Ambient Office Noises

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We are conditioned to tune them out, but do you ever just stop and listen to the weird ambient hums and buzzes in your office and wonder where they come from? I was just in the men's room and in addition to the standard fluorescent light buzz, there was this odd high-pitched wailing sound, but not as abrasive as the word "wailing" implies. It sounded like when the wind is really strong and whooshes through an alley, but more consistent.
Bonus question: does actively listening to these noises and realizing that you usually don't even notice them make you paranoid about what kind of electricity and radiation is echoing around your office environment?

― NA (Nick A.), Friday, 7 May 2004 15:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey, I'm trying to work!

― deanomgwtf!!!p%3Fmsgid%3D4581997 (deangulberry), Friday, 7 May 2004 16:00 (twenty-one years ago)

we used to have phones that sounded just like the on Homicide, but now they sound like the Batman TV theme. At least to me.
The ambient noise here also includes the police/fire/emergency scanner, and several times during the day I'm supposed to be monitoring it, but I've managed to miss a few fires because I'm acclimatized it right out of my sphere of attention.

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Friday, 7 May 2004 16:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Much worse is tuning into other folk in the vicinity. Even when they're quiet, they're not really. Drumming nails off desk, clicking jaw, clearing sinuses, hacking/coughing, farting on the sly, humming, chewing...it can darn near drive a gal crazy.

― penelope_111, Friday, 7 May 2004 16:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Death to fan hum. I actually spent one morning tracking down all the machines that weren't doing anything important in our lab network and shut them all off because I got sick of everybody having to yell back and forth whenever trying to converse in that room. It sounds like the Surgeon remix of Mogwai's Fear Satan in there.

― TOMBOT, Friday, 7 May 2004 16:04 (twenty-one years ago)

They all cause cancer

― A Nairn (moretap), Friday, 7 May 2004 16:04 (twenty-one years ago)

There's a dude in my office who clips his fingernails!

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Friday, 7 May 2004 16:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I really should go live in some secluded simple area. I'll become Amish.

― A Nairn (moretap), Friday, 7 May 2004 16:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Electricity isn't bad for you! I keep meaning to start a thread about electricity coz of the lecture/demonstration HSA is doing at the Royal Institution. But HSA records office hum and electrical buzz and the sound that printers make and stuff like that.

This office is so noisy what with the sales team, that I don't notice the electrical noise. The office in Clerkenwell was better for that, we had the most musical server in the world. I used to love going in the server room just to listen to it drone. I think its fans were out of phase or something.

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 7 May 2004 16:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Amish people's noses whistle when they breath.

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Friday, 7 May 2004 16:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Once a couple weeks ago two of the Dell servers went apeshit and the internal fans started making this incredible wailing noise for some bizarre reason, yes, as abrasive as the word wailing implies. There were jokes being made about banshees. Fucking horrible.

― TOMBOT, Friday, 7 May 2004 16:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Kate you would probably love our lab network room to death. Have you heard the Fear Satan remix I described?

― TOMBOT, Friday, 7 May 2004 16:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Aaaaahhh!! I love that Mogwai remix! That was the first Mogwai track I ever heard, and it made me rush out and buy the album.

I remember exactly when I first heard it, too. I was in the St. Mark's bookshop, and I went up to the guy at the counter and asked him "is your ventillator fan broken or are you just playing the most intense dronerock I've ever heard?"

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 7 May 2004 16:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Not to dictate where this thread would go, but I was more talking about electronic/mechanical noises, especially those that you can't identify, as opposed to just office noises in general. It's really hard to seperate the ambient noises from each other, it's more like one noise that's a combination of all the lights humming, all the computers whirring, the plumbing, etc.

― NA (Nick A.), Friday, 7 May 2004 16:12 (twenty-one years ago)

there are times in the office when suddenly a noise is GONE (e.g. if someone with a noisy PC fan goes home), and then you can't concentrate because you keep noticing the silence!!

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 7 May 2004 16:13 (twenty-one years ago)

NA, I recommend you pick up a D1s1nf0rmat10n album. Don't know the names of any of them, but the one with "National Grid" on it - it's a comprehensive study of common or garden electrical type noises, machine hum, computer fans, the above mentioned printers.

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 7 May 2004 16:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmm, I can't decide whether that sounds like the best or worst thing ever.

― NA (Nick A.), Friday, 7 May 2004 16:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Depends. I came out of the bedroom yesterday and he had this strange Victorian medical electrical equipment with which he was trying to get an audible buzz. I had to leave the room because my scalp was prickling too much.

― Super-Kate (kate), Friday, 7 May 2004 16:18 (twenty-one years ago)

sometimes the power in the building goes out and its so quiet. it's really fun to walk around the place and go into all the rooms that are usually noisy as hell.

i think most ambient building noise actually comes from the ventilation system.

