# "False" noises like the camera noise that cell phones make **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 16, 2019, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183 "2019-07-16T21:15:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183/41 "2019-07-17T09:28:12Z")
I have an electric kettle that has a fake ‘whistle’ like the steam whistle you always used to get in stovetop kettles. It’s actually triggered off the same mechanism as the shutoff switch. So if you switch the kettle off early it still whistles, even though the water might only be lukewarm. And it whistles from the base, not the kettle itself, which can also be a bit weird ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183/42 "2019-07-17T09:56:04Z")
> [@ticker](#): > > ATM machines make an unnecessary counting-out-the-money noise purely to reassure customers that the machine is doing something. Is that actually a fake noise, though, or do they just make the counting mechanism itself unnecessarily noisy? ---
**Author:** ![Bert\_Nobbins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@Bert\_Nobbins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bert_Nobbins)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183/43 "2019-07-17T11:13:54Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > There is also – I don’t know what it is called – the sound they feed back from your microphone to your ear, to assure you that you are talking and that other people can hear you. > > In an old rotary phone, where you pushed the earpiece against your ear, tha handset was designed to channel anough sound up the handpiece from the mouth to the ear, so that you could hear yourself talking. It is called side-tone. Makes using a telephone much easier. It was achieved electrically, not by acoustic ducting in the handset. See :[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidetone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidetone) ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183/44 "2019-07-17T12:08:14Z")
Re: Typewriter sounds. There’s a typing app that simulates classic typewriter noises. Named after one of the co-developers. [Hanx Writer](http://hanxwriter.com/). But it was “Hanx”'s co-star Greg Kinnear in _You’ve Got Mail_ that had a thing for real typewriters and their sounds. ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183/45 "2019-07-17T14:08:11Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Is that actually a fake noise, though, or do they just make the counting mechanism itself unnecessarily noisy? Pretty sure it is fake; you get the exact same sound regardless of the number of bills being dispensed. I did google it and consensus was that it is played through a speaker, though none of those sources I would consider authoritative. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183/46 "2019-07-17T14:54:55Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > I believe that London now requires EVs to make noise when they’re moving below a certain speed so as to alert blind pedestrians. The only thing is, they don’t specify what noise needs to be made, so each manufacturer will come up with their own. Or let the driver choose a noise. When EVs become more common, there’s going to be a real cacophony when cars start off after a red light. that’s also a requirement in the US per FMVSS 141. the feature is called AVAS (Approaching Vehicle Alert System). > [@](#): > > As far as the OP, Harley Davidson electric motorcycles will/could make noise like their gas-burning forebears. Don’t know if they’ll vibrate like them too, but it wouldn’t surprise me. it’s not fake, though, the output of the electric motor goes into a straight bevel gearset. Straight cut gears make noise. it does have the upside of not having the shear losses of the usual hypoid gearset, though. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183/47 "2019-07-17T15:05:29Z")
> [@ticker](#): > > Pretty sure it is fake; you get the exact same sound regardless of the number of bills being dispensed. I did google it and consensus was that it is played through a speaker, though none of those sources I would consider authoritative. This Reddit thread is fairly old but several people who claim to be ATM engineers reckon the sound is real. [https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/i4bew/til\_that\_the\_noise\_an\_atm\_makes\_is\_artificially/](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/i4bew/til_that_the_noise_an_atm_makes_is_artificially/) ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183/48 "2019-07-17T15:20:52Z")
> [@ticker](#): > > Pretty sure it is fake; you get the exact same sound regardless of the number of bills being dispensed. I did google it and consensus was that it is played through a speaker, though none of those sources I would consider authoritative. That could be. If it is, it’s synchronized, in my experience, to the number of bills being dispensed. If I take out $500, I can count 25 clicks for twenty-five $20 bills. If I take out $100, I can count 5 clicks for five $20 bills. It’s reassuring nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![Frankenstein\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ccd318/32.png) [@Frankenstein\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frankenstein_Monster)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183/49 "2019-07-17T15:41:35Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > As far as the OP, Harley Davidson electric motorcycles will/could make noise like their gas-burning forebears. Don’t know if they’ll vibrate like them too, but it wouldn’t surprise me. According to [this review](https://electrek.co/2019/07/14/review-harley-davidson-livewire-electric-motorycle/) of the Harley Davidson electric motorbike, it does have an artificial vibration when “idling” to let you feel it is turned on. > [@](#): > > Another way the LiveWire creates a connection with the rider is through its “heart beat pulse”. This one threw me for a loop when they described it to us in the presentation, but feeling it made all the difference. Essentially, when you’re sitting still but the bike is on and ready to ride, there is a slight haptic response in the handlebars in the form of a pulsing feeling. It’s not overpowering, but you feel it. And the point is to let the rider know that the bike is on and capable of rocketing off at any moment, lest the lack of engine noise lull him or her into a false sense of security. Essentially it is a gentle reminder that the bike is ready to lurch, even though you can’t hear anything. ---
