Bestest Sounds

[Jennshark]

I have had the privilege of hearing two of my favorite "soundbites" tonight:

1) two geese honking at one another as they flew side-by-side
2) the train (horn and clackety-clacks) in the distance going over the Delaware River

Yours?

[papergirl]

I love the sound of the central air starting up during the night.
And maybe because I was married to a paramedic and I knew he was good at his job, I always find the sound of distant sirens kind of comforting--even though I know it means trouble, it also means help is on the way.
When I lived in an apartment, the neighbor's new baby would wake up for her middle-of-the-night feeding. It was as soothing for me as the air conditioner thing--I think because my own kids were older, and I knew that this time, it was someone else's job to get up! (But I also worried when she'd cry a lot, because then I knew she was sick and Momma had to be tired.)
Our CA is broken, so tonight I'll just have the sound of the fan running, but I love that too.

[supergoose]

I love the high delicate tinkling sound of small glass objects shattering. And tiny metal chimes.

I also love hearing my budgies do that happy sleepy bird beak-grinding at night in the dark (they sleep in my room).

[Cunctator]

Wind blowing through pine trees

[El Cid Viscoso]

We have fox moving through our little valley and when they home in to each other they make a scary retching sound that's disconcerting at first. It's awesome. Truly awesome. In the winter mornings stragglers will team up to hunt in our north pasture and leap straight into the air only to dive like twisted pipecleaners and occasionally pop back up with a mouse. That cry is probably the best primal comm link of all time.

[freekalette]

Musical saw. Literally takes my breath away.

The sound of fingertips sliding on the strings of an acoustic guitar. Most people I know are bothered by this sound, and find it irritating (at best) or ruining (at worst). But whenever I hear it I'm transported to my childhood living room, and I'm five years old again listening to my dad strumming an endless flow of music that segues from Wish You Were Here to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to While My Guitar Gently Weeps to Rainbow Connection. (Or whatever songs he felt like playing at any given moment.)

[capybara]

Originally Posted by supergoose

I also love hearing my budgies do that happy sleepy bird beak-grinding at night in the dark (they sleep in my room).

I was coming in to say this exact thing about my parrot. It's better than a cat purring, even. Completely relaxed and content birdies.

[Gorgon Heap]

My two-year-old saying, "Hi."

The TARDIS

[El Cid Viscoso]

Originally Posted by Gorgon Heap

The TARDIS

Oh yes.

[Leiko]

The TARDIS.

Happy chickadees, and the similarly squeaky sound that is the great symbol of the USA, the ever cheepy bald eagle. (It sounds like a scared mouse!) Also, the sound everyone who doesn't know better THINKS is a bald eagle: red tail hawks!

Chalk on a chalkboard, as long as it's more of the tappy sound than the scratchy sound.

Clicky shoes on shiny (Costco type, is how I think of it) concrete.

Certain computer keyboards that clack properly.

Armonica- it's like an automated version of playing wine glasses.

The shaky gourd that my friends Colin and Estha have in their temple. (If you watch the video "Spells are Like Prayers" on the MTV website you can see Colin shaking the gourd, but I can't recall if you can hear it properly in the video.)

Rain sticks.

Rain on skylights.

The ocean.

I have a lot of bestest sounds.

[Tikki]

My boss has the most beautiful whistle I've ever heard. He whistles complex lilting and warbling tunes with every note absolutely perfect. I love it every time he starts up. I only wish he'd whistle more and for more than a few moments at a time. I told him how much I liked it one time and must have made him self-conscious. He didn't whistle any more that day.

I used to live near St. James Cathedral in downtown Seattle. It used to be that three or four times a day, they would have hymns played on bells over a loud speaker that could be heard blocks away. They were recordings but they were beautiful and I always loved hearing them. Then about ten years ago, they got a real bell and the hymns stopped. I miss them.

I love the sound of the wind blowing off of Puget Sound and into the pines that line the bluffs around here. And there's certain rocky beaches where the waves come in hard enough to roll the 5- or 6-pound rocks around. It makes a deep clunking sound that I enjoy hearing. Of course, waves, big or small, make wonderful sounds too.

[Der Trihs]

The classic War of the Worlds Green Bolts of Death. "DOO-DOO-DOO ! !"

[chowder]

The call of a cuckoo or a wood pigeon heard across the fields early in the morning.

