interior ambience (sound only) that low rumble...

[Tom Riley]

Here's what I don't get. In a 24th Century holodeck, you can't hear the rumble, it's either screened out technologically, or the holodeck is soundproofed.

So why not soundproof the whole ship against the rumble?

Probably becasue it doesn't bother people so there'd be no point. Plus, it might take more resources and be more complicated, so it might not be worth it.

 

[Start Wreck]

That's a bit like asking why they don't make the whole aeroplane out of the black box material.

---

I became quite accustomed to the noise the Enterprise-D and find it very relaxing. I like how the noise is different in different areas of the ship. In Ten-Forward, it's much louder, more 'open'. On the bridge, it's a duller sound. Engineering has that pulsing hum.

I'm making a film set on a similar type of starship and was going to add a background rumble to all the scenes in post-production. This has given me food for thought, thanks.

 

[flandry84]

I don't find the background rumble too bad but what drives me nuts are the beeping workstations.
Imagine every tap of your keypad producing a beep or boop.Working on the bridge must be like a busy line of checkout counters.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

the noise the Enterprise-D ....Engineering has that pulsing hum.

I was just watching
Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 3: Disc 4 DVD
On the episode Doctor's Orders When Dr. Phlox and T'Pol are in Engineering in Act 5 and are trying to turn on the warp drive the pulsing hum is quite interesting. I've never noticed how the sound design was a cyclical pulsing sound in Engineering on the NX-01 like that.

 

[Ziz]

Most people don't notice a lot of ambient sounds in TV shows and movies because they're just watching with standard TV speakers. You gotta fire up the surround sound...it's a whole different experience. My favorite is when the Borg break in to the comm channel with their "Resistance is futile" speech during the battle at the beginning of FC.

 

[RapidNadion]

I grew up watching the various incarnations of Star Trek on tube-style TVs that took a few seconds to "warm up" when turned on, so the sound of the show was always audible before the picture came up. I used to love turning on the TV and hearing that very distinctive TNG/DS9/VOY background rumble, and being able to call "Star Trek!" even without any dialogue or sound effects.

I can see how that would be a very soothing sound to go to sleep to. I often fall asleep to Trek DVDs, and I really enjoy hearing the characteristic "Star Trek hum" of the DVD menu loop when I wake up in the morning.

 

[wecoyote]

Personally, I like the TNG Enterprise-D rumble. I wonder if it would get anoying being on the ship for years (like the characters).

 

[demon646]

I've been trying to find an mp3, wav, or some other sound file that has at least the bridge of 1701 D playing for more than a few minutes. I'd like to loop it all day

This rumble by Jadzia:

I've just made 10 minutes of rumble noise. Slightly more hissy than the sound of TNG engineering, but it's fairly similar.

rumble.wav is 100MB.

Within a .rar archive it is 23MB.

rumble.rar is here. Download link at the bottom of the page.

is pretty awesome, even tho it's on some horrible website with ads and possible security risks

The only thing I've found surfing the internet was this website: http://www.stdimension.org/MediaLib/backgroundse.htm which has great sounds, but they are only a few seconds long.

I'd want this: http://www.stdimension.org/MediaLib/effects/backgrounds/eprd-bridge.wav , but longer.

Does anyone know where I can find one that's several minutes long? or maybe a collage of the bridge, engineering, etc.. would be fine too Thanks!

 

[jefferiestubes8]

I'd want this:http://www.stdimension.org/MediaLib/effects/backgrounds/eprd-bridge.wav , but longer.

Does anyone know where I can find one that's several minutes long? or maybe a collage of the bridge, engineering, etc.. would be fine too Thanks!

Hi demon646 it's nice to see this thread pop back up...
I'd suggest just using a freeware or shareware demo of a Digital Audio Workstation to loop the sample, and then save a new longer file.

IMHO the computer beeping noises are distracting in the sample you've chosen and would not make a great loop.

 

[Anji]

I like the rumble but I thought you couldn't hear sound in space???

 

[SilentP]

I like the rumble but I thought you couldn't hear sound in space???

The ship is being made by the ship itself. Unless you mean the rumble we hear being made by the ships in the exterior shots? Which would mean we shouldn't hear it, but then again, there's a lot we shouldn't be hearing

 

[jefferiestubes8]

I like the rumble but I thought you couldn't hear sound in space???

1st post on this thread.

I'm talking about the background rumble on a ship's interior. Technically it is a sound effect that is added in post production as a "background ambience" but on Trek it defines what deck & department of a ship we are within.

Anji there is actually a thread on that in the Star Trek Movies XI+ forum:
Sound in outer space but I've decided to start a new one in the SciFi Fantasy forum to make a posting since that was over a year old anyway and in a subforum that doesn't cover the spectrum of scifi that this issue affects.
see
sound design in the vacuum of outer space



On ENT's Broken Bow I noticed :

I felt the first time we were in Engineering next to the Warp engine when Travis and Malcom are first walking around Engineering that the sound on the 5.1 mix the warp engine overall hum and ambience was way too loud and overpowered the dialog when listening on my standard 5.1 surround speaker setup. This was my only complaint on the sound for the entire episode. Has anyone else noticed this too-loud ambience on this episode?

 

[mythme]

I bring this up every time I watch "Firefly". The ships make no noise inside. They're too quiet and it drives me crazy.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

I bring this up every time I watch "Firefly". The ships make no noise inside. They're too quiet and it drives me crazy.