**Author:** ![Frankenstein\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ccd318/32.png) [@Frankenstein\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frankenstein_Monster)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183/50 "2019-07-17T15:44:59Z")
**“False” noises like the camera noise that cell phones make** Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” song (and countless others, no doubt) has clear artificial “gramophone stylus on a record” noise added. Clearly audible at the beginning. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPA2czkOsFE) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183/51 "2019-07-17T16:11:07Z")
Not quite the same thing, but everyone knows that sound a bomb makes while it’s falling, right? That sound isn’t inherent to falling bombs (or any other falling objects). The Germans stuck a cheap whistle to the side of their bombs they were dropping on London, because they figured that the panic from hearing the bombs dropping would do more damage than just delivering a few pounds of explosives to essentially random spots in the city. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183/52 "2019-07-17T16:32:06Z")
> [@Frankenstein\_Monster](#): > > **“False” noises like the camera noise that cell phones make** > > Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” song (and countless others, no doubt) has clear artificial “gramophone stylus on a record” noise added. Clearly audible at the beginning. > > [https://youtu.be/nPA2czkOsFE](https://youtu.be/nPA2czkOsFE) Some hip-hop/dance songs contain stylus sounds and gramophone crackles because they use samples from actual records, though. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183/53 "2019-07-17T17:11:49Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > As I understand it the clicking sound made by cars’ turn signals is another example. In old cars the sound was made by a device called a thermal flasher, an electro-mechanical device that would physically turn the lights on an off as it heated up and cooled off, and it clicked as it did so. Nowadays the flashing is done electronically, and the clicking sound is added so you know you turn signal is on. > > In fact my 2019 Mazda actually has an option to adjust the turn signal volume in the infotainment system, although it’s disabled in mine. I guess you have to get the top trim level if you want to change your turn signal volume. yep. usually the tic-toc is produced by the little speaker inside the gauge cluster which does the chimes as well. what’s funny is that the tone generator in the cluster is rather simple and can only do so much at one time. I was in one car where the turn signal was on (and playing the tic-toc) until the door was opened, then the door chime played and the tic-toc went silent. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183/54 "2019-07-17T17:11:54Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > One that struck me a while ago is that when an Amtrak train pulls into a station one can hear a steam-engine clanging bell even though there’s no physical bell in sight. Obviously done for nostalgia value, and I expect at some time they’ll introduce the “chuff-chuff-chuff” sound when it starts up. It’s not really nostalgia. As discussed on [here](http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/61084.aspx), most railroads in the US require bells for safety. Mostly for when the train is moving at low speed, and don’t need the full sound level of an air horn. Of course newer locomotives have electronic speakers, and they reproduce the bell sound because you generally don’t want safety warning sounds to change over time. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183/55 "2019-07-17T17:39:47Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > Lots of cars are now pumping engine noise into the cabin via the speakers. But they aren’t just collecting the actual engine sounds and amplifying and playing that through the speakers. They are just making up the sound electronically. See the link in post #2. They started out with the actual engine sounds but now it is all fake. My wife has a new Ford F-150 with the 6 cylinder Eco-boost engine. It sounds great inside the cab but sounds nothing at all like that outside the truck. Fake sounds produced electronically and sent out the speakers. You might as well be a little kid using your finger between your lips going “brrrrb” for all the realism. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183/56 "2019-07-17T17:49:10Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > But they aren’t just collecting the actual engine sounds and amplifying and playing that through the speakers. They are just making up the sound electronically. > > See the link in post #2. They started out with the actual engine sounds but now it is all fake. > > My wife has a new Ford F-150 with the 6 cylinder Eco-boost engine. It sounds great inside the cab but sounds nothing at all like that outside the truck. Fake sounds produced electronically and sent out the speakers. > > You might as well be a little kid using your finger between your lips going “brrrrb” for all the realism. since this is in my wheelhouse, I’ll chime in here- there’s two ways companies have done this, either a mechanical device like the sound induction tube in the Mustang GT, or sound symposer in the Focus ST. this is simply a tube ducted from the air inlet duct to the interior, with a diaphragm chamber and some foam plugs for tuning. This works because the intake valves open with the same pattern as the exhaust valves and thus the intake “sounds” the same. electronic Engine Sound Enhancement (ESE) tracks engine RPM (broadcast over CAN) and uses the speakers to selectively enhance the “better” aspects of the engine’s sound and suppress some of the less pleasant ones. it’s not really “creating” a different sound; it’s not going to make a V6 sound like a V8 or anything. The same hardware (with the addition of microphones in the cabin) is used for active noise control (ANC) in Lincolns and all hybrids. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183/57 "2019-07-18T04:58:57Z")
