Have you ever tried creating water magic sound effects? Seeing as magic sounds are not based in the real world, it can be challenging to create these sound effects, while at the same time, freeing, because there is no predetermined way they should sound. So how exactly do you create water magic sound effects? Well, I don’t know that there is a scientific answer to that, but here is how I did it.
First, grab recordings of water sounds from various sources. Second, edit those recordings removing noise and adding fades at the beginning and ends of the samples. Third, add reverbs and delays to the sounds. Finally, import all your processed sounds into S-layer by Twisted Tools and mangle them until you have sounds that are other-worldly, yet still based in reality, because of their water quality.
Once you’ve gone through this basic process, simply rinse and repeat to produce more complex sounds
WHAT SOUND SOURCES SHOULD I USE FOR WATER MAGIC SOUND EFFECTS?
Obviously we are talking about water here, so that’s no surprise. To start off, though, I suggest using whatever is easiest and available to you. Likely, this will be recording water from your bathroom, sink, toilet, bottles, cups, and wherever else you can find water around your house. To get more variations and different sounds, consider going out, and recording water sounds in nature or in the city. This could be waves at the beach, a hose outside, water fountains, and any other water sources you can find. Once you have your various sound recordings, you are ready to import them into your DAW and edit them.
HOW SHOULD I EDIT MY WATER SOUNDS?
I like to keep my edits very simple and follow these steps:
- Start by removing any noise from the recordings.
- Add some light compression of about 1-3 db, depending on the recording and the LUFS
- Add a short fade at the beginning and a fade at the end to make sure there are no clicks or pops during playback.
HOW SHOULD I PROCESS MY WATER SOUNDS TO TURN THEM INTO MAGIC SOUNDS?
Once I have all my sound recordings ready and edited, I will import them into my DAW of choice (In the video above, I am using Nuendo). For the sake of simplicity and efficiency, I like to import multi-effect plugins into the master effect rack so that all my sound effects get processed with the same effects.
As you’ll notice in the video, I used Guitar Rig by Native Instruments and chose some presets with delays and reverbs. Again, for simplicity and efficiency’s sake, I search through various presets to see what kind of sounds I can create. My aim is always to keep the characteristic of the sound I am affecting. So, for this example, I make sure my water recordings keep their watery characteristic and that whoever listens to the affected sound can tell it is still water. That way when I process, blend, and layer them later for creating magic sound effects, they will still be recognized as water.
Now that my sounds are processed, I will export them into their own folder. I then re-import the processed versions back into my DAW (Nuendo) and import them into S-Layer by Twisted Tools. This is where the magic begins!
Once in S-Layer, I can then randomize in seconds almost all parameters of the sound sources and create crazy combinations that would otherwise take me hours and hours of work. Simply by pressing on the randomize button at the top of the UI, I can hear all the variations using 8 layers at a time. This is usually enough to get me usable results.
That’s it! If you want, you can export your new S-Layer creations and import them back into S-Layer and create even more variations and combinations of sound.
I hope you found this article and video useful. I’m curious to know how you create water magic sound effects!
How have you made water sound effects?
Comment below!
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