Dry ice is a lot of fun to use for making noise. Touching metal objects to a block of dry ice creates some really cool squealing/whistling/screeching sounds. This is because the metal surface is much warmer than the dry ice and it causes the dry ice to quickly turn to gas. Some of the gas is momentarily trapped between the two surfaces, and when released through a small opening causes it to whistle/scream/screech. This sound adds to the vibrating of the metal. I’ve featured dry ice recordings on my blog a couple of times. One of the most popular posts on my blog as the metal on dry ice that I recorded at 192K and slowed down to 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8 speeds. You can read the original post here.
I used various metal objects on the ice and recorded for about half a day. Once it was all edited, I had over 200 hundred edited sound files. Since the original post has been so popular, I thought it would be fun to share some additional recordings from that day here on Designing Sound. I recorded this by taking a 6 inch by 6 inch block of ice (1.5 – 2 inches thick), placing it on a table, and then touching/scraping/rubbing/probing it with various objects made of metal. I recorded at 24 bit 192K using a Sennheiser MKH800 into a Sound Devices 744T.
The advantage of recording at such a high sample rate is the reduced loss of fidelity when you slow down or pitch the sounds. To give you an idea of what it sounds like when you slow the sounds down, there are samples at 4 different speeds. I took each sound, loaded it into Sound Forge, and reset the sample rate (without resampling) to a lower rate, thus slowing the sound down. The 4 speeds are normal speed (192K), 1/2 speed (96K), 1/4 speed (48K), and 1/8 speed (24K). You’ll notice that the more the sound is slowed, the more hiss develops. The slowest sounds almost sound like they are old analog tape recordings. This noise can easily be removed, but I wanted to present the sounds here without processing of any kind.
Cymbal Full Speed:
Dry Ice Cymbal Full Speed by crussom
Cymbal ½ Speed:
Dry Ice Cymbal 1/2 Speed by crussom
Cymbal ¼ Speed:
Dry Ice Cymbal 1/4 Speed by crussom
Cymbal 1/8 Speed:
Dry Ice Cymbal 1/8 Speed by crussom
Frying Pan Full Speed:
Dry Ice FryingPan Full Speed by crussom
Frying Pan ½ Speed:
Dry Ice FryingPan 1/2 Speed by crussom
¼ Speed:
Dry Ice FryingPan 1/4 Speed by crussom
Frying Pan 1/8 Speed:
There’s a very similar set over at freesound;
http://www.freesound.org/packsViewSingle.php?id=577
I have included these sounds in my first Sound Effects Collection: http://www.chuckrussomfx.com