Freesound Forums

As one dare finishes, another one comes to life!...
... or, in this case, two!

One of the challenges will be musical, as that may not appeal to everyone, I Am also posting this recording dare.

RULES:
- We are looking for unprocessed (i.e., natural) recordings of windows and doors. A bit of EQ or noise-reduction to remove background noise is allowed.
- Think and look for different windows / doors to record: big, small, metal, wooden, plastic,glass...
- think of the different sounds they can make: open, close, slam, lock, creak, knock...
- We are looking for natural recordings. No processing, please.
- Please tag your uploads with "Dare2025-06A".
- ANYTHING NOT SPECIFICALLY FORBIDDEN BY THE RULES IS ALLOWED.
- ANYTHING NOT SPECIFICALLY REQUIRED BY THE RULES IS NOT MANDATORY.

Deadline for submissions: 26-Apr-2025

(P.S. - Have a good idea for a dare? Send me a PM!)

Why the A in the Dare2025-06A ?
(Edit : Typed this so fast, Dare 06B wasn't posted yet)

Sadiquecat wrote:
Why the A in the Dare2025-06A ?

Here's some material:
https://freesound.org/people/copyc4t/packs/43291/

Room door in a hotel. Makes a really nice sound
https://freesound.org/people/AlienXXX/sounds/799498/

copyc4t wrote:
Here's some material:
https://freesound.org/people/copyc4t/packs/43291/

I hope more people participate. This is a really easy dare and this kind of sounds will actually be usefull for others (movies, cartoons, etc). It should also be possible to get a huge variety of sounds.

Don't worry I have got some things coming

Just too many projects going on, but I have already recorded a door/handle, and got a cave/barn door to record (actually one of my first sounds here was of THAT door.)

I already had a few door sounds here
https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/packs/36842/

Still going to record (and Edit and Upload, I have been spending days doing that for voice-acting sounsd and field recordings ;_ a few more for the dare.
Cheers!

Added this one to the pack, forgot I had a creakier door I could record.
https://freesound.org/people/copyc4t/sounds/799652/

Thanks copyc4t

I have done a lot of recordings of creaky doors. You can fet some amazing sounds, especially when the door body resonates.
If only I could find them...
They probably sit un-named on my hard drive...

This is my first 'dare', thanks to the moderator for pointing me toward this: https://freesound.org/people/naturenotesuk/sounds/798993/

naturenotesuk wrote:
This is my first 'dare', thanks to the moderator for pointing me toward this: https://freesound.org/people/naturenotesuk/sounds/798993/

Welcome naturenotesuk / David

Your first dare, but hopefully not the last!
Squeaky gates are one of my favourite sounds!
I like squeaky doors too, but metal gates resonate in a different way.

By the way, if anyone is recording squeaky gates (or even doors). Yiu know when you open the door quickly and it doesn't squeak? - I bet it still does, but in ultra-sound!
If yior recorder allows it, change to 96000 Hz sampling rate and record the door / gate moving fast with 'no sound'. Then play it back at 1/2 speed.

Thank you for the welcome and suggestion, David

I have a deep low squeaking barn door near by.
My tascam goes up to 192khz, and my rode NT5 although advertised to up to 20khz I believe it goes way higher.
I'l give it a try

Sadiquecat wrote:
I have a deep low squeaking barn door near by.
My tascam goes up to 192khz, and my rode NT5 although advertised to up to 20khz I believe it goes way higher.
I'l give it a try

Awesome!

Uploaded a few sounds here
https://freesound.org/browse/tags/?f=tag%3A%22dare2025-06a%22+username%3A%22sadiquecat%22
The old squeeky barn door I had in mind, I couldn't close it fast enough to get rid of the squeek x')

Cheers!

Sadiquecat wrote:
Uploaded a few sounds here
https://freesound.org/browse/tags/?f=tag%3A%22dare2025-06a%22+username%3A%22sadiquecat%22
The old squeeky barn door I had in mind, I couldn't close it fast enough to get rid of the squeek x')

Cheers!

Still worth checking using Audacity or another editor with spectral display mode: to see if moving the door faster shifts the spectrum up and, at least part of it, should go into ultrasound.

This might interest you https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/801841/

Thank you very much for doing this - although it is not exactly the experiment I had in mind, but turs out to be very interesting on its own merits.

First, let me explain what I was trying to suggest:
Record 2 or 3 sequences of door squeaks moving the door slowly, faster, fastest.
When we do this we can often hear that the door squeak sounds similar but higher in pitch as the speed of door movement increases. Sometimes the squeak "disappears" when the door moves fast enough - I believe the squeak is still there, but has moved entirely to inaudible ultrasound frequencies.
The test was to look at the spectrum of these recordings of the door moving at different speeds and see if the spectrum looked similar, just shifted upwards. And, in the case of a 'disappearing squeak', to confirm if it was still there, but completely moved to ultra-sound frequencies.
- I might try to do this experiment when I get a chance, even if it after the deadline and so outside of the dare.

Now... what you have found - A sound mystery!
Sonic experiments (like this one) can be very interesting. The results are not guaranteed and, sometimes (like it happened here), you find something completely unexpected.
I have looked at both the slowed-down version and the original recording in Audacity, using the spectrogram mode.
I am unsure as to what it is, but I can rule out a few things that it is not.
- I thought the difference in start time could just be due to an actual time difference in terms of when the sound reached each of the microphones. In a XY configuration you are recording mid/side (with 'middle' being the direct sound from the source and the 'sides' the reflected sound from the room).
But that is not it, as the 'buzzing' sound on the left channel starts first, but also finishes later than the right side. (if one of the channels was picking up mostly reflected sound, it could start noticeably later and finish later than the channel picking up mostly direct sound.
- I can also rule out that this is an artifact somehow introduced by your processing of the sound. The spectrogram of the original sound shows a 'block' that extends to the limit of the recorded frequency.
- This kind of frequency pattern is quite unusual for a natural sound (i.e., not electronic or synthesized) as it starts and ends abruptly and is almost uniform through the frequency range (actually increasing slightly for the higher frequencies) Very, very, unusual.
- I can also rule out some extraneous event causing that sound a and just happening to coincide with the timing of your recording of the door. - This same block appears on the frequency response of the 3 instances of door squeaking that you have recorded. In all cases, the left channel starts first and finishes after the right channel, although the exact time differences are different in each case.
- Finally, I can rule out that this 'noise block' is caused by aliasing. Aliasing would generally appear in a spectrum showing frequency bands, not as a solid block of noise.

I am going to postulate the hypothesis that this is intrinsic to the the equipment being used (the recorder or microphone), and that when the sound volume exceeds a certain level, something in the electronic circuitry generates white noise.
We might be able to test this hypothesis, maybe even without the need to make additional recordings: you may already have uploaded sounds from the same recorder and/or the same microphone. We could look for this same frequency signature in parts where the recorded signal was relatively high volume.

Nice!

I didn't quite understand that indeed going though a gradient of speed, although, there are a few recordings of the same door with me swinging it at normal speeds. (Though it was a chunky door, so even trying to swinging fast might not be that much faster x')

For testing the same configuration and loud sounds. There is this recording https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/801795/
I could also try just blowing into the capsule lol

I have this recording with the same recorder, but different mics https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/792379/ (Both the same NT5, and a Neumann KM184) There's maybe a loud kazoo sound towards the end?

I'm not sure for a same mic, different recorder setup, I can't recall what loudsound I might have. We could try this cat meow recording https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/730100/
or this washing machine https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/700289/

I might try re-recording the same door with the H5!

Cheers!