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I am looking out for sounds that might suit an underground tunnel system.

I found a few here that might help when mixed together, but most of the tunnel sounds here are either full of trains or water or people talking. And none of those are what I want.

What I need are echos... but not very specific sounds, something that will conjure up a feeling of:

...old, metallic, slightly damp, eerie, underground tunnels with a lot of distance in them, and possibly also rust...

'cos there will be quite a lot of rust in these tunnels as they are extremely near the sea.

I found a recording of seagulls and waves that I can use before we enter these tunnels, but once inside I'm going to need a fair bit of tunnel ambience.

Any ideas?

Either of what to record (If I can do so) or else what to search for, if I can't.

Fran

P.S. I need the sounds to be free - I'm just a student.

franontheedge

... full of trains or water or people talking. And none of those are what I want.

...old, metallic, slightly damp,

Damp but no water is going to be difficult

What about dripping or footsteps or breathing (or seagulls) reverberating.

I recorded a bunch of samples in the basement of my apartment building, maybe they can be of help. I didn't put them together in a pack but you can search for basement.

Examples:
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=73100
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=73111

Best,
LG

I guess that this is too wet then.

http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=60086

I made some recordings of the Chesapeke Bay Bridge Tunnel system last week and will be posting an entire 9 day road trip's worth of recordings. I picked up some in car sounds, outside sounds and some vent noise from one of the exits... it will be awhile but look out for a sample pack called "road trip" and it will be geotagged covering about 3,000 miles worth of driving up and down most of the eastern seaboard of the US.

I might have some holland tunnel and some subway sounds in there too, there are 4 hours worth to sift through and identitfy.

Stay tuned

That sounds most interesting NoiseCollector! I look forward to that...

LG,
I see what you mean about the first one being rather quiet, I'll have to listen to that without my headphones, or just download it and turn up the volume a bit.

But that'll have to wait as I've used up my allowance of 10 downloads today.

It is 10 isn't it?

The second one you posted a link to - walking in a basement - is closer, and if the footsteps were quieter it would be very much closer, I think it's the scuffing sounds, as if the walker wanted to make sure the footsteps were heard that put me off that one.

If you have a recording of that same basement either with quieter footsteps - or even better no footsteps - or perhaps footsteps trying not to be heard? that might work better.

Benboncan,

Yes, you're right - that recording is too wet for my purpose, but actually it's also too noisy, there's too much going on there I think.

NoiseCollector,

Oh that sounds interesting.

I did find a recording of drilling in a tunnel that - if it hadn't been for the drilling sounds - might have been useful.

I guess it would be closer to say I'm looking for a background ambient sound for a tunnel system - a sort of echoy, metallic hollowness with perhaps faint sounds in the distance. But such faint sounds could - if I had them - be added myself.

I'm not very experienced with sounds, so I'm probably not making a lot of sense here.

I'll look for those other sounds as you suggested LG, and search for basement.

Timbre,

Sorry I didn't see your post before.

"Damp but no water is going to be difficult Smile

What about dripping or footsteps or breathing (or seagulls) reverberating."

Um, I don't think "no water" is necessarily it, some water might be okay - after all this is very close to the sea - actually this is a tunnel system under the shore - so some water is likely.

I just don't want rushing water sounds that obliterate the chance of hearing anything else - this is a background sound - or collection of sounds I'm looking for.

Dripping is okay - I had thought of a dripping sound and I've downloaded a couple of those, to add here and there.

Yeah, and Breathing might be okay, but I need the ambient tunnel sound for the breathing to be heard in - if you see what I mean.

Footsteps... well maybe, but very distant ones, and I'd have those for a later stage in this sequence.

Later I'd also be looking for cavern-like sounds but I've already searched for those, and there seem to be a lot of voices getting in the way of the lovely lonely ambient cavern sounds.

http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=75413

It sounds better when downloaded: the Freesound previews have obvious high frequency digital artifacts.

Timbre,

Yes, but even downloading isn't going to remove or reduce those very obvious footsteps, and it sounds like gravel underfoot, not metal.

But I can't download any more until tomorrow anyway, I've already used up my quota of ten downloads.

LG,

I just found your AirDuct sounds, I think I can use some of those.

You may also want to you look into impulse response reverb in that case.

Google SIR... also known as convolution reverb. I am sure someone has a tunnel impulse response that you could apply to a sound to get the tunnel effect you seek.

I was able to put up the first two days of my trip today but will have the rest up by next weekend, unfortunately the tunnel recordings are on he way home and I still have hours of New York, Philadelphia, and Atlantic City to get through before then.

Here is the road trip sound project so far:

http://www.freesound.org/packsViewSingle.php?id=4900

LG,

I just found your AirDuct sounds, I think I can use some of those.

I saw it, hope it is useful for you!

LG

Here is the road trip sound project so far:

Good stuff NC!

No footsteps, no water, just essence of tunnel …

Synthesised railway tunnel ambience … http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=75482

Synthesised road tunnel ambience … http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=75502

NB: you will require speakers or headphones capable of reproducing low frequencies (150Hz) to hear these,
they will probably be inaudible on a laptop’s built-in speakers.

(I was sure I already posted this reply) :?

Thanks a million to Timbre for those two tunnel sounds - they are just excellent!

I was just wondering.... would it be possible to create a sound that makes you think of what you hear when you put your ear to a seashell????

It's sort of like a tunnel that billows - if you can imagine that.

Um... this is different to the tunnel sounds - do you think I should post this separately?

I was just thinking... those two tunnel sounds are perfectly audible to me on my PC with my super speakers... so what should I do to them to make them audible on a laptop as well?

I'm thinking of the final film here.

Apparently this forum has developed a fault: this thread has been duplicated.

Hmmm, that's a nice sound, but it's a little too regular, or maybe it's just too fast?

Mind you I'd be interested to hear it "tunnel-ified" - how are you doing that anyway?

Is there a tutorial on how to do that sort of thing anywhere? I'd be interested in learning such things.

franontheedge

It's sort of like a tunnel that billows - if you can imagine that.

the first 20 seconds are close, but after that too high pitched and screechy for what I was thinking.

Like an old fashioned wind-machine, wound too fast.

I'm not looking for a gale here, more a soft billowing susurration of sound - but not as low and vague as a whipser.

Softer synthetic wind ... http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=22331

Remember you can filter these samples through say a graphic equaliser to fit your requirements.

a graphic equalizer? I haven't got one of those.

What I have got is Adobe Soundbooth CS4.

My only problem is that while knowing what I want to hear, I have no idea how to get that out of Soundbooth.

Which is why I asked about tutorials. Oh well.

There is something in Soundbooth under the Effects menu called:EQ Graphic, which could be what you mean, and I have tried 'Reverb: Large Room' from that list, which gives you some echoy-ness, but not enough.

I'm hoping that you can increase the effect by using it twice... or more.

How to get billowy-ness out of a sound -or put billowy-ness onto a sound... well I'm kind of stuck with that.