Posted 11 February 2009 by admin in Exhibits | Sounds | 1 comment

…vomit.

It’s an awkward position to be in: you need the sound of vomit but don’t have any of it handy. This is the problem I was facing in 2003, when I created a small exhibit for the Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester.

It all started when I was approached by acoustician Trevor Cox to make an exhibit about unpleasant sounds: fingers down the blackboard, babies crying, ringtones, the sound of someone slurping their dinner and other ghastly delights. I persuaded Trevor to turn the exhibit some kind of test – a booth where visitors could test their endurance of the ‘worst sounds in the world’. A simple idea – but one that hit the buffers when I started hunting around for library sound effects – the kind you can buy in packs of 200 on CD. I don’t know who library tracks are made for but I have to say they don’t cut the mustard if you’re looking for something that genuinely puts your teeth on edge. So I decided to spend a couple of days, in the company of some actors, making my own recordings. Here are the details for making one of those sounds – simulated vomit (please don’t venture any further if it’s teatime):

The sound of vomit – here’s one I prepared earlier

How to fake the sound of vomiting

You will need

1 tin of baked beans (any make will do)

1/2 litre of tepid water

A plastic bucket

A mug

An actor with a sterling constitution

A sound recording and editing system with reverb

Instructions

1) Pour the beans into the bowl and mix in the water to make a sloppy broth.

2) Scoop out a mug full of the broth.

3) Holding your mic just inside the bowl, empty your mug into the bowl, while you record the sound. Make sure you record every part of the action – including the moment when the mixture first hits the bowl.

4) Repeat step 3 several times. Experiment with different amounts of broth. Also experiment with slow and fast emptying of the mug. Try and get some recordings where the broth hits the bare plastic of the bowl, others where it hits the broth that’s already in there. This extra effort will pay dividends later.

5) Ask your actor to make some retching sounds, as though he is about to be sick. If you are working with a method actor, you may find it helpful to let him smell or touch the broth at this juncture. Record the sounds he makes. It’s especially good if he can imitate the sound of a small piece of onion being stuck in the throat.

6) Now you have your raw materials, it’s time to edit them together to make a convincing vomiting sound. Listen to the recordings you have made and cut and paste the best takes to make a sequence of alternating retches and broth falls. You may like to start with some more delicate sounds that build towards a climax. Make sure you leave a hiatus between each retch and broth fall. And remember, you’re simulating a natural function here so don’t bee too metronomic about the placing of the sounds (unless you’re trying to beat match this to some music). Vary the pattern as much as you like – be creative!

The reverb plugin in Logic

7) Your sound effect is almost complete but a little reverberation will help to stitch the two elements of your sound together, convincing the listener that the two are taking place in the same space. A reverb of around 3.5 seconds should be ample for a domestic toilet but feel free to experiment here. The larger your imaginary room is and the more tiled its surfaces are, the longer the reverb will be. Most reverbs have a knob that lets you adjust the amount of ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ sound. Here, ‘wet’ sound is the sound that has been given the reverb treatment, ‘dry’ sound is your original sound. Start with a wet-to-dry ratio of around 30% but increase this if you want to give the impression your actor is further away. You may find you can increase the perception of distance by cutting the high frequencies a little.

Some related sites

Bad Vibes project website (sponsored at the EPSRC)

Interview with Monique Reymond, Foley Artist

Foley artists use umbrellas, dog food and a host of other unlikely items to make the incidental sounds in movies.