# Your Favourite Non-Musical Sounds



## Polednice

A simple enough idea! Of course, I like "classics" such as the sound of running water, but I also like the distant hum of light traffic, and hard shoes walking briskly on concrete.

EDIT: Anticipating a musico-philosophical debacle, let's adopt an unquestioning, common sense, arguably naive approach to this question and just consider it on simple terms rather than shouting at each other about why the sound of shoes is as much music as Schubert.


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## Cnote11

I have one of those things in my apartment that people can press outside to buzz me and I can talk down but it is broken. When you push the button it makes this humming noise and when you touch the button it mixes it with all this static noise. I could listen to it for ages. Absolutely beautiful!


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## aleazk

aircraft noise! (I have said this before, in fact @Lunasong has sent me wonderful videos of aircrafts). My favorite, the C-5 galaxy:


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## kv466

My babies (dogs) making the noises they make. That and my named being called by a beautiful woman, or mo*ned. I also like the sound of the night, a pistol being cocked, a fresh batch of billiard balls being broken, a water pipe burning, feedback, an electric guitar being plugged into a tube amp, beer bottles being popped open, creatures of the day, thunder and lightning and rain falling down...there are really too many to mention.


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## brianwalker

Moaning. 

You knew this was coming.


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## Couchie

The sound of children gently weeping


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## clavichorder

I vouch for the near absence of sound, those rare incidences when you are in a natural area in which you have to really concentrate to realize what subtle white noise is about you, much of it coming from the pulse in your ear drum.


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## Philip

Space shuttle.


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## Igneous01

a trains horn, sometimes it confuses me to think that I heard a minor triad...


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## hawk

I don't have favorites of anything but here are some sounds that I like a lot~

Humpback Whale song
Song of a Veery (thrush)
Snow falling on a very still subzero evening
Rain
River/stream/waterfall
Wind blowing thru a stand of bamboo
Spring Peepers
Gulls at the ocean
Blockplane coarsing over a piece of wood
Bacon frying ) )


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## Moira

I like the sounds of crickets in the early evening. For years I thought it was the sound of stars twinkling.


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## sah

I know a place in the coast, where the rocks have holes. The sea cover the rocks and when it goes back, the water descending through those holes produces an interesting sound, lower or higher depending on the hole's size.

I like also thunders and boiling water.

However, since concrete music was invented, every non-musical sound can be a musical sound.

I like Stockhausen's Helicopter Quartet.


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## Fsharpmajor

My favourite sound is a storm during the night, when I'm safe and warm in bed.

I this is probably one of the most terrifying natural sounds:

*http://www.xeniatornado.com/audio.htm*


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## eorrific

That sound when a tennis ball hit the sweet spot of a tennis racquet. 
You know, when it sounds like "ping!", but it's kind of "twack". Like this one, but with more "ping", and it should include the resonance created by the tennis court.




Nothing's like it!


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## Manxfeeder

aleazk said:


> aircraft noise!


Chino, California, has the Planes of Fame Museum. Once a month they used to fire up the old warbirds and fly them. The sound of a P-47 was absolutely beautiful. Well, at least to me.

Of course, a wonderful sound is my grandkids calling my name.


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## SiegendesLicht

Rain and thunder
Sea waves hitting the shore
The sound of German (spoken, not sung)
The sound of a Boeing taking off (preferably heard from inside)
A cat's purring


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## Crudblud

I guess I'm more like John Cage on this one than anything, I just like sound in general.


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## Vaneyes

Golf shot, though it's still music to my ears.


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## Cnote11

I'd totally agree with the sound of a gun being cocked. Something very percussive about it. I'm going to take off my dear friend SiegendesLicht's post and say spoken French, Russian, Japanese, Korean, and British English. It is musical, but I love the way Portuguese (Brazilian Portuguese) sounds when it is sung. Anvils are a cool sound as well. Just ask Wagner!


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## EarthBoundRules

Bubble wrap!


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## opus55

I like the sound from any kind of rain - shower, big drops, drizzle..