Oddly after many recommendations I rented from Netflix disc 1 and found it not to be believable being on a starship and couldn't watch it. I think a rumble ambience is very important to believability.

 

[robbhouston]

Hey there,

I stumble onto this thread via a Google search and had to respond. I'm a life long Trek fan (TOS, STNG, movies, etc...), and also a full time working musician based in Nashville TN. Please don't mis-read this post as an advertisement. But a few years back, I produced an audio CD titled Starship Ambience. Like a few have mentioned in this thread, I too was interested in having some sort of continuous background sound that suggested you were aboard a spaceship, traveling thru the galaxy.

I actually marketed my CD back in the 90s via ads in Sci Fi magazines. Sold a few 100, then kinda thru in the towel. I still have a few cases of shrink wrapped CDs. It's a very nice production, featuring 60 minutes of uninterrupted starship ambiance. It does have the rumble everyone has talked about. But for more interest, I chose to create the ambiance of a starship bridge. I would be happy to share a few copies of the CD with anyone who was interested. My business interest in selling the CD has pretty much dried up. Now, it would just be interesting to hear some feedback on the quality of the production.

There's a whole bunch of info, and sound bite at...

www.starshipambience.com

There's also a contact page there, if you'd like to email me directly about getting a copy.

Interesting topic!

--Robb

 

[demon646]

Hey there,

I stumble onto this thread via a Google search and had to respond. I'm a life long Trek fan (TOS, STNG, movies, etc...), and also a full time working musician based in Nashville TN. Please don't mis-read this post as an advertisement. But a few years back, I produced an audio CD titled Starship Ambience. Like a few have mentioned in this thread, I too was interested in having some sort of continuous background sound that suggested you were aboard a spaceship, traveling thru the galaxy.

I actually marketed my CD back in the 90s via ads in Sci Fi magazines. Sold a few 100, then kinda thru in the towel. I still have a few cases of shrink wrapped CDs. It's a very nice production, featuring 60 minutes of uninterrupted starship ambiance. It does have the rumble everyone has talked about. But for more interest, I chose to create the ambiance of a starship bridge. I would be happy to share a few copies of the CD with anyone who was interested. My business interest in selling the CD has pretty much dried up. Now, it would just be interesting to hear some feedback on the quality of the production.

There's a whole bunch of info, and sound bite at...

www.starshipambience.com

There's also a contact page there, if you'd like to email me directly about getting a copy.

Interesting topic!

--Robb

This looks amazing! I'm totally broke now , but I'd spend the time to give you full feedback for this!!! I sent you an e-mail via your website.

 

[swaaye]

Ok, I have a suggestion for you guys.

There are a couple of old computer software products that came out that are virtual tours of the various Star Trek ships. The Star Trek The Next Generation Interactive Technical Manual is by far the most in-depth of these. Yes it has a lot of content from the book with the same name, but here it's all interactive! The other big app is Star Trek Captain's Chair.

Both of these let you wander various sets. The TNG Tech Manual has the major areas of the D, including the bridge, engineering, conference lounge, transporter room, sickbay, and various quarters. Each of these areas has the appropriate ambient audio. My avatar is from this program.

Captain's Chair does only the bridge, but includes the Defiant, TOS Enterprise, E-E, E-D, and Voyager. They actually made a mistake for the E-D's bridge this time (they used the engineering audio instead).

You guys want to look these up. Trust me. But the catch is that these programs are ancient and are troublesome to run. You need to have a version of Windows that's XP or older.

For the TNG Tech Manual you also want to get this version of Quicktime. This app uses an ancient 16-bit Quicktime (it was actually written for Windows 3.1!) It can't coexist with the 32-bit Quicktime that Captain's Chair uses.
http://www.epgtech.com/updates/SRA/quicktime_link_up.html

I actually tend to set these programs up within a virtual machine. A little virtual Windows XP within VirtualBox. This way I can't mess up my actual machine.

I made some vids awhile back, on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8xotkLQL2E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_Lt9hoPpSE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAVA5DKIlCA

The voice can be disabled and then you can quietly wander around on your own. Just sit in a [captain's] chair and take in the atmosphere.

 

[Rulius]

Wow, I thought I was the only person that found the ambient noise on a star-ship soothing. I have three separate mp3 files that I run on a loop whenever I am reading or kitbashing models or just trolling through the interwebs.

I have a specific one that is the Enterprise-A and D bridge noise spliced together. Oddly enough my 4 month old son was fussing nonstop after getting his first immunizations and as I was trying to get him to calm down I tunes was running and that particular file played. Knocked his fussy butt out in about 5 min flat.

Now I cant' get him to sleep at night without playing it. Seems it backfired on me...meh

Could you post those? I'd love to hear them. We have a fan running in out bedroom constantly, I can't sleep if it isn't running, I have tinnitus as well so I guess it does help.

 

[M.Robison]

Sorry about that. I totally dropped the ball.

So I am unsure of what sites a good for file sharing so I picked one that I knew. Here is the link to a constitution class bridge noise loop with the creepy warble from the Reliant from ST: II

I was goofing off when I made this but it actually turned out better than I thought.

http://www.mediafire.com/?7bwvp86plxgxchq

 

[KJbushway]

Yeah I noticed the rumble noise to. Not to say that I would not go crazy with a noise that is as constant as that. I like it becuase its one of those details they didn't really need to add, but did to make it more realistic.