London Sound Survey collects the everyday sounds of the capital, including the bells of St Clement's, the call to prayer at the Whitechapel mosque, football fans outside Millwall stadium, a demo in Piccadilly, dubstep at the Notting Hill Carnival and a street preacher at Speaker's Corner.. not forgetting, of course, those ubiquitous sounds of London life, 'Big Issue! Big Issue!' and announcements of planned engineering works on the Tube. (Via.)
posted by verstegan on Jun 25, 2009 - 19 comments

Mapping sound at the British Library. The British Library has organized several of its archival sound collections on Google Maps. The results include Accents and Dialects, wildlife and soundscape recordings from Britain, music from India and Uganda, and a whole mess of noisy frogs. [more inside]
posted by LarryC on May 14, 2009 - 8 comments

The niftiest thing at Coin Op World? The mp3 files of Classic Arcade Sounds. [more inside]
posted by Miko on Mar 13, 2009 - 27 comments

Sounds of American English details each of the consonants and vowels of American English with a real-time Flash animated articulatory diagram of each sound; video and audio of the sound spoken in context and an interactive diagram of the articulatory anatomy.
posted by Lezzles on Feb 16, 2009 - 15 comments

Hongkiat.com is a treasure trove from a Malaysian designer, developer that features Photoshop tutorials, icons, Wordpress tips and tricks, tools for everything from sound to Flickr, inspirations, graphics and templates, stunning wallpapers including for Windows 7, Leopard, and iPhone, and finally a library of how-to's to make your everyday internet simpler.
posted by netbros on Jan 15, 2009 - 2 comments

"For over half a century, the UCLA Phonetics Laboratory has collected recordings of hundreds of languages from around the world, providing source materials for phonetic and phonological research, of value to scholars, speakers of the languages, and language learners alike. The materials on this site comprise audio recordings illustrating phonetic structures from over 200 languages with phonetic transcriptions, plus scans of original field notes where relevant." (Description from website.) Many more recordings -- indexed by language, sound, and geographic location -- are available here.
posted by cog_nate on Dec 9, 2008 - 12 comments

A lot can happen in 60 seconds. Such as podcasts of one minute how to's, or technology tips, or even one-minute vacations[previous & ongoing] from the life you are living.
posted by netbros on Sep 3, 2008 - 16 comments

Earth is not a quiet planet. It transmits a rather hideous sound [flash] into space that is 10,000 times greater in strength than any man-made radio transmission. The Earth also quietly hums with seismic Love Waves (hear them), while the Magnetosphere is alive will all sorts of sounds (check out the creepy-sounding Chorus Emissions). Also, stars sing out in middle C before they explode as supernovae, and the Perseus Cluster black hole has droned a B-flat for the past 2.5 billion years.
posted by blahblahblah on Jul 2, 2008 - 36 comments

Sounds from the Vietnam War. Battle sounds, RTO chatter, speeches, briefings, LZ dustoffs, dogfights, and pirate radio. What war sounded like, in country and back the U.S.
posted by John of Michigan on May 12, 2007 - 12 comments

333-333-333 YOU WILL SEE SUCH PRETTY THINGS (via) 333-333-333
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me on Jan 22, 2007 - 50 comments

Splice gives anyone, anywhere the ability to collaborate on music right through a web browser. Users can upload or record sounds, make songs, listen to other user's songs, make remixes, make friends and a whole lot more.
posted by crunchland on Oct 16, 2006 - 7 comments

Love's guide to the church bells of the City of London (with sounds, peals and pictures).
posted by tellurian on Jul 26, 2006 - 11 comments

Science sites of all kinds for kids. Archeology. Entomology. Natural Symphony. Baseball in Space. Philosophy. Process or Content. Science songs. Physics songs, relativity. String theory. Science and Art.
posted by nickyskye on Jun 26, 2006 - 9 comments

Sounds that must die. Yes, the amen break is listed.
posted by bigmusic on Apr 19, 2006 - 40 comments

The Sounds of Pasta
posted by grumblebee on Mar 8, 2006 - 23 comments

Clik. Clak. (embedded Quicktime video.) Short animated film featuring little robots who make their own language using Rube Goldberg contraptions.
posted by jann on Feb 17, 2006 - 28 comments

Need to know what a toad sounds like? How about an agogo or siskin? Findsounds is here to help.
posted by DeepFriedTwinkies on Nov 20, 2005 - 7 comments

Ever just stopped and listened? Acoustic Ecology encourages us to be aware of the sound environment around us, and to take responsibility for it.

