When someone asks if you can record the sound of a shark feeding at the surface of water, you instantly think to yourself, hmmm. That was the predicament I found myself in this week. So here are some of the soundfx I’ve just added and how I created them.
Sharks and Dolphins
When I was asked if I could create the sounds of a shark feeding at the surface of the water, the first thing that went through my mind was, who do I know with a boat. But then the sound designer in me kicked in and my creative juices started flowing. Initially I was thinking about the munching and snapping of the jaws, but I was informed that actually they only really needed the water sounds, so this one ended up being fairly simple. I recorded several versions of the sound of me splashing and moving around in a swimming pool. Some were light movements, some heavier. I also recorded the sound of me surfacing at different speeds. I then took the recordings into the studio and played around with mixing them together. One of the most interesting sounds I came up with was the thrashing of the sharks head as it tears apart the bait. This was performed by me in the water, using different body parts for the effect.
The resulting sounds are a range of movements, from small to large splashes, surfacing and swimming. Check them out here and download them free.
While I was there (in the pool) I recorded lots of other splashes. Some I felt were more akin to dolphins, so just for good measure these have also been added in to the library.
Metal shovel movements and digs
These sounds were actually recorded when a neighbour asked me to go and help him tidy up his garden. Armed with a metal shovel and Sony PCM D100 digital audio recorder, we tackled the garden and won. This was a great opportunity to record more shovel sounds and with two pairs of hands we managed to record a selection of digging into various materials (soil, stones and dirt), dragging on concrete and some light impacts. We even recorded the sound of the handle. Get them for free here.
Coins
I already had lots of coin and money soundfx in the library so I don’t often bother recording more. However I suddenly realised that while there are lots of UK coins and even some American ones, there wasn’t any Australian. So with a handful of loose change, I recorded a range of different sounds, from spins and being put down on a table, to purse and wallet sounds. Surprisingly there is a slightly different tone to Australian coins than other countries. This probably doesn’t matter to most people, but as I’m pedantic, I couldn’t help but add them.
Bubbles in water
These sounds came from experimentation with everything you can do with a can of compressed air. Last week I recorded several air blasts, but with a can left over, I thought it could be used to get some interesting bubble sound effects. So submerging the can in deep water and releasing the air, I recorded several different bubbling noises. I also used the small straw that it comes with to get some cool smaller bubbles and also air being sprayed onto the surface of water.
They can be downloaded in our water sound effects category.
There are plenty more free sound effects being added this week so watch this space.
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