How To Design Fierce Creature Vocals - Huge Sound Design Tutorial (includes 26 Free SFX!)

Posted October 13, 2020 by Asbjoern Andersen in Sound design guides

Want to learn how to design creature vocalizations? Chase Steele is back with a new in-depth tutorial, covering everything from sourcing and layering creature source material to editing, processing and transforming those recordings into some mean creature vocals. And as a bonus, he's throwing in 26 sound effects for you, completely free!

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How to Design Fierce Creature & Monster Voices - Huge Sound Design Featuring 26 Free Sound Effects!

Topics & playing times:

1:25 Design Overview • 3:52 Creature Source Material • 5:24 Layer Breakdown / No FX • 9:00 Layer Volume Sidechaining • 12:55 Layer Breakdown / W FX • 18:35 Vocalsynth Overview • 28:51 Rendered Subprojects Edits

Download a selection of 26 Sandhill Crane recordings from this project here – absolutely free! (updated link)

In addition to the free sounds above, Chase Steele also uses source material from the Vibrations Bowed Materals 1 library in the video – you can learn more about that library here

A big thanks to Chase Steele and Sound Spark LLC for exclusively hosting this video on A Sound Effect. Find the Sound Spark Youtube channel here, and meet Sound Spark on Twitter here.

Popular sound effects libraries from Sound Spark:
Hear some of the popular sound effects libraries from Sound Spark below –
and browse their full catalog here:

Gore Sound Effects Gore (SSP) Play Track 257 sounds included, 13 mins total $19.99
The Gore library contains 257 total sounds of squishes, smashes, squelches melee weapon attacks, zombies and more. All effects have been thoughtfully named and crafted into multiple variations making them extremely flexible and easy to use. This library will work well if you need ready to use sounds for your game or if you’re a sound editor needing some extra material for your latest project. Sounds are well rounded and simple enough to fit Sci-Fi, Horror, Fantasy and any other genre where you might need some blood and guts.

Sound types include:
- General Gore Attacks
- Melee Weaponry
- Basic Smashes, Hits and Slaps (Yeah Slaps).
- Squishes and Squelches
- Bonus Zombie Growls and Horror Ambience!
Add to cart
Magic & Fantasy Sound Effects Magic Spells, Buffs and Attacks Play Track 507 sounds included $39.99

The Magic Spells, Buffs and Attacks library contains 507 total spell sounds. Each spell type has been thoughtfully named and crafted into multiple variations making them extremely flexible and easy to use. This library will work great for MMOs, RPGs and other fantasy style games. Of course, it will be great for film or any other form of media also! Many of these sounds are also well suited for Sci-Fi or Futuristic applications.

Bonus Reaktor Ensemble:

As if the sounds alone weren’t enough, we’re also including a special bonus in the form of a Native Instruments Reaktor Ensemble. We call it “The Mage”.. it is designed to allow you to take spell types, mash them together and create endless new iterations of material!

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Metal Sound Effects Metal Hits, Scrapes and Squeaks Play Track 689 sounds included, 22 Minutes mins total $29.99

The Metal Hits, Scrapes and Squeaks library contains a variety of small to medium sized metal props with each material type including multiple performance variations.

Props include objects such as sheet metal, sledgehammers, paint cans, metal buckets, metal grating, metal marbles, cups, pots and pans, dry ice (contributing squeaks and squeals), metal bars, metal stands, chains and more.

All recordings were made in a studio or iso booth environment to produce a very clean sounding library. The library works perfectly as a construction or foley kit. Files included were recorded at 24bit/96kHz.

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Cinematic & Trailer Sound Effects Whooshes Impacts and Transitions Play Track 127 sounds included $19.99
This library includes a series of cinematic and basic whoosh, movement and transition effects. It also includes a number of impactful drops.

What makes this library unique is the varied amount of content and processing techniques used to create the movement effects. Some effects are created totally organically, others manufactured with analog synths and others creatively processed from nothing other than atonal noise.

Another great quality of these effects is a natural doppler effect is often incorporated. This was done by re-recording some source elements and either moving the source or the mic itself.

A slim library, of 127 sounds – it feels much larger in the amount of varied content that it includes. This library is one I’ve personally used a lot and I’m very happy to bring it to you now!

Sound types include:
- Organic Whooshes
- Designed Transition Effects
- Tonal, Atonal and Noise asthetics
- Drops and Impacts
Get this in a bundle:This library is also included in the Forge Sound Design Toolkit Bundle
Add to cart

More creature sound design guides:

Want to learn more about creature sound design? Check out these guides below:

• Why rocks rock for creature sound design – with Thomas Rex Beverly
• Creature Sound Design Insights from David Farmer, sound designer on The Hobbit & LOTR
• Video: Paula Fairfield talks ‘Game of Thrones’ creature sound design
• Award-winning sound designer David Farmer shares tips, tricks & techniques from working 25+ years in sound
• How Randy Thom & Al Nelson crafted ‘How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World’s impressively evocative sound

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THE WORLD’S EASIEST WAY TO GET INDEPENDENT SOUND EFFECTS:

A Sound Effect gives you easy access to an absolutely huge sound effects catalog from a myriad of independent sound creators, all covered by one license agreement - a few highlights:

User Interface (UI) Sound Effects Motion Graphics Play Track 650+ sounds included $9

Introducing MOTION GRAPHICS, a complete Motion Graphics sound effects library from SoundMorph!

