AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The internet has gotten a little bit more noisy lately as audio files on social media have rediscovered an amazing fact. The BBC's vast sound effects library is open to the public. Thousands of clips can be downloaded for free, and people have been pulling out all kinds of weird sounds. NPR's Chloe Veltman did, too.
CHLOE VELTMAN, BYLINE: The archive contains old sounds like this steam engine built in the 1880s...
(SOUNDBITE OF STEAM ENGINE RUNNING)
VELTMAN: ...And newer ones, including the sound of morning traffic in Tucson, Ariz., recorded a hundred years later.
(SOUNDBITE OF TRAFFIC)
VELTMAN: There are around 33,000 clips in total, more than double the number available when the BBC first made the archive public in 2018. And they come from all over. Here's the call of the Tibetan snowcock...
(SOUNDBITE OF TIBETAN SNOWCOCK CALLING)
VELTMAN: ...And here's famed naturalist David Attenborough gingerly approaching a group of chest-slapping male mountain gorillas in Africa in 1978.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: (Whispering) I can hear the growls of the big silverback just behind me.
(SOUNDBITE OF GORILLA GROWL)
VELTMAN: The archive's treasures can be used for school projects, research or fun for free. Commercial uses require a small fee. And choosing from the 716 available clock sounds...
(SOUNDBITE OF ALARM CLOCK BEEPING)
VELTMAN: ...The 263 noises of destruction...
(SOUNDBITE OF GLASS SHATTERING)
VELTMAN: ...Or the archive's 373 comedic effects...
(SOUNDBITE OF SPRING VIBRATING)
VELTMAN: ...Definitely costs time.
(SOUNDBITE OF HORN HONK)
VELTMAN: Chloe Veltman...
(SOUNDBITE OF SLIDE WHISTLE)
VELTMAN: ...NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF DAVE BRUBECK'S "UNSQUARE DANCE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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