Where to find party ambience (chatter, laughing etc.) sound recording?

October 5, 2009 7:04 PM

I am looking for a sound recording of a party ambience where many people are chatting, laughing - the kind of sound where you would expect to hear in a party, maybe about 15 minutes long. I found a good example of what I am looking for here . Except this sound sample is too short for me, I am looking for something like this one at least 15 minutes long. So when it repeats it is not easy to detect that it is looping.

Excerpts from movies would be fine, if there are commercially available material I am prepared to make a purchase.

The reason I am looking for such recording is a long story. Here I try to explain:
I live in a noisy apartment, I get to hear people partying in their balconies. I used earplugs which helps but, the problem with earplugs is that I became more and more sensitive to noise. Because of this, I developed an irrational dislike towards sound that even low volume social chatter frustrates me.

The other day I read about Tinnitus Retraining Therapy where patients are made listen to random sounds similar to what they hear in their head so that patients perception of tinnitus is identified as "background" sound so ceases to be a problem. You can read about this therapy here which is a very good concise article that describes the how therapy works well.

It is also suggested that similar therapy might be useful for people with "misohponia" (dislike of certain sounds)

Some people may suggest just to move from where I live, they are absolutely right, I have considered that, but noise has always been a problem for me and I'd like to give this a try first, see if I can overcome myself (or end up in mad house because of this self experiment :) )

Your comments on my approach to resolve this problem is also welcome.

Thank you

posted by neworder7 to health & fitness (13 comments total)

If you have access to a microphone then the simplest thing might be to just invite a few friends over for a walla session. They could talk in gibberish, or have a little improv fun. Record as much as you need and then listen till it makes your ears better.
posted by wabbittwax at 7:12 PM on October 5

You should find something suitable for free at thefreesoundproject. After a brief search using keywords such as crowd and party I found two samples that are several minutes long which meet some of your criteria: Outdoor Party and Bar Crowd.
posted by wannalol at 7:20 PM on October 5

Why not just record the parties as they occur? That way when you play the recording it will sound the same as when you hear the real deal at home.

Also, there is nothing more distracting than a next door party when you are trying to sleep. Blech.
posted by ian1977 at 7:26 PM on October 5

This recording titled Bar atmosphere is 17 minutes long. I haven't listened to much more than the initial couple of minutes which consists of loud chatter and some fairly inaudible music playing in the background.
posted by wannalol at 7:31 PM on October 5 [1 favorite]

Sloan's Party Album has a lot of interstitial chatter (and great songs). It came with One Chord to Another; let me know if you can't find it and I'll email it to you.
posted by klangklangston at 7:42 PM on October 5

You could also try sounddogs.com. Many of their files are quite long.
posted by starvingartist at 8:15 PM on October 5

audiolicence.net is not free- but I guarantee they have what you want, in high quality.
posted by drjimmy11 at 8:20 PM on October 5

You could always create two copies of your original file, make an iTunes playlist out of them, put the playlist on "repeat", and turn on iTunes' cross-fading option. It'd still be a short loop, but it wouldn't be as noticeable of one.
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:49 PM on October 5

I will vent yet another secret shame: The Cardigans' rarities collection, The Other Side of the Moon features this heavily. It's very much as if you are listening to music at a cocktail party. Might be a way to break into the clink, clatter, and gabble of background noises such as that.
posted by adipocere at 9:44 PM on October 5

If you want to avoid the repeating thing, one trick might be to have multiple channels of different lengths. They will loop at different points and each combination will be slightly different.
posted by dhartung at 10:02 PM on October 5

SoundDogs might have something. You can also try Soundsnap.
posted by jjb at 10:53 PM on October 5

You could use sound editing software to splice, mix up, loop, distort and lengthen whatever clips you can find. "Audacity" is good.

Even if you take 10 mins just to learn the bare minimum skills to use it, I bet in another 25 minutes you could end up with a clip of 30 mins that you wouldn't detect as repeating.
posted by Xhris at 8:15 AM on October 6

Thank you all very good helpful answers :)

All the best
posted by neworder7 at 4:16 PM on October 7