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Vacuum Cleaner
Vacuum Cleaner is a motor drone that sounds loud without being heavy. What makes a real vacuum overwhelming in a room is the whine and rush of the motor rather than any bass, and the recording is the same: forceful in the middle and above, with almost nothing underneath. Nothing separate happens in it from start to finish.
Ready to play
Stack this under rain or a fire, keep the blend, and play it with your screen off. Slo, on iOS, Android and Mac.
Loud-sounding, but not heavy
Because so little of it sits low, a laptop or phone speaker gives you close to the whole thing, where a bass-led file would lose most of itself on the way out. That makes it one of the few machine recordings worth playing on whatever speaker is nearest.
It is also the narrowest of the machine recordings here, which fits the source: a vacuum is one object, not a spread-out scene. The drone holds an even level with no separate events across the 32-second loop.
Why anyone plays a vacuum on purpose
Its energy covers the whole speech range and above, so it hides voices, footsteps and small hard-surface sounds at once. It reaches higher than the dishwasher recording does and carries a real hiss on top. That extra reach is also why it tires you faster, so run it quieter than you would run a warm file.
Among the machine sounds here, Household Fan is the plainest steady motor and Washing Machine the heaviest. To keep the masking and soften the top, blend it down with the Vacuum Cleaner and brown noise mix in the free sound mixer. Everything else is listed on the sound library index.
Frequently asked questions
Why do people use a vacuum cleaner sound deliberately?
Its energy covers the whole speech range and above, which makes it broadly effective at hiding voices and small sharp sounds.
Does it have deep bass?
Very little. Almost everything that makes a real vacuum feel loud sits in the middle of the range and above.
Is it steady or does it change?
Steady. Nothing separate happens across the 32-second loop and the drone holds an even level.
How wide is the stereo image?
Narrow. It stays close to the centre rather than spreading, which suits a single machine as a source.