What is that sound in "Hollow Hills?"

May 23, 2007 11:22 AM

Toward the beginning of Bauhaus' "Hollow Hills" (right after the guitars kick in), there's a noise that sounds weirdly like one of the door-opening noises from the original Doom. What is that sound?
posted by Pope Guilty to media & arts (13 comments total)

I've heard that noise in a lot of unrelated contexts, and while I can't tell you for sure, my guess is that it's part of a popular sound effects library.
posted by invitapriore at 11:31 AM on May 23, 2007

I just listened a few times, and I can't hear anything up until 45 seconds that can't be done on a reverbed guitar.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 11:54 AM on May 23, 2007

I would like to know this as well. I have heard sound effects from Doom in a LOT of TV shows, especially lower budget sci fi. Specifically the metal door opening sound and the "woosh" that the rocket launcher made.
posted by utsutsu at 11:57 AM on May 23, 2007

I, too, am listening to it right now, and it's all guitars. Some of the sounds created by the brilliant Daniel Ash and David J in the beginning of that track:

E-bow-ed guitar.
Lots of guitar sounds created at high volume with analog delay units.
Bass string finger sliding noises

What you're hearing is probably the finger sliding on the bass string. That's just my guess, though, since I don't know exactly which sound you're referring to.

Obviously, since Doom came about a decade after Bauhaus' Mask album, Bauhaus wasn't using Doom's sound.
posted by The World Famous at 11:59 AM on May 23, 2007

Are we all listening to the same track? I'm listening to 1979-1983 volume 2.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 12:20 PM on May 23, 2007

I'm listening to the version on Crackle (since all I have is that and Burning from the Inside). I suspect the finger-sliding noise is the correct answer- and I'm sure it's very similar to the Doom noise, not the same.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:36 PM on May 23, 2007

I'm listening to the album version on Mask.

This awesome question prompted me to pull my backup discs out an load my entire Bauhaus library up on the computer. It's another AskMetafilter Miracle!
posted by The World Famous at 12:38 PM on May 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

I suspect DOOM wasn't using DOOM's door noise. There are huge numbers of public domain sound effects libraries available. It's not out of the question that DOOM, Bahuas and about a dozen other people used them
posted by GilloD at 1:05 PM on May 23, 2007

Actually, I think that's a pick being run along the strings, not a finger.
posted by malocchio at 1:24 PM on May 23, 2007

It's not a pick. It's David J's finger on the bass string, as he slides from one note to the next. A pick run along the strings makes a much louder and more abrasive sound. If you listen closely, the sound (if it's the one I think Pope Guilty is referring to) is the one between bass notes. A bass with newer strings and a loud amp will do that without hardly trying. I've been the bassist in a band playing this song, and was able to play the part, including that sound, without a pick.
posted by The World Famous at 4:26 PM on May 23, 2007

This awesome question prompted me to remove 400% Dynamite! - Ska, Soul, Rocksteady, Funk, R&B & Dub in Jamaica from my CD drive, and replace it with Left of the Dial: Dispatches from the 80s Underground. It's another AskMetafilter Miracle!
posted by UbuRoivas at 9:03 PM on May 23, 2007

0:24 seconds in, just after the bass guitar starts playing. Gotta agree - it is a fret-hand finger sliding on a string, not a pick.
posted by ikkyu2 at 11:54 PM on May 23, 2007

my bad then...i shouldn't have relied on memory!
posted by malocchio at 7:33 AM on May 24, 2007