Horrible sounds – and how to protect yourself from them!
In our recent articles we’ve covered all sorts of topics, ranging from how soundproofing works right through to the special acoustic requirements of a recording studio, with a fair amount in between. We hope that you’ve found them interesting and informative.
In the next two articles we’re changing tack somewhat, and will be looking at the sort of sounds that you don’t want to hear – and that your acoustic or soundproof door will “protect” you from … and next time the sort of sounds that you do want to hear, and that you don’t want protection from. Just a bit of fun which we hope you’ll enjoy!
So let’s start by listing some of the more obvious sounds that none of us like, before taking a look at why we don’t like them and what’s going on. You may be interested to know that extensive research has been carried out on this, with some surprising results. Read on …
Lists of horrible sounds
In 2012 researchers at Newcastle University published in the Journal of Neuroscience the five worst offenders to the human ear. The list was, in order:
1. a knife scraping a bottle
2. a fork on glass
3. chalk on a blackboard
4. a ruler on a bottle
5. fingernails on a blackboard
So fingernails on a blackboard is only fifth – surprising? And a dentist’s drill didn’t even figure!
What’s interesting is that all these noises have something in common: they fall in the frequency range 2,000 to 5,000 Hz … the same range that includes human screams! Is there something deep and meaningful going on here?
To carry out the research volunteers were subjected to various sounds at the Centre for Neuroimaging at University College, London while hooked up to an MRI scanner. The worse the sound was perceived to be by the volunteer, researchers found that the more heightened the response of their auditory cortex was to their amygdala – the area of the brain that regulates negative reactions. fascinating stuff! The paper’s author Dr. Sukhbinder Kumar observed: “… it appears that there is something very primitive kicking in; it’s a possible distress signal …”
(Before you feel too sorry for the poor volunteers, they all got a lovely reprieve when played the sound of babbling water, but more on that next time!).
In a separate, and admittedly less scientific study, researchers at Salford University simply asked people what were their least favourite sounds. Over a million people from around the world responded, with some of the “winners” being:
- the sound of someone vomiting (in a proud 1st place!)
- microphone feedback (2nd)
- babies crying (3rd)
- scrape or squeak (4th)
- people arguing on a soap opera! (9th)
- annoying mobile ringtones (12th)
- dentist’s drill (20th)
So the dentist’s drill finally figures, but only 20th! And the inclusion of people arguing on a soap opera probably isn’t a primitive distress signal, but can be annoying nonetheless. If you’d like to read the published report, click here.
There’s an element of subjectivity too. My personal list would include:
– loud motorbikes
– whining scooters
– aeroplanes (especially early in the morning)
– a baby crying (especially in the middle of the night)
– the cheers of the opposing fans when they score a try against my rugby team
and of course the context is important too. Very loud music is great when you’re at the concert, not so great when it’s coming from the hotel room next door and you’re trying to get to sleep!
If you want to hear a truly horrible sound, which comes with a health warning, click here … and then to make you feel much better, click here or, my one of my personal favourites – which cannot fail, here.
How to protect yourself
We told you that it was just a bit of fun, and we hope that it hasn’t been too painful! Next time we’ll talk about beautiful sounds.
If you need to talk to experts about how acoustic or soundproof doors can protect you, visit our home page or here to go straight to our contact page. We promise not to play you any horrible sounds!
