Blog
Occasional posts on subjects including field recording, London history and literature, other websites worth looking at, articles in the press, and news of sound-related events.
07 July 2018
BBC sound effects plotted on a map
IN APRIL this year the BBC put online around 16,000 of its sound effects recordings, making them available for non-commercial use at no cost. The BBC presents the recordings in a plain-looking list here: bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk. Expressions like ‘no cost’ or ‘free’ have a certain resonance, so I examined the collection to see what could be done with it.
A large majority of the recordings are from unknown places or else are studio creations. Around 400 are from named locations in the United Kingdom, and of these I judged just over 300 to be worth presenting and reproducing here. The results range in time from 1940 to 1986 and access to them is through a simple sound map on this page:
The map took me a while to draw, but the way the red link spots are made and positioned is easy: each spot is a DIV element that acts as a link, made round-shaped with the CSS radius property.
All posts
Old London Cries, 1847 – July 2020
Early street cries from London and Rome – June 2020
Street Cries: Hawkers & Walkers of Early America – June 2020
Sony PCM D100 recorder review – May 2020
Chant – May 2020
Coronavirus – March 2020
Street Cries: London Lickpenny – February 2020
Successor – February 2020
More January street cries – January 2020
Tidal Thames: Procter & Gamble, Thurrock – January 2020
Street Cries: January 2020 addition – January 2020
Sounds of the London Loop – December 2019
LMA talk: thank you – November 2019
Recordings: November 2019 additions – November 2019
November talk – November 2019
Street Cries: October 2019 additions – October 2019
New guestbook – October 2019
Rutting season – October 2019
The clattering bridge – October 2019
London Metropolitan Archives – March 2019
Street cries now being added to Pinterest – January 2019
Social media – January 2019
Recent site upgrades – December 2018
Hiatus – August 2018
BBC sound effects plotted on a map – July 2018
In memory of Richard Beard, wildlife recordist – June 2018
New section on historical street cries – April 2018
Long in the tooth – June 2017
Acoustic baffle – January 2017
MixPre-D clamp – November 2016
New York Times – August 2016
The EU referendum and the silence of the streets – June 2016
Media chancers – April 2016
New feature: Sounds of the Musical Museum – February 2016
The soundscape of Oxford Street – December 2015
Tim Hunkin – November 2015
The reverberant city – November 2015
New! Old! More historical recordings added – November 2015
Sounds of 1960s Las Vegas – November 2015
Five fundamental stances in recording – October 2015
The trouble with sound maps – May 2015
The average of the average – March 2015
The sounds of sectarianism – March 2015
Which sex does a computer sound like? – February 2015
Why girls shouldn't run away to London – February 2015
Arthur Machen: the sounds from beyond the veil – February 2015
Vanished City: London's Lost Neighbourhoods by Tom Bolton – January 2015
Sound and Music's Creative Data Club – January 2015
Out of town: Whittlesey Straw Bear festival – January 2015
The Bird Tree – December 2014
Down with noise: first impressions of Sennheiser MKH 8020 mics – December 2014
The Block: making a simple stereo baffle – December 2014
Thanks to everyone at the Marlborough and the Social – December 2014
The London Sound Survey as a full-time concern – August 2014
Thanks to everyone who came to Earshots 4 – June 2014
Edgelands: Staines Moor – June 2014
Guest post from Cities and Memory – May 2014
Darwin among the earthworms – May 2014
Up with the lark: soundCamp in Rotherhithe, May 3–4 – April 2014
Coming this April: Field Studies 2014 – March 2014
Hello and welcome to Mail Online readers – January 2014
Sensing Cities back on Resonance 104.4 FM from this Friday – January 2014
Sounds in poetry: 'Adlestrop' and 'Death of a Naturalist' – January 2014
Sound and the Law: Sounds you must and must not make – November 2013
Sound and the Law: What are the limits on recording? – October 2013
Permanent present – September 2013
Ships' Opera at the Thames Festival – September 2013
Quiet please #2: Peabody estate, Victoria – September 2013
Extra! Recordings of English newspaper sellers – August 2013
Quiet please #1: Lincoln's Inn – August 2013
