Freesound Forums

Hi guys,
I need to do sound for a lightwhip (Google it). I don't know anything about sound processing and making sound effects. I want it to sound like a normal whip but just a little more metallic and with more punch.
I'm using Audacity.
Thanks Max

'Sound like a whip' is very, very vague. Sounds are very specific. What is the whip doing? Is it static, is it 'swooshing' is is being cracked, is it being use to grab a distant object etc etc etc.

When building a SFX, you need to first define the above. Once defined, look for the underlying sound, the sound that will always be there regardless of the action (for the want of a better phrase - the static sound). ie it may be some sort of electrical crackling sound ie gently crumpling cellephane in your hands. For the specific 'action' you will need to overlay sound sounds, ie various whooshing sounds ('swoosh your backyard hose in the air), a cracking sound (gunshot for example), some wrapping around something sounds (ie garden house wrapping around a metal pole). For the 'metalic sound' you can play with various filters to see what sounds right - remember you are going to have to overlay sounds here. There is not going to be a filter or filter setting for 'lightwhip'.

When you have it sounding right the last stop is to work out how the whip is moving with respect to the audience, far to near, left to right etc then this will need to be refelected as well in your soound design.

Cheers

David

A lightwhip, also known as an energy whip or a laser whip, was a rare variation of the lightsaber.

try searching for "lightsaber" , "lightsabre", [ maybe "shing" or "spark"].

you said you want it to sound like a normal whip just with more punch and metalic. You might try applying chorus or flanging to the whip then. you might try emphasizing certain frequency bands with eq to make it brighter or give it more definition. You might also try a phaser. You could mix in a little crackle of electricity to give it a zip before the crack of the impact. So mix a little eletric arc in with the woosh before the pow if that makes sense. These are technical terms you understand.

Hope this helps.