Downloading nuclear explosion recordings? (1 Viewer)

[Wallis]

I just bought a PB2+ and am hooking it up tomorrow. It seems to me that some nice high-quality nuclear explosions would really bring out the low bass. I've poked around with Google, but haven't found any high-quality recordings on the web. Does anyone have any ideas on where I can track down good audio recordings?

 

[mark alan]

The easiest thing is just to download a tone generator, and use it to creat wav files at any frequency you want.

However, you can get a really cool wav file of a volcano here

 

[Holger]

wallis,

i don't know for web downloads either. but if you are generally interested in nukes i can recommend a very good dvd for you, named *trinity and beyond*.

lots of life nuclear explosions in the desert, in the sky and under water. all narrated by william shattner and all in 5.1 sound.

i think its great food for your sub, very entertaining and educating and fascinating pictures of *small* (~1kt) and huge (~15mt) weapon detonations.


regards, holger

 

[Rudi B]

Beats me if anyone ever recorded a nuke with some quality equipment.

However, someone did record a Shuttle take off...

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/article.../shuttlesound/

I found a Quicktime movie of this, with a 44/16 uncompressed sound track. Google around, perhaps you'll find it. "launchatdawn.mov".

Otherwise, the recording contains deep rumble. Loud, but still only rumble.

 

[HorstenG]

I must second Holger's reccomendation. The Trinity and Beyond DVD is fantastic. William Shatner does a tremendous job narrating the thoroughly restored footage. Your jaw _will_ drop when you see "Shot Baker" go off underwater.

The DVD can be purchased individually or in a set of three movies, produced by the same team. However I can only attest to the quality of the first movie, Trinity and Beyond, as fellow HTF forum member and Tempest subwoofer owner Owen Bartley has yet to invite me over again to screen the remaining two movies.

 

[Owen Bartley]

Hey, there's an open invitation, all you have to do is name the time.

And there are some very cool visuals to go along with the bass, which, I will admit isn't as loud (read: overproduced) as I would like, but they are still cool movies.

 

[John_Lee]

I cannot recall specifics, other than that I believe it was a Telarc release, but there was a space oriented 'pops' CD I used to own that included an unfiltered recording of, I believe, a Titan rocket launch. Seems like it had info down to 5-8 Hz.

 

[Robert AG]

When nuclear weapons testing ceased, analog tape machines were still the norm. While the machines that the military used for the nuclear experiements were professional grade (Ampex and Berlant-Concertone), the microphones and the pickup locations of the sound were definately secondary considerations to the other data that was collected.

It is exceedingly difficult to make recordings of "big things" that capture the sound and scope of the original object. In movie sound effects work, I have recorded everything from rifles to howitzers and their shells to rocket propelled grenades to other military explosives at very close range (the microphone, not me). Also Harrier jets, tanks and many other implements of destruction. None of these recordings by themselves capture the sound of actually hearing the object in the flesh - for movie work, other "sweeteners" need to be added to enhance the sound so that these effects sound "real".

While I would have loved to tackle a nuclear explosion, I also know that I would have found it a supreme challenge to make anything approching a recording that captured the acutal sound. I would assume that the military didn't have the best sound engineers available to record their nuclear tests - the sound they recorded was undoubtedly just other "data" to be analyzed with the overpressure readings etc.

"Trinity and Beyond" is a great DVD and has a good sounding blast sound - whether it's totally undoctored is anybody's guess, but I would assume it is relatively intact but EQd at the least.

 

[mark alan]

Of course, that is what us nuts want, to exactly recreate the experience of being there. Of course, the actual experience would deafen or kill us, but that doesn't change the want.

 

[Philip Hamm]

Trinity and Beyond is good but should be better. There could have been much more footage of the actual blasts. Also, at least some of the footage is incorrectly specified. For instance in the chapter "The Big One" they discuss the Castle Bravo shot, and intersperse movie footage of the Bravo and Romeo shots. However, it is worth seeking out for the dramatic and horrifying footage of open-air nuclear explosions. We're still living with the legacy of those times in the forms of long term cancers and illnesses from fallout. Think Chernobyl was bad? We used to jack off MUCH WORSE on a regular basis, covering the earth, and especially the US itself, with fallout. Chernobyl was a radioactive pop gun compared to just one of these tests.

The DOE has a great site about this with downloadable footage of many of the shots.

 

[Wallis]

Thanks everyone. I saw an amazing documentary back in the late 80s called (I think) "The Day After Trinity." It was largely a history of the Manhattan Project. The last five minutes or so were a series of nuke blasts. I wonder if this is the same documentary.

 

[Wallis]

Found both Trinity and Beyond and The Day After Trinity on Amazon.com. Looks like I'm going to be spending some money on DVDs this Spring.