Freesound Forums

Hello daring Freesounders!

This will be the first sound design mini-dare.
The idea with these is to focus on a single sound design technique and explore...

The rules are simple and you are expected to push them as far as you can, without breaking them!
Anything not specifically required by the rules is not needed. Anything not specifically forbidden by the rules is allowed.

The objective of this dare is to transform sounds into something different, using only VOLUME. See if you can make the sounds unrecognizable from the original source sounds?

RULES:
1) You can use a maximum of two sounds. The sounds must be from Freesound and have been uploaded before today (09-Mar-2025).
2) You can cut / copy / paste as needed, but the only transformation you can apply to the sounds is changing the VOLUME.
3) You are allowed to mix the sounds.
4) You are not allowed to pitch, reverse or stretch the sounds.
5) You are not allowed to use any effects (other than volume changes).
6) You must give attribution to the sounds you use. (Even if they are CC0). Add a link in the sound description or, even better, use the 'add sound sources' functionality. - We want to hear the original sounds and see how far they have been modified by you.
7) You can create as many sounds as you want for this dare. Please tag with "dare2025-04" and, preferably group them in one (or more) sound packs.
8 ) In the sound description, please give as much detail as possible on the process used to create your sound.
9 ) Post on this thread with links to your sounds.
10) Have fun!

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: 29-Mar-2025

For clarification, is EQ considered volume over specfic frequencies and allowed, or is it an effect other than volume?
I guess even more grey area than eq, is dynamic like compression expanders limiters etc...

Cheers!

Here we go
https://freesound.org/people/copyc4t/sounds/791900/

Machinery-like noise, loopable, obtained by zero-point cutting and repeating a short piece of background noise from this CC0 sound by davahey:
https://freesound.org/people/davahey/sounds/98794/
It's taken from the "silence" after the second pouring, amplified to peak around -4 dB.

As for mentioning the sources, I think it's the best use for the "Add sound sources" feature; you could suggest it in point #6.

Sadiquecat wrote:
For clarification, is EQ considered volume over specfic frequencies and allowed, or is it an effect other than volume?
I guess even more grey area than eq, is dynamic like compression expanders limiters etc...

Cheers!

It is an effect...

copyc4t wrote:
As for mentioning the sources, I think it's the best use for the "Add sound sources" feature; you could suggest it in point #6.

Done. Thanks.

AlienXXX wrote
"You can use a maximum of two sounds ... the only transformation you can apply to the sounds is changing the VOLUME".

What about using the waveform of one sound to change the volume of another: i.e. Amplitude Modulation ?

Yep... that's pushing it... 🙂

But if the rules don't forbid it, it is allowed.

Here's a few sounds :
https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/792019/ Tremolo volume automation
https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/792018/ Lots of gain to pick up digital artefacts, copy/pasted a few times to repeat.
https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/792020/ Rhythmic volume automations in Ableton live 12.

Sadiquecat wrote:
Here's a few sounds :
https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/792019/ Tremolo volume automation
https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/792018/ Lots of gain to pick up digital artefacts, copy/pasted a few times to repeat.
https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/792020/ Rhythmic volume automations in Ableton live 12.

Hello....
interesting sounds.
- The first one, is perhaps the less transformed. But did sound to me like there was almost some 'saturation' going on. Not sure if that was just the difference in volume versus the original sound or if there was some subtle fast-rate amplitude-modulation going on that produced some extra harmonics?...
- The second sound, while not very interesting by itself, reveals 2 very interesting techniques that can be used by volume manipulation alone. - The first is clipping. Yep, boost the volume too much in a digital system and you will eventually get the tops of the waves clipped off. Usually that is something we don't want, but could be used as a tool also... The other point is that doing enormous amounts of volume boost in quiet parts can reveal hidden sounds and digital artifacts.
- The final sound is by far my favourite! - Simple volume automation can be used to chop a sound up. Once it has been chopped up like this, a lot of interesting sounds are generated (sounds that, really, were already there but just sound very different when isolated). - This was one of the techniques I was hoping people would find from experimenting. It is quite amazing what mundane sound recordings can transform into once processed this way...
Since the rules allow free cut / copy / move / paste, you can even re-sequence these sounds into your own rhythms.

