Hacker News with Generative AI: Sound

The pigeon whistle: A defining sound of old Beijing (2019) (chinatoday.com.cn)
IF you have ever watched a movie that featured old Beijing, there is a good possibility that it contained a scene with a flock of pigeons flying over quadrangular dwellings (siheyuan), giving off a uniquely harmonic buzzing sound as they flew by. That sound is what local residents remember when they think of old Beijing.

Beijing, Culture, Sound, History

23 points by NaOH 9 days ago | 12 comments

A unique sound alleviates motion sickness (nagoya-u.ac.jp)
A research group led by Takumi Kagawa and Masashi Kato at Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine has discovered that using “a unique sound stimulation technology”—a device that stimulates the inner ear with a specific wavelength of sound—reduces motion sickness.

Motion Sickness, Sound, Technology, Medical Research

212 points by miles 34 days ago | 95 comments

Mars has two speeds of sound (2022) (sciencenews.org)
On Mars, the speed of sound depends on its pitch.

Mars, Physics, Sound, Science

7 points by Amorymeltzer 35 days ago | 0 comments

Passing planes and other whoosh sounds (windytan.com)
I always assumed that the recognisable 'whoosh' sound a plane makes when passing overhead simply comes from the famous Doppler effect. But when you listen closely, this explanation doesn't make complete sense.

Sound, Physics, Acoustics

207 points by zdw 37 days ago | 56 comments

GPD Pocket 4 Speaker DSP: Configuring PipeWire so laptop speakers sound better (kittenlabs.de)
Configuring PipeWire to make laptop speakers sound better (Bankstown, Convolution/FIR, etc.)

Audio, Linux, Hardware, Sound, Laptops

261 points by zdw 44 days ago | 76 comments

How to Recognize Woodpeckers by Their Drumming Sounds (allaboutbirds.org)
One of the first indications of springtime in North America is the rat-a-tat sound of woodpeckers drumming.

Birds, Spring, Sound, Nature, Identification

108 points by jamesriso 45 days ago | 31 comments

Microphone Input Noise Comparison (avisoft.com)
The various manufacturers of portable audio recorders often use different and confusing specifications for their products that might prevent an reliable and objective evaluation of their capabilities for recording soft animal sounds in the field.

Audio Recording, Sound, Animal Sounds, Hardware

63 points by walterbell 47 days ago | 16 comments

Sonic sound laser, speech jammer [video] (youtube.com)

Sound, Audio Technology, Video, Security

5 points by thunderbong 48 days ago | 1 comments

The Unbearable Loudness of Chewing (asteriskmag.com)
Why do some people find certain sounds intolerable? And why has it taken so long for scientists to get even a preliminary answer?

Sensory Sensitivity, Psychology, Sound, Neuroscience

86 points by k2enemy 59 days ago | 72 comments

Show HN: AudioNimbus – Steam Audio's immersive spatial audio, now in Rust (github.com/MaxenceMaire)
A Rust wrapper around Steam Audio, bringing powerful spatial audio capabilities to the Rust ecosystem.

Audio, Rust, Open Source, Gaming, Sound

77 points by mxncmr 72 days ago | 7 comments

Ggwave: Tiny Data-over-Sound Library (github.com/ggerganov)
Tiny data-over-sound library.

Sound, Audio, Libraries, Data Transmission, Programming

284 points by LorenDB 88 days ago | 72 comments

Supersonic flight is possible without an audible sonic boom (boomsupersonic.com)
As demonstrated on XB-1, supersonic flight is possible without an audible sonic boom.

Aerospace, Supersonic Flight, Technology, Sound

12 points by pr337h4m 102 days ago | 3 comments

Ask HN: Seeking device to normalize audio output for consistent volume levels (ycombinator.com)
Hello hn. I'm looking for a device that I can insert between the audio output and speaker to normalize the audio.

