# What is this spooky sound effect?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spooky-sound-effect/240431
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 16, 2004, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spooky-sound-effect/240431 "2004-04-16T22:34:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2004, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spooky-sound-effect/240431/1 "2004-04-16T22:34:20Z")
I know for a fact that there are audiophile Dopers here who can spot a “Wilhelm Scream” at 50 paces. So I’m asking for your help in I.D.ing a sound effect that I’ve been trying to find for years.
The clip is [here—(132 K, Mp3).](http://www.home.pon.net/phoebeg/HWest1.mp3) There’s some dialogue in the clip, but you can just make out the sound effect in the background. It’s a little faint, but it’s there.
I _think_ it’s a Glass Armonica being used, but it might just be a synth. And I also know for a _fact_ that they used this same effect in about a million episodes of the animated “Dennis the Menace” series, back in the 80s.(Mostly for “spooky” scenes, 'natch.)
Is there anyone else here who’s heard this sound effect before? Does anyone know it’s name, or if it’s available online?
Well…thanks for your time,
Ranchoth
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### Author:  [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2004, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spooky-sound-effect/240431/2 "2004-04-16T23:28:36Z")
I would bet on a synth
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### Author:  [@mrunlucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrunlucky)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spooky-sound-effect/240431/3 "2004-04-17T00:46:04Z")
Even before I listened to the clip I was guessing the sound was from a theremin. The clip is faint but I’m still pretty sure it’s a thereim. A simple introduction to the history of the theremin at: [Wikipedia.org](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin). There’s also a good documentary titled _Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey_ which can tell you more than you ever needed to know about this unusual instrument.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spooky-sound-effect/240431/4 "2004-04-17T00:46:37Z")
Sounds like a little bit of an orchestra tuneup
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spooky-sound-effect/240431/5 "2004-04-17T02:34:18Z")
> [@mrunlucky](#):
>
> Even before I listened to the clip I was guessing the sound was from a theremin. The clip is faint but I’m still pretty sure it’s a thereim. A simple introduction to the history of the theremin at: [Wikipedia.org](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin). There’s also a good documentary titled _Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey_ which can tell you more than you ever needed to know about this unusual instrument.
It’s a difficult sample to work from, but I don’t hear any theramin in there (which was also the first instrument I thought of before I opened the mp3.) Sounds like a low cello with some flutes or perhaps synth coming in. The sound doesn’t have the distinctive portamento of the theramin (think the Beach Boys “Good Vibrations” and the spooky five note pattern, that sounds like a cross between a slide guitar and flute, before the chorus.)
But maybe this is what you’re thinking of, as that sound sample is extremely difficult to make out.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spooky-sound-effect/240431/6 "2004-04-17T03:28:34Z")
The first group of notes sounds like a Biwa, the second group sounds like an attempt to sound like a Panpipe (but probably isn’t).
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### Author:  [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2004, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spooky-sound-effect/240431/7 "2004-04-17T07:05:31Z")
The first part could just be violin, viola, or cello harmonics; the second part sounds like a flute.
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2004, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spooky-sound-effect/240431/8 "2004-04-18T03:23:36Z")
I’d be hard pressed to look it up, but the instrument used on _Good Vibrations_ was a modified therimin. It had a scale attached to it, to make it easier to play. A theriminist’s pitch hand sorta waves around in midair, and the distance from the transducer determines the pitch. With the scale attached, anybody can get the right note. With an original therimin, it takes a lot of skill to make it sing what you want.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2004, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spooky-sound-effect/240431/9 "2004-04-18T03:57:21Z")
You are right, **AskNott** , the theremin on Good Vibrations is a modified one. I didn’t know what the mod on it was, but now I know… Incidentally, the Simpsons also uses the theremin on the Halloween episodes when Kang & Kodos appear, plus on at least one closing Halloween credit, the Simpsons theme is played on a theremin. I also have a vague recollection of Homer playing the instrument, but I might have just dreamt that.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2004, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spooky-sound-effect/240431/10 "2004-04-18T03:59:49Z")
By the way, it’s been driving me nuts figuring out how to spell it, and I’ve already misspelled it oodles of times in my first post, but the instrument is a ther **e** min.
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### Author:  [@Freejooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freejooky)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2004, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spooky-sound-effect/240431/11 "2004-04-18T05:36:09Z")
The theremin used on “Good Vibrations” was a “tannerin,” modified by Paul Tanner to have a keyboard and ring system in order to hit the correct pitches. It’s very similar to the french instrument, Ondes Martenot, which is similar to the theremin but keyboard-based.
Unfortunately, the sound sample that was posted was very lo-res and vague. Perhaps you could find or record a better sample and upload it?
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### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2004, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spooky-sound-effect/240431/12 "2004-04-18T07:40:01Z")
> [@Freejooky](#):
>
> Unfortunately, the sound sample that was posted was very lo-res and vague. Perhaps you could find or record a better sample and upload it?
Alas…that sound clip was recorded directly from a VHS. And it’s the _only_ example I’ve been able to find of that sound effect in over a decade of searching. (Granted, I haven’t been looking _all_ the decade…)
But I would swear that it sounds like a [Glass Armonica](http://www.crystalmusic.com/listen.html).
But if anyone has a moldering old VHS tape with episodes of the animated “Dennis the Menace” cartoon on 'em, you’d have a fighting chance of hearing that clip. They used it every freaking time there was something remotely “spooky” onscreen. (Which was fairly common…seeing as the show was animated by a Japanese subcontractor, there were a _lot_ of slow pans to establish atmosphere.)
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### Author:  [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2004, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-spooky-sound-effect/240431/13 "2004-04-18T13:30:43Z")
Is the “Wilhelm Scream” that scream that seems to be in a million movies?