That slightly pitch shifting haunting sound...Thomas Newman - American Beauty?

[quidox]

You all know the track - from the CD track 08 - American Beauty - by Thomas Newman? Right?

How on earth did he make that great haunting background sound from 0:38-0:48?
Again at 1:13-1:27

Is it from a sample library I've never heard of, or did he construct this on his own. And if so - HOW???

Love to hear your input.

Thanks
Martin.

[tehlord]

Got a link?

[quidox]

Got a link?

Yes here:


The very subtle sound I am talking about is in this UT video at:

0:38 - 0:49
1:15 - 1:25
2:46 - 2:55

I don't know how to describe it other than some kind of gentle fluctuation distant "flute/airy-sound" except it doesn't sound like any kind of normal instrument.

It's actually more like an eerie sound come to think of it.

[schnapsglas]

If I had to make that one, take vocal sample and plate it to death and... hopefully something similar?

[NAD]

Sounds like an alto range ooh drenched and perhaps reversed.

[synaesthesia]

To me it sounds like an electric guitar wail, played backwards and with delay added.

Omnisphere has some similar soundsources.

[kbaccki]

Very subtle, but definitely has a "flutey" quality to my ears... very hollow sound, like a traditional/folk flute with lots of verb, of course... compare with, for example... or http://www.orangetreesamples.com/mesawi ... can-flutes

Easy to get that raw hollow sound with synthesis or sampling for simple pad sounds...

[Bobbotov]

Omnisphere has some similar soundsources.

Hmm, maybe bowed electric guitar patch played backwards.

[Sasja]

I agree on the vocal. Seems to me like a reversed vocal with some phasing/flanging going on.

[jancivil]

video at:

0:38 - 0:49
1:15 - 1:25

I think you could get close to that with the choir in Kontakt factory lib.
"Sounds like an alto range ooh drenched*..." Actually I think it might be that. at any rate that has a vocal envelope which is I think a real component of what you're after, that's the point.

{*that choir has a phasing issue, a synthetic kind of tone, when you overlap velocity layers}

[Tomy-K]

It is said that Thomas Newman uses Omnisphere a lot.
Looking at the type AIRY AND FIZZY plus the search for flutes there could be helpful sounds like
- Sepulcher
- Low and ancient flutes
- Orchestron Flute with plex
I guess that the sounds had been a bit manipulated.
Perhaps there is an underlay of a soft and warm recorder.

[monkeyweasel]

my guess is that when you say "pitch shifted" it's because you can hear some digital artifacts or something, and my first reaction on checking the clip is that it sounds a lot like the effect you get when time stretching audio (effectively the same thing as pitch shifting and then playing slower). Something I used to do a lot to create atmospheric drones and stuff. Sometimes adding grain in metasynth gives me similar sounds too.

So, whatever the original source sound was, I'd say it's been heavily butchered via one or more processing technique such as this.

The most likely solution to get something similar would be a combination of all the suggestions above: start with strings, vox or flute; reverse, time stretch, reverb, granulate; repeat.

You might not get exactly the same sound, but likely something atmospherically similar...and who knows, perhaps even better!