Also like the sound of my Subaru boxer engine and exhaust between 1500 and 2500 rpm.


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## Kopachris

Campfire, running water, distant rolling thunder, wind in the trees (especially conifers)...


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## aleazk

Other sound that I love is when the string section of an orchestra start to tuning before the concert. Pure chaotic fifths!






(0:15 to 0:35 <3)


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## Dodecaplex

This is, without a doubt, the single most beautiful sound in the history of sound:


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## beethovenian

Any sound that a cat makes. Especially when it meows.


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## sah

In the Ancient Greece they talked about the music of spheres. Now we can listen to it (lots of videos on youtube). Just an example:


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## Yoshi

Mine would be:

Orchestra tuning
Pretty much any sound coming from a piano (sometimes I listen to a single note for a long time because I just like how it sounds)
Frequencies from planets and space
The sound of my partner's voice
Crickets
Walking through leaves or dirt


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## Iforgotmypassword

See to me all sounds are musical. It's all in how you listen to them. A guy once told me that you yourself become the composer when you listen to something. Like if one person hears a cricket chirping and some cars passing by and hears annoying noises then it isn't music, but if someone cognatively joins those sounds together in his mind and accepts them as music then they themselves become the composer of that music which they are hearing. I would fall under the second category quite often, though sometimes there are sounds that annoy me and I don't feel like listening to them in which case my mood destroys the possibility of those sounds having musical validity in that moment.


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## SiegendesLicht

Sometimes in the evening while standing at a railway station waiting for the subway towards home, I get to hear a very interesting sound coming from the trains of the Austrian Railways departing on the route Hamburg-Vienna. As the locomotive engines rev up for the start, they produce a very clean and pleasant series of sounds that remind of a tone scale being played on the cello or saxophone. As the tone scale reaches its highest note, the train pulls out of the station. Actually I am not sure if this sound even qualifies for this thread since it is so melodious. And this sound has not been intentionally "prettified" in any way but comes only from the way the engines function. I find the fact that the trains departing for one of Europe's musical capitals go on their way so musically to be very cool and somehow symbolic.


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## TxllxT

Living close to the North Sea one hears the constant hustle of the sea, especially when walking in the woods. This sound resembles quite the hustle of trains on a railway. Now when we hear the actual sound of trains, we again think of the wave breakers sounds.


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## LezLee

I can’t believe we’ve got to 29 posts without mention of birdsong! Or is it that everyone thinks of it, quite rightly, as musical? There’s nothing quite so lovely as the blackbirds and thrushes in early spring, and loons on a Scottish loch in late evening.

It’s quite worrying that people not only know what a gun being cocked sounds like, but actually like it. I‘ve never even seen a real gun let alone heard one.


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## Kjetil Heggelund

The sound of the snow falling


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## SiegendesLicht

TxllxT said:


> Living close to the North Sea one hears the constant hustle of the sea, especially when walking in the woods. This sound resembles quite the hustle of trains on a railway. Now when we hear the actual sound of trains, we again think of the wave breakers sounds.


The trains and the sea - they are both nice sounds but very different, to me at least.

Also, I remember visiting some relatives, as a kid, and standing at the railway crossing on the way to their house, listening to the endless, powerful and a little frightening sound of a freight train thundering past. It was my first heavy metal - and quite literally  From there I went to loving heavy metal music, and then to Wagner, and then... you know the rest of the story.


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## geralmar

Crickets, frogs, owls at night.
Birds early mornings.
Rain on leaves, wind through trees.
Loons anytime.
Distant trains.
Ocean waves.
Static on old tube televisions.


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## Dan Ante

The sound of a river over rocks, I have one just beyond the bottom of my garden.


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## Pugg

The sound of the birds in spring, reminds me of summer is near. :angel:


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## TxllxT

SiegendesLicht said:


> The trains and the sea - they are both nice sounds but very different, to me at least.
> 
> Also, I remember visiting some relatives, as a kid, and standing at the railway crossing on the way to their house, listening to the endless, powerful and a little frightening sound of a freight train thundering past. It was my first heavy metal - and quite literally  From there I went to loving heavy metal music, and then to Wagner, and then... you know the rest of the story.