Also the distant chime of church bells.

Best by far however is the roar of the crowd when my football team score

Well p'raps not the best but close

[TheLoadedDog]

1) A whole heap of railway stuff
- a steam loco working hard up a mountain in the crisp early morning air, with the whistle echoing off the sides of the valley
- a heavy freight train roaring past at full speed feet from your face
- pretty much everything else

2) My fifteen month old niece saying "Hi". It was one of her first words, and she really hams it up.

3) Kookaburras

4) The sound of a gun being cocked

5) Submarine "pings"

6) Those old-timey "blurka blurka" car horns.

[ivylass]

The giggle of a toddler, you know, the full-bellied chuckle that gurgles through their throat.

The sound of waves crashing on the seashore.

[tdn]

Guitar Mommy cooing.

Car tires on rainy streets.

Children laughing in the FAR distance.

Birds chirping in the FAR distance.

Church bells.

When a shower first starts up.

My friend John's hysterical laughter.

Deglazing a pan. Sizzzzzzzzz!

[Mahna Mahna]

Morgan humming to herself while she eats. Actually, any of Morgan's sounds, of which there are many. She's a rather chatty cat and it never fails to make me smile.

Xylophones.

Babbling brooks, and running water in general.

Foghorns in the distance (it takes me back to the summer I lived in Halifax).

Crackling fire.

[Omegaman]

Cats purring.

My nieces breathing when she's riding piggyback.

My wife snoring.

The planes taking off and landing at Nellis AFB.

A finely tuned V8 engine running.

The wind blowing through the pines in my back yard.

[Silence of the clams]

The sound of birds farting in the morning. When you sit there in the thickest forrest waiting for the morning light to bring the deer past your hunting post, you hear the forrest waking up. And the birds are quite noisy in their morning activites

[Octalcode]

The sound of the freezer door closing on an old Good Humor ice cream truck.

[Hockey Monkey]

My Granddaddy drank his coffee from a FireKing Jadite mug for all the time I can remember about him. Granny gave me my first taste of coffee when I was 3, and it was one of our "secrets" that Grannies and Granddaughters share. Some years after my Granddaddy's death, my Granny gave me one of his Jadite mugs for Christmas. When I got home I made myself a cup and when I put the spoon in to stir, it made the delightful tinkling sound I remembered from 30 years ago. I immediately thought, yes, this is what coffee sounds like. That is the bestest sound for me. The sound of coffee - a spoon clinking inside a Jadite mug.

[ivylass]

The sound of a strong thunderstorm at night on your roof as you're curled up in bed, reading a good book.

[Mahna Mahna]

Originally Posted by Hockey Monkey

My Granddaddy drank his coffee from a FireKing Jadite mug for all the time I can remember about him. Granny gave me my first taste of coffee when I was 3, and it was one of our "secrets" that Grannies and Granddaughters share. Some years after my Granddaddy's death, my Granny gave me one of his Jadite mugs for Christmas. When I got home I made myself a cup and when I put the spoon in to stir, it made the delightful tinkling sound I remembered from 30 years ago. I immediately thought, yes, this is what coffee sounds like. That is the bestest sound for me. The sound of coffee - a spoon clinking inside a Jadite mug.

Beautiful, HockeyMonkey. Makes me wonder what happened to the old Jadite mugs from my grandmother's house.

[Surly Chick]

The sound of ice skates on ice.

A lawn mower outside (as long it's not 07:00).

Baseball cleats on cement. (Golf shoes sound roughly the same but don't usually involve well-built young men in tight pants... )

The crack of a wooden baseball bat.

Thunderstorms.

[Bearflag70]

My dog smacking his lips about 6 times as he prepares for sleep

[Le Ministre de l'au-delà]

Trains - the rumble of a train slowing to come through town, its horn echoing across and along the valley at 4 in the morning.

Tam-tams and gongs - I just love the sound. Washes, crashes, the sound when you hit a Tam-tam really hard and then lower it into a tub of water. I heard a piece 20+ years ago by James Tenney called "Koan - Never Having Written a Note for Percussion" that consisted of a 12 minute roll on a tam-tam going from inaudible to deafening and back. Exquisite to hear live.

