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 (10 answers 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

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

Response by poster: 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 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

Best answer: 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

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

Best answer: 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