squeaks

posted on Dec 16, 2007 at 9:01 AM

for no particular reason, i've started an ongoing log of every instance of the B♭-D-C squeak i come across in tv and film.  it's only a few weeks old, and i already have no reason not to believe that it's the most comprehensive squeak database on the web!

i don't know much about the squeak, except that it's everywhere; it's been catching my ear since i was about 10, and hardly a fortnight goes by that i don't hear it at least once.  i also don't know for sure that this kind of prevalence is unusual for sound effects..  it may just be that pseudo-melodic sound of the squeak makes it more distinctive than most, and easier to recognize.  if you know more about the history of this sound, please let me know.

see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_scream


comments


wilhelm scream

posted by abg on Jan 8, 2009 at 11:11 PM.
i remember hearing at least one in tailspin, which is another show from the early-mid 90's. the trend in your log implies its heavy use in that time period. so maybe it wasn't that you were noticing its frequent use, so much as the fact that you were being pummeled with its use on every channel... 
maybe it was the only most recent, more realistic squeak they had in sound fx stock at the time. or maybe it IS more melodic and easier to recognize as a squeak.
maybe neither of us can really speak to it's melodic or recognizable appeal, being to biased what with having grown up with this squeak being OUR standard sound for anything that is opening or closing...
maybe past and future generations had or will have a different idea of what a squeaky hinge sounds like.
maybe i've said too much... 
(link here)

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