Sound FX

[Darkness]

Hi all,

 

Im not sure if this is the right place to ask but I didnt know where else to post it. I've been asked to get a sound fx of a falling elevator, preferably that crashes at the bottom but I cant seem to find anything anywhere.

 

Does anyone know where I could get the sound fx from or have any ideas on a way to create it.

 

Thanks for any help

Kevin

[mac.calder]

You will probably have to piece the sound together yourself.

 

Find out the perspective the sound is to be heard from (in the shaft, in the elevator, outside the elevator with the door closed, outside the elevator with the door open etc) then find sounds that can be pieced together to give the feeling of a falling elevator from that perspective.

 

So in an elevator, which has a cable snap, I would stard with a few 'tings' of stranded cable snapping, a groan, whoosh with a cable whipping up a shaft, squeel of mechanical breaks (maybe from a train which is emergency stopping), then a loud crash. Note that I have never been in or observed an elevator falling at terminal velocity to the ground - it is just a few of the sounds that I THINK would occur from that point of view - and unless there is a survivor of an elevator crash there, I doubt anyone would fault the sound.

 

Using something like audacity, the sounds can be layered and melded as you wish.

[DavidLee]

Hi all,

 

Im not sure if this is the right place to ask but I didnt know where else to post it. I've been asked to get a sound fx of a falling elevator, preferably that crashes at the bottom but I cant seem to find anything anywhere.

 

Does anyone know where I could get the sound fx from or have any ideas on a way to create it.

 

Thanks for any help

Kevin

You won't find it because it can't happen! There would be only a short loud noise as the cable fails and the car settles a few inches as the automatic safety devices engage. Unless this is a period piece, set before the invention of Elisha Otis' "Improvement in Hoisting Apparatus" in 1853, the conceit of the "falling elevator" is purely the product of bone idle Hollywood directors and screenwriters, lacking any real dramatic ability!

 

David

[Rob_Beech]

David,

 

I'm guessing that this sound effect is needed for a product of bone idle directors and screenwriters lacking any dramatic ability. So whilst you have a valid point about the safety devices its for film or theatre or whatever.

 

Its a well used trick to cut the brake lines on trucks so they have no brakes and crash or drive off a cliff. We all know that the braking system requires pressure to release the brakes as a fail safe so cut the brake lines and the brakes are fast ON. but its film, television, a book, or whatever else.

 

 

 

Rob

[cedd]

You will find said sound effect on a cd that I think is called "Death and horror". It's made by the BBC and the track is just after "Torture lab" and just before "Female falling from height". It's not a cd I put on all that often! Any disk with tracks like "Nails hammered into flesh" and "Branding iron on flesh" has to be well hidden in a cd collection or opeople get the wrong idea!

[Darkness]

I know david,

 

I know you get them in hollywood films which is probably where the person got the idea from I just couldnt find the sound fx but thought there must be one somewhere as they are in hollywood films failing that make one using other sounds like max suggested I just couldnt think of the right sounds to use.

 

Oooh thanks cedd, I have to volumes of the death and horror cd at work I shall take a look when I get in.

[boswell]

It's a bit electronic and includes passengers screaming ! :)

[Bobbsy]

I'm with mac.calder on this...the effect you need is a "build it yourself". Searching the various sound effects libraries you should be able to find a collection of metallic scrapes and crashies, zings, etc etc then layer them in whatever wave editor you use (and, if you don't have one, it's time to get one! Audacity is free; there are lots of pay-for ones too).

 

Depending on exactly how you need to structure the effect, I might edit into two or three chunks--at least I'd have the fall as on effect and the crash as a second one so I could vary the timing exactly along with the actors/stage action.

 

As an aside, I MUCH prefer effects that I put together myself. This'll sound big-headed, but I can almost always make them fit what I need better than a generic effect...and it's much more satisfying. If I record the raw materials too, so much the better! Some of the tricks you can pull are great fun...for example, why not experiment with dropping the pots and pans in your kitchen cupboard on a concrete floor, then pitch shift the whole thing down a ways to lower the tone for the eventual crash. I might work (and if it doesn't, you might decide it sounds like something else and keep it for the future anyway!).

 

Have fun!

 

Bob