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October 27th, 2009
Have you ever heard the sounds of birds chirping early in the morning? They twitter merrily to announce the breaking of a new day, saying hello to the sun and everything under it. Bird sounds are a beautiful reminder of the beauty of nature and the love of the creator. They give us music which has a calming effect on the mind and the body. It helps us get closer to nature and experience it in all its purity.
Nature provides us with natural music in the form of bird sound effects which have been used by musicians to compose music. Scholars who study music are of the opinion that sounds of birds have influenced music to a very great extent. A musician may be inspired by the twittering of birds or intentionally use imitations of sounds of birds in their work or incorporate bird sounds in their music. Composers all over the world have used pre-recorded bird sounds as a prelude to their compositions to build the tempo of their composition and make it sound unique.
Listening to bird sounds relaxes the mind after a tiring day at work. After being constantly badgered by the sounds of traffic, loud speakers, crackers and fireworks, the sounds of birds act as a soothing balm to frayed nerves. Bird sound effects can transport you into nature far away from the hustle bustle of daily life. Perhaps this is why doctors prescribe listening to sounds of birds to fight the stress and strain of city living. It works like natural therapy to get rid of unwanted tension.
Poets have romanticized birds by raising them to ethereal levels and made them a very popular subject. Birds have featured in literary works and artists have even written songs and dedicated them to their loved ones. If you listen carefully you can feel the different pitches of the bird sounds used by them to communicate their feelings.
Rather than have bawdy music playing over loud speakers in malls and other public places, bird sounds should be played to provide a congenial and natural environment. With all the sky scrapers dotting the city virtually all the birds have flown to newer locations. I prefer to have sounds of birds twittering in a musical chorus as the ring tone for my phone. We can work to reduce noise pollution by incorporating bird sound effects wherever possible to make the surrounding closer to nature.
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August 31st, 2009
Here at 1Soundfx.com we have tens upon tens of thousands of sounds, but there are 12 sounds in particular that are very special and that I would like to draw some special attention to, and they are our One-hour nature soundscapes.
These sounds weren’t easy to come up with. They were personally – and I dare say, painstakingly – recorded by 1Soundfx.com founder, Bjorn Lynne. Each of these hour-long nature recordings were recorded on-location at beautiful nature spots around the world. From a Norwegian pine forest (check Relaxing Forest Ambience) to a tropical beach surf (check Tropical Ocean Surf), from the birds singing cheerfully in a flower garden in the south of France (check Garden Birds), to the eerie wind howling over the roof of an isolated cabin in the Swedish plains (check Windy Wasteland), these recordings are perhaps most of all unique for their full, one-hour undisturbed, playing time.
These sounds have already been for sale for some time through our sister site www.Shockwave-Sound.com which is concentrated mainly on royalty free stock music, under the Nature Sound Series label. We are now pleased to be able to offer these relaxing and atmospheric sounds for sale here at 1Soundfx.com for only $8.99 each. That’s for a full 60-minutes uninterrupted nature sound, downloadable in CD-quality uncompressed WAV file (16-bit, 44.1 khz). The downloaded sound can easily be used to burn an Audio-CD in your own computer, which will give you a 1-hour nature sound CD to play in any regular CD player. Or, you can quite easily convert the WAV file to MP3, AAC, M4P or other audio formats which you can play on your portable music player such as an iPod, iPhone, or other MP3 player.
There is something incredibly relaxing, refreshing and cleansing about keeping a 100% natural sound of nature playing in your speakers or in your headphones – whether you use them while working, to help you focus, or you use them to relax and chill out, perhaps to help you get to sleep, or quite simply to create a nice atmosphere in your home or workplace – these nature recordings have helped many people with everything from a lack of focus, lack of sleep, tinnitus (chronic ear pain or painful sounds). But most of all, they are enjoyed by people who simply like to have a nice, natural sound playing to them, to help them feel relaxed and refreshed.
One word of warning, though: These sound files are very large. At full CD-quality, a full minute of sound represents over 10 MB of data. So these 60-minute sound files each represent about 650 MB, which is a lot to download in a single file transfer. We therefore only recommend that customers with very good internet connections actually try to purchase and download these sounds. If your internet connection is not 100% stable and reliable, you may experience problems downloading such a huge file. Although, of course, if you have problems with this, we will help you. If you for any reason fail to download the 650 MB file, or indeed any file you have purchased from us, we will help you with the download and, if necessary, maybe convert the sound file to MP3 for you, which will result in a much smaller file, which should be easier for you to download.
