GKCFP: Sound Effects

[nikita]

Hi everybody!

In this thread, you can post sound effects you have recorded, discuss sounds we need and how they should sound.

I guess collecting sound effects works best by just recording stuff and linking to it in this thread. It doesn't need to be a video.
Record whatever you want but also keep an eye on the effects we actually need in the first couple of chapters

Update:
PM me if you need a place to upload your files!

List of Sounds

The onomatopoeia from the comic are written like this: *click* Those are the ones we definitely need. The other ones aren't necessary but it would be really cool to have as many of them as we can get.

Sounds that we already have are teal colored.

General Purpose

footsteps / people walking
opening doors, long and short creaks


Ch 1

*snap* (light switch)
forest at night (distant)
buzzing of fluorescent lamps (at the bridge)
distant sound coming from the river
night in general
*tap tap tap* - Annie's shoes on the concrete stairs outside the building
*creak* - Annie taking a peek into the NO spare robot parts room
Annie running
*clicka* *clack* stuff like that - putting robot together
*boop* activating robot
*ding* robot awakes
robot moving around - that should make some noise.. like a faint electro-mechanical sound.. i hope you know what I mean
*hop* robot hopping off the desk - should probably sound a bit like *clank* too
cloudy day - probably a bit windy near such a steep dark abyss
*clank* metal on metal
*clank* robot walking on the stone bridge
*tic toc*
*clank* robot walking in the forest
forest noise again but near this time
shadow family reunion noise(?)
*click* closing door


Ch 2

general classroom noise
*Good morning Mrs. Donlan* (not a sound, but listed here so we don't forget it)
chatter
students heading off to their next class or something

*zzz* (students sleeping)
*briiiiiiiiing!*
*crick* - Kat stretches herself , breaking her back
*blah* a crowd of tired students leaving the classroom

we need a hall effect for the large and empty "library" - first panel p22
*creeeeeeeeak*
Kat and Annie walking (with echo)
*click* - Kat opens the secret door
*rumble* - secret door opens, a large stone statue moves to the side
in the labyrinth - less echo/hall effect here
sounds of air vents
hospital noise - distant sound of an ecg or something like this
wind/sheets of paper flying around (due to basils BLAAAAAH!)
shaking hands
sheet of paper floats to the ground
*floomph* - Basil sits down

*clap clap clap* - Applause
*crunch* - Basil's horns crush the top the door case
wood and other debris fall to the ground


Ch 3

students playing basketball
*shove*
*grab*
*splat* - Winsbury hits the floor
*pheet*

Kat moves in Annie's Bed (one of the less important sound effects)
*vooop vooop*
Kat climbs down the ladder
*CRASH!* ceiling bursts, parts of ceiling and the ladder fall to the ground
*WEEE-OOOO WEEE-OOOO ...* emergency siren
footsteps, the students line up for evacuation
Kat holds onto her mother's pyjama

sound of falling debris from time to time (smaller pieces)
somewhere a pipe or something has burst
naked feet on metal - Annie climbs onto the roof
wind
crushing concrete - Rey climbing the building
Annie loses consciousness, drops
*thunk* (Eg's sword into concrete)
Reynardine-eye-on-fire sound?

Annie moving around in her bed
Annie lock-picking
*veeen*, *shooooo* - MagLev
*fsss* - door of the train opens
outside
Rey tries to posses Annie
Eglamore jumps to save Annie (p55)
*thud* Eglamore lands
Rey posseses the plushie instead (f54)
Annie turning around in bed
silent Rey-sound


Ch 4

*snip* *snip* (cutting tiny leaves off a bonsai tree)
ticking of a large clock
*goof!* - Mort creates a bouquet out of thin air
p64 - various creatures should make a sound maybe

ballon colliding (with Paz' head)
creepy circus music or total silence?
*click Click CLICK* - see p67
*clatter* - a saw
*Paz running away*
*bloo* the illusion dissolves

Bonus page:
flute
spider descending
*bap*
*stomp*
*pow*
*jab*


Ch 5

"Ewww"
large room crowded with students
antigravity sound (here is a tip: should sound purple just kidding: on p144 the antigrav unit sounds like *zuuuu*)
*meow! meow! - Kats cat-like sounding motion detector
*click!* - light switch
*pat pat* - Kat patting Rey
GCs hazmat team breathing through gas masks
*click* - locking a fairly old box (p84)


Ch 6

heavy steel door being opened
person climbing a tree
*dink!* - cherry bounces off Annie's face
*thud!* - Kat hits the ground
Annie jumps off the tree

call connected signal
phone hung up

[sandjosieph]

Di you use the transcripts I have compiled?

