What do you do for sound effects?

[3deeguy]

I'm working on an animation that has required a lot of narration up to a certain point. The next part involves animated math. I think the sound of robotic motors would be a great effect. Any recommendations?

[Nicohk92]

Satellite type noises

[3deeguy]

Nicohk92, satellite sounds would work. Where do I look to get them?

[jahnocli]

I think dot matrix sounds would be better: Freesound

[3deeguy]

I think dot matrix sounds would be better: Freesound

That would work. Thanks.

[3deeguy]

"Anime Studio 6 - The Official Guide" Pointed out that the 'Content Library' has sound effects. (Never looked because it never occurred that I might need them) It also explained how to use Repeat Audio from the Sequencer. Nice.
I wonder if Kelly Murdock could be persuaded to write an update?

[heiseman]

Freesound is good.

But if you're working on a client project and there is a budget, use a professional if you can afford them. Ends up sounding ALOT better.

[lwaxana]

If you have some budget for sound, there are also some nice sounds on Amazon if you search in digital music for "servo sound effect." I'm actually using some in my current project. :D

[3deeguy]

heiseman, I'm working on an electronics tutorial, a personal project. I spent the first part explaining concepts. In the next part the viewer watches math equations being solved, in silence. No question, I had to add sound.
Iwaxana, thank you for the info. I would like to hear those sound effects if you post them. I tried using my electric shaver but decided it wasn't quite right. I downloaded some freesound files to experiment with.

[slowtiger]

I find math perfectly tied to baroque music, especially Bach's fugues. Some of the earliest attempts of computer music used his scores. I didn't find any of these (they must be somewhere, MIT or Bell labs labelled), but just this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F44b60Mq30 - the music starts at 1'57", and I like the crappy quality ...
More serious stuff (scroll down): http://120years.net/the-rca-synthesiser ... arusa1952/

I'd grab some MIDI file of a Bach piece, and use some crappy sounds in my sequencer.

In the 50's composers like Raymond Scott http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Scott not only composed but also built their own instruments. You can hear it on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SW6qVL ... E4E930758A which gives you a good idea of his sound. I like this abstract stuff with just a bit or no melody at all.

You like Machine souonds? There are plenty: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... ine+sounds

[3deeguy]

slowtiger, once I discovered a new passion for animation I let my brother 'borrow' my synthesizer since I was ignoring it. I have not touched it in over three years.
I never thought of using a MIDI file but you have presented some new insights. I would choose J.S.Bach's Brandenburg concerto #3 or #5. (Last night I listened to Mozart as I worked.)
Thanks. I will follow up on the links and take a fresh look at some possibilities.

[hayasidist]

I stumbled on to this: http://obiwannabe.co.uk/html/sound-desi ... audio.html -- maybe worth a look?

It uses "Pd" (http://puredata.info/) to create sounds... I've not heard of this before and was only stimulated into looking at it because of this thread. If time (along with everything else) permits I might have a deeper look at it in the context of creating virtual instruments for Sibelius (the music notation tool we use here - http://www.sibelius.com/home/index_flash.html)

[Greenlaw]

This might sound silly but usually it works for me: When I need to record dialog, I record it in my car late at night so I don't disturb anybody in the house or the neighborhood. There is no echo in the car, it's somewhat sound proof and I find I can record fairly clean sound in there. This has to be done late in the evening though when it's super quiet outdoors and almost no passing cars on our street.

One advantage to living in a Los Angeles neighborhood: I don't think anybody questions why I'm talking or singing out loud in my car in the middle of the night--I don't think I'm the only person around here doing this.

For SFX, I use a lot of websites, some free and some pay. Many pay sites are fairly inexpensive and allow you to listen to and even download lower quality or samples to try out--I use these when I'm looking for a really specific sound that might be difficult to create/record on my own.

Whenever I can though, I like to roll my own though, and this is where a decent quality portable recorder comes in handy. I like to use a Zoom H4, which is a small handheld recorder that can record reasonably high quality stereo. It records to a standard SD card, so the audio is easily transferred to the computer. The one I have is nearly 10 years old and it still works great!

For servo noises, I've used power tools like handheld drills and Dremels. Or you might remove an electric motor from a toy or broken appliance and manually twist the gear, timing the sound to the animation. You can alter the recorded samples in an audio editing program like Soundforge or the free Audacity to make it sound bigger or smaller in scale to suit the machine in your animation.

Just a few thoughts...hope this helps.

G.