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Vintage Telephones SFX library contains 244 sounds extracted from 10 vintage, rotary dial devices manufactured between the 1880s and 1980s. In this library, you’ll find three common ringing patterns (used in the USA, Australia, and Europe) for each telephone type, handset pickups/set downs, number dials 1-0, hook toggles, as well as single ringings with natural long ring decays to design your own ring timings according to your project needs.

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As an addition to the standard telephone sounds, we have captured some experimental ones, that were generated by feeding the devices with random low frequencies, producing some really strange mechanical rattles, buzzes, glitches, and unusual bell rings.

Below, are just a few examples of those sounds, that we feel might inspire you to create or serve as the foundation for newly-designed sounds.

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All sounds were recorded in mono, using an AKG C314 as an overhead mic, in close perspective, plus two contact microphones attached to different spots on the body of each device, to capture all the vibrations generated by the mechanical bell and dial systems.

Contact microphones used

Schertler Basik

Handmade by sound designer Theo O’Neil Linakis (also used to create the Scratches library)

The following 10 telephones were recorded

3 Box Phone [1882]

Antique Wooden Phone [1930]

Siemens W48 Wandapparat [1934]

Ericsson DBH15 [1947]

Siemens W48 [1948]

Siemens Fg Stat 23a [1956]

Siemens H70 [1968]

Siemens FeTap 611-2 [1970]

Siemens H70 [1975]

Siemens Masterset 111 [1980]

*Note: All product names are property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used on this page are for identification purposes only. The use of these names does not imply endorsement.

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SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS

High-performance sound recording room

All recording sessions have been carried out in an acoustically treated room. We recorded from a close perspective to provide dry and solid material on which you can apply your own amount of reverb or any other effect in post-production or sound design project.

Well-grounded folder structure, ease of use

The library consists of ten folders, organized by telephone type, starting with the oldest device.

Detailed metadata embedded

Each sound has detailed Soundminer metadata, that can be read by various applications and services, making them very easy to find and edit.

Technical specifications 244 royalty-free files in total Library size is 1 GB (unzipped) PDF, XLS files included All files embedded with Soundminer metadata



You can view the full tracklist by downloading the metadata in PDF format. The sounds are royalty-free and licensed to you under this license agreement.

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There is also the free Lite version of the Vintage Telephones library, which you can download by simply entering your email address below. Right after that, we’ll email you the download link. You can use those sounds in both your free and commercial projects.

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Want to Know How to Make a Rotary Dial Phone Ring (Without a Telephone Connection Around) If you ever struggle to make an old, vintage telephone ring on a theatrical production stage or live show without any telephone connection around you, here’s a short tutorial for you! Our sound effects recordist, John Varelidis, shows not only how to make the device ring but how this ringing would comply with the existing ringing tone standards of every continent.

Find out more »