All systems go – July 2013
London Sound Survey LP progress report – June 2013
What does London really sound like? – May 2013
These Are The Good Times album cover – May 2013
When sounds don't play on Safari – April 2013
Street noise and the taming of Victorian London – April 2013
Here soon: the London Sound Survey vinyl LP – March 2013
Crossing the Thames at Woolwich – March 2013
Sounds of disaster in peacetime London – February 2013
Reverberation and Authority – January 2013
London on Christmas Eve – December 2012
Beware the Cat: auditory overload in the 16th century – November 2012
Jez riley French in Soho – November 2012
Coming up! Second batch of vintage BBC radio sounds – November 2012
The resurgence of religion in London – November 2012
Searching for unearthly sounds – October 2012
Sound, hallucination and the moment of epiphany – September 2012
London voices: outline of a new sound map – September 2012
One-track mind – August 2012
Yeah, yeah, industrial estate – August 2012
Rudyard Kipling and sonic warfare – August 2012
Field recording and Philip Larkin on poetry – July 2012
The man who heard the flowers scream – July 2012
Motorcycle Wall of Death – July 2012
Casanova in London – June 2012
Third annual report – June 2012
Hello to Wire magazine readers – June 2012
A quick thank-you to Sound Network – May 2012
Mapping London's subterranean rivers – May 2012
Time off in the Scottish Highlands – April 2012
Absence of sound – April 2012
A taxonomy for field recordings – March 2012
Victorian cage-bird fanciers of Brick Lane – March 2012
The slow movement – February 2012
Thoughts on classifying field recordings – February 2012
Building a field recording system 3: recorder accessories – January 2012
Building a field recording system 2: the compact recorder – January 2012
Building a field recording system 1: introduction – January 2012
Where Londoners come from – January 2012
Nice to meet you, London Historians – January 2012
Thanks, Londonist – December 2011
James Greenwood's 'The Wilds of London' from 1874 – December 2011
Our synthetic sound environment – December 2011
Making engine noises with a jam jar – December 2011
Spam attack! – December 2011
Five compact XLR-enabled audio recorders – November 2011
Some recordings from the Waterways sound map – November 2011
Victoria coach station in 1935 and 2011 – November 2011
London sounds from 1930s and 1940s BBC radio – October 2011
Your recordings from Embankment and Dalston – October 2011
When the planes stopped flying – September 2011
Sound and health – September 2011
New recordings in from Sam Appleby and Craig Barrett – September 2011
Making soundmaps with iframes and image maps – September 2011
Sound-mapping London's waterways – August 2011
Looting the Iceland store in Rye Lane, Peckham – August 2011
East London Line recorded by John Bingham Hall – August 2011
Wind-powered sound art in Cumbria – July 2011
Sonic pleasures of the landline telephone – June 2011
Les Passages Couverts – English Style – June 2011
Shopaholic – June 2011
Sounds of the Thames estuary remembered – June 2011
The London Sound Survey at SoundFjord, 12th June – June 2011
Two years old today – May 2011
What do tornadoes sound like? – May 2011
Beddington Farm – May 2011
Seeing sounds: Izotope RX2 as a wave editor – May 2011
Regina Burbach: stories told through sound – May 2011
Today is International Dawn Chorus Day – May 2011
Allhallows Marshes – April 2011
First round is the theme round – April 2011
Sounds of protest from 12 Gates to the City – April 2011
Adrian Stokes: an aesthete in Hyde Park – March 2011
Thames drifter – March 2011
Howling wolf – March 2011
Cuckold's Haven – March 2011
Willesden Junction at dawn – February 2011
Mug-house riots and a short history of hissing – February 2011
Sights and sounds of London street markets – February 2011
Historical maps now online – February 2011
Make the darkness your friend – January 2011
New uses for old London maps – January 2011
Real sounds of Lagos – January 2011
Sound maps from Inukjuak and New York State – January 2011
The All-in-One London Map is now online – January 2011
Across the miles – December 2010
London through a glass – December 2010
Three recordings from Greenwich and its peninsula – December 2010
Two quick recordings from Camden Town – December 2010
What are the earliest sounds you can remember? – December 2010
