Info
Page by Br Miller.
A major component of the page is the list of phantom sounds from different locations. If you want phantom sounds from particular levels included, such as your own level, feel free to edit this page and add your own phantom sounds to the list. Just only edit the phantom sound section of the article and ensure any added audio files comply with the wiki's licensing policy.
Special thanks to MisterNemu,
endless_waters,
R0bert de Mar3, and Ka Sooty for their critiques of drafts of this page and to
Abdallah Amr for helping with the code for the list of phantom sounds.
"When I heard the faint echoes of footsteps of someone or something, I ran as fast as my legs would let me. Thinking I had escaped, I stopped to take a breather, but I still heard those same footsteps coming closer. I sprinted for my life once more, but no matter how quickly I went, those footsteps would not go away. Once I was completely out of breath and my body felt like jelly, I hid under a table. My heart was beating out of my chest as I heard the entity make its steps. It felt like it went on for hours…
…like, it literally went on for hours. The footsteps wouldn’t ever stop. It eventually just seemed like some sick joke."
An anonymous M.E.G. operative, 2016.
Notice from The Interdimensional Museum of Backrooms History
The audio within this article is an excerpt from our Phantom Sound Archive. Started in 1955, the archive now contains over 1,000 recordings of phantom sounds, including various phantom music. The full archive is contained within our museum.
{$title-component}PTS:
1E
{$title-class}Class:
{$class}
{$title-sub}Area of Effect: Particular locations
High
{$title-one}Frequency
Variable
{$title-two}Duration
Minor mental hazards
{$title-three}Intensity
Description
Various strange sounds without a clear source have been heard throughout various levels of the Backrooms, ranging from banging in the Manila Room, voices in Level 5, or music in Level 201. This phenomenon is collectively known as "phantom sounds".
These sounds will occur in certain locations in certain rooms. The noises often sound like they are coming from the walls or another region of the level, but trying to find the source of the sound generally leads nowhere.
The sounds range from human voices, music, sounds of nature, stepping, machinery, explosives, or garbled noises. The noises may be personalised for people who are in the vicinity of the sounds.
Early travellers in the Backrooms once concluded these sounds were auditory hallucinations merely caused by the effects of dehydration and isolation. While this is likely the cause for some perceived sounds, many of these noises were later picked up on microphones, confirming that most of the sounds are in fact real, even if it is unclear what is making them.
A detailed investigation of a room on Level 179 has given the greatest hint so far as to where the sounds are coming from.
⚠ Safety Notice ⚠
While phantom sounds can make noises similar to entities, in many cases, it is not possible to distinguish what is a phantom sound and what is a real entity noise. Always assume a sound you hear is genuine. Do not let your guard down. Watch your back!
The Phantom Sound Room on Level 179
"I was filled with optimism. We had recently established an outpost in an empty museum. We hoped to collect and document the strange artefacts throughout the Backrooms and eventually create exhibits for everyone to learn about the world we inhabit.
Finally, no more aimless wandering through corridors. I had a new reason for being.
I came to Level 179 to gather supplies for the new outpost and see if there were interesting objects I could collect.
When I was looking through the clothes on racks and the various items on display, I saw a wooden door. Curious, I entered, and I was greeted with a passage leading to various rooms. As I walked down the corridor, I heard the sound of birdsongs.
I checked the different rooms to see where it was coming from. It was loudest in a room filled with boxes and shelves with concrete walls.
I had put my ear up against the wall, and I could hear birds chirping, trees rustling, horses trotting, and people talking. Fond memories from my youth had flashed before my eyes.
Is this the exit to the Earth that we’ve all been looking for?
I pushed all the boxes and shelves out of the room in hopes I would find a secret passageway to where the sound was coming from. I found nothing.
I went back to the shopfront, looking through the displays to find anything of use. I took a sledgehammer and ran back to that room.
As I slung that hammer at the wall, it was almost as if I could smell the autumn air seeping through the cracks. It was almost as if I could see the sunlight seeping through the rubble.
But in the end, all I could see was darkness.
It was that same pitch black stone that is behind every wall I try to break through. Why did I expect anything different?
But I could still hear the sound. It had to be coming from somewhere.
I swung that hammer around the room, but every hole in the wall I made just exposed the same black stone again, and again, and again.