― AaronK (AaronK), Friday, 7 May 2004 16:35 (twenty-one years ago)

the hissing of fluorescent lights had me fooled that i didnt have mild tinnitus for a year or so.

― bill stevens (bscrubbins), Friday, 7 May 2004 16:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Ambient office noises I can pinpoint at the moment: printer grind/hum, ventilation gentle whoosh, my own workstation chewing on numbers, the clickitty-clack of other people's typing, the subtle hiss/buzz of the flourescent ceiling lights...

GRAKGRAKGRAKGRAKGRAKGRAKGRAKGRAKGRAK INCOMING FAX MACHINE JAM...

...the distant birdcall of an outgoing fax, the fizzle of the electronic sign hanging just outside my window.

Ambient office noises I CAN'T pinpoint at the moment: whatever is making that after-concert hweeeeeeeeee high pitched drone, a growl that sounds as though it's made by something large, hollow, and very distant, and some strange clickish tapping.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 7 May 2004 16:54 (twenty-one years ago)

My office sounds like I am on a continuous international flight

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 7 May 2004 16:58 (twenty-one years ago)

hey Kate what does HSA think about John Duncan? Sounds like their stuff is kinda similar. I wanna hear me some HSA stuff now.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 7 May 2004 17:01 (twenty-one years ago)

There's a dude in my office who clips his fingernails!

I would recommend doing that from time to time, Huck. You should make it part of your health and beauty routine.

Seriously, though, I can hardly hear anything due to this stupid LITE radio station that they keep blasting on my work - playing my least favorites (the same ones) every single day over and over and over. I think it makes me dislike my job more.

But when I try harder to listen, I can hear my flourescent task lights the most.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Friday, 7 May 2004 20:10 (twenty-one years ago)

dot-matrix printers are pretty great

― 57 7th (calstars), Friday, 7 May 2004 21:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I think half the industrial bands in the world could get album's worth of material just recording those sounds

― uh (eetface), Friday, 7 May 2004 21:11 (twenty-one years ago)

my old office used to be very eerie when I was working late and most ppl had gone home. It was the only building where I could identify with ppl who say that buildings they've been in are haunted. there would always be a lot of strange bumps and clicks in the room for which I had no explanation. It was exacerbated in winter when it was dark outside - the office was right next to a river with no other offices close by, so you'd have noises of waterfowl and passing naarowboats and the branches of trees touching the windows to add to the effcet, tho at least I knew where those sounds were coming from!

my new office has so many explicable noises during the day that I don't have this experience. Plus it's much bigger and on a business park near a car factory and a big sports centre, so there's lots of noise outside, drowning out all the little noises which are undoubtably creepier.

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 8 May 2004 09:48 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

In the stall in the men's room, there are handrails on either side for the handicapped. If you tap them, they make nice resonant ringing sounds. They appear to be exactly the same in terms of material, size, and shape. But the ringing noises they make are noticeably different pitches. The only difference I can see is that one is attached to the wall (plaster/wallpaper) and the other is attached to the stall (metal). Anyways, tapping them both at the same time makes a pleasant vibrating consonance in the men's room.

― NA (Nick A.), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

While living in the barracks in Monterey I discovered one of the resonant frequencies of the bathroom walls. I would be washing up and start humming it and freak out the people outside, it would get really loud.

― TOMBOT, Tuesday, 8 June 2004 18:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Someone in another room is saying "If the government wants to find something, they will fucking find it".

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 18:07 (twenty-one years ago)

The air con hums, the fax clicks and prints.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 18:08 (twenty-one years ago)

girl next to me somehow has her cell phone interfering with her clock radio and whenever her phone rings her clock makes this loud vibrating noise.

i've sampled just about every sound in this place except for that one

― kephm, Tuesday, 8 June 2004 18:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Try this thread on a related theme: favourite sounds

― Daniel (dancity), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 22:00 (twenty-one years ago)

IN my old job in a chemist's shop, the printer he used to print up the scrip labels for the medicines made this cool dot-matrix screeeekkkk printy noise that went up and down in tones, so it sounded a bit like a Sonic Youth clanging guitar solo going on all the time.

Right now I can hear this background hum of aircon vents whooshing that I tend to zone out but when they switch off at 6pm, it seems horribly unnervingly quiet.

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 02:50 (twenty-one years ago)

i can hear the mail conveyor and people tappitying at their keyboards

― the surface noise is generally somewhere between 'in some spots' and 'throu (ele, Wednesday, 9 June 2004 02:50 (twenty-one years ago)

The sound of my colleagues nose whistling. Can't she hear it? Sniff mo' fo - sniff god damn you. don't make me sniff on your behalf beeatch....

