Fluorescent Flicker

A failing basement fluorescent tube: uneven discharge buzz, starter ticks and persistent ballast hum.

texture · 10 s · 0 downloads · 0 likes

0.00 / 10 sMP3 preview · Heavy 50 Hz ballast

Preset

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Free for commercial use. No attribution needed.

Tweak

renders in the CLI · WAV

Change parameters to build an exact command. Your agent runs it with sb and gets the WAV.

Command

$ sb get HFWT6XQ0B6@1 --preset heavy-ballast -o fluorescent-flicker.wav

Source: an aging fluorescent discharge and magnetic ballast; 50/60 Hz mains drives a dominant 100/120 Hz magnetostriction hum, with diminishing harmonics through 1.8 kHz.
Body: the thin fixture colours discharge noise around 850 and 2600 Hz; starter contacts excite damped 1750/3380 Hz metal modes (24/13 ms), without a sustained glass whistle.
Envelope: irregular on periods of 0.18-2.4 s alternate with 0.04-0.55 s failed discharge gaps. Electrical level changes take 3-12 ms; ballast hum persists while the tube drops out.
Events: synchronized 0.4 ms attack, 2-6 ms contact ticks accompany switching; a 20-90 ms sputter follows each attempted restrike, with 100/120 Hz amplitude ripple on the lit tube.
Variation: seeded dwell times, contact strengths, noise and modal tuning change each cycle. Wear controls duty cycle and restart density; brightness controls discharge bandwidth.
Layers: a centered fixture with a quiet 61 ms filtered early reflection, suggesting basement walls. Presets span a tired tube, starter chatter, near-extinction and a heavy 50 Hz ballast.

Parameters
Parameter	Range	Default	Unit	Controls
wear	0 – 1	0.6	—	Tube wear
hum	0 – 1	0.5	—	Ballast weight
brightness	0 – 1	0.55	—	Discharge brightness
contacts	0 – 1	0.5	—	Starter contacts
mains	50 · 60	60	—	Mains frequency
seed	int	1	—	Variation, reproducible

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

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