With train sounds I mean the modern "whooosshh" without variation (not "kadun kadun kadun"), almost like a highway on distance. It seems that everyone has different associations with train sounds...


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## Art Rock

Absolute silence. Experienced it only once, on New Zealand's Doubtful Sound. The ship's engines were stopped, all passengers were requested to keep silent, and not even a bird was heard. Totally loved it.


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## T Son of Ander

Night sounds, especially in the woods.
Birds in the morning.
Distant train.
Orchestra players warming up (everyone just playing whatever, not in any kind of sync).
The sound of a light breeze blowing through the trees (sorry for the rhyme!).


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## Heck148

Lots of examples - 

I've always loved the sound of songbirds, the pure, penetrating calls and tweets, that have such stunning clarity and projection. As a performing musician, I've always marveled at how such relatively tiny creatures could produce these stunningly clear sounds which project so amazingly,audible at long distances. it's almost like sonic "laser beams".

The sound of mountain streams, brooks - when one sits next to them and just listens - it's a marvelous multi-channel effect, with each set of rapids, and falls producing its own unique tone, pattern and frequency. It's an "Ivesian" effect - all of these different signals reaching your ear...it is most enjoying and meditative to listen, and sort thru all the different sound sources...

Of course, I always loved the sounds made by babies, infants, when they first awake in the morning - all of the various sounds, the jabbering, the singing - the totally un-self-conscious noises made by small children as they begin their daily journeys of discovery and exploration on each new day....a wonderful sound, that is actually, quite musical


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## Guest

Kittens meowing. (squeaking is more accurate!)


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## SiegendesLicht

TxllxT said:


> With train sounds I mean the modern "whooosshh" without variation (not "kadun kadun kadun"), almost like a highway on distance. It seems that everyone has different associations with train sounds...


I was thinking about the German ICEs, I am pretty sure you know how they sound


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## Dan Ante

SiegendesLicht said:


> I was thinking about the German ICEs, I am pretty sure you know how they sound


Clancaty Klankaty clang.


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## SiegendesLicht

Dan Ante said:


> Clancaty Klankaty clang.


I don't think the ICEs have ever been exported to New Zealand....  They have been exported to Russia where they promptly got a name of "killing machines from Germany" with all the usual connotations - because of the fools who tried to cross the railroad tracks not realizing these trains travel quite a bit faster than usual...

Anyway, one of my favorite sounds these days is the sound of the closing doors of the bakery I work in. The doors pull together ever so slowly... and then there comes a "click" sound.... and the wonderful feeling of having done a good job and enjoying one's deserved rest for another day.


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## Dan Ante

SiegendesLicht said:


> I don't think the ICEs have ever been exported to New Zealand....  They have been exported to Russia where they promptly got a name of "killing machines from Germany" with all the usual connotations - because of the fools who tried to cross the railroad tracks not realizing these trains travel quite a bit faster than usual...


Oh I see "Trains" I was thinking Internal Combustion Engines as in BMW, Merc VW etc


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## SiegendesLicht

Sorry for the misunderstanding, and for the off-topic too. That's an ICE, short for InterCity Express.


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## Dan Ante

SiegendesLicht said:


> Sorry for the misunderstanding, and for the off-topic too. That's an ICE, short for InterCity Express.
> 
> View attachment 99477


A fine looking beast I am all for rail. 
In NZ the rail was privatised - nationalised - privatised - nationalised, so over the years run into the ground as the only important thing is to make money, now in an effort to free up our clogged roads (trucks) we seem to be on a rescue mission... sorry to go off topic but it is one of my pet rants :wave:


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## Harmonie

I love the sound of sleet hitting surfaces. Sadly, winter precipitation is becoming less and less of a thing every year where I live, so I don't get to hear it much anymore.


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## Tallisman

It's nice when I'm listening to music on headphones on the street or in public and background noises (car beeps etc) are in tune with my music!


