Sound effects, where to get them

N

Networker

Well-known member
I do know how to google for things, but I keep coming up short on this one. I need the sound of an airport control tower that is rapid-fire issuing take-off and landing clearances. I heard one, years ago, from O'Hare where the controller were talking almost non-stop for at least 20 - 25 seconds.

I have not found anything like that. I have found a lot of controllers talking to a single airplane, or a fairly slow exchange between a controller and several airplanes. But most of what I've found is actually ground control talking to airplanes.

I guess I could try to find a long clip and cut the pauses out.

I need about 15 seconds of this.
 
Where did you hear it? If it was in a film it was almost certainly created. There are places that it's pretty hard to get permission to film/ record and I would suspect a buisy control tower is one. But you never can tell, I have gotten into places I never would have thought would say OK.

You would probably find more people who would have something like this, either real or created, on the Protools user group on the Digidesign/ Avid site. If you go to the post sound section you will be talking to a pot of people who make a living doing sound editing on features with budgets. There are relatively few people on this site that have large personal sound libraries.

You might also do a search on Sound Dogs. This is the kind of sound that if it's not created it was probably recorded by someone working on a big budget project.

You can certainly either reduce pauses or layer up from later in the recording.
 
Noiz2 said:
This is the kind of sound that if it's not created it was probably recorded by someone working on a big budget project.

You can certainly either reduce pauses or layer up from later in the recording.
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I heard it in a nature program from BBC. It was about bees and they ran a slow-motion clip of the bees flying in and out of the hive with that sound track. I'm sure they had a budget, and thinking about it now I'm also pretty sure it must have been created.

I'll search Sound Dogs and Digidesign and see what I can find, but if I don't find anything I'll try my hand a layering and cutting out pauses and such with the clips I've already found.

Thanks for taking the time to point me in the right direction.
 
Have you considered making it up yourself? It sounds like something you can make up pretty quickly. Some EQ to chop the highs and lows to get that radio sound and you are in business.

If you want to hear real control tower chatter for examples of what it really sounds like, you can listen to it online. Several airport towers are available. Since it is public communications, I expect that you can record it off the web and then edit it to make it rapid fire. http://www.liveatc.net/

 
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On the digi site you would need to ask as you did here. Searching probably wouldn't get you anywhere. The site is primarily for folks working in film postproduction, so lots of editors, etc. It's the place you go to fix whatever weird thing ProTools is doing today, since there is probably someone who had the same problem and knows the "fix". But since those people are mostly working professionals they generally have a growing to already large personal sound library. And while I suspect the effect was created not recorded the odds are not great anyone has a recording but they may have the mixed effect rendered or you might even end up talking to the person who created the sound for that film and can tell you what they did.

Whenever I have seen real footage of aircraft control rooms they have been pretty quiet, lots of chatter but more like a robo call center than the "action packed" seq you are describing. Don't know if that is just because they are not going to let the distraction of someone recording into a really busy control room or that is just what they are all like.
 
That is what they are like. I did some work for FAA communications and we visited sites. It is a very controlled environment. Considering that they are managing planes full of people, the last thing a control room should be is action packed.
 
Noiz2 said:
Whenever I have seen real footage of aircraft control rooms they have been pretty quiet, lots of chatter but more like a robo call center than the "action packed" seq you are describing. Don't know if that is just because they are not going to let the distraction of someone recording into a really busy control room or that is just what they are all like.
Click to expand...

Control facilities are normally not that hectic, although if you ever listen to San Francisco ground or tower during the afternoon rush, it can be described as controlled chaos. I am now absolutely sure that the clip I heard was made and not recorded simply because I cannot remember anybody but the controller talking. That doesn't happen in real life. For each instruction there has to be a pilot reading it back to confirm s/he has heard and understood it. That prevents the kind of rapid-fire instructions from ever being employed.

Also, it's been well over 40 years since I saw that BBC special. (Funny how I remember that particular sequence. I don't recall any of the rest of the program except that it was about bees.)
 
How about record a scanner from somewhere like Miami. But as mentioned, it shouldn't be hectic because hectic causes mistakes and mistakes kill people in that business.
 
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