WRITTEN BY Natalia Saavedra Brychcy
SOUND EFFECTS EDITOR, BOOM BOX POST
I hope you’re ready to be SPOOKED because this blog is going to uncover how Natalia created an evil slime monster! Here at Boom Box, we are constantly having to create unique sound design, so check out how she managed to make THIS monster unique!
What was your brainstorming process?
I know I needed him to sound very disturbing and powerful in an obscure way. The words used to describe him were: viscous, evil, ghostly, demon. So everything about him should feel bad and off-putting. Like a dark energy whenever he’s in the frame! So for this, I needed to have a goo-type layer for the viscous element and movement, a lower frequency drag layer for the weight, and a monster vocalization layer to complement the dialogue.
Could you give me the step-by-step process of what you added first and second, etc?
First I created the goo-type layer, so I found a sound of slime in a cup being pressed down multiple times, that created an odd airy quality but with a stickiness to it. To give it a large size, I slowed it down and used LoAir to give it a bit of low end. Then, I layered this out with a reversed tentacle slime sound and a retractable goo movement sound. By having the three of them together it created this off-putting gross movement that worked very well for the creature. To create weight, I added a low-end drag with a steady slime movement to feel that he’s sticking to whatever he moves through and to have the sensation of the creature being huge!
Wondering what that all sounds like together? Check it out below:
For the vocals, I looked into different animal vocalizations and ghost whooshes. I layered it with a low-end purr of a pitched down tiger and vibrating breath outs. Then, I looked into underwater vocals to give the voice a liquid quality. I decided to use underwater pipe movements that had a tonality to it so it sounded like vocals. And to create a sense of speech, I layered in ghostly whooshes that went by fast that had a demon tonality, so it gave an illusion of somebody speaking.
Creepy vocals huh? But now, make it even MORE creepy all together!
When the monster is moving fast, I layered all that out and added heavy whooshes to create speed on his movements.
Did you run into any issues/problems?
I found really quickly that a regular slime drag SFX with nothing off about it didn’t give the right idea of what the creature was. So, I needed to play with different types of squishiness using something that wasn’t very steady and that had a texture that wasn’t pleasant. Also, an off-putting sound that has a personality, like it was alive! With the vocals, what I found that didn’t work the first time was only having an “eerie/ethereal” type of ghost vocals. Meaning, the typical airy voices we have heard for a normal ghost before. This creature actually has dialogue, not like most creatures in shows where they don’t have lines, so this needed to match and complement the dialogue. I started experimenting with growls and purrs together with ghosts whooshes that had a bit more of a “throaty” kind of feel to them, and layered them together and adjust as needed with plug-ins. Doing so created this base sound for the creature that had movement, and created this monster vocalization to play together with the dialogue, without competing with it!
What would you suggest to new editors to get started on creating a monster like this? Did you use any plugins that you recommend?
The first thing I like to do is just think what the monster represents, and what should it transmit. For the vocals, I usually search for animal vocalizations and start with a realistic sound and then transform that into your creature’s voice. For this type of slime body movement, I would start with things that are wet and squishy, and things that I found unpleasant.
For plug-ins, I usually start with the good old pitching down method and go from there, especially for creating things that are supposed to feel huge. I like using Waves LoAir to give a little bit of low-end to monster vocals too. And reversing things is always a fun way to change the perspective of different sounds.
How did you make this monster unique compared to other creatures/monsters?
I think I just wanted to create something that you weren’t sure what its next movement was. Something that constantly was evolving and transformed its body every time it moved. The sound of movement of his body through the slime/goopy sounds definitely gives that a sense of strangeness and discomfort. This creature wasn't only supposed to be scary, but it should disturb whoever is near him.
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ICE DRAGONS!