Something I was really looking forward to was sound mixing to create the dinosaur SFX.
Real dinosaurs did not roar like they do in Jurassic Park, they're internal ear structures from what we can see in fossils show they were suited to low frequency communication and they needed to communicate over large distances, which low frequency is better for, they had no reason to roar.
Modern day sounds I could draw from included the Eurasian Bittern, the Cassowary, the Emu, and Elephants, all of which use low frequency sounds that are within human hearing range. I wanted each dinosaur to sound different, so I used different animals for different mixes.
First was Carnotaurus. I already knew I wanted to use Eurasian Bittern in the mix, but I needed more to make it unique, so I listened to compilations of bird calls to find the right ones, finally landing on Cassowary to mix for low frequency and Western Capercaillie for a finishing touch of a voice croak. I was really happy how it turned out.
To create the baby version of the noise, I kept to the same Audition file, muted some of the lower/harsher frequencies, increased the pitch of the Bittern call and added pitch-shifted Pin-Tailed Snipe calls to create more a 'chirp' as some modern day species that use low frequencies tend to use higher frequencies with offspring (also it sounds cuter).
For the Abelisaurus, I used Eurasian Bittern again, but this time with the drumming sounds from Emus. In my first mix, I also had some rumbling from Asian Elephants.
I came back to the mix the next day after thinking about it that night and found the sound popping to be annoying and distinctly unnatural, so I went back in and removed the elephant sounds, which were the worst for it and cleaned up the audio a bit better.
For my first try with Neuqunosaurus, I attempted mixing some low pitch Barred Owl with echo and Black-Throated Loon, but it wasn't coming along how I wanted, so I scrapped the Loon and tried using Common Eider with low pitch and echo along with Puffin. Initially I exported it, but upon replaying, I found the clipping to be annoying and it wasn't how I wanted it, so I went back in.
My next try I scrapped the owl and the puffin and instead tried adding some Blue Whale low frequency song that was slowed down just a little and pitched down the Eider and slowed that down as well. I think it ended up being much much better.
For the final dinosaur, the Austroraptor, I had a bit more to work with as the modern day Stellar Sea Eagle is thought to be a close resemblance to what raptor dinosaurs may have sounded like, so I mixed some low frequency calls with some Western Capercaillie and Eurasian Bittern to create a mix of low frequency mumbles and beak snapping.
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