Slot Machines: The addictive power of sound

Twenty Thousand Hertz

Dallas Taylor

Music, Design, Arts, Music Commentary

4.8 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 July 2018

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What do you hear when you walk into a Casino? It can feel like chaos, but each sound is carefully curated to draw you in and make you stay. One collection of sounds are scientifically and artistically designed to keep the gambler, gambling. Slot machines. This episode features interviews with Willie Wilcox, Chief Sound Designer at Scientific Games in Las Vegas, Laura Taylor, composer and sound designer for a number of slot machines across the US, and Karen Collins, who has led extensive research into the sound and music behind these games. Is it addiction or entertainment? Maybe it's both. Pull the lever and listen for yourself. Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced out of the studios of Defacto Sound and hosted by Dallas Taylor. Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. Watch our video shorts on YouTube, and join the discussion on Reddit and Facebook. Consider supporting the show at donate.20k.org Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/slotmachines Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to 20,000 Hertz, the stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds.
0:10.0	I'm Dallas Taylor.
0:15.0	The sound you just heard is what casinos use to lure people in and keep them there. There's the sound of the cards,
0:22.6	the chips,
0:24.6	the craps table,
0:26.6	but there's one game that's particularly effective
0:29.6	at keeping people playing.
0:31.6	The slot machines. modern casinos
0:43.3	earn over 70% of their revenue off of slots.
0:47.3	That's a dramatic increase from the 1970s,
0:49.3	when it was less than 50% in most casinos.
0:52.3	A lot of it has to do with the advancements
0:54.7	in gaming technology.
0:56.3	Slot machines today are very different
0:58.3	from their predecessors.
1:02.2	They're now more like video games.
1:08.4	And there's plenty of science and sound design that go into their creation.
1:12.7	There are different styles of slot machines.
1:15.5	Obviously, when you go into a casino, you have a smorgasbord of slots to choose from.
1:20.4	This is Laura Taylor.
1:21.8	She's a sound designer for slot machines.
1:24.1	Go into the Vegas casinos or in a smaller casino, there'll be a little corny.
	...

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