Would you like to have a listen? Just go to http://www.1soundfx.com/sounds-hourlong_nature_soundscapes.html and enjoy the samples – but remember that the purchased sound files are of a MUCH higher sound quality than the lo-fi previews you can hear from the speaker icon preview player on our site.
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August 31st, 2009
Having just returned from a sound recording trip to Holland, I’m left with about 4 GB of raw audio recordings on a memory stick, and some of the same frustrations I’ve come across for years and years as a sound engineer and sound recording enthusiast: Wind… and people!
My 5 days trip to Holland took me from the hustle and bustle of the streets of Amsterdam, where electric trams constantly zig-zag the city and no matter where you turn, there is a great “crowd buzz”, 24 hours a day. To the countryside of Northern Holland, in and around Harlingen, this northern harbor town and it’s surrounding farmland with a great variety of farm animals.
On the downside, though, Holland surely has to be the most windy place in Europe, and in particular so, the northern districts, in and around Friesland. It seemed that no matter what I tried to record, be it a goat bleat, a sheep bah or a cow mooing, I was struggling hard to keep wind from blowing directly onto my microphones.
Sure, I used a wind muffler, but it only helps to some degree. When the wind is blowing as strong and as persistently as this, wind will constantly get directly onto the microphone and regular wind mufflers just won’t help you. You’ll need a LOT of patience and try to come up with imaginative ways of capturing your sounds without having it ruined by “wind mic boom” noise. Trying to record the sound of an old musical box playing in the streets of Harlingen, I may have looked a bit odd with my microphone sticking out underneath my T-shirt, while holding my coat up to either side, seemingly trying to look like Batman, the caped crusader. But it did help me — I was in fact able to capture a good sound of this “musical caravan”.
Of course, another perpetual enemy of the sound recordist, is people talking. Or “yapping”, which is the word you’re most likely to think of when you’re trying to record the sound of a great fireworks display, only to have people standing next to you discussing where to go for dinner afterward. It’s not always easy or possible to simply move to another spot where there are no people close up — especially during “public events” where people just seem to be crowding around in every corner you can possibly get to
I’m sure other sound recorders and sound engineers will recognize themselves in these situations. There’s no real way around them, other than to try, try, and try again. You’ll need patience, a good wind muffler, and the ability to ignore other people staring at you, wondering what this weird individual is doing, sprawled out on the sidewalk like some tent, trying to stop wind, and people, from ruining your field recording.
Either way, despite the usual problems — perhaps worse than usual because of the windy nature of the areas I was trying to record in — I did manage to get some pretty good sounds of people crowds, amusement faires, casino ambiences, goats, cafe crowds and more. All of these are of course now available to purchase at http://www.1Soundfx.com
Tags: sound engineering, sound recording
Posted in sound recording | No Comments »
August 6th, 2009
Try to imagine some of your favorite movies without sounds. Many of them may never have been the successful movies they were without their inventive sound effects and powerful musical scores. Let’s take a look at 7 movies that were transformed by their soundtracks.
The Godfather
As the unexpected mournful trumpet theme builds the tension in the opening credits, the stage was set for a pop culture revolution. Just look at how many movies nowadays attempt to create this kind of atmosphere in a similar way.
Star Wars
The original Star Wars movie was made completely without any sound effects or music at first. To watch this raw draft, it looked like a bad school play. But when John Williams added his astounding musical score, the movie was transformed into the legend we know today. Add to this the never-before-heard futuristic sounds of light-sabers created using a slinky, and a new standard in science fiction had been set.
Let’s also not forget one of the best uses of theme music to accompany characters. Not only did Darth Vader have his now famous booming sounds, but there were certain theme songs that accompanied the characters’ various actions, such as making decisions.
Jaws
Probably the most well known musical score in history, the slow, deep, ominous sounds of this notorious fish still echo from children’s swimming baths all around the world.
Psycho
At first, Hitchcock didn’t even want any music for that famous shower scene. But Bernard Herrmann wrote some anyway, and Hitchcock decided it was too good not to use. The fast, high pitched screeches add suspense and build fear.
Terminator 2
Creating the sound effects for explosions and gunfire was pretty standard stuff compared to what was needed to illustrate a believable liquid metal robot. Who knew that pulling dog food out of a can sounded like a T1000 walking through bars?