Motion Graphics focuses on all the elements you might need for sound design on a trailer, a cinematic scene or a visual that is heavy with motion graphics, whether it be abstract or straight forward, Motion Graphics has all the elements and textures you could think of. Motion Graphics are something all of us sound designers run into at one point or another, so this library is an excellent addition to your sound effects tool box.

Motion Graphics was created by and in collaboration with sound designer Rostislav Trifonov (SoundMorph Elemental library contributor).

Motion Graphics features 650 24bit/96 kHz .wav files, all meticulously embedded with Soundminer & Basehead metadata.

The library features:
• 450 + designed sound effects
• 190 + source audio files
• Whooshes
• Impacts
• Risers
• Stingers
• Low end and Sub Bass
• Impulse Responses
• Passbys
• Textures – noise, grit, glitch
• Ambiences
• Buttons and Clicks
• Mechanical Elements
• Granular effects

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Cinematic & Trailer Sound Effects Bloody Nightmare Play Track 550 sounds included $9

Bloody Nightmare is a modern horror cinematic library aimed at the most cutting edge bone chilling productions out there.

Whether you work in sound design, as a composer, trailer editor or as an electronic musician, Bloody Nightmare is a valuable new wave of Horror sounds that will surely cause visceral moments of terror and dread!

91 %

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Featured Sound Creators Modular UI Play Track $9

Modular UI is an advanced user interface library designed by world-renowned sound designer and musician Richard Devine.

Designed and sourced entirely from Richard Devine’s personal and exclusive Eurorack modular synths and processors collection, the Modular UI soundpack combines the retro, clean sound of analog with the futuristic tech of the new wave of advanced analog and digital synthesis from modular synths, evoking flashbacks of iconic sound design heard in both classic and modern sci-fi films.

The Modular UI soundpack gives you access to sounds created by one of the masters of modular synths and sound design, and is sourced from equipment that would take a lifetime to purchase and assemble, giving an incredible value to this soundpack both artistically and financially.

Utilizing many Eurorack modules that have not yet been released to the public and containing samples equally suited to sound designers and electronic musicians alike, Modular UI is in a class by itself!

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Explore the full, unique collection here

Latest sound effects libraries:

Game Audio Packs - Game Sound Effects Libraries Kawaii UI Bundle Play Track 1339+ sounds included $70

Kawaii UI Bundle is the ultimate bundle for cute user interface sounds.
In this Bundle you get both volumes of our Kawaii UI libraries.
Kawaii UI + Kawaii UI 2

These libraries provide an adorable blend of cute, satisfying interface sounds, crafted to enhance user experience and feedback.
Bring your games and apps to life with the Kawaii UI Bundle.

It’s ideal for creating joyful menus, delightful HUDs, playful navigation and notifications, engaging pop-ups, and expressive text.

What’s Inside?

Designed

The designed portion of Kawaii UI Bundle gives you a selection of ready to use OS sounds, various melodic and synth based sounds, button presses, cursors, notifications, swipes, errors, bootups, app opens, loading loops, etc. We’ve even included an adorable vocal alphabet for character text.

Source

The source recordings inside are a treasure trove of physical button presses, clicks, pops, taps, mouth sounds, toks, shakers, general synthesised UI sounds, FM bells and telemetry style sounds.. Kawaii UI Bundle provides you with the essential building blocks to craft your own distinctive designs. Combining these elements gives sound designers a robust sonic palette to create new UI sounds.

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Footsteps Sound Effects Footsteps Vegetation Play Track 582+ sounds included $59

Vegetation Footsteps is a detailed collection of footwear and movement variations recorded on dry leaves and forest floor textures. Featuring walk, run, sprint, scuff, pivot, and single step actions, this library captures the nuanced crunch and rustle of layered vegetation underfoot. With performances in sport shoes, sandals, leather shoes, high heels, and barefoot, each sound is designed for realistic character movement across natural environments. Ideal for games, film, and animation, Vegetation Footsteps offers clean, focused assets for building immersive terrain interaction.

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Foley Sound Effects Potion Sound Effects Play Track 135 sounds included $19.99

A collection of 135 potion sound effects.

Add to cart
Game Audio Packs - Game Sound Effects Libraries Power Up Sound Effects Play Track 140 sounds included $29.99

A collection of 140 individual power up ability sound effects.

Add to cart
Foley Sound Effects Bowling Sound Effects Play Track 103 sounds included $19.99

A collection of 103 bowling sound effects.

Add to cart