, sub-titles and underscores from many first generation animation efforts such as Ruff and Reddy, Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear,Quick Draw McGraw, Magilla Gorilla and more. Many of the earlier recordings were sourced from the Capital Records Production Music Library. There is even one track which was also used as the underscore for My Three Sons. There was supposed to a volume 2 but I never acquired the disc.

2) The Flintstones - Modern Stone Age Melodies

Rhino Records
Here, all the vocals that were heard though out the lifetime of this program. While the vocals are great to hear, even better are the underscores and music cues that are sandwiched in between those selections. Included in the clear is the classic laughing music cue that was used anytime a big joke needed audio support. All the songs and music beds composed by Hoyt Curtain.

3) The Carl Stalling Project - Music from Warner Brothers Cartoons. 1936-1958
Warner Brothers Records
Carl Stalling was perhaps the best known and most creative music composer and director at Warner Brothers during their Golden Age. A combination of select music cues and full length music and sound effects features makes this disc a must have. There is even a clip of the Yada Yada sound in the clear at the end of one of the tracks - an easy lift to add to your own
library!

4) Carl Stalling - Volume 2. 1939-1957
Warner Brothers Records
More fantastic Carl Stalling Music, again a combination of of individual music cues and full length track minus voices.

5) That's All Folks! Cartoon Songs from Merrie Melodies & Looney Tunes.
Rhino/Warner Brothers Records
This is a two disc set including full length features such as What's Opera Doc? and Three Little Bops and a massive 100 page booklet detailing behind the scenes activities at Warner Brothers way back when.

6) Warner Brothers Presents Bugs Bunny on Broadway
Warner Brothers Records
This album features newly recorded renditions of classic cartoon music by the Warner Brothers Symphony Orchestra but there are also some original audio segments on the disc as well.

7) The Best of WB Sound FX - CRASH! BANG! BOOM!
Kid Rhino/Warner Brothers Records
Some music, a lot of sounds from the commercial Warner Brothers Sound Effects Library for use at parties, on videos, computers and answering machines.

8) Toon Tunes
Kid Rhino
A compilation of television animation themes including the best Scholastic Rock song - Conjunction Junction

9) Music for TV Dinners - the 1950's
Scamp Records.
It is here on this disc where you will find a number of recordings directly associated with Ren and Stimpy, including Happy Go Lively - Laurie Johnson, Workaday World - Jack Beaver, Holiday Playtime - King Palmer and Stop Gap -Wilfred Burns (I believe this last one was used for a number of years on Bob Barker's Truth or Consequences). Many of these selections were sourced from KPM and Associated Production Music. Actually, when you think about it, it's amazing just how much old sound escaped the studio vaults and landed in our own record collections!

Field Day 2008! And the Cheap $49 RadioShack Analog Cassette Tape Recorder!

This week's exciting mind-numbing adventure in the Random Access Thought for the week ending July 5th takes My Number One And Only Son Zachary and me into the bull rushes at Kiwanis Park near Rotterdam Junction for this year's big Amateur Radio Field Day 2008. The Schenectady Museum Amateur Radio Association quickly set up shop at the park's picnic pavilion, scattering dipoles and G5RVs all over the place, along with a massive tri-band Yagi for 10, 15 and 20 meters. Antenna cables and feed lines curled and snaked everywhere HF rigs were in command on the picnic tables, their attendant networked INTEL logging devices standing alongside.

Out in the grassy meadow, a cranky portable generator with a largely disagreeable 60 Hertz dialect chattered and rattled on. On hand were Mike KB2VQS, Tim WA2QAC, Mike VE2XB, Becky KC2BYZ and a cast of thousands to not only participate in the radio event but also to feast on the huge food larder car-lifted in from the local superette.

As always, when attending these sorts of events, I brought along my trusty cheap $49 dollar RadioShack analog cassette tape recorder: Model Number CTR-121, Catalog Number 14-1128, custom(?) manufactured in China. Plugged into the machine was my equally cheap RadioShack $20 dollar desk microphone: Model Number Not Specified, Catalog Number 33-3025A, custom(?) manufactured in Mexico with a third party wind screen I appropriated from a call completion telephone operator's headset.

