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General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Mr Lamp on May 03, 2024, 01:16:31 PM

Title: Remaking sounds of fluorescent lights
Post by: Mr Lamp on May 03, 2024, 01:16:31 PM
Hi

Can someone help me remake sounds of fluorescent starter chimes and 50hZ ballast hum? I have no idea on how to create similar sounds. I am just considering to make an animation with fluorescent lights turning on (and perhaps an EOL lamp). Any help would be appreciated. And of course I can use ready sound effects as well  :bulbman:

Also, any help with the animation itself is appreciated. I will probably be using Blender as it's free. But no hurries, as my current laptop can't run Blender that well (I'm saving for a more powerful computer).
Title: Re: Remaking sounds of fluorescent lights
Post by: LightsAreBright27 on May 03, 2024, 01:22:06 PM
Get an eol tube and a noisy starter. Record the sounds along with the ballast hum. If you are wanting to make multiple (like a room full) record multiple startups of the lamp (maybe different starter) and change loudness (amplitude) and overlay them. That should get you a decent sound.
Title: Re: Remaking sounds of fluorescent lights
Post by: Mr Lamp on May 03, 2024, 01:26:10 PM
Yeah, that could work. But there is one thing... I don't have such a good microphone. I have a microphone on my phone and it always picks up some background sounds. But of course there are many tools to remove background sounds...
Title: Re: Remaking sounds of fluorescent lights
Post by: Laurens on May 03, 2024, 02:20:09 PM
They're fairly quiet sounds, recording them is indeed not too easy unless you already have a proper portable recorder like the ones from Zoom or Roland.

If you don't need them urgently, i can make a few tries. I tried with a contact microphone and i instantly run into two problems: RF clicks from the starter, and inductively coupled hum from the ballast. So the only option would be to use a well shielded condenser/electret microphone, because a dynamic will gladly pick up the magnetic field from the ballast. I do have one, but i need to set up everything outside of the room with my computer. But that's exactly where all my lighting stuff is.

I don't have any EOL tubes. I can make them plink a few times if i lower the input voltage to 190v or so, but they start annoyingly easy.