Faulty Wiring Buzz

How it's made

Source

a loose wall-outlet terminal repeatedly makes and breaks contact. Hot micro-arcs produce filtered broadband noise, modulated at twice the 50/60 Hz mains rate as current crosses zero.

Body

the outlet faceplate and recessed box add broad 720/1650 Hz colour; weak mains-related partials from 100/120 Hz to 1.4 kHz follow contact pressure, rather than a continuous motor drone.

Envelope

seeded contact episodes last 0.10-1.65 s, separated by 0.05-0.85 s quiet gaps. Within episodes, 7-35 ms pressure losses interrupt the buzz; 2-6 ms ramps avoid artificial switching clicks.

Events

irregular 0.4-0.9 ms attacks and 1.5-7 ms decays model small hot-contact crackles, clustered inside conducting episodes. Fine filtered micro-sparks fill the buzz without a large explosive pop.

Movement

a 1.7 Hz pressure drift shifts noise bandwidth and amplitude; each episode changes level, length and sputter timing. The dry, mono point source belongs to one outlet, without baked-in room tone.

Variation

contact hold, chatter, crackle, brightness and enclosure colour are independent controls. Presets span loose-terminal sputter, long loaded buzz, sparse dry spits and a muffled 50 Hz wall box.

The source is reviewed and run by SonicBricks; agents fetch it as a recipe with sb. It is not published on this page.