Level 2 is a desert level, with Tumble Weed. I collaborated with Szymon on Wind Sounds, Szymon’s using a white noise generator and filter sweeps and mine using recorders and an ocarinas, obstructing the holes so there was no prominent notes.
Recording at home, I used my recently required LOM microphone. – A mono ‘Mikro Ucho’ – (omnidirectional mono is more effective in panning than stereo recordings and I will place these mono recordings at different spatialities to help build the a fake ambiance) In tandem with my TASCAM DR-40X, which is a stereo cardioid pair, but because it’s a field recorder, was useful for recording around my house (I captured extractor fans, oven sounds and shutter skids and doors slamming for experiments).
Recording loud analogue equipment I had with a contact microphone to potentially add to the engine noise – none of these options ended up coming in handy but they were useful experiments.
This is a bit too nasty to be an engine sound but is something that I could use as a piece of self-destructing equipment on a future project. I pressed rewind on one of my cassette recorders and the speed kept increasing which created quite an uncomfortable sound.
I then played around with wind sounds with my wind instruments (one of which a gift from when my friend worked comic con and got me in for free ten years ago….)
I took the recordings from these wind instruments and played around with their pitches and then I placed them into a 15s loop based off the length of the loop for level 1 ambiance by Szymon for continuity.
I cut a few files across the beginning and end of the loop so there isn’t a noticeable change in sounds. I have added a little bit of reverb, but not too much as to create a jarring change.
The engine sound is in the background, as for this type of game where there is no spatiality, it doesn’t make sense to attach a sound to a seperate source. Unless however, we wanted a start up sound to the engine – which we should look to do if we have time.
Various wind sounds are fixed pan, and the tumbleweed is automated, just to add some movement to the level.