[nikita]

I checked them to see whether I forgot something, yes.
I only left two things out - one is the spider because I can't imagine what sound a surprised spider might make at all. In general I don't think Spiders make any sound unless you put them in a small plastic container and listen very closely as they helplessly try to escape.
And shadow 2 playing paddle ball because I don't think that makes a noise when you're a shadow.

[Casey]

Do you think there are libraries of public-domain sound effects that we could use? I know there is public-domain clip art... I wonder... is that something that you could maybe look into, Nikita?

[uskuri]

For things like "general classroom noise", are we going to have just a bunch of people talking about god knows what? Because I think that sounds really fun and I'd totally be willing to record some spontaneous lines for such purposes.

[sandjosieph]

Go for it, and post it on the channel.

[nikita]

uskuri Yes. Or, we could also just record a classroom. Or we could do both and mix them.

For sound effect libraries: I have looked for a good one a while ago and wasn't very successful. The big problem with them is that the sounds put there are often either very generic sounds you can easily make yourself (*creeeak* and the like) or they are no actual recordings but boring computer generated sounds - usually dozens of them.

but:

www.freesound.org/searchText.php looks like a nice place to find free sounds
When you search something there, make sure to check Tags, uncheck Descriptions maybe, and include field-recording in your search query so you get rid of the flood of artificial electro sounds

[xanbcoo]

Apr 20, 2009 20:19:22 GMT nikita said:

www.freesound.org/searchText.php looks like a nice place to find free sounds
When you search something there, make sure to check Tags, uncheck Descriptions maybe, and include field-recording in your search query so you get rid of the flood of artificial electro sounds

Wow, this seems like such a useful site for our purposes. I had found about 2 or 3 other sound effects banks by using google, but this one seems to be the most professional. Nice find!

Of course if there are some sound effects we'd like to make ourselves, like uskuri suggested, that would also be pretty cool.

[nikita]

Here are two I recorded. Not great but.. something:
nkdev.de/misc/gkcfp/light_noise.mp3 Noise of fluorescent light
nkdev.de/misc/gkcfp/click%20switch.mp3 Light switch
I also recorded a river but it basically just sounds like white noise - but it will work as a sound that is supposed to come from a distance.
I'm also not satisfied with the quality. I'll try to use the mic from my digital camera and see if it's better. I'll also try some louder sounds. Some *clank*s probably.

And some I found on freesound:
www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=20574 forest at night
www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=03216 *clank*

www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=01844 another *clank*
www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=36925 Forest (alternative)

Others I found that are not in the current chapter but can be used later:
www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=17007 Annan Waters (near)
www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=64830 Can be used to create the bullbot sound.
www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=18797 Secret door to the minotaur
www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=18798 Secret door to the minotaur

[Casey]

Nikita at this point I think we've pretty much determined that you're in charge of the SFX side of things, so... dig in! I would recommend assembling yourself a team of people willing to help you find the noises you need. Post either here or in the Production thread when you have a team, or if you need help getting people.

My strong recommendation would be to assemble a team and divy up the sounds and send them looking for them online on free SFX sites. The quality of recording that you're going to find is going to be vastly superior, IMO, to anything that we fans could produce without professional equipment. Obviously that decision is in your hands now though.

Go ahead and use your own judgment about where in the story the SFX need to be placed. I think it's good that we've got some transcripts to go on, but I think both Sand and I agree that we'll leave it up to you and your team to make the final determination about where FX need to be placed, and what effect to use. Good luck and let us know if you need any help.

[sandjosieph]

The first sound effect we should try to confirm is the transition sound letting people know when to change pages. It shouldn't be too soft or they might not here and it shouldn't be too obtrusive as to silence whatever sounds and music may carry over from the preivious page.

[xanbcoo]

I think if someone is reading the comic, and listening to the audio, it will be fairly obvious when they need to go to a new page.

That is, when they get to the end of the page.

[Casey]

I also think that if we put in a "turn the page" sound, it will be difficult to take that back out once we add in the visuals. With the visuals of course, we won't need a "turn the page" sound.

I know it was originally my idea, but I've since reconsidered it.

[sandjosieph]

If we end up putting in visuals, we will have the original files at hand to provide us with a no page turn sound. I'm not sure how a third party would do that, though.

[Rasselas]

You could insert the page turn sound last, so that you have both versions of the audio.

[nikita]

I guess the question is: do we need a notion of pages in this project?
A page flip doesn't really mean anything, does it?

[Casey]

Well, ultimately it's your decision Nikita, but my suggestion would say let's shoot for an audio track without a page turn beep, and then if someone wants to add that in later, more power to them.

