• Home
  • About
  • Site Policies
  • Contact

Designing Sound

Art and technique of sound design

  • All Posts
  • Featured
  • News
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • Resources
    • VR Audio Resources
    • Independent SFX Libraries
    • Events Calendar
  • Series Archives
    • Featured Topics
    • Featured Sound Designers
    • Audio Implementation Greats
    • Exclusive Interviews
    • Behind the Art
    • Webinar/Discussion Group Recordings
    • Sunday Sound Thought
    • The Sound Design Challenge

Creative Props – Hunting for Insipration

July 17, 2018 by Derek Brown

photo by: Roadside Guitars

The most fun and creatively satisfying part of sound design, to me, is finding everyday objects and using them in a way no one designed them to function. Recording your own material is rewarding and something I urge everyone to do. In this I want to outline my process in finding new and creative props to create new and creative sounds.. Sometimes the sound you need is sitting beside your desk.

Now let’s talk creative props. By creative props I mean things outside of footsteps or basic Foley style recordings. I’m talking banging things that shouldn’t be banged (I will bang all the things with my timpani mallets.) Rubbing, scraping, scratching, itching, touching, pinching to coax a sound out of whatever object you’ve discovered.

Pick it up, use it. Touch things, think about what your project is and what you need. What are you building? I try and break my sounds down to keywords or components of the animation or scene. Recordings don’t have to be a one and done. What’s perfect for the transient? What’s perfect for the tail? What WORKS? Mix and match. Wander the house, knock on things, turn things on and off. Eventually you’ll have your go to spots for finding props. Mine include my home gym, my Father’s workshop and the Kitchen. Listen intently. Get inspired. 

I want to emphasize listen intently. Whether you have your recorder or not, be intently tuned in to what your surroundings are doing. I especially like to do this when I’m alone. I take in my surroundings and listen to what’s going on around me. What is the ambiance? What can I hear from where I am located? Would I have included the same sounds if I were designing this scene? Find a cool sound around you, deconstruct it, recreate it. Record it with your phone or make a reminder of what it is. I feel that you improve your sound design by exercising this creative muscle. Think of things as what they could be, not as they are.

Try not to linger on something that doesn’t work. This is good advice for any part of the process, but if a prop isn’t making you the sounds you want no matter how nicely you ask, move on. Gather props together and don’t be afraid to delete something entirely, no matter how much time you spent manipulating it in your project.

A good example of creative props can be found in this interview with Jason Graves. Re-watching this gets me jazzed, I hope it does for you too!

The chicken wire and cello bow trick is something I tried out years ago, it’s still a wonderful effect. Experimenting with instruments is also a wonderful start. I play guitar and its amazing what you can get out of it if you bow the strings scrape something along the strings.

Here is an example from my own recordings:

 

I took a shovel that I held upright and hit the handle off the floor. I put my mic up close to the head of the shovel where the most resonance was. The sample has two dry hits and the rest is designed. I came across this as I was trying to find a similar resonance to Thor’s hammer. It works great as a tonal layer.

I would’ve never found this sound if I wasn’t actively listening and purposefully coaxing sounds out of objects. I stumbled upon the resonance when I was standing, handling the shovel, not getting the sound I wanted. I tapped the handle on the ground as I was pondering my next move and it rung for a second, peaking my ear. I hit it harder, and harder still until I could recreate that effect at will. Let happy accidents happen, be ready to record anything.

Another example comes to mind of the ol’ slinky lazer trick. Attaching a metal slinky to a plastic cup and letting one end of the slinky hit the floor. You can also leave that end on the ground and tap it with a metal utensil for a cleaner and more controlled blast. Here’s some designed sounds I did:

Slinkys are fun, great source material for some sci-fi goodness #sounddesign #gameaudio pic.twitter.com/Hz6h1QQ32s

— Derek Brown (@SubwooferSub) March 3, 2018

Searching in places not often tread is something I deeply enjoy. I believe it to be an essential part of our craft to be recording anything and everything we can. It’s a love affair I try to take full advantage of. Get outside the studio, close the library, find the prop that makes the sound you hear in your head. oh, and be sure to file it away for later!

Listen intently and always be recording!

Filed Under: featured Tagged With: article, audio, creative, field recording, ideas in sound design, inspiration, Props, recording, sound, sound design, sound editing, sound effects, techniques, tips, workflow

Comments

  1. Jay Mendes says

    July 26, 2018 at 10:08 am

    Very inspiring post! Thanks for sharing.

Trackbacks

  1. Making a Plasma Gun from a Beer Can says:
    August 21, 2018 at 8:01 am

    […] For the recording I’m using a Rode NTG3 plugged into an Apollo Twin MKII. The pop filter is there mostly to protect the microphone from any splashing. I have a little bit of a plan going into the recording but mostly I’m just experimenting to see what cool sounds I can get out of it! […]

Social Media

  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Posts By Month

#sounddesign on Twitter

#sounddesign

tunepocketTunePocket Music@tunepocket·
26 May 2020

Download royalty free gunshot sound effects, incl. one shot gun sounds, gun cocking sounds, gunshot with silencer, machine guns, and more #gunshot #sfx #sounddesign #videoediting #gamedev #royaltyfree https://t.co/bTTDQkveKF

Reply on Twitter 1265206307927162880Retweet on Twitter 1265206307927162880Like on Twitter 1265206307927162880Twitter 1265206307927162880
Reel2MReel2Media@Reel2M·
26 May 2020

At Reel2Media we are harnessing the power of smart speaker technology, to deliver cutting edge skills that solve problems and add value. To find out more, click here https://t.co/VAAw7vTW1V #sounddesign #smartspeaker #alexaskill #amazonalexa

Reply on Twitter 1265206269255847936Retweet on Twitter 1265206269255847936Like on Twitter 1265206269255847936Twitter 1265206269255847936
SoniKSoundLibSoniK Sound Library@SoniKSoundLib·
26 May 2020

Listen to #soundcloud preview of our next release! #np https://t.co/S3bxxrnqrh #audiopost #soundlibrary #soundediting #sounddesign #ambisonics #spatial #surround #ambience #roomtones

Reply on Twitter 1265204382779559936Retweet on Twitter 12652043827795599361Like on Twitter 12652043827795599361Twitter 1265204382779559936
asoundeffectA Sound Effect@asoundeffect·
26 May 2020

Want to know what the independent sound effects community has been up to? Hear the very latest SFX libraries here: https://t.co/OUBM2SqMoP #sounddesign #soundeffects #soundlibraries #indieSFX #gameaudio #filmsound #filmmaking #gamedev #indiedev #indiefilm

Reply on Twitter 1265199255838511105Retweet on Twitter 1265199255838511105Like on Twitter 1265199255838511105Twitter 1265199255838511105
OblikLinesOblik Lines@OblikLines·
26 May 2020

Working on new tracks with many instances of Misty Valley ! ⁠
Misty Valley is free for all NI Reaktor users⁠
You can get it here: https://t.co/bb53Gtkw5e

#reaktor6 #reaktor #nativeinstruments #synths #vst #sounddesign #virtualinstrument #musicproducer #obliklines #mistyvalley

Reply on Twitter 1265198647307907073Retweet on Twitter 1265198647307907073Like on Twitter 1265198647307907073Twitter 1265198647307907073
Load More...

Copyright Info

All content on Designing Sound is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in