Along the same lines as the Harley vibration (i.e., haptic feedback), large airliners (mostly Boeing) have a stick shaker to warn the pilot of incipient stall conditions. The control surfaces of smaller, slower aircraft are connected directly to the control yoke or stick by pulleys and cables. When approaching a stall, the wing starts to buffet as the airflow separates from the wing. This buffeting is transmitted directly to the pilot’s stick, through the aforementioned cables. Feeling the vibration, the pilot knows to ease up on the stick to stop a stall. Large aircraft are hydraulically-driven and so have lost that direct connection between control surface and control yoke. Hence the need for an alternative warning system. Airbus has a boring “[Stall! Stall!](https://youtu.be/gk0fjQv2Sco)” alarm. Boeing has a motor that physically shakes the control yoke - [the stick shaker](https://youtu.be/NtQqb7rstrQ). ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183/58 "2019-07-18T05:25:09Z")
Don’t think I saw the actual question answered yet. All of these noises are skeuomorphic - a design concept of making things (especially entirely synthetic things) resemble their real world versions. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183/59 "2019-07-18T09:20:32Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > And I’m disappointed that I can’t adjust the turn signal volume in my car, because honestly I find the default too quiet, and I keep looking down at the dash to double check that the turn signal is actually on. I have recently acquired a Mazda with this feature. I too found the indicator noise too quiet (and I have already accidentally left it on once, which I wouldn’t have done with a louder noise, and it could have caused an accident). Sadly, I found that it was already set to its loudest setting (of 2) :(. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183/60 "2019-07-18T12:04:33Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Not quite the same thing, but everyone knows that sound a bomb makes while it’s falling, right? That sound isn’t inherent to falling bombs (or any other falling objects). The Germans stuck a cheap whistle to the side of their bombs they were dropping on London, because they figured that the panic from hearing the bombs dropping would do more damage than just delivering a few pounds of explosives to essentially random spots in the city. They also had [sirens on the wings of their dive-bombers,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_Ju_87) which would scream during the bomb run. They were entirely unrelated to their ability to deliver bombs to their targets; they were just to irritate the enemy. > [@Wikipedia](#): > > The B-1 was also fitted with “Jericho trumpets”, essentially propeller-driven sirens with a diameter of 0.7 m (2.3 ft) mounted on the wing’s leading edge directly forward of the landing gear, or on the front edge of the fixed main gear fairing. This was used to weaken enemy morale and enhance the intimidation of dive-bombing. [Sound samples here.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCB8ZVxKqyI) I’ll note that when keying in a phone number on my cell phone, it makes the classic [“dual-tone multi-frequency signaling”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-tone_multi-frequency_signaling) tone for each number. On old-school landline phones, those tones got sent down the wire when you pressed each key. On my cell phone, the phone number doesn’t actually get sent until I finish keying it in and push the “send” button - which means that these are indeed “false” noises that fit what the OP is asking about. The confirmatory sounds made when pressing keys on a tablet computer or phone aren’t quite the “false” noises the OP is describing. They would be, if they sounded like an old-school mechanical typewriter, but they don’t; they’re usually just clicks that help confirm to the user that a key has indeed been pressed. I don’t care for the shutter noise that my phone makes when taking photos. Among other things, it draws attention to me when I’m taking pictures in a public/crowded/quiet place, so I disabled it a long time ago. There was one occasion when I handed my phone to someone else to take a picture of me. He was expecting that shutter sound, and so he wasn’t sure at first whether he was actually taking a picture when he pressed the button. He ended up pressing the button maybe a dozen times before handing the phone back to me, and asking me whether he’d actually taken any pictures at all. The deliberately engineered noise of a turn signal seems slavish. It’s accompanied by the usual tiny blinking indicator on the dashboard, and when driving at (noisy) high speed, or when the driver is hearing-compromised, the fact that the turn signal is on can go unnoticed for miles. ISTM a better design would scrap the audible indicator altogether and just make the blinking indicator on the dashboard very large, like half of the LCD display, so a driver would have to be blind not to notice the blinking in their peripheral vision. No doubt some would still manage to miss it, but I expect it would be less than what happens presently. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-noises-like-the-camera-noise-that-cell-phones-make/837183.md?page=4)