Hi, All!
I’ve been absent for a bit, competing in the twice-annual Race to a Conference Publication. It’s a full-out sprint that lasts for… five months. No comment on how I did, but hey, here’s a fun quotation that is totally not at all in any way related:
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
– Douglas Adams
Anywho! Last time I wrote about “The Sound of CERN,” as inspired by a reporter on the hunt for it, but I wasn’t able to share anything more than a description of those sounds. Well, I went out and did some field recordings of my own! So put on your headphones, and listen closely: This is what CERN sounds like. 
In order: The ATLAS cooling towers, the CERN computing center, high-voltage power lines outside Building 40, a computer that’s working too hard, coffee machines at Restaurant 1, a conversation in French. Alas, I wasn’t able to track down the flock of sheep with bells on their necks — they have a few different grazing fields, and we only cross paths when I’m without a microphone. Better luck next time… when I’ll include video with the audio?
Burton 
For more sounds with 360 deg vr pictures too see
http://www.petermccready.com/
From a few years back while LHC was still under construction. Click on a thumbnail to see and hear that area.
See if you can record a beam dump!
The Collimators have already been done.
http://lhc-collimation-project.web.cern.ch/lhc-collimation-project/sounds%20and%20movies.htm
Wow – brilliant ideas – coming to a lab is such an out-of-the-norm experience that’s really hard to describe to someone that’s never been. Using sound (with or without pictures) is brilliant!
There are some new sounds from this year at the collimation project site:
http://lhc-collimation-project.web.cern.ch/lhc-collimation-project/sounds2011/index.htm
Wow! These are great. Thanks for the links — I think I’ll have to do a bit more poking around, and find the really good sounds…
When you get the sound of the sheep with bells, I’ll definitely listen!