Do you have a suggestion for a place that should be included? Sonicwonders.org is not a Wiki, it’s an edited web page, so you need to send me details for inclusion. Please use the comment box below to suggest a place. To be included I need to know:
- What makes the sound of the place noteworthy and suitable for the website – what does it sound like, what creates the sound effect and why is that interesting?
- Exactly where the place is
- Suggested tags
- Suggested categories: current list: nature, manmade (and other unnatural), architectural, echo
- If you want to be credited on the page, please give your name
Additional information which make the entry more interesting and save me some work!
- Soundfiles, youtube video links and pictures (please check copyright and give details of required acknowledgements)
- Sites on sonicwonders.org which have similar sound effects
- Good times of the year/day to hear the sounds (if applicable)
- Logistics for visitors – opening hours, getting there etc. (preferably just a link to the site’s website with these details)
Check out Ringing Rocks state park in the US. It’s “river” of rocks that ring when struck by a hammer. Different rocks ring at different pitches.
Sound gallery – KAMENICA, with sounding stones in Štanjel, Slovenia.
Lithophones, sound of stone, Kras, Slovenian percussion project
SOUND OF STONE
Alenka Vidrgar, sculptor, MA
THE SOUND OF STONE is a music and sculpting project made in cooperation of the Slovene Percussion Project and Alenka Vidrgar.
Stone is not just an aesthetic or visual element, nor just an origin of sound; it is a synergy of the visual and the sonic because the project links sculpting and music and opens new ways in visual art and music. The sculptress and the percussionists explored and spent a lot of time in stone quarries and studio, tracing the sound of stone. The results are thrilling. The SOUND OF STONE is an innovative project reflecting the complementary nature of the arts of music and sculpting. It is also interactive: the sculptures are accompanied by mallets allowing visitors to create their own music and HEAR THE STONE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjhuFDg0mT4
Good times of the year/day to hear the sounds is in summer.
Wupatki Ballcourt
A conversation with someone standing on the opposite end will sound like they are next to you . A very noticeable effect in spite of the noise created by maybe 15 other people milling around
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Wupatki_Ruins_Ball_Court.jpg
https://www.nps.gov/articles/wupatki.htm
Hi Trevor, I am currently reading your book “The Sound Book” and wanted to suggest something that my partner and I stumbled upon during our hike of the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Illinois, USA. I am an Audio Arts and Acoustics graduate from Chicago so sound and acoustics have always been a sort of intrigue.
Midewin is a prairie located on a what was a former army munitions depot that was used during WWII. There are several empty munitions silos that are thick reinforced concrete covered in dirt and grass so they could blend into their surroundings. The siloes are still pretty much intact with their original heavy steel doors that are able to open and close. As we were walking up to the silo door we experienced the slapback delayed sound of our conversation reverberating inside the concrete structure. The silo itself is about 60-80 feet deep, 30-40 feet wide, and has a rounded roof that is about 30 feet at its highest point and meets the floor. This combination, along with the door being open produce an 10-20 second delay of decay on noises and conversations that are happening immediately outside. I also shut the heavy steel door to see what that would do, and it caused the deepest and thickest low-frequency thump that I’ve ever heard and felt. I plan on sampling it at some point because that is something I don’t think I’ve heard anywhere.
I’m sure if you can locate a silo closer to you, that maybe you can experience the same acoustic phenomena I did. Then again, maybe the details on construction and measurements give this place a special acoustic signature since we know an inch can make a difference?
https://www.fs.usda.gov/midewin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joliet_Army_Ammunition_Plant
https://www.visitbuckscounty.com/listing/ringing-rocks-park/453/
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/locations/temple-square-salt-lake-city-tabernacle?lang=eng
Reportedly no nails used in construction, only wooden pegs. Prior to Covid-19 there were daily tours and organ concerts as well as the pin drop demonstration.
I’ve been there, a great place.
Hi Trevor, we visited Petra Amphitheatre in Jordan which has a very pronounced echo when standing on the cliff on the opposite side of the overlooking canyon. I have a video of our tour guide I can send you (who was a very loud clapper, I couldn’t get the clap volume loud enough for the phone microphone !)
