Hey Everypeople,

So, there is a sound effect that I've heard for years, and have always been curious about what it actually is, or the origin of it.  It seems like it would be an Alfred Hitchcock inspired sound effect, if not created for one of his movies.  I'e attached a rough MP3 of it that was captured on a recent IHOP commercia.l.  If you've seen it, it's the ad for the All You Can Eat pancakes.  The sound happens when the empty area in the pancakes closes itself, making itself a whole stack again.

I'd really like to know where it came from, since it's been haunting me for years - no pun intended.

Thanks!

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On a sidenote, this is my 666th post.... and it's about Hitchcock. I think I might prop a chair against the door tonight.

I can't tell you the origin of it, but I believe that sound was all used in the TV show ";The Six Million Dollar Man.";

Thanks, Bill.  I guess I'm dating myself by saying I've never watched that show - though I obviously have heard of it.  After your lead, I was able to ascertain that this particular sound accompanied him running.

Now, to figure out how it was generated.

I think it's just a computer generated sound.  No live recording then editing.

Yeah, that's definitely the Steve Austin sound (and Bionic Woman too, I think). Not quite sure how it may have been created though. Good trivia question!

No one seems to have a definitive answer as to the origin of the sound, beyond speculation.  The suggestions range from the twang of a metal ruler slowed down to a B3 organ sound run through an LFO gate.

Perhaps we'll never know.

This is probably just chasing rabbits, but you might be able to find something on the making of that TV series that involves something about the foley sounds.

There's a great documentary that come up on the History Channel every once in awhile about the making of the original Star Wars movie. They spend some time focusing on the sound production, because while everything sounds highly electronic and futuristic, it was pretty much all done with combinations of existing 'found' acoustic sounds. They show one of the sound editors walking around pretty much just hitting stuff and recording it to see if the sound can be used...

I don't know, it's just a thought...

Here's an interesting link to interviews with Star Wars' Sound Designer: http://benburttinterviews.blogspot.com/

Good idea, Eric.

I went through a phase when I would suggest bowing just about everything.  As a result, jokes were frequently made that I walked around my apartment bowing sundry items, such as my coffee table, lamps, refrigerator, bed, etc.

Needless to say, I didn't bow any of those things.  Now the racks [i]inside[/i] the fridge... that's a different story.