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AGWE

The sound of the house

Eight bells.

The house keeps two sounds: a small bronze ship's bell and the sea under it. Turn the sound on aboard and the rest of the ship comes up around them. Here are the bell and the sea, to play and to keep.

A man in a peacoat at the rail beside a lit lantern at night, a lighthouse beam on the horizon.

Play it, keep it

Press play to hear one. Keep any of them as a WAV, free to use.

  1. The sonic logo0:05 · WAV · 44.1 kHz stereo

    Two bells, struck as a pair. The sound of the mark.

  2. Eight Bells0:09 · WAV · 44.1 kHz stereo

    The full strike at the end of a watch: four pairs. All's well.

  3. The sea0:30 · WAV · 44.1 kHz stereo

    Thirty seconds of open water, swelling about every twelve seconds.

  4. The Watch bed1:00 · WAV · 44.1 kHz stereo

    A minute of sea with the step bells (one, two, three, four) and eight bells to close.

Our own sounds, free to use in your own videos: tag #StandYourWatch. Every file is a fresh strike, so no two are quite the same.

How it rings

The bell, partial by partial

A struck bell is a handful of pure tones that don't line up the way a string's do, which is why it rings instead of sings. Ours sounds eight of them over a 640Hz strike note, each dying away on its own clock, with the clapper's knock on top.

  1. Hum320 Hz4.2 s
  2. Strike note640 Hz3.4 s
  3. Minor third762 Hz2.6 s
  4. Fifth966 Hz2.1 s
  5. Octave1280 Hz1.8 s
  6. Upper partial1702 Hz1.2 s
  7. Upper partial2074 Hz0.9 s
  8. Shimmer2624 Hz0.6 s

Partial · frequency · ring time · level

The sea

Low and unhurried. The water swells and falls back about every 12 seconds, the way a long swell lifts a ship at anchor and lets her down again.

Aboard

With the sound on, the ship works around you: the hull groaning slowly as she rolls, a halyard knocking at the mast, the wind coming in gusts. Go down through the home page and the water closes over it all, until there's only the deep and a bell as each chapter passes. One tap in the top bar turns it on or off.

How a watch is struck

A watch is four hours, rung on the bell every half hour: one bell, then two, up to eight. The strikes come in pairs, close together, with a breath between pairs. Eight bells ends the watch.

  1. +0030
  2. +0100
  3. +0130
  4. +0200
  5. +0230
  6. +0300
  7. +0330
  8. +0400

Eight bells, and all's well.