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## elgar's ghost

White noise hiss emanating from a tuned-out radio. Set at a certain volume through headphones it reminds me of distant rain and I did use it as a sleeping aid before changing to the more practical ear-plugs.


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## Dan Ante

elgars ghost said:


> White noise hiss emanating from a tuned-out radio. Set at a certain volume through headphones it reminds me of distant rain and I did use it as a sleeping aid before changing to the more practical ear-plugs.


A bit off topic but when you mentioned "White noise" I was told recently by my GP that it can be a big help for those suffering with Tinitas.


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## elgar's ghost

Dan Ante said:


> A bit off topic but when you mentioned "White noise" I was told recently by my GP that it can be a big help for those suffering with Tinitas.


Interesting - I'm pretty sure I read once that for sustained periods it could be harmful, though I can't see how if it isn't loud to begin with.


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## Dan Ante

elgars ghost said:


> Interesting - I'm pretty sure I read once that for sustained periods it could be harmful, though I can't see how if it isn't loud to begin with.


I don't profess to understand it either


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## SixFootScowl




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## Potiphera

Walking on dry, crispy leaves, (dry Holly leaves in particular). love the crunchy sound.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese




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## SixFootScowl

Snorting laughs:


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## Pat Fairlea

Hearing the first willow warbler of spring.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese




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## Joe B

Some of my favorite non-musical sounds occur in the summer, at night, with the windows wide open.
We have a lot of Barred Owls around our property (we abut a couple hundred acres of woods). When they hoot away talking to each other it's amazing. When they scream, it is freaking awesome. I got to watch one hunt a squirrel back in November, at dusk, when I was bringing in wood for the night. It took about 5 minutes for the owl to succeed. The squirrel was cleaver.
Besides owls, I also love the sound of the train whistle and track sounds from the freight trains that pass through town late at night (about a 1/2 mile from the house).


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## SixFootScowl

Joe B said:


> Some of my favorite non-musical sounds occur in the summer, at night, with the windows wide open.
> We have a lot of Barred Owls around our property (we abut a couple hundred acres of woods). When they hoot away talking to each other it's amazing. When they scream, it is freaking awesome. I got to watch one hunt a squirrel back in November, at dusk, when I was bringing in wood for the night. It took about 5 minutes for the owl to succeed. The squirrel was cleaver.
> Besides owls, I also love the sound of the train whistle and track sounds from the freight trains that pass through town late at night (about a 1/2 mile from the house).


I have owls in my neighborhood too. I love the trains, but can't stand airplanes passing overhead.


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## Boston Charlie

Sounds in nature are, of course, very nice to here and have been reproduced in classical music time and time again from Beethoven's 6th "Pastorale" Symphony to Ricard Strauss' "Alpine Symphony". What I also like, though, is the sound of traffic. I live in an apartment on a busy street and the sound of cars and trucks passing by can be almost soothing to my ears. Whenever I'm away, sometimes I can't sleep if there's no sound of traffic that I can hear.


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## Taplow

1. The morning song of the Australian magpie
2. Rome at dusk


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## Marinera

Sound of the sea

Also, a bell tolling

The sound of ships being repaired at night. I suspect this one for me is like the sound of trains or traffic are for others.


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## Dan Ante

Marinera said:


> Also, a bell tolling


I have not heard a Bell for about 25 years we are rural dwellers and the local church only about 1.5k away became decommissioned or what ever it's called it was a nice sound that I remember from childhood.


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## Marinera

Dan Ante said:


> I have not heard a Bell for about 25 years we are rural dwellers and the local church only about 1.5k away became decommissioned or what ever it's called it was a nice sound that I remember from childhood.


There are no bells around where I live now too, but my parents house is across the street from the church so I have a chance to hear the bell toll occasionally.


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## Guest

Marinera said:


> Sound of the sea
> 
> Also, a bell tolling
> 
> The sound of ships being repaired at night. I suspect this one for me is like the sound of trains or traffic are for others.


Definitely waves breaking onto shore. I could sit and watch and listen to that all day. Shame I'm miles from the coast.


