Freesound Forums

Hi there,

I've always wondered what was the name of the kind of humming background sound effect that we can hear in Blade Runner (in Deckard's apartment I think), in The Empire Strikes Back (in the calm moments during the duel between Vader and Luke), and in Alien I believe.
I've always loved that sound, and it would be a blast to have it in good quality. I could rip it of the Blu ray of any of the cited movies, but if you have a clean version, or if you just have some informations on it, it would be cool.
Thanks.

I don't have that sound but I do have a darth vader breathing sound, sorry I know this isn't answering your question :/

That very same Bladerunner sound has haunted me for years.

YouTube user coffee300am has posted a 10 minute and, also, a 60 minute ambient track. At high gain the loop isn't particularly clean, and there's a couple of soft bumps real close to the pitch bend part.

Link to 60 minute version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX_SL3KY9hQ

Hey if you want to abstract the sound from the video here is a link to do so:http://www.vidtomp3.com/

Thanks for the answers so far. I'm still interested if someone finds this sound in a raw and high quality version. I'll let you know if I ever extract it myself.

Thanks a lot Diboz, great link indeed. I love ambient tracks, especially from sci-fi movies. In fact, many years ago I had in mind to make tracks like these for Star Wars locations like Tatooine and Coruscant as I had compiled a giant Star Wars sound effects library from many sources (it must be somewhere on one of my drives), and mainly extracted from Star Wars video games, like Galaxies which by itself already had a massive sound effects collection.

And by the way, this one is nice too, ambient track from Blade Runner city streets:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrwomEhVklw&list;=LLPj3834nAOxNMPzxtdE-DwQ

Wow! Thank you so much, DarthKaal. I really appreciate the link.

@Diboz: you're welcome.

Hey, looks like someone already made Star Wars ambient tracks by extracting sound files from The Old Republic. Very nice.
http://www.youtube.com/user/tertiary7?feature=watch

Outstanding.

You've inspired me to take a shot at the Deckard's Apartment ambient sound. I think I've got enough of a reference sample and heaps of vintage synths. I'll give it a go.

BFN

Thanks Diboz, that's nice to hear.

And by the way, if any of you needs a good Youtube audio extractor, there's a very nice little app that download Youtube videos and has the option for audio extraction, even for more than 20 min video. It's easy to use, and it's free.
http://www.4kdownload.com/

Is this the sound that you wanted?
http://www.freesound.org/people/Diboz/sounds/222882/

I made a slightly different version, which you might be able to just about hear in this attempt:
http://www.freesound.org/people/Diboz/sounds/222810/

It's the closest that I was able to achieve in a week of knob-knurdling, oscillator abuse and bottle-blowing. I think I'll probably leave it a while before I have another go. The beer from the bottle was very nice, tho'. (hic!)

Wow, great work here, it sounds very similar indeed. And it has been made with a beer bottle (plus a lot of talent of course), how could I want more? Thanks a lot Diboz.

I'm still interested to know more about the original sound effect though, just for curiosity, if someone happens to know something about its creation. I'll be posting it here if I find any information about it.

Thank you for the kind words, DarthKaal. You are most exceedingly generous.

Not sure about talent. Probably the beer. Amazing how many bottles ya have to get through before you get the right pitch.

Diboz

Search for "ambient background" to find what all might be out there (on freesound.org, that is). I've upload a few creations, such as this one I created for a radio theater episode many years ago: freesound.org/people/zimbot/sounds/231903. As for the sound in question, I think it's just a layering of as few as 3 relatively simple oscillations. Long ago, this sort of thing would be done by monkeying around with B3 circuitry to get odd oscillations and so on. Now you can do it with software.

Vangelis primarily used the Yamaha CS-80 for Blade Runner (both music and SFX), and that sounds a lot like it. It might be some sort of modulation on the same note on different octaves with VCOs tuned to overlap. There could be manual input from the CS-80's rubber pitch/course controller, too.

@Seidhepriest: except that this sound has also been used in The Empire Strikes Back and Alien, several years before Blade Runner. But interesting explanation nonetheless.

@Zimbot: you're right, there is some cool stuff here while searching for "ambient background".

hi everyone,

i'm looking for this sound too (a dry version would be nice)

in my opinion this sound appears already in Star Wars IV The New Hope when Obi Wan put down the Power of the Traktor Beam. listen closely to the backround

here a youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXbLQWQI8S8 ... but the quality isn't good

i'm sure this sound was also created by the Legend Ben Burtt who produced a lot of unique sounds...

Diboz nice sound it is very close to the original sound but i think is it not a bit to wet ?? have you try a dryer sound ??

From what I've heard, it's a recording of the restroom ventilator at the foley stage where the audio post was done for the movie, played back at half speed on the tape recorder and probably reverbed and chorused a bit.
I believe I read that somewhere sometime back, If I can remember where, I'll get back to you on it.

it's very cool when you can remember

by the way in the new PC Game: "Alien Isolation" are the same effect too when you are on the "medical Station" ...

i have searched in the folders from the game for some sound files but i couldn't find any sound files ; ((

i have found an article of the sound on these site: http://alienseries.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/blade-runneralien/

Sound effects from Alien also returned. Alien/Blade Runner editor Terry Rawlings revealed that “There’s this low, monotonous, humming noise you hear every time you’re in Deckard’s apartment. It’s there all the time, but you don’t know where it’s coming from until the end of the picture. Then Harrison discovers Sean Young sleeping under the sheets in his bed, and you realize that that sound has been coming from these two flickering TV monitors besides Deckard’s bed. Well, in that particular case, we reused a sound effect originally created for Alien. It had been done by a terrific sound editor chap named Jimmy Shields; Jimmy had initially cooked up the sound you hear in Deckard’s apartment for Alien’s Autodoc, the automated medical scanner John Hurt’s put under after the facehugger clamps onto his head. The reason we reused this audio bit for Blade Runner was because Ridley just liked the sound of it. It was so dynamic, it really stood up and hit you in the ear. Or tickled it, as the case may be.”

That explains it. I was wondering why it was similar to a background sound in Alien, I thought it couldn't be coincidence. I quite like that sound too.