Kookaburra Bushland
By Liam Fox O’Brien
Kookaburra Bushland - A fresh new sample pack, featuring environmental sounds captured in the Australian wilderness. I recently visited Australia, with my field recording kit, for the first time in 3 years (since pre-covid). I had forgotten just how immensely rich and vast the natural sonic landscapes are down there (particularly in subtropical Southeast Queensland)... I was up at 4am most mornings recording and marvelling at the gradual crescendo of uniquely Australian birdsongs: magpies, whip-birds, currawongs, butcher-birds and of course, the kookaburras. Among these 223 samples are long unedited ambiences (of rainforest, ocean, mangrove, beach and riverbanks), percussion hits, one-shots, melodies and rhythmic loops.
Halcyon City
By Liam Fox O’Brien
The sounds we hear in our daily lives can seem mundane, annoying, or even irritating. But what if we listened with a new mindful perspective? Splice Explores: Halcyon City captures the everyday sounds of Los Angeles and puts them through a series of effects, processing, and experimentation. The result is an urban soundscape transformed into a lush suite of ambient and meditative sound-healing samples.
Composer and sound designer Liam Fox O’Brien (armed with various high-resolution recorders and mics) took to the city streets and captured field recordings that, in essence, tend to be quite harsh and abrasive, peppered with noise (some notable players were police sirens, howling coyotes, heavy machinery and air traffic). Back in the studio, he began an in-depth process of reshaping these sounds.
Using tape-looping, time-stretching, filtering, and a vast toolkit of experimental sound design techniques, he twisted, warped, and whittled away at the source material to create samples to inspire calmness and tranquility. He recorded those samples to magnetic 1/4 inch tape and then, by slowing the tape down and making loops that re-record over themselves, the twisted and mangles files found a new warmth and character. Liam then replicated a kind of additive-granular-synthesis effect that gave the environmental sounds texture and depth.
Finally he recorded everything back into his computer and found hidden magic through exploration and experimentation by pulling some frequencies away, compressing some and boosting others, to ultimately sculpt unique tones that were complex and rich due to the additional noises that were captured at the source.
Hopefully this pack can inspire a new appreciation for your local natural sonic identity and be the secret ingredient to embracing a new perspective, a new sense of calm, and a new layer of character in your next track. Download these samples now and rethink what’s possible around you.
By Liam Fox O’Brien
Recorded and Produced by Liam Fox O’Brien
FEATURED STORY
Making friends on the road
On a road-trip across America, Liam Fox-O’Brien recorded hours of nature, factories, metals, and animal calls to discover what sounds lie just out of our reach. In LA. with the help of local biologists, Liam located a small population of Mexican wing-tailed bats near Long Beach and captured wild, primal, and detailed conversations between bats in mid-flight.
Known for their speed, Mexican free-tailed bats are the "jets" of the bat world. They can live up to 18 years old and are found in the western United States, south through Mexico, Central America, and into northern South America. They roost in caves, but will also choose attics, under bridges, or in abandoned buildings. They choose roosts near water, as it attracts the insects they eat and allows them the opportunity to drink.
Download the full Sample pack Here -
https://splice.com/sounds/splice-explores/ultrasonics
New York Navy Yard sample pack by Liam Fox O’Brien and Ryan Majoris
Recorded & Produced by Liam Fox O’Brien and Ryan Majoris
EXPLORING THE BROOKLYN NAVY YARD
Media composers and Liam Fox O’Brien and Ryan Majoris were fortunate to have access to the Brooklyn Navy Yard during the New York City Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020.
This unique and historic maritime property, once home to America’s mightiest warships, was decommissioned in 1966 and retains a host of idiosyncratic spaces, objects, and details.