A COLLABORATIVE POST BY SAM BUSEKRUS
ASSISTANT EDITOR, BOOM BOX POST
Here at Boom Box we get to record a wide variety of sounds… some of them happen to be gross… even done with the lights out in the bathroom….
You, our lucky reader, get to see the process of some of them that we have done!
Pudding
One project that we have done, needed quite a bit of these wet textured sounds. In one scenario, the picture called for something that sounded like pudding being stirred. This was a bit of a challenge and had some trial and error.
Fail…
First our interns tried recording pudding because why not try that first since that’s what the video is showing. Unfortunately pudding does not have much texture to it and didn’t sound like all that much when we recorded. Sometimes, you gotta use something else that sounds like that thing…
winner winner chicken dinner- mac and cheeeeeeeese
We then tried recording mac and cheese in a bowl and that turned out to give great sounds! The bowl we used was just a large plastic bowl as we wanted the bowl to sound neutral so it didn’t affect the sound of the pasta itself. The air pockets and wetness of the mac and cheese gave us exactly what we were looking for. We tried stirring it with a spoon at various speeds, dropping the noodles and throwing them into the bowl, and squishing them with our hands.
flarp
Besides needing sounds for this pudding scene, we also needed some funny fart sounds for toon moments so we recorded flarp. If you don’t know what that is, it’s noise putty that’s in a small plastic container. Try it out sometime ;)
Helpful tips for recording textured wet sounds
Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty!! Squeezing gloppy textures through your fingers or squishing up against the container with your palm could get some really great results
Cover your microphone with an unlubricated condom so it doesn't get wet
Think outside the box!
You can record underwater sound effects with a contact mic for a cool texture
Try to focus on the tail end of the sound effect and capture those moments. Ex: When you throw a wet cloth, you hear the little squish/bubbling sound of the water after the impact.