― Rumpy Pumpkin (rumpypumpkin), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 10:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I hear the table fan swooshing back and forth, and the sound of the curtain against the window; some muffled voices and footsteps from the corridor, and my own tinnitus. In about 30 seconds I will hear non of this but instead the Hot Chip album played loudly on the stereo!

― Hanna (Hanna), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 12:07 (twenty-one years ago)

The beep the front door gives when you pass your swipe card through it is EXACTLY the same as part of the Star Wars theme.

― Markelby (Mark C), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 12:21 (twenty-one years ago)

the district and picadilly lines pass within 20 ft of our back wall and the windows open out that way but the twice-a-minute rumbling is surprisingly ambient and unobtrusive.

best office noise is the water cooler bubbling after someone's just used it.

― koogs (koogs), Wednesday, 9 June 2004 12:38 (twenty-one years ago)

four months pass...

It seems quieter than usual today, except for when the heat wheezes on occasionally.

― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 11 October 2004 17:55 (twenty years ago)

I guess Sexual Healing isn't ambient?? Because that's what's playing on LITE radio right now.

I hear the printer humming. I also hear someone typing on an adding machine, and papers rustling/drawers opening and closing as someone files.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Monday, 11 October 2004 17:59 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

I now have a space heater with a built-in fan that kind of blocks out all other sound with a loud whirrrrrrr.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 21 October 2005 15:45 (nineteen years ago)

WHHHIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRR...

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 21 October 2005 16:19 (nineteen years ago)

I hear the eeeeee eeeeeee eeeeeeee from the SFMOMA garage all day.

― Kurt Russell in the Chinese Quarter (nordicskilla), Friday, 21 October 2005 16:20 (nineteen years ago)

I hear a lot of plumbing noises, I think the pipes run over my office.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 21 October 2005 16:23 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/adc/10047376A~Mon-Oncle-My-Uncle-Posters.jpg

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 15:11 (eighteen years ago)

OH MY GOD THIS THREAD TODAY. I think I'm PMSing because the incidental and conversational noises at my desk/hallway are driving me CRAZY today. I've stuck fingers in my ears several times just to have a brief respite from the din -- and it's honestly not THAT loud, it's just constant bursts of human noise, rustling papers, false fire alarms, mail carts rattling, boxes being dropped, etc etc BATSHIT.

― Laurel, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 15:13 (eighteen years ago)

Somebody from another department just sat down behind me to talk with somebody, and said "I just want to pick your brain for a minute..." WHY do people use this figure of speech???? It's horrific! Even taken figuratively it's just... invasive, like how about we, you know, have a conversation and you can ask me questions about things and I can answer, instead of you imagining yourself as some kind of fearless, unflappable mad scientist!!?

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 15:18 (eighteen years ago)

We are conditioned to tune them out

I'm not v good at tuning them out tbh!

usually there is a wmm wmm wmm noise which I think I traced to the vending maching downstairs. I can't hear it today for some reason (maybe the machine's out of order).

― Grandpont Genie, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 15:35 (eighteen years ago)

three years pass...

there is a hollow metal column outside the door to my workplace. i like to hit it with my knuckle when i walk by because it sounds like the percussive metallic sound at the beginning of "Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box" by radiohead

― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 28 October 2010 23:45 (fourteen years ago)

ha we had a column that did the same thing at Blockbuster, and I had the same exact thought.

― corey, Thursday, 28 October 2010 23:46 (fourteen years ago)

There's a sound that happens randomly in the hallway outside my office, only in the evening after most everyone has gone from the building, that sounds either like someone driving a small radio-controlled truck up and down or an electric pencil sharpener, this errh-errh-errh-errh-errh-errh. I always look; the hall is always empty.

― Jaq, Thursday, 28 October 2010 23:53 (fourteen years ago)

used to work in a big open plan office, all the usual minor annoyances weren't too bad - they had a policy of 'answer your phone in 3 rings or it goes to voicemail' - infuriating if you're away from your desk but good for everyone else. Except this one guy whose voicemail was set to speakerphone so everyone in the office would hear his outgoing message and then the incoming one. And he was a senior solicitor who was never bloody there so he got a lot of messages.

Anyway nothing - NOTHING - beat the noise that was someone taping up boxes for 3 days straight. The noise of packing tape being ripped off the roll, over and over and over, just drove me insane.

― Not the real Village People, Friday, 29 October 2010 02:26 (fourteen years ago)

two months pass...

Ah, the refreshing soothing sounds of classical music as someone waits for a teleconference to begin on his speakerphone.

― http://tinyurl.com/MO-02011 (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 16:02 (fourteen years ago)

three years pass...

There's some kind of router (?) about 15 feet away from me that has a dying fan and it's been making this sickly buzzing/whirring noise all day that is slowly driving me insane.

― Immediate Follower (NA), Monday, 27 January 2014 21:50 (eleven years ago)

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