The absolute bestest sound from my childhood - the sound when you hit the Coca-Cola sign that hung out front at Hurl's Foods with a snowball. (No, I'm not making that up.) I swear, when you got that sucker just above the hyphen, it said 'Om' for about 30 seconds. We used to get rowdy and climb on each other's shoulders to hit it with a mallet, but the sound was never anywhere near as good. It was a sound you had to earn.

[elbows]

The squeals of young children at play.

Distant church bells.

The distant train horn, which, to me, always sounds like that orchestral moment of tuning up before the conductor raises his baton and silence falls in the hall.

Sounds of the night in the tropical jungle.

The ocean.

Rain falling hard on the roof.

The sound of the wood catching fire after striking the match.

And, being short of stature, the heart beating in those I hug.

[Kalhoun]

I love to listen to little kids amusing themselves. The voices of the characters, the sound effects, the occasional phrase that makes you say, "where the hell did he hear that? Oh yeah...that might have been me."

Horses clop-clop-clopping.

Really violent storms.

Spanish guitar.

[Tikki]

I was also touched by Hockey Monkey's story. You write beautifully. Thanks for sharing that.

[bigdfrombigd]

I love the noises my dog makes when she's sound asleep and dreaming-her little legs look like their slightly running and she makes these tiny little barks and yelps. So cute.

I also love waking up to the sound of a neighbor mowing their lawn.

Oooh, one more... the sound on "Law & Order" when they change from scene to scene.

I know, I know, it is weird!

[Gorgon Heap]

Oh, Hockey Mokey's was wonderful.

Can I borrow it?

[pipperroo]

Rain falling on a tent.

The geese and swans returning for the winter. Some times they honk all night.

The sound of snow falling.

[TheLoadedDog]

An old-fashioned wooden bridge over a creek o a dirt road - the type with rough horizontal planking. In the countryside, late at night, you can hear a truck coming for miles, changing through the gears, then it hits the bridge: brdbdbdbdbrrbdbrbrbdb and then starts changing through the gears again for a while, and then it's gone and you hear the silence. I like that feeling of another human being being out there in the wilderness.

[chacoguy]

My Favorite sound is the sound of you and your sweetie making love in ABSOLUTE SILENCE because your buddies are ten feet away outside the tent.


That and Sandhill Cranes.

[JCorre]

Lightsabers

[percypercy]

I've lived within hearing distance of a train for as long as I can remember. I love the sound of a train going by, though in this house I'm close enough that it's really not so enjoyable if I'm outside.

A cat's purr

and, I'm not sure I'd call it the bestest, but I can always hear my mother approaching because of the keys jangling off her purse. It's soothing as well, I guess.

[Bearflag70]

The alarm sound on the Death Star - it's not quite an "ah-ooo-gah" horn, but it's close.

Bagpipes

Wind blowing autumn leaves

[Brown Eyed Girl]

The gurgling and drips of coffee brewing.

The sound of my daughter singing when she thinks no one is listening.

Waves rhythmically sloshing against the hull of a boat or the surf pounding a sandy beach.

Heavy snow falling and the accompanying dampening of all other noise.

Cats purring and my dog sleep whimpers.

Ping pong balls hitting a paddle or ping pong table.

Hula hoops that have the noisemakers inside.

The sound of really sharp hedge clippers or scissors.

Church bells and windchimes.

The wind rustling the trees in the fall when the leaves are drier or brown leaves blowing down around on the ground.

Someone else biting into an apple.

Mockingbirds.

[Jennshark]

Wow! These are beautiful contributions!

I have to get on the (dog)wagon and add that I also adore doggie snooze noises: lips smacking, sleep murmurings, and whimpers.

[Hockey Monkey]

Originally Posted by Gorgon Heap

Oh, Hockey Mokey's was wonderful.

Can I borrow it?

I guess so. Whatcha gonna do with it? Thanks for the other compliments Mahna Mahna and Tikki.

[Acid Lamp]

Train horn far away in the morning and evening.

Cattle lowing at each other as they move to the new pasture for the day. This combined with the early birds and late frogs is a quintessential rural central Florida morning. We have a bull that makes my Basso voice sound like a squeak, and several of the harem cows low back at him as they keep in touch.

Thunderstorms.

