It is a common belief that when withdrawing money from an ATM, we hear not the operation of the device and the rustling of banknotes, but a pre-recorded sound. We checked whether this is actually true.

Many users of social networks are sure: in fact, ATMs operate silently, and the sound of bills being counted serves solely to reassure the client. There is another version: the first ATMs really made noise, but for many years they have not made real sounds, and the audio recording is just a tribute to tradition. Similar opinions are shared by English-speaking users. Twitter, and Russian-speaking users "Live Journal", and authors of a specialized magazine "Computerra".

Apparently, the verifiable story became really popular in 2011 after publications on the Humans Invest portal (the author of Computerra refers to it). The authors of this material talked about how fake sounds help people: for example, electric cars simulate the roar of an engine so that such cars remain noticeable to pedestrians (even in Europe accepted relevant law), and in stadiums they can imitate the screams and whistles of fans if for some reason the stands remain empty. The Human Invest review ended with this example: “Most people believe that the sound of an ATM is produced by the rollers delivering banknotes. In fact, this sound is a completely artificial addition to the process. The noise created by the speaker is an integral part of it, which confirms that the money is on the way. Without this added noise, the ATM would be almost silent.”

The information spread quite quickly on the Internet, and a separate section even appeared on Reddit. branch for discussion. However, people who know first-hand about the operation of ATMs began to leave their comments. One wrote: “I've been servicing ATMs for four years. There is no artificial sound, the cars are really loud (and ten times louder with the door open).” Another said: “As someone who has serviced ATMs from two different brands, I can say the sounds are real. There [at ATMs] there are a lot of moving mechanisms that count and deliver the cash out."

We also could not find confirmation from authoritative sources that there are ATMs that imitate the sound of banknotes being counted. The Human Invest text referenced by many other resources is no longer available. IN plot Discovery Channel, filmed in an ATM factory, says the machine has a single speaker whose purpose is to “beep when you press the buttons.” In another video, they show how the ATM works from the inside and how exactly it works when dispensing cash - no speakers are shown in the video (unlike the actually quite noisy internal mechanism).