In my experience, mobiles are very annoying to record echoes.
Suggestion from @carocsound
Do you know about Hooykaas/Stansfield’s “abri” I think it’s called? A coastal sculpture in Netherlands that amplifies the sound if the sea. It might qualify for your compendium: madelonhooykaas.net/work/abri.html
Thanks for getting this back up and running. I would add the NWAA test facility in Washington State that is operated by Ron Sauro. It is located in an Atomic Power Plant that was never commissioned. The exhaust stack RT is weird due to the change in angle of the side walls as you go up in elevation. This is a video of a test.https://laughingsquid.com/popping-balloon-in-nuclear-power-plant-cooling-tower/
Hi Trevor,
Your excellent sound map at http://www.sonicwonders.org
seems to have stopped working.
thanks,
Matt
There is a strange echo spot in a 4ft by 4ft space in my next door neighbors driveway on a residential street in new port richey florida. It’s really cool. You can just stand in this spot on his driveway and speak loudly and your voice is instantly amplified as if you were speaking into a microphone. I don’t know what is the cause of this sound amplification but I’m really interested in finding out what causes this phenomenon.
Exploring the echoes generated by “The Matter of Time” – Richard Serra in the Guggenheim Bilbao (https://www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus/en/works/the-matter-of-time/) was particularly pleasant. It’s worth the move !
For example, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjWXlAvrrG0
Thank you for your wonderful book and actions to promote a deep listening to the sound environments.
Kind regards.
Two sites I have been at and are not featured in the map:
– The Cathedral of Brasília, in Brazil, is a whispering gallery (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whispering_gallery#Other_parts_of_the_world)
– Loggia dei Mercanti in Milan, Italy (https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/loggia-dei-mercanti-whispering-gallery)
My wife and I restored the only surviving house built by and lived in by Rafael Guastavino, the builder of the whispering wall in Grand Central Station. It is on Long Island, NY and is entirely made of tiles. It has an arched herringbone ceiling dining room with strange reverbering echos, and when one speaks in it, it seems to empower the voice.
I have not been here, but am considering it “Worth the Journey.” Here is the website:
http://buffalobayou.org/visit/destination/the-cistern/
I hope you are still updating this page… It is worthy, and I refer friends to it often.
I’d also like to recommend two sites in Washington state that I have visited repeatedly!
Fort Worden State Park has wonderfully resonant bunkers on Battery Hill. Also, many ships pass close by on their way through the Straits of Juan de Fuca into Puget Sound. When the fog rolls in off the Pacific, the variety of ship fog horns is amazing.
Here is one website link for Fort Worden. There are many!
fortworden.org/lifelong-learning/about/
Finally: In the Olympic National Park, in the Hoh River rainforest is this spot. One Square Inch.
http://onesquareinch.org
These two Washington sites are well worth a journey to visit them. Please add them to your list!
Sincerely,
Lucy
tanksounds.org
Ringing Rocks Of Bucks County,Pennsylvania.
To Get To Ringing Rocks Park, Take Route 611 To Route 32 Drive A Few Miles, And Then Take A Right Onto Narrows Hills Road. Take A left Onto Ringing Rocks Road. The Park Is A Few Miles Along the Road.
James,
Sam auinger and I recorded there several years ago with hammers, and stones. It was a beautiful sonic adventure, and a marvelous destination for any sonic afficionados.
There are some videos online demonstrating the phenomenon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBiVt1pKnAQ
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringing_rocks
The shore of Lake Victoria, in Kisumu, Kenya. I have never before been woken by such a cascading cacophony of bird song. It changed ever minute or two as different species started singing. Central African Amazingness!
The Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum is a phantastic location, dating ca. 3000 b.Chr, cut in rocks: One room has a self resonance of 110 Hz. Toning there, you get the feeling of a strongly effective transformation of the mind.