By the way, on the last sound you forgot to put a link to the original sound.

Hello there,
Edited the description, thanks!
In regards to the first sound, the saturation came mostly from a square wave tremolo.
Chopping the sound on/off.
Theres also some saw waves tremolo etc...
Indeed, i tried to follow the notes harmonics so the treomolos follow A at 440hz 880, 220 etc...
Sadly audacitys tremolo doesn't go higher than 1000hz.

Hope that clarifies things.
Cheers

https://freesound.org/people/gis_sweden/sounds/792078/
Cello Alarm ☺

I used the sound "celloworks.aif" by noid (April 2nd, 2006)
https://freesound.org/people/noid/sounds/17599/
(It was even used in freesound dare 16 by afleetingspeck (12 years ago).)

I loop a 300 samples short part of the sound and turning amplitude on and of with the help of an lfo.
If I change startpoint i get a different sound character. If I shorten the sample to loop the pitch goes up, and the other way around. I'm using ChucK for this.

Sadiquecat wrote:
Hello there,
Edited the description, thanks!
In regards to the first sound, the saturation came mostly from a square wave tremolo.
Chopping the sound on/off.
Theres also some saw waves tremolo etc...
Indeed, i tried to follow the notes harmonics so the treomolos follow A at 440hz 880, 220 etc...
Sadly audacitys tremolo doesn't go higher than 1000hz.

Hope that clarifies things.
Cheers

Thanks for updating the description for sound #3.

And for the explanation on the tremolos used. - at audio rates, effectively these are performing Amplitude Modulation.
Please add as much detail as possible to that sound description also.

gis_sweden wrote:
https://freesound.org/people/gis_sweden/sounds/792078/
Cello Alarm ☺

I used the sound "celloworks.aif" by noid (April 2nd, 2006)
https://freesound.org/people/noid/sounds/17599/
(It was even used in freesound dare 16 by afleetingspeck (12 years ago).)

I loop a 300 samples short part of the sound and turning amplitude on and of with the help of an lfo.
If I change startpoint i get a different sound character. If I shorten the sample to loop the pitch goes up, and the other way around. I'm using ChucK for this.

Thanks, gis_sweden

Might be useful to explain what ChucK is in your sound description - I had to google it.
If you have different versions of the sound where you change the parameters, that would be interesting also. In fact, since the rules allow you to copy / paste / move sections of the sound, you can even create a collage showing a sequence of different timbres (or pitches) that you can obtain from different parameters.

copyc4t wrote:
Here we go
https://freesound.org/people/copyc4t/sounds/791900/

Machinery-like noise, loopable, obtained by zero-point cutting and repeating a short piece of background noise from this CC0 sound by davahey:
https://freesound.org/people/davahey/sounds/98794/
It's taken from the "silence" after the second pouring, amplified to peak around -4 dB.

As for mentioning the sources, I think it's the best use for the "Add sound sources" feature; you could suggest it in point #6.

Hello copyc4t

I replied to the suggestion about adding sound sources, but I just realized I didn't actually comment about the sound you submitted.
Looping a section of a sound is, of course, allowed by the rules. - And this was one of the techniques I was guessing would appear early on. I was right: it came up on the first submission!
Since you are also allowed to change volume, you can also do loops using the volume cross-fade technique (in addition to the zero-point-crossing technique you have used).

The rules allow the use of 2 sounds as sources, but so far everyone has used only 1 sound.
Since we had several submissions already from different participants, I am wondering if somehow that rule was not clear....
In any case, and the reason I brought it up: I personally challenge you to create sounds where you loop sections of 2 source sounds...

Some contributions from me, in this pack:
https://freesound.org/people/AlienXXX/packs/43032/

I might add a few more sounds to it later.

The sounds are all pretty unremarkable. The purpose of this pack really is just to illustrate simple examples of how digital clipping can be used to change the wave-shape and thus the timbre of sounds.

It was inspired by this sound:
https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/792018/
Before posting the dare, I had already considered several techniques that could be used for sound design, using nothing but volume changes. But intentionally boosting volume to the point of digital clipping had not occurred to me!
So I had to go and experiment a little.
Thanks Sadiquecat!

As AlienXXX wrote, a short presentation of ChucK would be appropriate.

