Category Archives: Sound Design

Sound design examples

vintage sci-fi retro sounds

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Vintage laserHey again. More from the Lost Track archives! As my last contribution focussed on the huge NZL14 Yacht, I thought what better than to continue where I left off…

This sound is not an original discovery, but it certainly feels satisfying one you know where it came from – I’ve heard many techniques on getting this sort of sound, including striking telegraph poles. In this instance, it came from a large steel mainstay cable which was very thick and under several tonnes of pressure. After being struck, they started to move metal rings up and down, giving a raspy sound. I’ve got hours of this stuff!

Sci Fi retro laser gun sound!

Colors Shifting Remix by ten72

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A few years back I decided to enter a remix contest presented by ccMixter and XLR8R Magazine. The track to be remixed was “Colors Shifting” by Ghostly International recording artist Christopher Willits. Of course the contest was almost over when I started so I was really just doing it for shear creativity. I used only a small amount of samples that were available which included a string section, voice and guitar sound I think. One of my favorite sections of this remix was created by sampling my own bass harmonics and then programing them into a pretty melodic pattern. I had a couple email conversations with Chris himself letting him know that I couldn’t finish it in time. He was nice enough to let me know he would consider a late submission but I ended up working on it for another month and kept it to myself until now. 

colors-shifting-ten72-shift

Listen to the original version of Colors Shifting.

Creaks ‘n Groans

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Hey Audio Cookbookers,

I’m Tom Player and have been a reader of ACB for a while, and a sound recordist for a long time. I run a website lostrack.co.uk where I store some commercial and personal work. I’ve got a huge archive of great recordings, some of which I plan to unleash here soon!

About this time last year I was in New Zealand, exploring and recording everywhere I went. I was fortunate enough to meet one of the captains of the NZL14 racing yacht who invited me on board with their crew, to record the sounds of them all in action. What I didn’t expect was the sound of the boat to be so fascinating!

A bit about the yacht, it’s a work of engineering excellence. The sail is one piece Kevlar, the hull carbon fibre, and the keel is 16 tons of lead. It’s formula 1 on the water – she makes beautiful groaning, creaking noises, like nothing you’ve ever heard before.

Gear: Fostex FR2-LE with matched stereo pair rode NT5 mics.

Laundry Day

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From the content of my last entry you can probably guess why I am slightly behind on my On Sound Every Day project. Fortunately I have sounds for the missing days and will be adding them soon.

A combination of time spent during the holidays on family visits, parties, keyboard desk building, and studio reorganization has left me trying to catch up on several things including a massive pile of laundry. This gave me an excuse to record my old squeaky clothes drier.

Squeaky Drier

 

Korg MS2000 Noises for Sunset

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Here’s a segment from a single track out of the piece Sunset on Keston and Westdal’s first album, Super Structure Baby (2002, Unearthed Music). Sunset was the final piece on the album until Kinon’s Path was added as a bonus track for the reissue.

Sunset was the first track that I wrote after buying my Korg MS2000 in 2000, so I was still learning the instrument but enjoying myself fully in the process. The knob turning goes on for the whole seven minutes and two seconds of the piece, but I have edited it down to the first minute and six seconds.

Sunset Noises