My dog's early morning yawns. They either start off low and go Awooooooooeeeeeeeeee from a near growl through all the pitches to nearly a cry, or vice versa starting high: eeeeeoooooooooooooaaaaamurf. When I hear this before I've opened my eyes, I can almost time the next few minutes to the second: First will be a few more more yawns, followed by a gentle head shake. Then you'll feel her crawl on her belly up between Nashiitashii and myself. Thirty seconds later I will feel the pleasant weight of her head on my chest. If I open my eyes now I will be treated to the sight of her big liquid black eyes looking right into mine and the thump of her tail on my legs.
"Gothan Dagn littlya Nenna."
(good morning little Nenna, a terrible attempt at phonetic Icelandic)
Nenna: Kiss kiss kiss kiss kiss kiss kiss

Bacon frying.

The delicious bell like "bong" of any metal bowl turned over and struck like a cymbal.

The sound cedar wood makes when I carve it with small chisels. It has a delicate hollowness that other woods lack, and i associate with the smell of the oils in the wood.

The "a" string on my 12 string guitar. That whole string is the "sweet spot" that will ring true almost endlessly if I pluck it correctly. It sets the whole body of the instrument vibrating. The dog loves this sound and will come from across the house to sit and listen to it.

[Ice Wolf]

To name just a few.

Long freight train in the near distance, heading through the local station in the dead of night.

Native songbirds -- cool in the bush, but a true delight (usually a tui) in the garden.

The sound of water flowing over stones in a creek.

The combination of harbour waves and the creak of a wharf's timbers.

And sometimes just the wind through the trees.

[eleanorigby]

Originally Posted by supergoose

I love the high delicate tinkling sound of small glass objects shattering. And tiny metal chimes.

I have this image in my head of supergoose standing on a slate floor, dropping apertif glasses and smiling all the while...

Originally Posted by chowder

The call of a cuckoo or a wood pigeon heard across the fields early in the morning.

Also the distant chime of church bells.

You're a sentimental old fraud, you are.



Sounds I love:

The click of the movie projector spindle.

The absolute stillness of snow falling in the woods.

baby laughter

a sea shell next to my ear

there is a bird that I haven't identified, but I love its call (sorry for my ignorance)

the sound of a creek or brook running over rocks

the whirr of an old 35 mm camera as it takes the shot and winds the film

wind in the trees

the wuthering of the wind in winter as it lashes and whistles against the house

the crackle of a fire

a screen door banging on a hot summer day

The ice cream truck sound as described above

walking through fallen autumn leaves

second on the sandhill cranes crying overhead

locomotive whistle far away

foghorn

and the click.... clack; click......clack of the commuter rail train late at night

the oddly detached female voice that announces the trains in any UK train station mixed with the rush of commuter and travelers--the echos in Paddington or King's Cross thrill me (never been in Grand Central, but it's probably the same).

the pause just before the overture starts in a summer stock theater

the muffled laughter and hubbub of a group of friends enjoying one another's company

my name, whispered by someone I love...




Got carried away!

[Johnny L.A.]

The bestest sounds
Are Basset hounds
As they frolic
Round the grounds

[eleanorigby]

Forgot to ask: The TARDIS? What is that?

[Sigmagirl]

All the above dog sounds. My dogs' ID tags clinking together, letting me know they are home and safe.
The blimp just passed overhead on its way to cover the Indians game, and it will pass overhead tonight on its way home. Blimp = baseball = summer = good.
A good brass band.

[Johnny L.A.]

Originally Posted by eleanorigby

Forgot to ask: The TARDIS? What is that?

TARDIS

[eleanorigby]

well, if we're going with TV sounds--the sound made when Samantha Stevens did her magic with her nose.

[Marlitharn]

Tree frogs in the springtime, letting me know that winter is FINALLY over.

Croaking bullfrogs.

That inquisitive "Merrrow?" Oreokitty tosses out when I walk around the corner into my bedroom and she's sitting on top of the chest of drawers by the door about 6 inches from my face. Startles the heck out of me, but I quickly give in to the cuteness and give her ear scritchies.

Lunabrat makes a weird chattering clicking noise when she's mostly asleep and she hears a high-pitched sound. Drives my husband nuts when she's sleeping on my lap, because I'll fake-sneeze over and over just to hear her do it.

[Unintentionally Blank]

+1 beak grinding
+1 TARDIS
+_2_ Dr. Who theme

And the staccato click-ka-thunk the transmission makes shifting from second to third when the 383's loafing along...I think because it took about 5 times to get the transmission right and that 2-3 shift is surprisingly complex.

The THX noise with a good subwoofer.