| At 07:13 PM 2/8/98 +0100, David Schuyeteneer wrote:
>I listened to it over and over again and slowly became discouraged : I
>couldn't figure out
>HOW the hell the contributors build those **magnificent** sounds
I have not heard the sounds so I cannot really comment on them although I
did listen to some of the real audio examples from other CD's on the same
label on a web site. Anyway they seem to use samples with a lot of
processing. The following is an idea from a Keyboard magazine article
which might give you something like what you are after or at least
something unusual.
It requires a fairly good sound editor (I use Cool Edit but Csound could be
used as well) and a fair amount of hard disk space (~100-200 MB should be
good)
1. Start with a sample of a complex sound. The original author recommended
using rude noises created with your hand against your mouth. Any complex
sound will do, like spoken phrases, animal noises etc. It's OK to use a
cheap microphone too.
2. Start processing the sound. Try pitch shifting. The first time perhaps
it won't sound too great. That's OK, pitch shift it again. Do it ten
times...twenty. Don't be shy. Try going back and forth between a variety
of effects. Reverb, delay, pitch-shift, flange, wave shaping etc. Chop up
the sample. Rearrange it. Apply effects to only parts of the sample. If
it doesn't sound good don't worry just keep processing it.
3. Listen to the sample after each process. 90% of it will sound like
crap...but 10% will sound OK. When you get something that sounds OK save
it. Then keep processing.
4. When you get 10-20 of these OK sounds select the best 1-2 and save them.
Then start over. You can generate a large library of complex ambient
sounds this way. Perhaps only 1 in 100 sound good and only 1 in 1000 will
be real gems. The more you work at it the better you will get.
5. Finally you can apply some amplitude or filter envelopes to fade them in
and out and string them into longer pieces.
Good Luck,
Hans Mikelson
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