Creature Vocalizations - Sound Design Workshop

Creature Vocalizations - Sound Design Workshop

Cello Bow Experiments…

In this first part of the series (will likely be 2 parts) I’m spending some time demonstrating interesting performance techniques with a cello bow and common house hold items. I have a lot of really interesting ideas that I’d like to explore with this topic but I thought it would be best to start with what props and things I already had around.

Processing and Recording

In addition to the recording setup I thought it’d be great to explore different ways of working with the sounds after recording. Primarily some pitch shifting.

I recorded with a single/mono mic setup, using the Sennheiser MKH 8050. This mic is capable of capturing up to 50kHz and sometimes even a little further! The result of using it is extreme flexibility when recording at 192kHz and then proceeding to pitch shift those sounds down. Generally I find that I can easily pitch sounds down 24 semitones and have them still sound quite full.

I also took a chance to play around with two new tools I recently picked up, Unfiltered Audio’s Triad plugin and Cargo Cult’s Envy Audiosuite plugin. Both great for changing and re-shaping the envelope of a sound.

So boiled down, my approach was to capture the best performances I could and then later transform the envelope as needed to match or create more specified creature vocalizations like growls, grunts, roars, etc.