What's that sound called?

[Brickhouse]

There's a sound in many movies that is really hard to describe. It's got a lot of bass and is in Horror movies and thrillers usually. It's in War of the Worlds a lot when the machines are walking, and it's in Sherlock Holmes a whole bunch. Those are the two main examples. It starts at a higher note, and falls down, like a really bassy cow going "moo". It's really hard to describe. Or when a tower is about to fall in a movie, it's like the sound of metal buckling.

This sound must have a name or something it's referred to as, as it's in so many movies.

 

[Noiz2]

Well actually no there probably isn't a "name" and it is pretty much a guarantee that it is not a sound but a style of sounds that a bunch of folks are using because it sounds cool and well we see a lot of movies. If it does have a name it's going to be like "whoosh" which is used for a lot of different sounds that have similar characteristics. But again the name would refer to the effect not the "sound". Adding a whoosh to something is as simple as adding a specific sound to adding many tracks of sounds that all together add up to the "whoosh". A punch "whoosh" would usually be a single sound but an building collapsing "whoosh" will be a whole lot of tracks that all together make up the "whoosh" of the collapse. What your describing would probably be named a "groan". There are metal groans (Titanic is loaded with them) or it could even be a whoosh. Whooshes are used a lot for things moving like a big foot coming down. Then you would have some serious impact/ hit / crush sounds when it lands. But you might well have some metal groans going on in the movement if it's a metal contraption. Your two examples are big budget films so I can tell you that things like the machines walking are going to have 50+ tracks of sound. THe general rule with things like that is that anything that moves makes a sound. So if you have a bunch of articulated joints each part of each joint is going to have some sound connected to it.

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

THe general rule with things like that is that anything that moves makes a sound.

Ah, that explains why when I see some of these first efforts, and there's a whip pan of the camera... I feel something's missing...

 

[Noiz2]

I meant things ON the screen that move. But your also correct that a lot of times if there is a whip pan there is going to be a sound connected.