Address: Triq Ic Cimiterju, Raħal Ġdid PLA 1116, Malta
Website: http://heritagemalta.org/museums-sites/hal-saflieni-hypogeum/
A beautiful sound-space is the Salzheilstollen in Berchtesgaden
http://www.salzheilstollen.com/
Suvilahti gasometers
60°11’12.5″N 24°58’17.4″E – Helsinki (Finland)
inside you can ear many echo reflections, similar to
http://www.sonicwonders.org/teufelsberg-germany/
I recorded an IR in 2014 of the open-metallic gasometer (not so clean because of the traffic noise) I could send it to you.
I would like to nominate the Kielder Skyspace. This is an are installation near to the Kield Observatory in the Kield Forest Northumberland. It is a circular camber ~ 10-15 metres open to the sky. When standing in the centre and making a noise, all the echoes return at the same time creating s strange effect.
Located in Ravenna, Italy, the Mausoleo di Teodorico
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_Theoderic
is not only impressive for its beauty, but also for the acoustics of the upper room (with a 10m single stone roof). I happened to hear people singing there 😉
The TANK: Center for Sonic Arts (a new nonprofit organization) is based in Rangely, Colorado. It’s an empty 40×60′ cylindrical steel water cistern with a natural 40-second reverb.
We’re currently working on outfitting a recording studio and will be hosting an informal grand opening this upcoming solstice week in June.
The website will tell you everything else you might want to know.
Thank you!
Salvador Dali’s House in Port Ligat north of Cadaques on the . It has a lounge with a ‘focussed echo’ where your voice is reflected back to you from all sides – very strange! It is a very small room too.
Manmade, architecture, domestic, echo
The above web site gives visiting arrangements. The ‘get there page shows the map-
http://www.salvador-dali.org/museus/casa-salvador-dali-portlligat/info-practica/en_com-arribar/
May I suggest The Wave Organ in San Francisco? Here’s a link: http://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/wave-organ
Very much enjoying your book! I was surprised to see that Audium here in San Francisco was not included. The web site is above. The short skinny is summed up in its blurb, which I include below. There is no other place like it on earth, with directed sound creating what they term “sound sculpture” resulting in the illusion of having, for example, a babbling brook flow over, under, and around you. Open only on weekends, and definitely worth a visit if you are in the Bay Area. Otherworldly and absolutely unique.
—Audium is the only theatre of its kind in the world, pioneering the exploration of space in music. The theatre’s 176 speakers bathe listeners in sounds that move past, over, and under them. “Sound sculptures” are performed in darkness in the 49-seat theatre.—-
Certainly not unique, but an interesting building – acoustically and otherwise – the domed rotunda within Texas State Capitol building in Austin, TX exhibits very noticeable focused echoes.
This probably qualifies as “Interesting” but not “Worth a Detour”.
1100 Congress Ave. Austin TX 78701
Open 7am -10pm M-F, 9am-8pm weekends. Free admission.
Located near the famous Geysir, Strokkur is very active, every 10 minutes about.
http://www.tamatam.fr/en/2013/07/strokkur-near-geysir/
It is regarded as one of the masterpieces of Persian Architecture and an excellent example of Islamic era architecture of Iran. The Shah Mosque of Isfahan is one of the everlasting masterpieces of architecture in Iran. It is registered, along with the Naghsh-e Jahan Square, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[1] Its construction began in 1611, and its splendor is mainly due to the beauty of its seven-colour mosaic tiles and calligraphic inscriptions. The mosque is one of the treasures featured on Around the World in 80 Treasures presented by the architecture historian Dan Cruickshank.
Fits of laughter from visitors were a regular occurrence as the slightest whisper echoes and amplifies beneath the domed area. It encourages tom-foolery, and it’s quite a trip to hear the sound bouncing around. A shiny and worn stone square marks the spot of the best acoustics – and I’m certain that four hundred years of visitors have stood and did the same thing I did. Beat-box, of course.
There is an echo circle in Market St, Newbury, Berkshire, England, UK.
Stand in the middle and speak – you and only you will hear the echo pretty much in your head. Check it out quickly as developers will be moving in ere long.