4 ms·

I'm surprised the sounds of a floppy (3½", 5¼", and maybe even an 8") are all missing. I'd argue that the insertion and lock sounds, and seek sounds are absolut

I'm surprised the sounds of a floppy (3½", 5¼", and maybe even an 8") are all missing. I'd argue that the insertion and lock sounds, and seek sounds are absolutely necessary, at the very least.

fatnoah 4y ago
I'll add the specific case of the Commodore 1541 disk drive. The sound clacking and banging of that thing loading data is seared into my memory. Brrrrr-brrrrrr-dat-dat-dat-dat-dat.
- Pxtl 4y ago
  I was thinking that exact sound when I opened this post. GROAN CHK CHK CHK CHK GROAN blinking red light. "Oh I guess this disk is worn out I won't get to play that game any more"
TruthWillHurt 4y ago
For sure! Didn't old hard-drives use to make sounds as well?
- TruthWillHurt 4y ago
  Oh yea they did! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6xXihb8hv8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6xXihb8hv8
  - voxadam 4y ago
    I love that many of those sounds are still used in in modern movies. The seek sounds seem to particularly popular when in a NOC or during a hacking scene. The best part is that I'm pretty sure the audio samples typically come from truly ancient full-height 5¼" stepper motor based drives.[0] The advent of voice coil actuated heads seriously helped quite hard drives. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNSEfgESF_k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNSEfgESF_k
    - willcipriano 4y ago
      In the movie universe all the computers use spinning hard drives and every single car has wore its brake pads down to nothing.
  - hnbad 4y ago
    I don't know what the point of recording all of these was when the person recording it noisily breathes or sharply inhales during several of them. It was probably a lot of effort to record all of these but it's sad to see that effort go to waste because of a bad recording setup.
- ilyt 4y ago
  I remembered the sound it made on boot so well I could tell something's fucky when it changed...
- Damogran6 4y ago
  I remember feeling the side of the case on an unresponsive machine to feel if the harddisk was seeking. It was often the difference between a reboot and a 'give it more time, it's just busy'
  - bombcar 4y ago
    Yep - the happy noises and a flickering HDD LED were the key signs it was still chugging away. If the drive was silent and/or the LED was solid on, probably time for a reboot.
- UI_at_80x24 4y ago
  Yes, but more specifically any IBM-XT clone made during POST is a specific sound that you hear in almost every movie/tv show as "generic PC sounds". It was mostly the hard drive of course (RLL drives IIRC), but the system as a whole had a unique sound.
- gibspaulding 4y ago
  Even relatively new ones can be pretty loud. I used to have a little home server with an array of Hittachi Ultrastars and they would make quite a racket during ZFS scrubs.
  - doubled112 4y ago
    I replaced 4x4TB disks with a 10T helium drive, and was shocked at the noise it made. The build went from nearly silent to keep my wife up at night. There is a certain thunk-thunk-thunk sound they make, which was awful, but I'm almost positive the 10T disk managed to resonate through the front panel and use it to make itself known. I don't think I can blame the disk for that second part.
- guenthert 4y ago
  My first HDD (Micropolis 65MB with RLL controller) was screaming with a pitch depending on the track. Blessed be SSDs.
almog 4y ago
That + the sound of a dot matrix printer were my first thoughts.
- voxadam 4y ago
  Good call, the sounds of a daisy wheel printer[0] and that of an IBM Selectric typewriter[1] would also be good entries. Now that I think about, for completeness sake both 9-pin and 24-pin varieties of dot matrix printers should be included as they each produce a unique sound. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_wheel_printing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_wheel_printing [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Selectric_typewriter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Selectric_typewriter
- mrWiz 4y ago
  You may be interested in this symphony that was composed for a dot matrix printer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEeG1qq0Sxo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEeG1qq0Sxo
  - almog 4y ago
    Only got to see it now, thank you for that! Turns out they have more of this weirdly relaxing recordings on their Bandcamp: https://staalplaatlabel.bandcamp.com/album/symphony-2-for-dot-matrix-printers https://staalplaatlabel.bandcamp.com/album/symphony-2-for-do...
Kye 4y ago
The thonk of an IBM PC power switch too. Not even the click-click of a newer clone's power button.
slim 4y ago
And the sound of a 14400 kbps modem connecting

I'm surprised the sounds of a floppy (3½", 5¼", and maybe even an 8") are all missing. I'd argue that the insertion and lock sounds, and seek sounds are absolutely necessary, at the very least.

fatnoah 4y ago

I'll add the specific case of the Commodore 1541 disk drive. The sound clacking and banging of that thing loading data is seared into my memory. Brrrrr-brrrrrr-dat-dat-dat-dat-dat.

