Caribbean Surf and Tide Pools

I recently recorded the sound of Caribbean surf and the gurgling of the waves as they receded from tide pools on a beach near Playa del Carmen in Quintana Roo, Mexico. I did my best to shield the wind from the mic, but the cheap foam wind screen I brought with me was painfully inadequate.

To try and repair the sound I edited a few instances of clipping, and ran the lot through a a high pass filter to reduce some of the wind noise. Finally I compressed the audio to bring out some of the gurgling and splashy sounds.

Caribbean Surf

Dub Delayed Atmospheric Bubbles

This atmospheric effect is a continuation of the experiment from yesterday involving the Flying Waves VST. This time I loaded up a sample of air bubbles being blown into a glass of water. The original sound can be heard here. I also ran the output through an analog modeling delay and then recorded the results as I manipulated the pitch and volume. The result is a wet, atmospheric, psychedelic texture of ambiance. The next step I might would be to sweep the panning or apply some processing to spread the stereo spectrum since the output at this stage is still in mono.

Dub Delayed Atmospheric Bubbles

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

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.