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## Strange Magic

Joe B said:


> Some of my favorite non-musical sounds occur in the summer, at night, with the windows wide open.
> We have a lot of Barred Owls around our property (we abut a couple hundred acres of woods). When they hoot away talking to each other it's amazing. When they scream, it is freaking awesome. I got to watch one hunt a squirrel back in November, at dusk, when I was bringing in wood for the night. It took about 5 minutes for the owl to succeed. The squirrel was cleaver.
> Besides owls, I also love the sound of the train whistle and track sounds from the freight trains that pass through town late at night (about a 1/2 mile from the house).


Where I live, we hear great horned owls ("five-hooters" as country folk used to call them), and screech owls. I've heard three great horned owls calling back and forth, and two screech owls. The screech owls need to be careful, because they are prey for the larger owls. Your barred owls are known as "eight-hooters" by some.


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## The Kilt Guy

Potiphera said:


> Walking on dry, crispy leaves, (dry Holly leaves in particular). love the crunchy sound.


I make it a point to step on all of them in the path. It's almost obsessive.
I'm a slave to habit.

In other news, I love the sound of my wife laughing and listening to her heartbeat.
I love the sound of the wind, especially standing in the woods with my eyes closed.
I love the different styles of cicada; I didn't even realize there were different patterns around the country/world.


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## The Kilt Guy

Marinera said:


> Sound of the sea
> 
> Also, a bell tolling
> 
> The sound of ships being repaired at night. I suspect this one for me is like the sound of trains or traffic are for others.


I recently played a recording of Charlton Heston reading _The Old Man and the Sea_, and his voice, along with the cough of the vinyl, was just so relaxing and aesthetic.


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## senza sordino

Eagles, loons and peacocks. But generally all bird sounds are nice. 
Waves crashing on the shore. 
My partner sleeping.
Bells tolling, as previous posters have said, Though I think these are musical sounds. 
An orchestra tuning, though maybe this is musical as well.


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## SixFootScowl

I like the sound of creaking door hinges and sometimes will work them as slowly as possible for maximum effect. However, my wife can't stand it so I don't get a lot of opportunity unless I want to anger her. I also like the sound of letting air out of a balloon while pulling the neck tight. I also like violin sounds--is there some relation here?


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## Dan Ante

Fritz Kobus said:


> I like the sound of creaking door hinges and sometimes will work them as slowly as possible for maximum effect. However, my wife can't stand it so I don't get a lot of opportunity unless I want to anger her. I also like the sound of letting air out of a balloon while pulling the neck tight. I also like violin sounds--is there some relation here?


I don't know but how are you with Bagpipes?


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## Pat Fairlea

Dan Ante said:


> I don't know but how are you with Bagpipes?


BAGPIPES!!!

Don't get me started....


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## Dan Ante

Pat Fairlea said:


> BAGPIPES!!!
> 
> Don't get me started....


Your pretty near em up there eh, you gota love em


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## SixFootScowl

Dan Ante said:


> I don't know but how are you with Bagpipes?


Yeah, I can enjoy bagpipes as a great sound but not so much for musical value.


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## Orpheus

senza sordino said:


> Eagles, loons and peacocks. *But generally all bird sounds are nice. *


If you heard my parrots screeching at close range, you might change your mind on this one.

*Note:* they only want to stop screeching when you turn round and give them attention, because that means They Win. *Additional note:* They learn by trial and error which specific sounds, at what pitch and frequency, are most likely to be intolerable for any specific person they are trying to get attention from. If you seem too indifferent to one set of sounds, they will keep trying new things until they find something that gets a reaction. Then they will make that noise persistently, until they get what they want.

My favourite sound at present is that of my baby daughter trying to talk, because it makes her even more adorable than she already is. (Yes, I appreciate that I'm probably biased.)


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## Dan Ante

Fritz Kobus said:


> Yeah, I can enjoy bagpipes as a great sound but not so much for musical value.


Did any composer write a Bagpipe concerto??


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## SixFootScowl

No but I believe that 4'33" can be done with bagpipes.


