Water Magic Sound Design Tutorial

Main ideas / lessons

• Water magic sound design relies on good source material, especially water recordings and a curated library of water-related sounds.
• You can improve recordings significantly with a few practical recording techniques (how close your mic is, what you use to protect it, and what tools help underwater capture).
• Water “spells” are often built from layers and shaped using processing choices that don’t need to be overly complex if the source is strong.
• Transforming water sounds effectively uses tools like vocoders, envelope followers, reverb, filter modulation, and spatial/texture effects.
• To sell fantasy water effects, add vocal efforts (character vocal gestures) and optionally extra RPG/fantasy texture layers.
• A synthesis approach can recreate water-like sounds by leveraging how water behaves acoustically (e.g., low frequencies and reverberant wash), and by combining multiple synthesized components into a spell structure.
• A practical workflow for mixing a spell centers on session organization, grouping layers, automation, and mixing by group using timing/eq/panning/volume, then assembling via VCAs.

Concepts and methodology (detailed)

1) Source materials to collect (sample types)

Build a large library of water and water-adjacent sounds, including:

• Underwater movement / “underwater movements”
• Object submersions
• Object immersions
• Water sloshes in different containers
• Splashes with impacts
• Splashes without impacts
• Rivers flowing at differing intensities
• Waterfalls crashing at different intensities
• Waves at different intensities
• Water bubbling
• Water drops
• Swimming movements

Additional character/SFX elements:

• Geothermals
• Geysers
• Cannonballs
• Dripping
• Synthetic textures

2) Recording water: tips and best practices

If you want to improve recordings beyond “gorilla recording,” use these tips:

• Use sandbags / dirt bags to stabilize and protect your microphone.
• Place microphones closer to the water, because:
  • Farther mics capture less high-end energy.
  • High-end is important for finished “water spells.”
• Prefer hydrophones for underwater water sample capture.
  • They’re described as affordable enough to be “100% worth picking one up.”

Object-based variations (different whooshes):

• Place different objects into the water at different depths.
• Expect whoosh character to change with depth:
  • Deeper placement → fuller whoosh with more low-end
• When sampling water whooshes, experiment broadly; character depends heavily on how/where you generate the sound.

3) Processing and transformation: how to shape water recordings

• If your source material is good, you don’t need lots of complex processing.
• For extra shaping:
  • Use vocoders and envelope followers to transform water recordings.
  • One favorite technique: create underwater samples using vocoder/envelope approaches.

Advanced workflow (tool: Envy): A program called Envy (described as a “super vocoder”) can:

• Steal spectral imprints and amplitude envelopes from sounds like whooshes, explosions, and other sources
• Apply those imprints/envelopes onto water recordings
• Also control pitch and grain/game (as mentioned in subtitles; likely “grain”/“pitch”-style controls)

Reverb (multiple roles):

• Traditionally a spatial effect
• Also a washing texture tool:
  • Increase sample length
  • Create pads
  • Help form underwater texture layers

4) Texture enhancements to sell “magic water”

• Add vocal efforts when the character performs the action.
  • The goal: a vocal gesture makes effects feel higher-budget / more lived-in.

Collect generic vocal effort categories:

• Attacks
• Celebrations
• Build-ups
• Laughing

Optional extension:

• For more RPG elements, layer in “magical textures” (referenced as another video/resource).

5) Synthesis methodology: creating water-based sounds from scratch

Averith presents a synthesis strategy based on acoustics and noise behavior.

Key audio principles noted

• Water behavior for sound design:
  • Water doesn’t carry high frequencies well
  • Water does carry low frequencies well
• Therefore, “underwater” synthesis should typically:
  • Low-pass the signal
  • Add lots of reverb for long decay / underwater wash

Synthesizing five water-based sounds (core method)

1. Underwater sound

   • Start with pink noise burst
   • Apply low-pass filter + lots of reverb

2. Steam

   • Treated as essentially noise

3. Water drip (filter crossfade idea)

   • Use a low-pass filter to crossfade between underwater and steam noise
   • Also use a resonant low-pass approach to produce a drip-like sound

4. Rain

   • Rain = noise made of many tiny splashes + whooshes
   • Use two noise channels:
     • Brown noise (duller)
     • Particle noise generator (e.g., granulated white noise; example given: plates granulating white noise)

5. Large splash

   • Similar concept to a clap:
     • Clap = rapid series of decaying noise bursts
   • Use noise + rapid burst behavior
   • Also:
     • Filter motion between underwater and steam/wash
     • Granulate that wash similar to the rain patch

Combining into a “water spell” (spell structure)

A magical spell sound is divided into three major parts:

1. Initial sound (spell being created / build-up)
2. Hold sound (sustained element)
3. Impact sound (hitting something)

Example mapping:

• Build-up: water drip crossfade (underwater → steam noise)
• Impact: underwater hit noise + a splash element
• Hold: the rain patch

The approach is described as “relatively simple,” but expandable creatively.

6) Practical production workflow: organizing and mixing an AOE water bomb

Session organization / routing

Organize the session by creating separate groups and VCA tracks, including:

• Voice cast
• Launch
• BGs (backgrounds)

Include mono and stereo tracks per layer (aside from voices) to focus on one element at a time.

Layering choices per group

• Voice cast

  • Uses generic female shouts
  • Mix consistency via compression
  • Some EQ for fit

• Casting sound

  • Avoid too many “liquidy” sounds to prevent overlap with the launch layer
  • Prioritize assets inspired by “magical textures”:
    • noise bursts
    • bells

• Launch layer

  • Emphasize water elements
  • Use multiple frequency ranges for:
    • whooshes
    • rivers
    • bubbles
  • Automation:
    • stereo widener automation
    • panning automation when spell expands away from the character
  • Add an extra synthetic riser to convey building power

• Impact layer

  • Split into three sections:
    • two transient layers:
      • one dry
      • one wet
    • plus a tail
  • Mixing trick credited to “siren”:
    • create more punch by fading in and delaying samples that don’t need transient information
    • tail samples are faded in and begin immediately after the transient finishes

• Backgrounds (BGs)

  • Add a BG section “because you can’t not have bgs”
  • Basic EQ on everything:
    • cut low end where not needed
    • cut high end where not needed

Mixing approach

• Mix voices using timing/EQ/panning/volume:
  • Add Enforcer instances for extra punch where needed
• Final reverb mentioned:
  • Altiverb “forest reverb preset” for casting/launch mixing
• Overall process:
  • Mix each group individually until each layer sounds good solo
  • Then use VCA faders to mix the entire spell together

Speakers / sources featured (as identified in subtitles)

• Tyler — “tyler with aftertouch audio” (primary instructor)
• Averith — synthesis segment presenter (“synthesizing water noises…”)
• Everest Taiga — credited in subtitles as speaking for synthesis (“hi my name is everest taiga…”)
• Sirens — referenced as the source of a mixing trick (“a trick i learned from siren…”)
• Envy — software/plugin referenced (vocoding/envelope imprinting tool)
• Altiverb — reverb plugin referenced (forest reverb preset)
• Enforcer — processing plugin referenced (extra punch for voices)