Exciting chase scenes are accompanied by fast, suspense filled music, and when he catches you, it’s all slowed down to that deep and quite frankly terrifying moan.
Saturday Night Fever
Stars were born when the beats of the Bee Gees combined with a boogying Travolta in this perfect homage to the disco era.
2001 A Space Odyssey
Few movies can pull off such a prominent musical score. Yet, combining booming classical compositions with futuristic imagery, this movie shows us the true meaning of timelessness.
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August 6th, 2009
Finding the perfect sound can often be quite difficult. However, there are potentially a myriad of interesting sounds at your disposal right there in your house. Quite often these objects are perfect for recreating sounds that you hear at the movies. Also, with a little reverberation, reversing or other manipulation, the possibilities are endless!
Meat
Meat can make many interesting sounds. Experiment with hitting it, dropping it, or squeezing it to get all sorts of alien sounds.
Sticks
Remember when you were a kid and you made those whooshing sounds by waving sticks through the air? Listen to how that sounds like an arrow flying by in a battle.
Sticks are also great for producing all sorts of sounds depending on what you hit with them. Experiment with different surfaces.
A box of cornstarch
A tool no sound engineer should be without. Get that freshly fallen snow squeak by squeezing a box of cornstarch. This can also be used to simulate the sound of walking on hot sand.
Kitchen Foil
Get those futuristic, robotic sounds by rattling a sheet of foil. Also, try stretching the foil over a container to create a kind of drum.
The Toilet
Many of your underwater activities can be simulated by playing with the reverberation on the sound of a toilet flushing. You can also get some interesting sounds by dropping things into water, and pulling them out, although you might want to do this in the sink…
Toys, especially clockwork
The kid’s bedroom is a great place to find buzzes, clinks and whirrs that sound like complex machinery, especially with a little echo added.
Dropping stuff
Silverware onto a metal tray sounds just like glass breaking. Experiment by dropping different objects onto different surfaces and altering the speed of the recordings to create a plethora of interesting sounds.
Balloons
These are a good basis for a fundamental squeak that you can manipulate. Rub them, pop them, and let the air out of them for some often amusing sounds!
Newspaper in a bag
Try putting different things into different kinds of bags and rattling them around, to create sounds similar to walking on grass.
Creaky hinges
Many sound engineers use objects that creak and grind to simulate all sorts of interesting sounds. Look for old wooden objects that you can experiment with.
And finally, biting into an apple…
…sounds remarkably like walking on gravel!
Keep an eye out for everyday objects you can use to create interesting sounds.
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August 6th, 2009
When you download sounds to use in your media project, think carefully about how they will be used. Effective media is designed with the purpose of connecting with its audience. In order to do this as effectively as possible, learn how to incorporate these attributes into your creation process.
Understand Your Audience
Effective media is a result of careful audience analysis.
Once you have assessed your audience, shape the style of your presentation in a way that will connect with them the best. Select sounds that are relevant to your chosen style and use these sounds in a way that is appropriate to the overall style.
Also, learn which kind of sounds resonate best with your audience and download sounds that are appropriate to your audience’s demographic.
Well Designed
The messages you present should be clear to your audience. Ensure your creations are well polished and professional. Always download and use the highest quality sounds and other samples. Put them together in a well presented way that remains focused and clear.
Clear Objectives
Know what your media is designed to do. Keep it focused on these goals. An effective way of achieving this is to download sounds that are appropriate to its theme.
Ask “what kind of message is being presented”, and “is it being communicated effectively?”
Finally, ensure that your effectiveness can be measured in order to see if your objectives have been met. Were the sounds you used effective in meeting these objectives?
Touch People’s Hearts
If you’re not connecting with people emotionally, you’re not connecting with them. Certain sounds trigger certain emotional responses. Using the right sounds in the right way, you can emotionally connect with your audience.
Provoke a Response
Don’t forget the main purpose of your work. Once you have connected with your audience, ensure that they are compelled to take action.
Pay special attention to the sounds you use to end with. Experiment with different sounds and see which ones provoke the biggest response. Eventually you will learn the most effective kinds of sounds for this purpose.
By understanding your audience, you can learn to connect with them much more effectively. Design your presentation in a polished and professional way and keep it focused on its objectives. Only download the highest quality sounds and other materials. Most importantly, ensure that you connect with your audience and provoke a response from them.
Posted in Media | 1 Comment »
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