The following are TV or movie sound effects as described in trademarks or scripts. See if you can recognise them:
1. “Annoyed grunt”.
2. “A series of approximately ten sounds, alternating between the chest and falsetto registers of the voice, as follows – 1) a semi-long sound in the chest register, 2) a short sound up an interval of one octave plus a fifth from the preceding sound, 3) a short sound down a Major 3rd from the preceding sound, 4) a short sound up a Major 3rd from the preceding sound, 5) a long sound down one octave plus a Major 3rd from the preceding sound, 6) a short sound up one octave from the preceding sound, 7) a short sound up a Major 3rd from the preceding sound, 8) a short sound down a Major 3rd from the preceding sound, 9) a short sound up a Major 3rd from the preceding sound, 10) a long sound down an octave plus a fifth from the preceding sound.”
3. The “sound of rhythmic mechanical human breathing created by breathing through a scuba tank regulator”
4. “An oscillating humming buzz created by combining feedback from a microphone with a projector motor sound”
5. “The theme consists of 30 voices over seven measures, starting in a narrow range, 200 to 400 Hz, and slowly diverting to preselected itches encompassing three octaves. The 30 voices begin at pitches between 200 Hz and 400 Hz and arrive at pre-selected pitches spanning three octaves by the fourth measure. The highest pitch is slightly detuned while there are double the number of voices of the lowest two pitches.”
6. The slowed down sound of trumpeting elephants mixed with the sound of an approaching car on a wet road.
7. The processed sound of a door key being scraped against the bass strings of a piano.
8. “The mark consists of the sound of a brass bell tuned to the pitch D, but with an overtone of D-sharp, struck nine times at a brisk tempo, with the final tone allowed to ring until the sound decays naturally. The rhythmic pattern is eight 16th notes and a quarter note; the total duration, from the striking of the first tone to the end of the decay on the final one, is just over 3 seconds.”
Thanks to Mental Floss (for four of these – I found the other four). The last one may be a bridge too far.
Number 6 is the TARDIS
No that’s number 7.
Correct
Yeah, er, finger slipped and I accidentally pressed the, er, wrong button…
3… Darth Vader?
4…. A light sabre?
2… I can’t quite follow it, but is it that noise Goofy makes when he falls down a hole or something? Not sure why that comes to mind.
3 and 4 correct.
2. Tarzan
Spot on. That is the actual wording in the trademark.
Ah! Of course.
1. Mike Ermentraut in BB/BCS
Could be Homer Simpson’s Doh?
I think so
Yes
5. Star Trek
No
7. The “dring” bit in the chorus of Status Quo’s Ice In The Sun (played by Marty Wilde)
8. Beginning of Baggy Trousers?
Ah. TV movies or scripts.
Sorry.
Is that an answer or just a harbinger of middle age?
Asking for a friend.
It was a good answer though wasn’t it? Describes the noise pretty well I thought.
8 sounds like the bell in the stock exchange in Trading Places, although surely that’s not a trademark?
Yes, and yes it is. New York Stock Exchange.
No 1. The sound i made after I read through all eight descriptions and
realized I wasn’ t going to be able to correctly identify a single one of them.
Quite possibly! See correct answer above.
Also the sound I made when I recognised No.2 and then found that Leffe Gin had got there before me.
So only 5 and 6 remaining? Very impressed with Leffe. I thought that would get no takers.
You’re too kind.
Number 5 is interesting. When it says “voices”, is it referring to human voices, or synth voices? It’s possibly describing a sound that starts with some high notes and then ends in a bass-y chord. Could be a steel guitar slide from high to low, too.
Musical voices rather than human voices.
Oh, maybe strings then, a bit like the reverse of the Day in the Life crescendo perhaps, but a bit quicker based on the description. I am guessing this is some sort of sting or ident for a brand, but not sure which one it is.
It’s not a piece of music, per se. But your description is quite accurate.
No. 5 – A long shot, but could it be the intro music to Dimension X – the vintage sci-fi radio show. Orchestra and choir imitate the sound of a rocket taking off. Could it even be that bit in Bowie’s Space Oddity?
based on the description, this one goes from very high notes to very low notes, probably to a chord although that’s not clear. I would bet it’s sci-fi related but I have no idea what it is.
It’s actually low and dissonant to high and harmonious.
Oh yeah. Doh!
It’s possibly the THX logo sound, or something else like it…
I think No. 5 is the THX ident thingy.
Correct!
It sounds like a news programme’s ident to me too.
5 sounds like it’d be that bit in Bohemian Rhapsody
Nope.
Is 6 the noise that they make in Star Trek when they beam people up (or down)?
No. I actually looked for that but couldn’t find a trademark or technical description.
There isn’t a single consistent noise they use for that, seemingly – that’s quite surprising.
One of these is likely to be a Star Wars noise, but I’m not a fan so I don’t know what the individual things are called. Is number 6 the sound of one of those X shaped fighter planes from the early films that made a sort of weird high pitched screaming noise? You know the ones I mean.
That’s a good suggestion- if so, amazing!
I’ll give it to you. It’s the Tie Fighter.
Thanks for playing everyone!
That’s really interesting. We have swallows, swifts and house martins in close proximity to us in the summer, and I’d often thought there was an element of the swift’s ‘scream’ in the TIE noise. I think that one of these birds – possibly the swallow – has one of the noises it makes in flight used in the fx when various ‘blasters’ are fired.