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Obsolete Sounds

citiesandmemory.com

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Re: Obsolete Sounds

#21

Post by myself248 »

shit_game wrote: post #6

I love seeing art like this. Using things that are forgotten, obscure, unused, insignificant, or otherwise inconsequential is an ethos unto its own. Obsolete technologies are becoming exponentially rare; I unfortunately passed up an auction for an Osbourne 1 just this week and I'm regretting it more every second since. I desperatey search thrift stores for anything I can find that isn't the generic consumer garbage t…

Thrift stores throw out things THEY don't think are valuable. Skip that bottleneck, go straight to the estate sales.

Every Thursday around lunch, I open up Estatesales.net and browse the sales for the upcoming weekend. There's typically a dozen or two. I open each one in a new tab, and scroll down through what's typically 100-300 photos per sale. Very quick skim, stopping if I see anything interesting.

I then paste links to specific photos into item-specific category threads in a local makerspace chat: Sewing machines/other fabric stuff, Typewriters/addingmachines/cashregisters/calculators, CRT TVs/VCRs/related, Computers/videogames/peripherals, Tools, Cameras/film/telescopes/projectors/optics, Radio/stereo/DJ/vinyl records, Landline phones. So basically I've done the horizontal browse and sorted it into vertical categories, and anyone who follows those threads for stuff they're interested in, can go to the sale and nab the stuff.

But crucially, estate sales have _everything_, and if the sale folks have reorganized the house, badger them into telling you where the accessories went. If they already threw out valuable cables or something, give 'em hell for it and refuse the purchase, and they'll be more mindful next time.

If you're looking for something specific, show up on the first day. But personally, I just want to keep it from being landfilled, so I show up near the end of the last day. Offer fifty bucks for all the VHS tapes in the house, they'll take it. I got about 3500 floppy disks this way -- other shoppers ended up helping bucket-brigade them to my car as the clerk was closing up shop.

Re: Obsolete Sounds

#22

Post by elaus »

rbanffy wrote: post #10

I was looking for typewriter sounds and several of them are "artistic renderings" that are completely useless as a form of documentation.

Quite a lot of sample sound strange. Some even have echo or other weird artifacts. I hope it's not AI generated.

Re: Obsolete Sounds

#24

Post by ghaff »

myself248 wrote: post #21
shit_game wrote: post #6

I love seeing art like this. Using things that are forgotten, obscure, unused, insignificant, or otherwise inconsequential is an ethos unto its own. Obsolete technologies are becoming exponentially rare; I unfortunately passed up an auction for an Osbourne 1 just this week and I'm regretting it more every second since. I desperatey search thrift stores for anything I can find that isn't the generic consumer garbage t…

Thrift stores throw out things THEY don't think are valuable. Skip that bottleneck, go straight to the estate sales. Every Thursday around lunch, I open up Estatesales.net and browse the sales for the upcoming weekend. There's typically a dozen or two. I open each one in a new tab, and scroll down through what's typically 100-300 photos per sale. Very quick skim, stopping if I see anything interesting. I then paste l…

Meanwhile some of us just want to simplify, accessories and cables have probably been scattered, etc. it’s not worth it to me to find a home for a lot of this stuff or just live with the clutter until probably someone else needs to deal with it.

Re: Obsolete Sounds

#25

Post by NoSalt »

rbanffy wrote: post #10

I was looking for typewriter sounds and several of them are "artistic renderings" that are completely useless as a form of documentation.

Aaaahhh ... the IBM Selectric. Fond memories.

Re: Obsolete Sounds

#27

Post by kleiba »

rbanffy wrote: post #10

I was looking for typewriter sounds and several of them are "artistic renderings" that are completely useless as a form of documentation.

"Each sound in the project is recomposed and reimagined by artists"

Completely agree! I would have much preferred original sounds, or - if anything - sounds taken from original recordings but restored to compensate for the bad recording equipment at the time of recording.

Re: Obsolete Sounds

#28

Post by burnt-resistor »

I was hoping for fax machine, 56K modem, 300 baud modem, US public pay phone ringing and coin deposit, princess phone ring and dial, rotary phone dialing, 9-pin printer, and 24-pin color printer.

Re: Obsolete Sounds

#29

Post by klik99 »

rbanffy wrote: post #10

I was looking for typewriter sounds and several of them are "artistic renderings" that are completely useless as a form of documentation.

Yes, I came to say the same thing, not just typewriter - it's a great idea but I wish they had the original recordings by themselves and not overlayed with ambient music.

Re: Obsolete Sounds

#30

Post by buildsjets »

When I was a kid, I could hear the sound the of the flyback transformer on the CRT TV from anywhere in the house. None of the adults could. 15.7 kHz. Now obsolete both due to the lack of CRTs, and degradation of my hearing from heavy metal concerts and jet engine exposure.
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