Dial-Up modem sound is creepy when slowed down 700%

Offbeat / July 4 by JD Rucker

It’s a sound that few of us have heard since the last time we saw a modem that looked like the one above. Still, it’s a sound that will always be recognized by anyone born in the 80s or earlier – the dial-up modem sound.

We may have moved on and there may no longer be a need to hear that ever-so-annoying high-pitched whine again in its original form, but the people over at Geektastic slowed it down for us a lot and gave us something that can only be described as creepy.

Listen to this and imagine it in a scene from an old M. Night Shyamalan film (think Sixth Sense and not much after that). Chilling.

6 Comments »

critter42

July 4th, 2011 at 10:26 am

It also kinda sounds like the Star Trek transporter effect

Anonymous

July 4th, 2011 at 8:05 pm

Was there a reason that the modem made those particular sounds, or was there some unspoken rule to make the modem sound like that?

Marcintosh

July 16th, 2011 at 1:54 pm

It was trying to figure out how to communicate with the modem on the other end of the connection. It did that by cycling through all frequencies available (it’s own and everything slower than itself). Once it found the right frequency, it stopped trying and started transmitting data. Given that tare are no more than a dozen frequencies, it’s a very efficient trick as it requires no “language” to communicate, just a simple check to see if two sounds match.

Don Schnitzius

July 5th, 2011 at 4:55 pm

Zexxy noise! Add some chill beats and you’ve got the perfect antidote to dumbstep.

Pro Sound Engineer

July 17th, 2011 at 12:02 am

FAKE !!! It might have started out as “Modem Audio”, but there’s no “fade ins & Fade outs”. and Definately NO ECHO !!!! If you’re gonna claim something, make sure you dont post it to the whole world, so an expert can shoot you down in flames !!

Dtk404

July 17th, 2011 at 3:08 am

Just think, all those times you were logging in to chat on AOL, this was happening to your soul.