The World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, as well as publishing a beautiful journal called Soundscape, is a starting point for finding many sound resources. Listen to soundscapes from Denmark and California, and field recordings from Vietnam and Vancouver. Take an audiovisual tour of NYC or Portland, Oregon. Experience cicadas, birds, frogs and other animals. Take a soundwalk through the park. Create your own international sound journey. You can even hear sounds from underwater or from the Northern Lights in the sky. And when you're done, learn how to make your own recordings.
posted by chrismear on Nov 14, 2005 - 15 comments

Sound 101 Fingernails scraping down a blackboard... the scream of a baby... your neighbour's dog barking: what is the worst sound in the world? This is what this website is trying to find out. Acoustic science is concerned with the production, transmission, manipulation and reception of sound, from unwanted traffic noise to beautiful music. Acoustics is about both the physical properties of sound waves and the reaction of humans. This website is interested in the often complex ways in which people perceive and interpret sounds. The aim is to increase awareness of sound psychology by examining what makes a sound unpleasant to hear. Your votes on the site will also give us an insight into what is the worst sound in the world, and maybe why it is the worst sound.
posted by Ugandan Discussions on Nov 14, 2005 - 42 comments

Arcade Sounds. We recorded video games from 1982 until 1988. Fortunately I managed to save all fourteen audio tapes of video game sounds and arcade ambience which were recorded from a variety of locations in the US. Most of the recordings are from Ithaca, NY, Albany, NY and Ocean City, MD.
posted by rxrfrx on Nov 1, 2005 - 46 comments

Ideophones are words that are usually spoken but not written and are often onomatopoeic, including (but not limited to) the calls—often reduplicated—with which we beckon domestic animals, kindred to our animal imitations. In the States there are many more pig calls beyond soo-ee. Maxim Gorky wrote that the sound tse tse is used to call pigs in Russia. In Spanish coch is used. Americans use pipi and biddy to call chickens and turkeys. In Ambon Malay chickens are called with kurrrrr or pan kur. In Kiswahili you call chickens with gurúgurúgurúgurú, call dogs with aháháhá, and straying cattle with ishiyeeyeeeeee or ngoyéeeeee. In Sweden, they call cattle with a loud, high-pitched kulning (akin to yodeling). Cervantes wrote that they use tus tus to call dogs in Spain. One source says in Coolderry, Ireland, they use gen-gen to call pigs to ford, puddly pudde to call ducks, peopeo to call horses, and geg geg to call geese. In Iceland, kibbakibb is used to call sheep. In the Hiligaynon language of the Philippines, they call cats with míming. In the parish of Nantcwnlle in Wales they have their own set of calls.
posted by Mo Nickels on Aug 27, 2005 - 17 comments

Saturn's Eerie Radio Emissions and other space sounds.
posted by dhruva on Jul 25, 2005 - 24 comments

International Onomatopoeic Sounds
[Note: You must have sound for this to be cool]
posted by anastasiav on Jun 7, 2005 - 12 comments

Collect Britain 'presents 90,000 images and sounds from the British Library, chosen to evoke places in the UK and beyond.' Dialects, gardens, sketches, stamps, and all kinds of stuff.
posted by plep on Mar 4, 2005 - 4 comments

Insect sounds : "but have you heard a rice weevil larva eating inside a wheat kernel, a termite cutting a piece of wood, or a grub chewing on a root?"
posted by dhruva on Feb 23, 2005 - 10 comments

Mystery of 'chirping' pyramid decoded: "A theory that the ancient Mayans built their pyramids to act as giant resonators to produce strange and evocative echoes has been supported by a team of Belgian scientists." Others are not so sure... Coincidence, or engineering? Did the designers of El Castillo pyramid cannily build in a sound effect that mimics the warble of the sacred quetzal bird? Listen for yourself, with the .wav file (first set is the real bird, the second is the pyramid) featured in this Acoustical Society of America page. I prefer to think it's deliberate; after all, it's possible that early man was experimenting with cave acoustics to to create sound-enhanced rock art (there are sound samples for this included here - unfortunately a Geocities site). Also of interest, the BBC programme "Acoustic Shadows" (requires RealPlayer - *heavy sigh*).
posted by taz on Feb 8, 2005 - 24 comments

