Owl Choir
A choir-like pad created from the sound of an owl.
Bykenjiulmer
The story
I woke up the other day to the sound of an owl outside my apartment window. I couldn’t see where it was, or what species of owl it was, but judging by how loud I could hear the animal, it was close.
I grabbed the only recording device I had handy at the time… my iPhone. I then isolated a tone that I liked, and put it through PaulXStretch to create about a 30 second tone. After several gentle passes of noise reduction, I had something that I was happy with. I pitched the tone to F3, and spread the single note across the keyboard in Kontakt.
A huge shoutout to David Hilowitz for his Kontakt tutorials! This was my first attempt at scripting, and his walkthrough made the process painless.
Reviews
Ghost Owls, and a bonus use tip from me!
I love this sound, but I wish it didn't suffer from the noise. It's not THAT bad though. Right now it creates a more chilly aesthetic. Without the noise I feel that it would match even more soundscapes. As I was messing around with the controls, I noticed that sometimes the sample reminds me of the wind that passes through slight openings, creating a howly sound. If you match this with the pitch-bend, you can indeed hear it! Unfortunately the samples don't loop forever, so you will have to re-press them every now and then.
Ghostly Frosty Tones
This a beautiful, haunting and icy instrument. It has such a unique sound since its sampled from owls. Its such a recognizable sound but it has also been mangled in a beautiful way. Very creative to think to turn this into a pad since the sound source really can't be replicated by digital synthesis and is again unique. The whole range sounds great for drones wether you want to so super low or super high. I often find that these types of instruments get really piercing in the high end but this one doesn't. I might want eq out a little bit of those frequencies but for the most part its really good. The GUI also offers a decent amount of control. Great job
The Owls Are Not What They Seem
I love the ghostly, ethereal textures in this spooky pad sound. When making the demo track I tried to channel some Twin Peaks atmosphere, as that series was no stranger to Owls. Only uses sounds from the library. No effects used other than a tiny bit of EQ and light mastering.