I DARE ye to synthesize this sound

[David Emm]

I'm fascinated by this autobiography recalling Mr. McCullin's dark-starred career as a war photojournalist. Its a major slice of history. It'll make you more fully appreciate your quiet neighborhood and indoor plumbing. This morning, I came upon this:

 

"Faya was like some isolated French garrison of the nineteenth century. Guns protruded through battlements and mud walls. The tricolour flew overhead. A tidal wave of the Sahara and its dunes crept up to it as if reclaiming its rights. An old man and his son showed us the magic of the dunes. When you slid down them, they produced an extraordinary singing sound, so loud it seemed to fill the entire desert. My hair stood on end. It was the most remarkable sound I ever heard."

~ Don McCullin, "Unreasonable Behavior"

 

That's a proper design challenge for you. There are several angles of approach. I'd be happy to nab a few takes with a shotgun mic and simply resynthesize it within Alchemy. Lazy, huh? If I was more of a RealSynthManâ¢, I'd labor over some mad Eurorack or Korg Wavestate shimmer action, making it sound like Smaug's trove of gold sliding about. Its part Oblique Strategies to even pose the task. Yes, I'm generously medicated today, thank you. There'll be another show at 11.

[PianoMan51]

You"re looking for Suzanne Ciani.

 

[video:youtube]

[Tusker]

Brilliant! I"ll have some of whatever he"s having. Alchemy the world"s most under-rated re-synthesizer. But even without resynthesis, in Alchemy you could grab some noise, run it through an array of moaning comb filters, then treat it to some cavernous convolution reverb on it"s way out the door?

 

[video:youtube]

[GRollins]

If they're not careful, they'll end up summoning a sandworm...

 

Grey

[CEB]

We call this one Shai-hulud, who is the physical embodiment of the one God who created and governs the universe.

[David Emm]

You WOULD take part of the mystery out of it with SCIENCE. Hmph. So the Earth prefers E, G or F. I thought the wind was playing a chord once, but it was just my crazy neighbor's Aeolian harp. I have a few Chromaphone sounds that are in this ballpark. I hear some interesting clusters just over the horizon. It'll be amusing to reverse-engineer the sound of a giant sand dune.

[Old No7]

"I DARE ye to synthesize this sound"

 

"Faya was like some isolated French garrison of the nineteenth century. Guns protruded through battlements and mud walls. The tricolour flew overhead. A tidal wave of the Sahara and its dunes crept up to it as if reclaiming its rights. An old man and his son showed us the magic of the dunes. When you slid down them, they produced an extraordinary singing sound, so loud it seemed to fill the entire desert. My hair stood on end. It was the most remarkable sound I ever heard."

~ Don McCullin, "Unreasonable Behavior"

Well, whatever sound I'd come up with (if I didn't own just a ROMpler)...

 

For sure, with a description like that, I'd name it: "Beau Geste"

 

Old No7