I’m very happy to share the first small release from Esoteric Audio: a free library of sounds recorded from an old Routemaster bus.
This is a fun little collection rather than a huge polished commercial pack, but I hope that that is part of the charm and the ethos behind what I am doing. The library is made from real recordings in the bus (pictured) and includes real switches, real mechanical noises, real rattles, real space, along with some odd incidental bits that happen when you spend time with an old vehicle and start listening properly.
The sounds were recorded thanks to St Luke’s Charity in Cheshire, who kindly allowed me access to the bus and the chance to capture some of its character.
This small (and FREE) library includes around 80 sounds, recorded at 96kHz / 24-bit, including engine revs, horn sounds, beeps, reversing, wipers, switches, mechanical details, rattles, and lots of small incidental textures.
Some of the material is ideal for sound design, but most of it could work nicely in music production, as some of the shorter clicks, beeps, knocks and mechanical bits are particularly suited to building unusual drum construction kits, found-sound percussion, transitions, impacts, and little rhythmic details.
There is something fantastic about recording an older piece of history like this. It has a personality. Nothing is perfect in it at all, everything clicks, buzzes, scrapes, breathes, rattles or shifts slightly. I hope that I have managed (in the short time I had) to record some of the kinds of sounds that often get missed because they are too small, too functional, or too ordinary. But once they are isolated, edited and placed in a new context, they become really useful creative material. I am using much of this library as part of my drum sounds now.
Inside the pack you will find things like:
engine revs and low mechanical movement;
horn sounds;
beeps and small warning tones;
switches and controls;
incidental cabin noises;
rattles, knocks and tiny mechanical textures;
material suitable for drum kits and sound design layers.
I also recorded a small set of impulse responses from inside the bus using swept sines in Logic Pro. These include impulse responses from both the upstairs and downstairs cabins, so you can place your own sounds inside something resembling the acoustic space of the vehicle.
Please Remember!!! These are are not intended to be pristine studio reverbs. They are strange little spaces, recorded as well as possible but still not in idea situations and as such with this bus are narrow, reflective, boxy, but with character. Exactly the kind of thing that can make a sound feel less generic.
The pack also includes a few images from the bus, partly as documentation and partly because I like the idea of these releases feeling like small archives rather than just folders of audio files.
This is the first release under the Esoteric Audio name. The idea behind the label is simple: unusual, organic, real-world sound libraries made from things that have texture, history and atmosphere.
More and more I am turning to materials which are less than perfect, sounds which haven’t come from a synth preset, a shiny sample marketplace, or a perfectly polished production library. I really believe that the most interesting sounds are found in the real world, in old machines, public spaces, forgotten corners, strange interiors, and everyday objects that are usually ignored.
This first pack is free to download and use in your own work. Use it for music, sound design, film, games, installations, radio, podcasts, experimental composition, or anything else that needs a bit of mechanical life.
More Esoteric Audio libraries will follow. (A bandcamp page coming soon)
For now, enjoy this small collection of Routemaster bus sounds, cabin spaces, switches, beeps, revs and rattles.
Download the free library here:
ROUTEMASTER BUS SOUND PACK DOWNLOAD
If you do like this library and use it, please do consider buying me a coffee….it would be greatly appeciated!
Esoteric Audio : Unusual sounds from the real world.
This library is independently recorded and released by Esoteric Audio. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or licensed by Transport for London, London Transport, or any vehicle operator.