Transporter Sound

[RobertScorpio]

i asked this last year in the TOS forum, but now I think I might get a better answer here (thanks to the cool answers in the PHOTON TORPEDO question asked earlier this week. Great stuff there!)

My son and I were watching TOS. But it isn't the only one that has a sound effect. In fact, on TOS, sometimes the sound effect can be heard before the visual of seeing someone beam.

What is the sound? Is it the air being compressed? Is it electronic? Is it being heard from the perspective of the person being beamed?

The Romulan Commander seemed to hear it just before Spock was beamed away in ENTERPRISE INCIDENT which makes me think it can be heard before seen...

so...any takers? What are we hearing (and the Romulan as well?)

Rob

 

[JNG]

Some candidates off the top of my head would be air rushing into the space vacated by the matter of the person being beamed away, or being pushed against the annular confinement force field surrounding a person being beamed in. The sound is not so different from what we hear when characters have established or tapped against a security force field, or one of the ones used in the sickbay. I am using TNG stuff for perspective on that, obviously.

As for the question of who exactly hears the sound, that's a really good one. On TNG, people appeared conscious during the transport procedure, but we don't know if that is so for TOS-era transporters. The only thing I will say for sure is that aside from the sounds shown during space scenes, I don't know if anything we hear other than the clearly extra-diegetic score or the occasional character internal monologue is supposed to be inaudible to the characters.

 

[Christopher]

It's the tiny screams of all the billions of particles as they're ripped apart....

 

[Ronald Held]

That might be as good as answer as any, or the acoustic interaction with the surface of the annular confinement beam?

 

[SVD]

I'd wager it part sound generated by the transporter itself, part sound played by the communication device (combage, fliptop TOS communicator, what have you) to alert the transportee that s/he was in the process of being transported.

 

[Ronald Held]

I never heard of a communicator alert that transportation had begun.

 

[RobertScorpio]

I never heard of a communicator alert that transportation had begun.

And there are some scenes where somone not wearing a communicator can hear someone beaming in...

Rob

 

[Kross]

It's the tiny screams of all the billions of particles as they're ripped apart....

We have a winnah!

Spoiler: Destiny

In Gods of Night, David Mac describes it as a high pitched drone

I always figured it was just a sound effect for the audience's benefit, like the sound effects in the vacuum of space, and the characters couldn't actually hear it.

Edit: Woohoo! Finally a Lieutenant. Now maybe I'll get my own quarters. Damn Tellarites.

 

[RobertScorpio]

It's the tiny screams of all the billions of particles as they're ripped apart....

We have a winnah!

Spoiler: Destiny

In Gods of Night, David Mac describes it as a high pitched drone

I always figured it was just a sound effect for the audience's benefit, like the sound effects in the vacuum of space, and the characters couldn't actually hear it.

Edit: Woohoo! Finally a Lieutenant. Now maybe I'll get my own quarters. Damn Tellarites.

But they can hear it..so this is not an acceptable answer..

Rob

 

[Meredith]

That might be as good as answer as any, or the acoustic interaction with the surface of the annular confinement beam?

sounds about right! the confinement beam ensures you don't materialize inside of another object.

 

[Vance]

Actually, this thread reminds me of something. I watched "The Cage" recently, and picked up a different SFX used for the 'powering up' of the transporter equipment. Anyone know what that looped SFX was? I've been looking for it.