The first volume in the new Hell's Rebels Adventure Path, "In Hell's Bright Shadow", is a fantastic adventure needing equally fantastic sounds. But where exactly does one record a skeleton battle in progress, or an exploding fairy? Follow along in the attached video for just a few of the creative ways Team Syrinscape brought "In Hell's Bright Shadow" to life.
Skeleton Battle—Redact & Revenge SoundSet
"In Hell's Bright Shadow" calls for a Skeleton Battle. We had drums and a disturbing undead mumbling all sorted, but how to do the clinking of rib bones? We can't have skeletons without that sound! The secret to making the sound of lots of little bones clinking together is... Lego! Yep, with a handful of pink Lego pieces, and a bit of audio processing, the result is a sound that's not only peculiar, but creates a sense that something not held together in quite the normal way is trying to stab you.
Giant Rat Battle—Fair Fortune Livery SoundSet
This one should've been simple enough to create. Just find some Rodents of Unusual Size and record them, right? I tried that—they ate my microphone! And sound samples from real-world rats weren't nearly monstrous enough for what awaits players in this encounter. The solution here was Australia's Tasmanian Devil, whose maniacal scream is part of how the animal got its name. Thanks Australia!
Bloodthirsty Rioters—Aria Park Protest SoundSet
Next, the protest and riot scene challenged us to come up with the sound of a lawless rabble. What sort of people sound riotous, disrespectful of order, and generally dangerous? Of course, politicians! That's right—these samples came from open-source recordings of the English Houses of Parliament. That's what I call leadership!
Fan-Sourced Voice Actors
While many of Syrinscape's beastly sounds and unique voices come from our own voice boxes combined with a lot of fancy audio processing, maintaining variety in the audio content is one of our biggest challenges. This year at PaizoCon and again at Gen Con, we thought we'd try having gamers contribute their own madness to our library of source sounds, and wow, did you deliver! Some of my favorites:
- The Grimple Cackles in the Fair Fortune Livery SoundSet —supplied by Jason Bainter and Nathaniel Bassett at Gen Con. Wow!
- The lemures in the same SoundSet.
- The chough in the Waspnest.
- And the thugs in the Aria Park Protest.
THANK YOU, and keep the sounds coming! In fact we are more than happy to continue to accept sounds, just email them to benjamin@syrinscape.com.
Exploding Fairy—Rebuild the Ravens SoundSet
Last but not least came the age-old question, "What exactly does it sound like when a fairy explodes?" This was indeed the conundrum with which I was faced. In the end I settled on a slowed down balloon pop, combined with a light sprinkling of sped-up fairy dust wind chimes. If we ever get the chance to witness the real thing, I'll make sure I pull out my recorder quick-smart.
I hope you've enjoyed my musings on sound creation, and I hope you enjoy our work on this amazing In Hell's Bright Shadow SoundPack. In particular it's been fantastic to work with the two composers, Kyle Johnson and Michael Gordon Shapiro, who have breathed a great breath of fresh air into the music available in Syrinscape.
For the first time Syrinscape is releasing a new SoundPack simultaneously with Paizo's latest Pathfinder Adventure Path. GMs and players who now have access to the latest volume, Pathfinder Adventure Path #97: In Hell's Bright Shadow, also have the opportunity to experience this latest AP with sound from the get-go with the In Hell's Bright Shadow SoundPack. Give it a try with a free 30-day trial subscription, but be warned—after a session playing this excellent adventure enhanced with fully immersive sound, your players will never want to play without Syrinscape again!
Benjamin Loomes
Creative Director
Syrinscape