ChucK - Music Programming Language. "ChucK is a programming language for real-time sound synthesis and music creation. ChucK offers a unique time-based, concurrent programming model that is precise and expressive (we call this strongly-timed), dynamic control rates, and the ability to add and modify code on-the-fly" (chuck.cs.princeton.edu/).

I made a recording where I change the code during the session. I don't change the LFO settings. I change the starting point of the loop in the sample, which alters the timbre. And I adjust the loop length, which affects the perceived pitch.

https://freesound.org/people/gis_sweden/sounds/792324/

ChucK, a not that good name?

AlienXXX wrote:
Some contributions from me, in this pack:
https://freesound.org/people/AlienXXX/packs/43032/

I might add a few more sounds to it later.

The sounds are all pretty unremarkable. The purpose of this pack really is just to illustrate simple examples of how digital clipping can be used to change the wave-shape and thus the timbre of sounds.

It was inspired by this sound:
https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/792018/
Before posting the dare, I had already considered several techniques that could be used for sound design, using nothing but volume changes. But intentionally boosting volume to the point of digital clipping had not occurred to me!
So I had to go and experiment a little.
Thanks Sadiquecat!

AlienXXX wrote:
Hello copyc4t

I replied to the suggestion about adding sound sources, but I just realized I didn't actually comment about the sound you submitted.
Looping a section of a sound is, of course, allowed by the rules. - And this was one of the techniques I was guessing would appear early on. I was right: it came up on the first submission!
Since you are also allowed to change volume, you can also do loops using the volume cross-fade technique (in addition to the zero-point-crossing technique you have used).

The rules allow the use of 2 sounds as sources, but so far everyone has used only 1 sound.
Since we had several submissions already from different participants, I am wondering if somehow that rule was not clear....
In any case, and the reason I brought it up: I personally challenge you to create sounds where you loop sections of 2 source sounds...

Oh, the rules were absolutely clear to me, as for the first (and so far only) sound by me, I noticed it was already quite full, so much that I normalized it at -4dB to make it less harsh to the ears, so I decided not to mix it with anything else.
Otherwise the plan was to mix 2 snippets of respectively prime lengths, to create some sort of polyrhythmic groove, maybe with the help of a plugin like Renegate for its built-in sequencer.

I'm was also inspired by Sadiquecat - "Lots of gain".

I wanted to create a gradual gain distortion/wave shaping with ChucK (chuck.cs.princeton.edu/). I choose the sound "202607__unfa__1-second-1khz-tone-bp-filtered" by unfa. A very soft sound. A sinus tone. No harmonics.
I made a short loop (0,098s) from a selection of the orignal sound.

My sound: https://freesound.org/people/gis_sweden/sounds/792433/

At 3,339s is "max amplitude". After this the distortion and wave shaping begins.
Very interesting. A lot of harmonics are created. Adjusted to "new peak amplitude -4dB. (My ChucK script is in file description.)

gis_sweden wrote:
I'm was also inspired by Sadiquecat - "Lots of gain".

I wanted to create a gradual gain distortion/wave shaping with ChucK (chuck.cs.princeton.edu/). I choose the sound "202607__unfa__1-second-1khz-tone-bp-filtered" by unfa. A very soft sound. A sinus tone. No harmonics.
I made a short loop (0,098s) from a selection of the orignal sound.

My sound: https://freesound.org/people/gis_sweden/sounds/792433/

At 3,339s is "max amplitude". After this the distortion and wave shaping begins.
Very interesting. A lot of harmonics are created. Adjusted to "new peak amplitude -4dB. (My ChucK script is in file description.)

gis_sweden, what a beautiful horrible sound!

Just to be clear - that is a COMPLIMENT!

I encourage everyone to look at the sound spectrum - preferably by downloading the sound and doing it in Audacity, where you get a higher resolution than on the Freesound preview.
I also encourage everyone to download the sound and listen at 1/4 speed (you can do this in audacity or using a sampler or DAW and just pitching the sound down 2 octaves).
The ChucK script increases the volume in steps, which are clearly audible at the start. Since these do not occur at zero-points in the waveform, they also generate audible clicks.
But the really interesting stuff happens at the start of distortion. There are beautiful glitch buzzy patters in there.
I am inspired to use this sound to make a music track!