After my hammer shattered, I collapsed from exhaustion. As I lay on the ground, I could still hear those birds. I could still hear them mocking me.
I’ve been in the Backrooms for the past fifteen years. I should have known better."
This passage was found in a journal from the Valentine Archives. It was written by Mary Mitchell in 1931, who was one of the first staff of the I.M.B.H.
The First Phantom Sound Room on Level 179. Most the room, except a small section of flooring, was stripped away to the voidstone base walls.
The Phantom Sound Room was forgotten about. It was rediscovered in 1993, when The Freetrade Store was established in this level. They alerted the I.M.B.H. of the existence of this room, and the I.M.B.H. subsequently conducted an investigation on the source of the noise.
The walls, ceiling, and most of the flooring were stripped away. Nothing but voidstone was found.
A microphone was placed in sections of the room to see where the noise was loudest. There was noise coming from small points in space that have been referred to as sound points.
As to what experimentation has been able to ascertain, these points are localised vibrations of the fabric of space. Objects placed at the points begin to vibrate, producing a sound, which can include walls or the air. Walking through a sound point has been described as there being an uncomfortable point of tingles inside your body that creates waves that ripple through your tissues. This is generally not harmful, unless the sound point is placed over your ear, where it may cause hearing damage.
While the positions of the sound points appear to be stable in Level 179, it is speculated that their positions are in a constant state of flux in other levels. Hence, why it has been difficult to track down where the sounds are coming from.
There is no known way to move or manipulate sound points. However, abandoned items from other locations are known to reappear on Level 179, so there is speculation an individual discovered a way to capture and transport these points, and upon the person's death, their sound points were transported to Level 179.
This room is the only known location in Level 179 with the phantom sounds.
Origin of Phantom Sounds
Sound points are the primary explanation as to how phantom sounds are generated, but how sound points themselves form is mysterious. Objects within a sound point will just simply vibrate and produce a sound through an unknown means.
The position of the I.M.B.H. is that they are an auditory manifestation of the Liminal Echo phenomenon. Much like how the Backrooms take places and creatures from the Frontrooms and distorts them into the various levels and entities, sounds from the Frontrooms are altered and then played in various locations with the intention of fooling or frightening humans who were unfortunate enough to end up here.
Entities or hidden speakers may be the source of the noises in some cases.
Phantom Music
Music is a vital aspect of human existence for people all over the world, one that the Backrooms strips away from many. In the past, music based phantom sounds provided many wanderers with an opportunity to listen to something more pleasing than the hum of fluorescent lights.
"Walking through the grassy fields of Level 707 with nighttime rain falling onto my skin and that music playing in the background brought me into a state of tranquility. The sounds were so beautiful. Is that what people in the Frontrooms get to listen to every day?"
Amelia Webster, a staff member of the I.M.B.H., 2010.
In 1955, using audio recording equipment salvaged from Level 3, the I.M.B.H. began recording these musical phantom sounds, starting the Phantom Sound Archive. These recordings were distributed to various small groups active at the time, who subsequently began recording phantom sounds themselves.
These phantom songs were shared widely throughout the Backrooms and were the primary music people listened to for decades. These songs were and are still enjoyed by many, but some found the music distasteful as it brought up traumatic memories from certain levels where the music would play.
"When I was a kid, I loved listening to the piano on the various CDs I had, and in fact, I had been taking piano lessons… But after I had no-clipped into Level 0 and I made my way through a hole in the ceiling into level-287, I could no longer bear to hear the sound of that instrument.
People keep playing recordings of music from that level, saying that they find it relaxing. When I hear it, all it makes me do is cry. Those memories running down those grey corridors away from floating suits with a blistering headache from dehydration while grieving the fact I won't see my parents were accompanied by that insidious music."
An anonymous member of the Ariane Circle, 2005.
As time progressed, a steady library of Frontrooms music began to build from the occasional no-clips of people with music-storing devices. Additionally, members of emerging groups started producing their own music. This offset the dominance of phantom music, but it is considered a classic genre by some.
In the below section, there are recordings of various phantom sounds recorded across the Backrooms taken from our Phantom Sound Archive. If you have a verified recording of a phantom sound in a new location, please contact us so we can add it to the database.
You can contact our staff through our email address: moc.liamsmoorkcab|ude.HfoMB#moc.liamsmoorkcab|ude.HfoMB
