KVR Audio

ugo · Post by **ugo** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 6:39 am

here an odd request...anyone have a sample of a simple static electricity snap? you know, the sort of little shock you get when you wear socks on a wool carpet then go to touch someone?

i need the sound effect for an independant movie im working on and my attempts to recreate the sound are not going well. i'd record the real thing but my apartment is too noisy to use a mic. (and my mic is out on loan right now anyway.)

anyone know where i can find/buy a sample of this sound? or...by strange chance, has anyone here made a sample of this that they'd be willing to share?

by the way, if the sound was a bit larger than life, then that is cool too, since it would probably make the effect (and the associated visual) have more impact on the audience.

thanks for the help/advice.
-ugo

isdjan · Post by **isdjan** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 7:14 am

i have once done something like that by mixing electricity humming with a fireplace sample - but that was loooong ago, i can't provide the file no more

haydxn · Post by **haydxn** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 7:15 am

crumbs, i'll have a think about what might be good for simulating that and give it a bash later after my exam.

kingpisser · Post by **kingpisser** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 7:19 am

ugo wrote:
anyone know where i can find/buy a sample of this sound? or...by strange chance, has anyone here made a sample of this that they'd be willing to share?

-ugo

Do you have those mosquito killer bats in your country ? Looks like a small tennis racquet with metal strings and is battery powered. Well, hold the button down and wave away at the mosquitoes and they get nicely zapped and toasted.

Anyways, I think these make the kinda noise you're looking for, the humming and zapping of the mosquitoes. If you don't have em, lemme know, i'll try to sample mine ( with a shitty freebie mic).

Peace

kingp

ugo · Post by **ugo** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 7:41 am

thanks for the quick replies!

im open for any ideas on this one. though i must say, a mosquito zap might be perfect. but since i am without a mic right now (and without a bug zapper too), i cant record anything myself...so i'll gladly accept any assistance you all can offer.

thanks again,
-ugo

kingpisser · Post by **kingpisser** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 8:52 am

ugo wrote:thanks for the quick replies!
im open for any ideas on this one. though i must say, a mosquito zap might be perfect. but since i am without a mic right now (and without a bug zapper too), i cant record anything myself...so i'll gladly accept any assistance you all can offer.

thanks again,
-ugo

Gimme like 5 hours, the critters start invading the house then. I'll try sampling them being incinerated.

Peace

haydxn · Post by **haydxn** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 12:06 pm

is it just a single ::sNaP!:: sound that you need? just for a single contact event?

can you describe the picture that it's going to? that'd help anyone trying to recreate it to know what kind of sound to go for.

Hunter · Post by **Hunter** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 1:12 pm

kingpisser wrote: Do you have those mosquito killer bats in your country ? Looks like a small tennis racquet with metal strings and is battery powered

i thought you meant bats as in the flying mammal

killer bats!

those electric gas cooker lighters where you squeeze the handle and lots of sparks fly between the metal parts could be good for this sound. if you squeeze the handle slwoly you still get sparks but not too much mechanical noise from the handle

and they're good for electrocuting your friends if you take off the metal end bit

jim

CypherOne · Post by **CypherOne** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 1:13 pm

Ugo, if only you had a microphone, you could take some applicance apart, electrocute yourself and record that...

McLilith · Post by **McLilith** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 1:16 pm

I did a quick search to see if I could find something already on the internet for you, but the only electrical arc recording I could find was this one:

Big Arc

It was a link I found on this web page.

I guess that's probably more arc than you wanted!

You'd probably have a hard time getting clearance to use an audio sample of it anyway. For starters, who would you call?

If I find anything more appropriate, I'll let you know. If I had a bug zapper, or a piezo lighter, I'd record something for you myself.

later,
McLilith

ugo · Post by **ugo** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 4:29 pm

haydxn wrote:is it just a single ::sNaP!:: sound that you need? just for a single contact event?

can you describe the picture that it's going to? that'd help anyone trying to recreate it to know what kind of sound to go for.

yes, its just the single snap of one contact event. the scene litterally has someone reaching to take a pen from someone else's hand and they get a little static electricity zap.

though it doesnt sound like much, it holds a bit more effect to the viewer because in the story, one of the two people is poisonous and contageous. so any skin-to-skin contact is big trouble.

CamelHerder wrote: those electric gas cooker lighters where you squeeze the handle and lots of sparks fly between the metal parts could be good for this sound.

yes, you're right...that would be a good source for the sound too. got a gas grill and a mic?

i remember back in 8th grade one day there was a kid going around school with one of those.
...hey! that was you, wasnt it?

CypherOne wrote: Ugo, if only you had a microphone, you could take some applicance apart, electrocute yourself and record that...

if i were going to do that, i think i'd want a videocamera too! that might be a bigger shock than we need, but you never know when you might need some footage.

mabey i should stand in a tub of water at the time too.

McLilith wrote: It was a link I found on this web page.

I guess that's probably more arc than you wanted!

wow! that was really cool.
but yeah, definitely a little bit bigger of an arc than a finger and a wool carpet would create.

-ugo

bitcrusher · Post by **bitcrusher** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 5:35 pm

I've got a ton of arc-welding zaps I recorded in an industrial machine shop.

About ten years ago (yikes kill me now) I was doing some music with "industry" sounds with a friend, we visited this metal shop (for custom chassis fabrications) and the owner was a huge industrial-music freak (over 200 industrial CD's!) and invited us down on the weekend to record all the craziest sounds.

"You gotta hear the punch press on 3/4 aluminum" hehe

so, I have no web hosting but email me at steve at devine-machine.com and I can send you a meg or two of arc welding bursts.

-Steve

haydxn · Post by **haydxn** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 5:35 pm

i am actually revising for another exam for tomorrow morning, but i thought i'd give this a crack. ha, i said crack. like a sound effect crack.

oh dear

i've uploaded what i've come up with to my webspace for you. it's a rar'd compilation of several 24bit96kHz .WAV files. If that's a problem let me know i'll change the format for you.

i'm really not sure what you'll make of them, but i tried pretending to electrocute myself on whatever was to hand and it seemed fairly convincing to me here. you may want to try some eQ on them perhaps.

http://www.angelfire.com/mech/haydxn

give it a minute if the link is not there... i'm updating the page now...

xoxos · Post by **xoxos** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 6:08 pm

any minute dc offset pop hp filtered.. :p if you need realism, pm.. arizona, very dry atm

ugo · Post by **ugo** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 8:00 pm

haydxn wrote:i've uploaded what i've come up with to my webspace for you. it's a rar'd compilation of several 24bit96kHz .WAV files. If that's a problem let me know i'll change the format for you.

hi,
i downloaded the files and extracted the wav's but i got a codec error when trying to play them.

-ugo

static snap sample?