My Station's Sound Design

So as my main contribution to the station has been its sound design, I thought I'd give you a run down of all its various jingles and how I made them. All sounds that I created myself I used the synths in Reason for.

1. Door sliding.

I used a short stab of white noise from my Thor synth with a quick little bit of sweeping upwards using a high pass filter. This sound compliments the movement of the door and makes the experience more immersive.

2. Ambient spaceship hum.

I got this of find sounds. Then it was just a case of looping it in Audactiy. The looped sound creates the underlying collective hum of the computers and engine working beneath the surface and makes the station environment again more obvious and immersive by playing to one's senses.

3. Techy crackle.

I used my Malstrom Graintable Synth's "flies" sample and then sped up the motion and applied an lfo varying the index. I also added a tiny bit of resonance on a high pass filter. I then looped it in audacity. This creates the impression of the ship's computers whirring beneath the surface. I've only placed this sound once in the central meeting point of the three tubes coming off from the ring as it is a more intense sound than the background hum which I've put everywhere and therefore I feel works better as a one off.

4. Hal speaks.

Again I used the Malsrtom and used a sample called "monks". I turned up the motion and pushed it up an octave to create a fast talking "throaty" sound. I then looped this in audacity. This represents our supercomputer's continuos talking to himself as he works hard at keeping the station ticking along.

5/6. Computer "R2D2 esque" jingle.

This was a very straight forward way of creating two complex sounds. So that the computer's in the control room (beneath Hal) actually sounded like computers I used a Triangle wave from my Thor and then turned up the resonance fully and the low pass filter right down. I then applied a random non synced LFO to the filter. To create the sound at a lower level I just pitched down the oscillator one octave.

7. Zero Gravtiy

I placed this at the bottom of the station. For this I used the Malstrom with a pair of "ambient Chord1" samples. I then applied an LFO that worked slowly on the pitch and applied two positive comb filters and some sinewave shaping. This sound is very bendy, bassy and wobbly and works well at the bottom of the station.

8. Space Alarm

This is just a simple sinewave, with two positive comb filters-one with a bit of resonance. Then I added an LFO with a jagged zig-zaging curve varying the volume and then pumped it through an arpegiator. This sound triggers when when walking along one of the corridors.

9. Here is Hal

This sound plays when you enter the control room. This rather complex sound I'm afraid was only a preset on the Malstrom so I won't bore you with the (in this case) rather complex set of parameters that I would've had to play around with. I then looped it in Audacity. This noise is of course meant to sound rather mystic and bizarre whilst introducing the equally mystic and bizarre supercomputer.

10. Sparkle

For this I used two "blurb flies" samples on the Malstrom with the motion turned down a tad and a little detuning. I then put a band pass filter quite high up both of them and added some resonance on one of them. I then added two LFOs both with smooth curves at lo rates; one varying the pitch the other the first filter. I placed this sound to trigger as you enter the loos as if to say "here are the loos".

11. Electrical Twang

I'm very pleased with this one. I used the Thor's white noise to make a very small stabb and then added a little reverb (small room, lo decay) and added two delay lines, one set to 20ms with a long feedback and one set to 1110 miliseconds with a short feedback. I then looped it in Audacity. This sound I placed in the corridor to give the impression of blinking lights.

12. Monolith.

This was a preset on my virtual Moog! It just had to be added to a virtual monolith. Its a bunch of detuned sinewaves with LOADS of chorus and other shenanigans in the modulation Matrix.

13/14. Mechanical Arms High and Low.

I sampled a tune of mine that has snippets of mechanical arms. I then chopped it up and edited it first in Re-Cycle and then played around with it once in the Dr-Rex player. To create the higher pitched one I just pitched one up an octave and then looped them both and placed them in the same part of the space station to give the impression of "working beneath the surface".

15. Metal Clash

I took a metal hit sample and then added some reverb and a little delay. This triggers when walking in the corridor and provides a little "metallic atmosphere".

16. Drone

This was just a simple case of looping a droneing sample I had and adding a tiny bit of distortion from my scream 4 effects unit. I placed this on another corridor to give more of a steady feel to the whirr of the engine.