[yazzydream]

Some other good sound sites:

www.sounddogs.com/
www.soundsnap.com/

Links to Chapter 1 sounds that you've listed above, that I've found. In the same order.

*snap* (light switch) www.soundsnap.com/node/24616 or www.soundsnap.com/node/7305

forest at night (distant) www.soundsnap.com/node/50050 or www.soundsnap.com/node/113924 (Personally I like the first one)

buzzing of fluorescent lamps (at the bridge) www.soundsnap.com/node/58301

distant sound coming from the river www.soundsnap.com/search/audio/river/score

night in general www.soundsnap.com/node/35680

*tap tap tap* - Annie's shoes on the concrete stairs outside the building www.soundsnap.com/node/24387 (<-You can always slow this one down)

*creak* - Annie taking a peek into the NO spare robot parts room: A lot of good contenders for this one, it really depends on what you're going after, personally the first one's my favorite- www.soundsnap.com/node/12628 www.soundsnap.com/node/16176 www.soundsnap.com/node/14167

Annie running www.soundsnap.com/node/42083

... And yeah, you get the idea. I've actually got to go to sleep right now, but you can find a whole bunch of stuff. Hope I helped.

[nikita]

Thanks every additional source helps.
However, we can only download 5 sounds per month for free, so I can't use all of them. (And I don't want to circumvent this restriction.)

I'm currently assembling a "sketch" of ch 1 with the sounds we got so far.

[nikita]

Youtube destroyed the video I uploaded. I'll make a small change and upload a differently encoded version tomorrow or so.

[nikita]

Ok, here is a first draft of what I imagined and collected so far for the first half of chapter one. It is intended as a preview. I wanted to try whether I can actually do it and give you an opportunity to give feedback early in the production process.
The final volume will be determined later, when we put voices, music and sound effects together.

Let me know what you think!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE5BpRIs-Hc
Annotations only really work in the big version which is why I didn't embed it.

[Casey]

Honestly I have to say, every time another new aspect of the overall picture gets brought forward, like this, or the intro sequence the visuals team did... it makes me very thrilled about the project as a whole. This was just fantastic! I noticed in the annotations that you apologized for the hum getting quieter, but I thought it worked to have the sounds "move" when the scene moved... if the frame changes from close to the lights to far from the lights, then the sound should "move" as well, and it did, so that was a plus, not a detractor! This is very exciting and I love what you're doing!

Edit: On my second viewing, I realized that your annotations said the same thing I was saying and I got your intent backwards. So it seems you already thought of everything that I said, heh!

[nikita]

May 11, 2009 2:00:57 GMT Casey said:

Honestly I have to say, every time another new aspect of the overall picture gets brought forward, like this, or the intro sequence the visuals team did... it makes me very thrilled about the project as a whole.

exactly how I'm feeling about this too!
Glad you liked it.

[Aricos]

Wow, it sounds awesome ! Way to go nikita!

[sandjosieph]

Nikita, that was fricken awesome!

[yazzydream]

Great job so far!

[shrimp]

I must say that first draft was great. I'm sure that when you put it together with the voices it will be fantastic!
I took a course on designing sound atmospheres for stage plays, so I have a pretty decent sound library (At least 90 different sound effects) and I have Adobe Audition, so I think I could help a lot in this department.

[nikita]

Thanks! (to all of you)
Shrimp, do you have any particular sound we could use? I'm currently most concerned about the collapsing ceiling, I'm not sure if I can find a sound for that.

[shrimp]

May 28, 2009 23:29:30 GMT nikita said:

Thanks! (to all of you)
Shrimp, do you have any particular sound we could use? I'm currently most concerned about the collapsing ceiling, I'm not sure if I can find a sound for that.

Well off the top of my head I have the ticking sound for the birds, breaking glass, a rocket launching, door creaking, footsteps, footsteps in gravel. . . no crumbling buildings though.
For the collapsing ceiling, there's two ways to go about that without actually going out, collapsing a building and recording the sound.
We can find a movie or animation where there's the sound of a building crumbling (with no music or voices) and rip that. Or we could combine various sounds to simulate the sound of a collapsing ceiling: rocks falling, some generic rumbling (some use thunder), creaks and perhaps an explosion with it's pitch lowered. In fact, I'm gonna go do that now, see if I can make it work.

[nikita]

I gave this a short try but it didn't turn out so well. Changing the pitch will leave ugly artifacts unless you change the speed accordingly - at least in Adobe Soundbooth, don't know if there are more sophisticated methods in Audition.
Maybe you have more luck with this

I'll have to try this again too.

Ripping it from movies is no option - it has to be 100% legal.
(Except of course open source movies like Big Bucks Bunny)