[ARSCLIST] Ringtones, etc.

[Steven Smolian <smolians@xxxxxxxxx>]

As annoying as today's product noises may seem to us more mature folks, they capture perfectly part of the aural essence of this time period.  They will, in the future, be sonic time machines for those presently usung them until superceeded by the next thing that comes along.

There should be a Smithsonian library of everyday sounds.  

When the Hollywood production companies were disposing of their huge tape libraries of analogically  recorded sounds effects after converting them to or rerecording them again in digital sound, I couldn't find any institution interested in preserving the old ones.  At that time I could have had the libraries of at leat three of the major film studios and a bunch of post-production houses.  Preventing them from being discarded is one of the regrets of my life.

Steve Smolian