Pxtl 4y ago
I was thinking that exact sound when I opened this post. GROAN CHK CHK CHK CHK GROAN blinking red light. "Oh I guess this disk is worn out I won't get to play that game any more"

TruthWillHurt 4y ago

For sure! Didn't old hard-drives use to make sounds as well?

TruthWillHurt 4y ago
Oh yea they did! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6xXihb8hv8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6xXihb8hv8
- voxadam 4y ago
  I love that many of those sounds are still used in in modern movies. The seek sounds seem to particularly popular when in a NOC or during a hacking scene. The best part is that I'm pretty sure the audio samples typically come from truly ancient full-height 5¼" stepper motor based drives.[0] The advent of voice coil actuated heads seriously helped quite hard drives. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNSEfgESF_k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNSEfgESF_k
  - willcipriano 4y ago
    In the movie universe all the computers use spinning hard drives and every single car has wore its brake pads down to nothing.
- hnbad 4y ago
  I don't know what the point of recording all of these was when the person recording it noisily breathes or sharply inhales during several of them. It was probably a lot of effort to record all of these but it's sad to see that effort go to waste because of a bad recording setup.
ilyt 4y ago
I remembered the sound it made on boot so well I could tell something's fucky when it changed...
Damogran6 4y ago
I remember feeling the side of the case on an unresponsive machine to feel if the harddisk was seeking. It was often the difference between a reboot and a 'give it more time, it's just busy'
- bombcar 4y ago
  Yep - the happy noises and a flickering HDD LED were the key signs it was still chugging away. If the drive was silent and/or the LED was solid on, probably time for a reboot.
UI_at_80x24 4y ago
Yes, but more specifically any IBM-XT clone made during POST is a specific sound that you hear in almost every movie/tv show as "generic PC sounds". It was mostly the hard drive of course (RLL drives IIRC), but the system as a whole had a unique sound.
gibspaulding 4y ago
Even relatively new ones can be pretty loud. I used to have a little home server with an array of Hittachi Ultrastars and they would make quite a racket during ZFS scrubs.
- doubled112 4y ago
  I replaced 4x4TB disks with a 10T helium drive, and was shocked at the noise it made. The build went from nearly silent to keep my wife up at night. There is a certain thunk-thunk-thunk sound they make, which was awful, but I'm almost positive the 10T disk managed to resonate through the front panel and use it to make itself known. I don't think I can blame the disk for that second part.
guenthert 4y ago
My first HDD (Micropolis 65MB with RLL controller) was screaming with a pitch depending on the track. Blessed be SSDs.

almog 4y ago

That + the sound of a dot matrix printer were my first thoughts.

voxadam 4y ago
Good call, the sounds of a daisy wheel printer[0] and that of an IBM Selectric typewriter[1] would also be good entries. Now that I think about, for completeness sake both 9-pin and 24-pin varieties of dot matrix printers should be included as they each produce a unique sound. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_wheel_printing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_wheel_printing [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Selectric_typewriter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Selectric_typewriter
mrWiz 4y ago
You may be interested in this symphony that was composed for a dot matrix printer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEeG1qq0Sxo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEeG1qq0Sxo
- almog 4y ago
  Only got to see it now, thank you for that! Turns out they have more of this weirdly relaxing recordings on their Bandcamp: https://staalplaatlabel.bandcamp.com/album/symphony-2-for-dot-matrix-printers https://staalplaatlabel.bandcamp.com/album/symphony-2-for-do...

Kye 4y ago

The thonk of an IBM PC power switch too. Not even the click-click of a newer clone's power button.

slim 4y ago

And the sound of a 14400 kbps modem connecting