Sounds: Mains Hum

I’d been trying to find the right mains hum for a while. Synthesised versions didn’t have enough variation in them: they were too perfect. But, experimenting made me think what I did want.

While practicing juggling (I am a very, very bad juggler), one of the balls fell behind the fridge, so I had to move the fridge, to retrieve it. The fridge then made a humming sound. After a few days of trying to stop the fridge from humming, I realised it was a good candidate for the mains hum I was looking for. So, I set up microphone & recorder, waited for the silence of the night, and recorded a couple of hours.

The mains hum recorded sounded about right to me. There were some odd clicks an whirs in there, and it faded in and out. And there were no background sounds of cars or neighbours. So, I had my first sound.

The hum is gradually faded in and faded out, randomly, in the final Akinisope. Here’s a 5min clip of the sound: