Page 1 of 1

How to create an underwater effect?

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 8:23 pm
by Jahoo
Hello all,
I'm new to music production and new to Ableton (my very first post here actually).

Does anyone know of a way to create an underwater effects using Ableton "stock" audio effects?
I am composing a score for a game where there is and old gramophone playing underwater (I know its unrealistic). For gramophone part I'm using the Vinyl Distortion effect, but have no idea where to start for the underwater part.
Any advice would be much appreciated.

Best regards

Jahoo

Re: How to create an underwater effect?

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 9:21 pm
by agent314
Maybe an EQ to roll off the high end and some mild phasing/chorus to warble it a little? Maybe some subtle reverb for ambience (even though there's probably not much reverb underwater)?

Re: How to create an underwater effect?

Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 7:54 pm
by Schnauzer
aha!
That's the part where sounddesign comes into place.
Many ways to go in this case. Record player playing underwater, rolling of highs (and/or boosting lows) is a good start.
Personally I would layer a sound over that creating the water bubble effect/ambiance.
And here is where the fun starts.
Grab a microphone, put it over a glas of water, blow gently a straw into it, record 5 minutes of yourself blowing into it, cut up , timestretch, octave up/down, crazy reverb effects, Also delays sound a bit underwatery to me allways ;)

28 tracks of water with multiple effects mixed down to 1 giant 5 minute loop is your background noise.
Subtlety is the keyword here...

good luck!

Re: How to create an underwater effect?

Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 8:28 pm
by Echotone
Hey,

You might find some inspiration in this post from a brilliant sound designer called Tim Prebble, if you're into sound design you'd want to bookmark that blog straight away, it's just fantastic.

http://www.musicofsound.co.nz/blog/underwater

Since live has a built vocoder now you can try setting up a paralel chain with a vocoder and some bubble water sound effect as the carrier.

Experiment and have fun!

Cheers

Re: How to create an underwater effect?

Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 2:58 pm
by xzusa8ky
drop your pc into the see! Thats a real underwater effect!................ 8)

Re: How to create an underwater effect?

Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 5:08 pm
by Jahoo
Hey,
Thank you all for the answeres!
I followed Echotone's advice and set up a Vocoder against a track with underwater clip, added a water ambient sound as Schauzer suggested and finally cut off some highs using an EQ on the master track (thanks to agent314 for the advice). At the peak of my frustration I was tempted to follow xzusa8ky's advice (I acctually live near the sea) but managed not to - would be a waste of those long hours installing Live and all the samples.

Anyway you can hear the outcome here:
http://soundcloud.com/jahooroisym/shark-therapy
Music starts at 0:11.

I am quite satisfied, but than again I am a sound-design-noob, so what do I know :-)
Please tell me what you think.

Re: How to create an underwater effect?

Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 5:54 pm
by Heiko
Really nice! A bit more dust on the needle? :wink: