RETRO TECH SFX: Computers, Telemetry, Phones & Cameras

RETRO TECH SFX is a collection dedicated to consumer and desktop technology from the era when hardware still made noise: optical drives spinning up and seeking, a Commodore Datassette snapping shut, a Walkman swallowing a cassette, a rotary telephone clattering back.

The centrepiece is the optical drive material. CD burners and CD-ROM drives were recorded with contact microphones placed directly on the chassis – a Korg CM-300 and an AKG C411 PP – rather than with an airborne mic. What you get is the mechanism itself: the stepper motor walking the laser sled across the disc, the spindle changing speed as it reads, the tray solenoid, the whole read-and-transfer cycle captured from inside the machine. Several takes run between five and ten minutes uninterrupted, so you can drop in a full working loop instead of stitching short hits together.

Around it sits the rest of the desk: server room ambience, keyboard and mouse, DSLR and mirrorless shutters, studio flash, and a set of digital telemetry and Morse data bursts.

Inside the Collection

The library is organised into UCS-compliant categories to streamline your workflow:
• Optical Drives (11 files, 1h 6m) – The core of the library and the bulk of its running time. CD burner and CD-ROM drives opening, closing, seeking, reading and transferring data, captured with contact microphones on the drive body plus one airborne stereo take of a full tray cycle. Takes of 3, 5, 8 and nearly 10 minutes give you continuous working beds.
• Telemetry & Data (15 files) – Digital telemetry data bursts and a Morse-coded signal with noise. Short, dense, repeatable transmissions for radio chatter, HUDs, satellite links and sci-fi interfaces. These files are software-generated.
• Telephone (8 files) – An old rotary landline: finger wheel dialling with the spring return, plus dial tones, call attempts and ringing. 7 of these files are software-generated.
• Cameras & Flash (7 files) – DSLR shutter single shots, bursts and self-timer, mirrorless shutter bursts, flash charge and fire, and a studio strobe firing with its confirmation beep over cooling fan noise.
• Audio Visual (3 files) – Commodore C64 Datassette open and close, and an 80s Walkman: lid open, cassette in, lid shut, play, stop, rewind and forward.
• Keyboard & Mouse (2 files) – Mouse click and a long wheel scroll.
• Hi-Tech Ambience (2 files, 6m) – Two three-minute server room beds of fan and drive noise, for machine rooms, data centres and edit suites.

Audio Technical Info

• Total Files: 48
• Total Running Time: approx. 1 hour 19 minutes
• Format: WAV – Mono and Stereo
• Sample Rate: 192 kHz / 32-bit float (26 files) and 48 kHz / 24-bit (22 files)
• Recording Gear: Zoom F3, Tascam Portacapture X8; Audio-Technica BP4025, Korg CM-300 and AKG C411 PP contact microphones
• Metadata: Fully integrated with the Universal Category System (UCS) standard, with embedded descriptions and originator info