How To Make Propeller Sound Effects
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Creating a propeller sound may seem impossible for some, especially those that do not have access to the real objects that can produce it. Using some simple hacks and techniques though, you can create propeller sound effects without recording the real thing! You’ll be surprised that you may find some of them easily available in your house. I will share with you how you can create sound effects for a drone, helicopter, or anything with a propeller at home.
Keep reading below to learn how!
If you are looking for some propeller sound effects, you can grab my FREE propeller sound effects here!
What software do we need for propeller sound effects?
I prefer using the Traveler by Tonstrum as my go-to plugin for creating propeller sounds. It is a Doppler plugin that allows you to set motion to sound. It has a lot of features and is highly flexible for creating a travel trajectory of a sound. The plugin also allows to change various parameters including speed, stereo width, and effects that are native to the plugin.
How To Create Your Own propeller sound effects?
- Drone
For this sound, I started by recording a small toy with an engine or fan. I haven’t tried using a furnace, but I think it could also sound great. With the recording, I imported it into my DAW and inserted Traveler as an insert effect. Going through the presets, I choose “circle” to have a circular motion of the sound going around the listener. Next, I decreased the speed/duration down to only 2-3 FMR. I’m not sure what FMR is, but basically, you want the sound to move quickly.
Next, I used ReCenter by Boom Library to center the sound. At this point, you can add a pitch shifter to get the tone lower based on the size of the propeller that you want.
Next, I used Spectre by Wavesfactory to adjust the saturation around 262 Hz to get more bass. I also added some distortion using iZotope Trash2, and OTT – a multi-band compressor – to balance out the frequencies a little better.
- Sci-Fi Drone (or propeller vehicle)
For this one, I used similar settings to the previous sound effect, but this time, I changed the source recording. I chose a synthesized ambient sound to create the sci-fi propeller sound effect. Note that the first example (kids toy car with a fan) sounds much better since the frequencies are more noise-like.
- Plane Propeller
Got an outdoor fan or a fan from an AC unit? Just record it and you can easily get an airplane sound from that sound source. That exactly what I did. I then shaped it a little bit with OTT, and adjusted it by pitch shifting down to taste. That’s it!
TRY IT For Yourself!
You can easily create your own propeller sound effects in the comfort of your own home. Simply find a motor object, record it, and place a Doppler plugin as an effect on it.
Remember to download your FREE propeller sound effects here!
You can watch the full video tutorial on my YouTube Channel.
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