Product Description
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: 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
Ideal For
- Period & Nostalgia Pieces: Anything set between the 1980s and the early 2000s, where the technology needs to sound like it has moving parts.
- Sci-Fi & Interfaces: Telemetry bursts, Morse and drive seeks as the raw material for computers, comms and alien machinery.
- Games: UI feedback, hacking and terminal sequences, crafting and repair loops.
- Sound Design: Contact-mic drive recordings pitch-shift into servos, robotics and mechanical creatures without losing detail.
Foley & Post: Office and desk detail — shutters, clicks, dials and tape dec