Wikimedia Foundation/Communications/Sound Logo/Sound collaboration

Sound Logo

Below was an audio collaboration page, intended to be inspiring and a place to collaborate with others to find or create a collection of sound recordings useful for constructing a sound logo for Wikimedia. The Wikimedia sound logo contest was open from September to October, 2022. Thanks to hundreds of Wikimedia volunteers who participated in and supported this project and thousands of people from around the world that submitted their version of the sound of all human knowledge to the contest. With this participatory, open contest, and a community vote, we now have a winner. Have a listen above.

Many recordings below come from Freesound.org and have been clearly released as CC0/public domain on the site. It's also good to find audio that is already on Wikimedia Commons that is dedicated by someone as their “Own Work”.

Please feel free to edit your ideas, themes, examples, audio and anything else below.

Themes and ideas of what the logo could represent are in one column. The next column describes examples of what corresponding sounds could be used to show the themes, while the final columns are high-quality, CC0 or public domain audio recordings. You can play multiple recordings at once to get a sense of what feelings can be communicated by mixing sounds together.

Possible combinations

Note: play all sounds at once to hear a combined sound.

The idea here is crowd + typing = enlightenment


Themes, Ideas and Sounds

Idea, Theme Examples Sound Sound Sound
Puzzle locking, mechanical clicking
Padlock click
Padlock click
padlock click
Lock click
Karabiner click
Enlightenment gong, bell, ding, spark Gallery of gongs Gallery of Ghana bells
Gong
Hiroshima peace bell
Ghanta
cowbells
Typewriter ding
Gallery of Glockenspiel sounds
Grandfather clock chime
Flow Rivers, streams, fluids
Stream
Stream
Crowd Noisy outdoor crowd, clapping crowd, voices, choir
Crowd
Crowd
Applause
Applause
Geography Gravel under boots, commuter jet, commuter train,
Subway train
Literature Pages flipping in a book, books, typing
Typing
Gallery of sounds of pages turning
Education markers, chalkboard,
Permanent marker
Chalk on chalkboard
Math science beeps (sputnik), camera shutter release
Sputnik
Camera shutter
Gallery of achemical elements
Sport Race cars, basketball dribbling, shoes on gymnasium squeak, scoreboard buzz, Referee whistle
Referee whistle
History Clock ticking,
Clock ticking
General ambience Campfires, forests, deserts, wind Gallery of Ambience
Biology Heartbeats, cricket chirp
Heartbeat
Art Music
Connections Forming
Knowledge Growing
Question & Answer
Trusted Information
Free & Open knowledge

Mediawiki audio markup

Tools

Free

These tools are freely licensed (libre) and free from cost (gratis).

  • Audacity - libre audio editing software
  • MilkyTracker - libre tracker software (good for waveform editing)
  • MuseScore - free and open-source scorewriter software
  • Spek - spectrogram viewer, for visually comparing audio files
  • LMMS - free & open source, multiplatform digital audio workstation.

Proprietary

These tools don't cost any money (gratis).

  • OnlineSequencer — helpful for playing with note intervals (only 12-semitone equal temperament supported, however)
    • Web browser
  • Waveform / Tracktion — few limitations to think of. Potentially too simple for advanced users but advanced users would likely already have their own preferred platform...simple to use but advanced sounds
    • Linux, macOS, Windows
  • Pro Tools First — Intro to industry standard; 16 track limit (likely not relevant in the context of the sound logo contest)
    • Windows, macOS
  • Cubase LE — Limited track capacity
    • Android smartphone, Windows, macOS Chromebook, iPad, iPhone, other tablets
  • Ableton Live Lite — Easy sampling + midi; 8 track limit (likely not not relevant in the context of the sound logo contest)
    • Windows, macOS
  • Soundation – A web-based multiplayer DAW with three projects included in the free plan. Virtual instruments and effects plus more that 20k samples

See also

Collaboration

Didn't find the sound you need?

Add your name here and describe what kind of sound you're looking for. Someone may be able to help you record the sound.

  • MKaur- Sound of water droplet and gentle drizzle sound
  • Add your name

Help record sounds

Can you record a sound and upload it to Wikimedia Commons under a CC0 license? Please add your name here and any details about the type of sound recording you can make.

  • Add your name

Thinking about a different theme? Different sound concepts?

If you have a different theme you're thinking about, please share. What is your prompt and what does it feel like? What would it sound like? We'd love to hear from you.

  • Add theme or concept here