Category: Sounds

A machine involved in some roadwork today sounded to me like it was yelling “ASSHOLE” over and over. It sounded a little more convincing in person than on this recording but I still hear it. See, or rather hear, what...

There isn’t much that sounds good when heard through the LinkNYC kiosk phone call feature, but if it’s loud enough it should at least sound like what it is. In this case it’s a few minutes of jackhammer noise on Third Avenue. Another chance I had at capturing something memorable would have been when a […]

This one-minute bit happened in the middle of an otherwise bone dead boring interview about the machines. He called it an “art project”, which I appreciate very much.

This uses overheard sounds from LinkNYC kiosks: http://wsbj.com/linknyc-radio.html It’s meant to be confusing, but it’s a form of smart city eavesdropping that should not be allowed to work like this.

LinkNYC will never record street sounds and subway buskers like the payphones do, but this take from today gives hope. A full-throated ensemble like a brass band or a trumpeter could pierce the LinkNYC speaker, silencing or mostly muting the surrounding street noises. That’s why it is so hard to make a phone call on […]

  I might never stop trying to get decent-sounding audio recordings through these LinkNYC kiosks. As their numbers continue to increase like the proverbial mushrooms I find slightly more opportunities to eavesdrop on something interesting. This is of music playing loudly outside of a bar. As loud as the music was for reals it sounds […]

As transcribed by Dragon Naturally Speaking 13: goes spent a good amount of time at the computer to the doing stuff that know about feeling a little about the fact that building a website we can see most that magically know the addresses days and I’m disappointed cares enough to look nobody was paying attention […]

As transcribed by Dragon Naturally Speaking 13: Long from not wanting any gadgets in the 2000 and having self on the top would in the field recorder is affectionate I think I can put something one of the subject to major seizure today was felt very much like the night before and the night before […]

All that the title says, but also just trying to be better with recording  audio in motion. Other attempts the last couple of days failed in a aural miasma of wind noise and over the top distractions. I like the creaking floor and the unzipping sound (as odd as it might seem when you first […]

Rumors of SoundCloud’s demise seem to have ceased with a monster round of investment funding. In honor of that I uploaded this 11-minute sound from a midtown bar where I had one beer last week. I enjoy sounds like this, which was recorded using nothing but a Galaxy Note 5 without the stereo microphone I […]

You became a mystery to me after you died, and now I have questions I’ll never be able to ask. But your stubbornness was inexplicable to me until I talked it around and found that you were ill, or probably ill. All the things that didn’t make sense to me had an explanation, and I […]

It was the misalignment of the rats that confused me. The rats had been huddled along the side of the road, evenly spaced, not minding anybody’s business but their own. And I started stepping on them. And they started eating squirrels. This was after the squirrels choked on plastic wrap from candy bars. I don’t […]

Like the title says: me sitting alone at the bar. This sort of sound is for when you can’t afford to go out drinking or just don’t feel like it.

I’ve become one of those people who records sounds and conversations at bars so I can listen to them later at home and pretend I am out socializing. I have always been one of those people, at least from as far back as 1998 when I recorded conversation at a liquor store and lounge in […]

Most of the telespam I get these days goes to the magicJack, whence I transferred the old landline number of yore. Lately I’ve been getting robospam to both my VOIP numbers. That never used to happen. The Skype number I’ve had for over 10 years has, as best I can recall, never received a single call […]

Not everyone will get a laugh out of this quite like I did. Or maybe everyone will, but maybe it will be a different kind of laugh. To me this stuff feels free. And it is free, since there is no charge to call this particular chat line. Great fun to listen to.