Thanks to all that participated in the first ever (to our knowledge) Hybrid Animal Sound Design Competition! There were nearly 190 incredible entries from many very talented sound designers. We were beyond impressed with the creativity and enthusiasm on display in the competition.
The winners took home over $6,000 in prizes from Avid, iZotope, Rode Microphones, and Pro Sound Effects. Thanks to our sponsors for making the Hybrid Animal Sound Design Competition such a success!
| "Cicadagoat" image by Chris Lyon of Perennial Media |
The Grand Prize Winner Balasz Barna was chosen by Ken Skogulund (award winning re-recording mixer), Ric Viers (sound designer, author, and sound effects producer), and our very own Douglas Price (founder and president of PSE) for his "Cicadagoat" sound design.
Balazs created the imaginary Cicadagoat using "DomesticSheep" from the Rare Animals Sound Effects Library and recordings of cicadas in his garden.
[soundcloud]https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/142311895[/soundcloud]
The Listener's Choice Award goes to Stef Arseneault for his "Walrusealephant." Stef not only managed to accrue over 697 unique votes, but he created an incredible sound design worthy of the next Hollywood blockbuster! Stef used this Antarctic Fur Seal from the Rare Animals Sound Effects Library in his design. Take a listen to his Walrusealephant below:
The Listener's Choice Runner-Up Award goes to Dan Crislip for his "Noctfoxicada" that managed to earn 591 unique votes!
Here's what Dan says about his process in creating the haunting Noctfoxicada:
"I found this Cicada sample from the Rare Animals Library. It had so much variation in tone that I knew I had found something special to work with. With some stretching, smoothing, and processing, it turned into a haunting undertone that I could build from. I used it as a root sound and also used portions of it as an impulse for a convolution reverb to give all sounds a similar tone. I combined that with a Noctule Bat and fox cubs.
Both samples had character and a giant range of vocalizations as well as having similar tonal content. I began cutting and shaping slices to create cries of the new hybrid animal. My typical workflow involves finding source material that conveys an emotion or frequency material that I want my resulting sound to have, and then using effect processors and plugins that can morph the source sound into something closer to what I want, much like a sculpter with clay. I use plugins like the Waves gold series, GRM Tools, and the Audio Ease plugins. Once I am happy with my sounds, I finalize them with an EQ and reverb to give all elements the same processing, then I typically compress them a little to give them some volume, and voila!
Stay tuned to the PSE Blog for more information on how these talented sound designers created these Hybrid Animals!