The cheap $49 dollar cassette machine is actually not a bad device to use for in-the-field day recording. The audio is doable and can be sweetened with post production software. There are two principal negatives though. First, like most cassette machines, this unit has an AGC, an automatic gain control. When the focus being recorded is close, ambient background noise is minimized. But if the target is distant, or these is no close-in audio, the gain on the background is quickly increased. Also, if your subject speaks slowly, there will some pumping. This AGC thing can be useful when grabbing more distant effects. I have captured helicopter and thunder sounds with this machine and the audio was OK. Again, any such crude audio can be scrubbed, cleaned and sweetened in post. If I had the money, I would be using a Nagra.


The second idiosyncrasy is a big annoyance. The clever design engineers at RadioShack felt an analog tape counter was essential and the user can certainly hear the counter when using the internal microphone which manifests itself as an endless click-click-click on the tape which is why an external pickup is necessary. But this same effect can also show when the cassette machine is placed on the same surface as the external microphone, especially if the surface is made of wood or plastic. The click- click-click is amplified into a much more resonant THUMP-THUMP-THUMP. This same amplification through wood or plastic is occasionally observed in some restaurants and pubs when a careless patron blooders into their chair and the resultant sound resounds throughout the entire establishment.

Despite these issues, the cheap $49 dollar RadioShack analog cassette tape recorder custom(?) manufactured in China is quite useful. And useful it was, because in keeping with standard Random Access theory, I focused on areas most other reporters would pass over or not even see. In this week's Random Access Thought, I not only touch on the obvious but also give attention to an on-site home brew Porta-Potty...home brew! Since this is Field Day, innovation is key because the public outhouse located near the pavilion at Kiwanis Park is an exercise in government sponsored abandonment and a subsequent return to nature. No toilet paper.

To hear this and all the amateur radio news that's fit to speak, tune in to This Week in Amateur Radio over your local repeater, Sundays at 4PM EDT on WBCQ or grab the podcast: TWIAR Edition #795 and TWIARi Edition #180 .

Who ARE Those People? Part 5: Tick-Tock, TANK and TINK!

Many of the characters who appear in my Random Access features and promos seem be somewhat mechanized by virtue of the way they sound. One of my earlier voice actors who still makes occasional appearances is Tick-Tock. Not to be confused with the Tick-Tock of the certainly more famous OZ stories, my Tick-Tock is a relatively mellow fellow who, like Bix Nix, speaks with a slight lisp. Likewise, as he does speak, he also produces a small blipping motor sound. At the conclusion of each significant sentence, there is also a beep. While Tick-Tick's voice is contemporary in a Windows 95 sense, his clicking noise was first heard in the UPA cartoons of the 1950's while the beep is the same tone that Rosie the Robot makes in Hanna Barbera's The Jetsons. The actual source for this pulsed 1400 Hertz sound is the advisory signal required by law here in the States when one is recording a telephone conversation.

Tick-Tock has a cousin whose name is TANK, which is appropriate since TANK is a man(?) of few words and TANK is the only word he says. TANK's voice is several octaves deeper and his motor sound is an equally deep throbbing effect which I created using a self-sourced fart severely dropped in pitch and looped to simulate a machine sound. TANK's beep is also vintage. You can chronicle this effect back to Rocky and Bullwinkle and earlier UPA features.

TINK is TANK's girlfriend who, like TANK, is heavily mechanized. Unlike TANK though, TINK has no problems asserting herself and has been known to chat on incessantly. For her motor sound, I was able to locate a more delicate effect, which sounds remarkably similar to the "I'm sorry, I didn't get that!" Boop-Boop-Boop-Boop-Boop you hear when you call the Fandango Entertainment Line. TINK's beep is the same is TANK's but they are not related. In fact, they have gone out together but TINK plays the field. She has dated the expansive Bob the Extraterrestrial on a number of occasions.

Since what it is I do for This Week in Amateur Radio is an audio-only medium, character design is restricted solely to how they might sound. For that reason, I usually do not visualize what they might actually look like, as one would developing a cartoon character for film or television. However, in the case of TANK and TINK, I immediately saw them both as looking like the bullet-shaped white and silver waste paper cans you might see in a rest room or in a cheesy hotel lobby. In fact, both My Number One And Only Son Zachary and George's daughter Jessica have rendered their own images of what these folks might look like. Maybe I can find a way to post these pictures so stand by!