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## Dan Ante

Fritz Kobus said:


> No but I believe that 4'33" can be done with bagpipes.


An excellent choice, I could put up with that.


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## Jos

Grolsch: 




Highly tuned Ducati engines and highly tuned two strokers (you're just waiting for them to explode)
My dog when she's dreaming
Welding aluminium on 100 Hz AC
The shutter of my Russian, all mechanical camera. Sounds somewhat similar to cocking a gun
Bong hits (from memory:devil
Footsteps in fresh snow


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Dan Ante said:


> An excellent choice, I could put up with that.


I have the recording


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## SixFootScowl

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> I have the recording


Could you make it available to us to copy?


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Fritz Kobus said:


> Could you make it available to us to copy?


No Problem
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-best-recording-of-John-Cages-433


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## philoctetes

Canyon wrens, canyon winds, canyon eagles, canyon waterfalls, canyon silences....

Oops almost forgot... canyon bagpipes... even 4'33" sounds great in a canyon...


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## SixFootScowl

philoctetes said:


> Canyon wrens, canyon winds, canyon eagles, canyon waterfalls, canyon silences....
> 
> Oops almost forgot... canyon bagpipes... *even 4'33" sounds great in a canyon*...


I think the echo off the canyon walls would be awesome!


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## Dan Ante

Fritz Kobus said:


> I think the echo off the canyon walls would be awesome!


YEA yea...yea yea yea

With much respect can I suggest:
Necessities of life: food, water, air, shelter, and opera. _ And a sense of humour _


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## philoctetes

4'33" = the exact half-amplitude echo decay time for some canyon, somewhere, TBD... but what if nobody is there to hear it?


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## EchoEcho

The sound of money!


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

philoctetes said:


> 4'33" = the exact half-amplitude echo decay time for some canyon, somewhere, TBD... but what if nobody is there to hear it?


You could do a virual computer simulation to check it out


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## philoctetes

Simulations are for overpaid hacks.

To determine the size of this canyon... d

Assuming 1/d**2 decay for each echo... and n bounces across the canyon...

Amplitude A/A0 = (d)**(-2n) = 1/2 occurs at 
Total time = n*t = n*(d/s) = 4'33" s = speed of sound

You can see where this is going... a bit nonlinear. Solve for d.


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## Strange Magic

Several places where I have lived have had wetlands nearby so that spring peepers could be heard serenading their loved ones of a warm, wet vernal evening--a magical sound. I would creep out into their environs, locate by ear a nearby peeper and fix him in the beam of my flashlight. The peeper would stop for a bit, but its emotions would regain mastery and it would begin to sing again while within the circle of light. Wonderful little creatures!

I like the summer sound of the annual cicadas that abound here also. Katydids, too. Nature's sounds are the best.


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## philoctetes

I often get to hear ospreys screeching in the morning... always a welcome sound. Also a lot of chickadees and flycatchers around, maintaining a pleasant level of background chatter... laughing woodpeckers may be my favorite tho...

Remember those cicadas as a kid in the midwest... molted skins all over the place...


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## SixFootScowl

I recall back in forestry school we spent a summer at camp in upper Michigan on a lake and we would hear loons at night. (This video not upper Michigan, but loons regardless.)


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## MarkW

The sound a parking meter makes when you thwack the side with the flat of your hand.


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## Dan Ante

Strange Magic said:


> Several places where I have lived have had wetlands nearby so that spring peepers could be heard serenading their loved ones of a warm, wet vernal evening--a magical sound. I would creep out into their environs, locate by ear a nearby peeper and fix him in the beam of my flashlight. The peeper would stop for a bit, but its emotions would regain mastery and it would begin to sing again while within the circle of light. Wonderful little creatures!
> 
> I like the summer sound of the annual cicadas that abound here also. Katydids, too. Nature's sounds are the best.


Sorry I stuffed this up...no more red tonight.
This morning:
I should add that I was trying to post via my smart phone but the screen was too small and my fingers/thumbs too thick and I was not as smart as the phone


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