Flying 808s

To generate this pattern I loaded a basic TR-808 kick drum sample into one of the most simple Pluggo VSTs called Flying Waves. The controls in Flying Waves are a set of movable cross hairs on a grid, volume and an external sample button. Moving the cross hairs up and down increases and lowers the pitch of the sample while left and right lowers and increases the volume respectively. With a sine wave you can get Theremin like sounds.

After loading in the 808 kick I resampled myself adjusting the cross hairs for a few minutes until I had some interesting patterns to work with. After that I cut and pasted a bar that was a good representation of what I was going for, then I looped it four times and rendered the results.

Flying 808s

Quick and Dirty Ambiance from Hell

There are so many ways to use processing to make scary sounds that it’s almost too easy. The classic reverse reverb in the original Poltergeist comes to mind. This example is a recording of a conversation with a colleague during a lunch break at a busy sandwich joint. It’s been reversed, pitched down significantly, run through a low pass filter, slowly phased, filter delayed and run through a long reverb. All this processing has diffused the voices into a hellish ambient drone.

Quick and Dirty Ambiance from Hell

Rail Crossing Warning Systems

The weather was unseasonably warm in Minneapolis today. As I write this it is nineteen degrees centigrade (sixty six degrees fahrenheit) at 7:11pm on a usual chilly late October evening. Days like this require mates on bikes to meet outdoors to drink beer at undisclosed locations near bodies of water. On my way to such a location I was held up by a train and decided to record it.

By the time I had my gear out of the bag the train had passed, but the warning bells were still ringing so I walked up to them while recording. I’m fairly sure that these bells are not mechanical, or even analog, but here they are nonetheless with all the ambiance included.

Train Track Bells

Shingle Creek on Webber Parkway

This recording of the falls located on Shingle creek at Webber parkway was made last weekend on the way back from the Surly Darkness Day festival. My friend Kevin and I stopped during our bike ride back from the Surly brewery in Brooklyn Center where the event was held to drink a beer by the falls before crossing the Mississippi river at Camden on our way back to Northeast Minneapolis for dinner before riding to a campfire party in the Seward neighborhood.

At the festival we tasted many fine beers brewed by the renowned Surly Brewing Company and heard three great bands, including Guzzlemug, God Came From Space and Powermad. It was a long day, but well worth it.

Shingle Creek Falls

ACB September 2008 Sample Pack

Today, freesound.org approved my second sample pack, ACB September 2008. This sample pack is comprised of sounds found on AudioCookbook.org that were posted during the month of September, 2008 in the Share Remix Adapt category. I am packaging these sample packs on a monthly basis so that ACB readers have access to higher quality versions of the ACB sounds.

Each sound is uncompressed and available through freesound.org under the user keston in it’s original .wav format for free download and use in non-commercial works (I will most often grant permission for commercial use if you contact me in advance). If you make use of these samples please consider donating to AudioCookbook.org using the paypal link in the sidebar.