How to get this epic swoosh sound?

[JakeAC5253]

Any idea how to get this sort of common sound of something big swooshing slowly by? Seems like something a foley studio would do. Things like this are used to wow people at surround system displays, like they see the thing on the screen and the swoosh sound makes the low subs rumble and all that... I just have no idea how to make it.

The sound is at 2:33, and again at 2:40

 

[LiberaScientia]

I have no fucking clue, but man I am nostalgia'ing like fuck right now. Also, Oblivion has one of the best soundtracks of all time. So damn epic.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

That is some pretty intense sound effect design. Giving it a guess, its a reverse sub drop (reverse meaning it goes low to high, with white noise being faded into the end and swept with an envelope filter, hass effect and maybe a few more things thrown in as well.

When sound effect designers make sounds like that, they are blending in many many if not sometimes hundreds of samples slaughtered to hell and back with effects. Not to sound too negative but this is not our level of expertise by any means. You could still get decent results, but nothing of that quality. That type of sounds is like making digital art from real photos in photoshop (layers upon layers blended in ways most can't comprehend), its in a whole other league.

 

[LiberaScientia]

Why don't you just Match EQ it?

ohai Clark Kent

 

[infectdsniper]

it makes me think of something big and silent moving by and moving the air to make that sound. swing a drum stick past a mic slow it down and play with the eq and automate the panning and see if it comes close.

 

[vespiz]

Sounds like filtered and amplitude enveloped white noise, ie. you sweep the filter and volume using an ADSR envelope in a soft synth. Then go to town with EQ and panning etc, like TheWinterSnow said. But I'm almost certain I've heard that basic sample/sound elsewhere, like it's just a stretched version of a small blast-type sound. Must have been a preset on a synth.

Have a listen to this (at about 0:29). Sound familiar?

Synths used on the album: Digisequencer, Kurzweil K2000, Mini Moog, ARP 2600, Akai MPC60, AKAI S 1000, EMS Synthi AKS, JD 800, Korg O1/W, Roland TR-909, DR 660, Synthex, Eminent 310, JP 8, DJ 70, Vocalist, Fairlight CMI.

I'm betting on either the K2000, JD800 or 01/w.

Anyways, here's a small list of interesting ways for foley and FX; not directly relevant to this, but interesting nonetheless!
http://www.epicsound.com/sfx/

 

[RichS]

I think it sounds like those large kettledrums being hit with Timpani Mallets.

 

[Sethis]

I think it sounds like those large kettledrums being hit with Timpani Mallets.

Yeah timpani roll is what came to my mind first. It's not some studio effect. If you wanna know more about this kind of stuff I suggest you to read about some orchestration.

 

[lee_mulcahy]

I agree with RichS and Sethis, sounds like a timpani roll to me, which DAW are you using? I know Logic has timpani rolls under its orchestral instruments, don't remember them sounding that amazing but you could probably manipulate them to get a similar effect.

 

[vespiz]

No timpani ever sounded like a white noise swoosh to me...

But you could try adding something like that under the swoosh effect, for the low-end.

 

[AD Chaos]

Just use a whoosh from foley (or better yet, a wave); lower pitch accordingly, then solo a multiband below 100hz.


This was on the fly, surely you can do MUCH better with a bit of work:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3971434/whoosh_Chaos.mp3

 

[Shinozoku]

Yeah, that would bee a Timpani roll, possibly with a concert bass drum (ya know, like 42 inches) under it. Go to a local college band and ask if they have any timpani you can work with if you'd like to take some samples. Bring some nice pres and mics to pick them up if they'll let you use them.

 

[SocialNumb]

I'm with vespiz.

/thread

 

[Shinozoku]

I didn't hear white noise. I heard a super low-passed timpani, which would only make sense in the piece. It's an orchestral score for a medieval era game, so very few "synth" sounds would be/were used. It was mostly orchestra and folk instruments. Even if a synth was used, you can get a better result by sampling a real instrument. Maybe bring a few different kick mics and a nice LDC and/or omni reference mic to wherever you can find a timpani; match the mic up to the tuning (or tune it to match the low frequency rise in the mic), and mic it up a few different ways, taking the different tracks and finding tee best blend. Then simply pitch it to where you want it. Or take recordings of a couple of different timpani. The community college I went to has 4 timpani in their percussion ensemble, and I would love nothing more than to get some nice mics and pres and go sample those in one of the nicer halls for these exact effects. It helps that the instructor is the timpani player for the local orchestras.

 

[Sloan]

please post high school band timpani .tci's.

 

[Ben Johnson]

I didn't hear white noise. I heard a super low-passed timpani, which would only make sense in the piece. It's an orchestral score for a medieval era game, so very few "synth" sounds would be/were used. It was mostly orchestra and folk instruments. Even if a synth was used, you can get a better result by sampling a real instrument. Maybe bring a few different kick mics and a nice LDC and/or omni reference mic to wherever you can find a timpani; match the mic up to the tuning (or tune it to match the low frequency rise in the mic), and mic it up a few different ways, taking the different tracks and finding tee best blend. Then simply pitch it to where you want it. Or take recordings of a couple of different timpani. The community college I went to has 4 timpani in their percussion ensemble, and I would love nothing more than to get some nice mics and pres and go sample those in one of the nicer halls for these exact effects. It helps that the instructor is the timpani player for the local orchestras.

Seems like an ridiculous amount of effort for an effect that has a fraction of a second of screen time.

Take any number of whoosh-type sound effects as your source:

Pitch down, lowpass, automate pan, done.

A very similar effect could be achieved through the method vepiz is describing, although it would be a bit more involved. It's kind of silly to basically rule out the idea that synths wouldn't be used here, especially when it's a sound design element and not part of the score.