Did you know there's a department of the Smithsonian dedicated to saving the sounds of the past? Old phone rings, coffee percolators, home movie projectors, and much more.
posted by braun_richard on Jan 11, 2005 - 20 comments

Let's say that you have a cell phone, and you need to sound as if you're somewhere else, or you need to get the long-winded person you're talking with off the phone.
posted by Witty on Jun 22, 2004 - 7 comments

KAA-WHUUMPH! GGGRRRAAA! WHAM! A strange collection of comic book words, and citations as to just what comic they came from.
posted by jpburns on Apr 29, 2004 - 20 comments

Sky Ear will be a one-night event in which a glowing "cloud" of mobile phones and helium balloons is released into the air so that people can dial into the cloud and listen to the sounds of the sky. The cloud will be made of one thousand large helium balloons each responding to the electromagnetic environment (created by distant storms, mobile phones, police and ambulance radios, television broadcasts, etc.) with coloured blue, red and yellow lights.
posted by schoolgirl report on Apr 9, 2004 - 22 comments

Junglewalk
If you need a picture of an alpaca, some video of a nudibranch or audio of a nightjar.
posted by johnny novak on Sep 16, 2003 - 2 comments

Screw Major Tom! "Oscar 1 was battery powered. Its signals lasted for about two weeks. The batteries were not rechargeable". Awww..... Here are the actual sounds of the first satellites. In fact, I may just become a MeFi musician just to sample them. So there.
posted by Carlos Quevedo on May 20, 2003 - 8 comments

Japanese Sound Effects and what they mean. Spotted on Gen Kanai's blog: this rather comprehensive list of sound-effect words from manga - the Japanese equivalent of BAM! WAP!, OOF! (and possibly even D'OH!), but covering a wider range of social and emotional terrain. Lest you surmise that these are more or less arbitrary, I "tested" ten or so on my fiancee and found that she knew every single one. Aaaa!
posted by adamgreenfield on Apr 3, 2003 - 12 comments

bzzzpeek - a fun site with kids from around the world imitating animals and vehicles in an exercise of onomatopoeia. Similar to a post last year, this version adds sounds from native speakers and some cute visuals, making for a neat toy. MeFi moms & dads take note - submissions from kids age 2 to 7 are invited. flash and sound alert!
posted by madamjujujive on Feb 9, 2003 - 15 comments

The Sound of Magic: an amazing homage to the ambient sounds of various Disney Mecca, is also an amazing site: beautiful, whimsical, nicely architected, and with plenty of content [via DollarShort]
posted by silusGROK on Oct 17, 2002 - 8 comments

Spanish dogs say "guau guau". Did you ever read comics or something in a language other than your cradle tongue and notice that onomatopoetic words, particularly for animal sounds, are different in different languages? This webpage has animal sounds from loads of languages, organized by language and animal. Indonesian dogs say "gonggong".
posted by jeb on Apr 30, 2002 - 46 comments

The Homer Simpson Soundboard is fun.
posted by pooldemon on Apr 15, 2002 - 15 comments

Grootnik P. Bargelights' Golden Shower of Hits! For those of you still mourning the loss of GoGaGa Brand radio, Grootnik spins the eclectica like noone's business. Grootnik is a member of the Evolution Control Committee (of Rocked by Rape fame) and you can find show archives on their sounds page.

PS - You can also get a little GoGaGa fix at ropeadope. They have a very nice set by John Schaefer, who is now trying to start a new life at a little joint called airbubble.
posted by badstone on Sep 26, 2001 - 4 comments

DIY - Dub It Yourself with InfiniteWheel's Dubselector sounds sweet
posted by hmgovt on May 4, 2001 - 9 comments

fLOW is a fascinating ambient sound generator for Mac G3 computers. It uses the Mac's built-in DSP to create "sounds that resemble - metaphorically - the timbres of water, fire, earth, and air." If you don't have a Mac, there are Real audio files so you can hear what you're missing.
posted by cfj on Mar 4, 2001 - 0 comments