Audio Engineering, Hardware, Sound, Audio Output

60 points by ghoomketu 129 days ago | 58 comments

Grug’s Guide to Sound (petrustheron.com)

Audio, Sound, Guides, Humor

33 points by dustingetz 159 days ago | 5 comments

The Color of Noise (2014) (caseymuratori.com)
Everyone knows what “white noise” is, at least intuitively. People say “white noise” to refer to the static on an analog radio or the sound of ocean waves breaking on the beach. But have you ever wondered why the term “white noise” is common, yet you never hear noise referred to as being any other color, like “red noise” or “green noise”?

Sound, Acoustics, Terminology, Audio

80 points by ekzhang 173 days ago | 12 comments

Psychoacoustic and archeoacoustic nature of ancient Aztec skull whistles (nature.com)
Archaeologists have discovered numerous ceramic or clay whistles at Aztec sites, dubbed "death whistles" because of their distinctive skull shapes.

Archaeology, History, Mexico, Sound, Ancient Civilizations

62 points by tosh 182 days ago | 33 comments

The scary sound of Aztec skull whistles (caneuro.github.io)
The scary sound of Aztec skull whistles

Archaeology, History, Music, Sound

36 points by Borrible 185 days ago | 30 comments

Study reveals Starship's sound levels; shows differences between SLS, Falcon 9 (nasaspaceflight.com)
When SpaceX launched Starship and Super Heavy for its first flight test in April 2023, the rocket became the most powerful ever flown, mostly due in part to Super Heavy’s 33 Raptor engines.

Space Exploration, Rocketry, SpaceX, NASA, Sound

3 points by dangle1 187 days ago | 0 comments

Chi-fi tuning – Why it sounds piercing to Western ears (2020) (audioreviews.org)

Audio, Music, Culture, Sound

68 points by userbinator 202 days ago | 53 comments

The Sound of the Dialup, Pictured (2012) (windytan.com)
If you ever connected to the Internet before the 2000s, you probably remember that it made a peculiar sound. But despite becoming so familiar, it remained a mystery for most of us. What do these sounds mean?

Internet History, Sound, Technology, Nostalgia

25 points by steamingpenis 219 days ago | 2 comments

Why does FM sound better than AM? (johndcook.com)
The original form of radio broadcast was amplitude modulation (AM). With AM radio, the changes in the amplitude of the carrier wave carries the signal you want to broadcast.

Radio, Audio, Technology, Sound

261 points by zdw 222 days ago | 267 comments

How electric trains work and why they make interesting sounds [video] (youtube.com)

Trains, Engineering, Sound, Videos

209 points by zdw 229 days ago | 76 comments

Can Brown Noise Turn Off Your Brain? (nytimes.com)
The noise sounds like wind, or heavy rain, or the steady hum of an airline jet. It sounds like water rushing somewhere in the distance, like a gentle fan ruffling currents of cool air. It’s soothing, steady, slightly rumbly.

Neuroscience, Sound, Sleep

16 points by thenobsta 234 days ago | 2 comments

Surprising sounds could cause riskier decision-making (news.yale.edu)
Yale researchers discovered that hearing an unexpected sound just before making a decision led people to make riskier choices.

Psychology, Decision Making, Research, Sound

19 points by amichail 237 days ago | 1 comments

Making a rickroll laser: A parametric speaker (10maurycy10.github.io)
Most speakers emit sound in all directions because they are relatively small compared to the wavelength.

Sound, Audio Engineering, DIY Projects, Lasers

190 points by pabs3 251 days ago | 61 comments

DOjS – A DOS JavaScript Canvas with Sound (github.com/SuperIlu)

JavaScript, Sound, Canvas, Web Development, Art

193 points by AlexeyBrin 263 days ago | 33 comments

"Frost crack" sounds may come from sky, not trees (nautil.us)

Nature, Science, Sound, Environment

298 points by jnord 283 days ago | 82 comments

What makes e natural? (2004) (komal.hu)

Music, Theory, Sound

100 points by pbamotra 325 days ago | 91 comments

Sharing wildlife sounds from all over the world (xeno-canto.org)

Wildlife, Sound, Conservation, Data, Community

32 points by quakeguy 342 days ago | 3 comments

Map of forest sounds from around the world (timberfestival.org.uk)

Nature, Sound, Mapping, Music, Environment

223 points by henry_pulver 343 days ago | 21 comments