Lonely Planet and the London Sound Survey – December 2010
Sound and history: new site section preview – December 2010
The Audio Technica BP4025: your reliable stereo workhorse – November 2010
Recordists on film: The Stone Tape and The Shout – November 2010
New site section on the way – November 2010
Recordists on film: Lisbon Story and Gadjo Dilo – November 2010
T?n? koutou katoa, New Zealand sound lovers – November 2010
Paris street music – October 2010
The sound collectors – October 2010
Guest post from Nick Hamilton of Lost Steps – October 2010
Film sound clichés – October 2010
Lost Steps back on Resonance 104.4 FM! – October 2010
Hello and welcome to our Chinese listeners – October 2010
West to Arcadia – September 2010
Thames lightermen and an origin for whistling – September 2010
Adventures in ultrasound: recording with the London Bat Group – September 2010
Coming up: the LSS at Sound:Site and on BBC World Service – September 2010
Chasseur du Son – August 2010
Thomas Burke, a man in love with London – August 2010
Mad about the buoy – August 2010
Entente cordiale: Des Coulam's guest post from Paris – August 2010
A useful fantasy – August 2010
Sounds unreal – July 2010
Jack London among the Cockneys – July 2010
Rebranding exercise – July 2010
Doing anything on World Listening Day? – July 2010
New Thames estuary section now added – July 2010
Two recordings from Canvey Island – June 2010
The walk won't do you good – June 2010
New binaural mics from Roland – May 2010
The London Nobody Sings – May 2010
Out and about on May Day – May 2010
Nocturnal emitters – May 2010
The sounds and history of Caledonian Road – April 2010
Two south London dawn choruses – April 2010
Volcano makes London plane-free – April 2010
Quiet please – April 2010
Bill Fontana at Somerset House from 15 April – April 2010
The sound grid is done – April 2010
The solar system music box – March 2010
History's history – March 2010
Finch sound art at the Barbican – March 2010
George Gissing and the Nether World – March 2010
On the Hoo Peninsula – March 2010
Car wash in three acts – March 2010
At the banger races – March 2010
Sound and sociability – February 2010
Head-worn mics for under £300 – February 2010
From Kew Gardens to Battersea Bridge – February 2010
Rituals of public shaming – February 2010
Notting Hill Carnival 1984 – January 2010
Binaural sounds from Russia – January 2010
Night-walking and the poet of Villiers Street – January 2010
Sound is Art – January 2010
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Crowds and crime in Defoe's Moll Flanders – January 2010
Weird Vibrations and the politics of sound – January 2010
Two sunny afternoons in south London – January 2010
Wishing you all a happy 2010 – December 2009
Toothache hotel – December 2009
Modern voices of authority – December 2009
A new website feature – December 2009
Please keep your belongings with you at all times – December 2009
Bleak House and Babbage's library of sound – December 2009
Some field recording tips – December 2009
Out and about – December 2009
London Sound Survey on Lost Steps/Resonance FM – December 2009
VE Day celebrations and a tram's final journey to New Cross – December 2009
Some auditory curiosities – November 2009
Two great sound references from 'History is Made at Night' – November 2009
Golden days of the rag-and-bone men – November 2009
Jive at the Paramount Ballroom, 1947 – November 2009
Doodlebugs – November 2009
Past sounds of Lambeth Walk and London Bridge station – November 2009
Sounds of the Chislehurst underworld – November 2009
Kenneth Williams and the Mayor of Garratt – October 2009
When smashing windows is a sound action – October 2009
Catford night life – October 2009
Gone to budgery – October 2009
Birds and police whistles – September 2009
Weird for sound – September 2009
How Islington sounded in the 1950s – September 2009
Noisy streets of London – September 2009
Doves from above – September 2009
London Sound Survey on Radio 4 – September 2009
New wildlife section – August 2009
The Elephant and the Submarine – August 2009
These are the warning sounds – August 2009
Gypsy buskers on the Underground – August 2009
The train beggar – August 2009
1892: Grisly sounds in a London church – July 2009
From the Crystal Palace to Bluewater – July 2009
The decline of whistling – July 2009
Fairground barkers – July 2009
A few words at the beginning – May 2009
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