PS> Let's keep this thread dedicated to this question; if you want to discuss a different iconic sound and how it was created, please start a new thread following the convention of Vol. 1, Vol. 2, etc. etc.
It's hard to find hard facts on the subject, but after a bit of Internet searching it appears that the clicks were actually performed by voice artist Peter Cullen. He is listed on IMDB as being the un-credited voice of the predator and I have read in a post on the Avid forum that it was a voice artist who performed this sound effect. If it's true it just goes to show how effective the voice can be when creating effects!
Predator Clicking Sound Download
Download 🔥 https://byltly.com/2yGBfa 🔥
designingsound and sonic spread asked David Stone but he deferred to Steve Flick as the originator of these sounds. I'm going to try and bug Steve next time I see him around the halls @ WB. Below are links to those interviews BTW.
+1 on the Raven sounds. I was outside my house yesterday and there was a Raven in a tree about 30ft from me and it sounded exactly like the Predator Clicks. Just a dab of the right reverb tone on it to make it sound a little wet and that's it. Once I heard it I immediately thought of this thread.
Next time I have a chance to sit outside and record them I will. I'll post the recordings if I get the right one's. I've noticed them up in that tree many times since I moved into this house 2 months ago. They are very vocal birds that can mimic everything from other birds and creatures to humans, music and etc. When they are separated from their mate they will mimic their mates call to locate each other. Definitely not just the stereotypical caw/screech that you're used to hearing in movies. They can get downright demonic sounding too. I'd love to make a bunch of good versatile recordings of them and use them for a horror film sometime.
One of the sound designers for Alien vs Predators gave a short seminar at my university and he said that the predator clicks were performed by an actor. So as long as he wasn't lying, I can vouch for that claim!
It's already known that some species of moth have evolved a range of defensive mechanisms to evade insectivorous bats' highly-tuned echolocation (biosonar) detection skills. The discovery of a wingbeat-powered sound producing structure in the wings of a deaf moth is completely new.
Many larger species of moth use ears tuned to detect the echolocation calls of bats to provide an early warning of approaching bats allowing them to perform evasive manoeuvres. While others, such as some silk moths, have hindwing tails that produce salient echoes which act as false targets to bats -- like the towed decoys fighter planes use against radar guided missiles.
The team of researchers from Bristol's School of Biological Sciences and the Natural History Museum, London, were studying a group of smaller British moths known as the small ermine moths (Yponomeuta species), and discovered that despite their lack of hearing they were making continual clicking sounds whenever they fly. Unlike other species of moths, that produce sound in response to detecting an approaching bat, small ermine moths have evolved to produce continual warning sounds.
The sounds these moths produce are very similar to sounds produced by larger moths, such as the tiger moths, which warn bats of the moth's distastefulness or toxicity (known as acoustic aposematism). At night an unpalatable moth cannot provide a bat with a conspicuous warning colour, so instead it warns its predator acoustically. The team suggest that small ermine moths are acoustically mimicking unpalatable, sound producing moths, to warn bats of their own distastefulness.
Typically, anti-bat sounds are produced by structures called tymbals, small areas of thin cuticle on a moth's body, which are connected to a muscle. As the muscle contracts, the tymbal buckles and produces a click, then as the muscle relaxes, the tymbal snaps back to its resting state and produces another click. However, the wing-based tymbals of small ermine moths are not connected to a muscle, instead sound production is initiated by the moth's wingbeat during flight.
Liam O'Reilly, the study's lead author and a PhD student at Bristol's School of Biological Sciences, said: "Bat defences in larger moths are well studied, however, the defences in smaller moths are not.
"Many animals use a conspicuous visual signal such as bright colouration to warn their predators of a defence, but at night an unpalatable moth cannot provide a bat with a visual warning signal, so instead it warns its predator acoustically through a clear sound -- loud high frequency (ultrasonic) clicks.
Following this discovery, the team are working with material scientists to find out the exact mechanism by which the small ermine moth tymbal produces sound. Specialists in buckling mechanics are working on modelling the system to artificially recreate the sounds of these moths.
Building this costume has been an incredible journey, and if you are willing to embark on this project please allocate a lot of time. It took me almost a year (working on weekends mostly) to design and build it. It covers a wide range of skills, and thus have been an amazing mix of cutting, sawing, spray- and brush-painting, gluing, sewing, soldering, programming, sound-editing, video-editing, 3d designing, and 3d printing.
The challenge was to either design everything from the scratch or modify existing (frequently unrelated) object to fit the theme. Although some components of the costume were purchased, almost none of them has been left untouched or unmodified.
I am grateful to my family for putting up with me during this lengthy process, and especially my daughter Alexandra, who helped with quite a few details, and nailed me one particularly project-messy days with a phrase "I still remember when this was just an idea...".
The base of the costume is a Halloween costume available over the counter (for instance: here). I only kept the skin, leather props, and the gloves from this costume. The mask was so bad I had to throw it away. I added a zipper to the back of the skin and sewn all the leather props directly to the skin of the costume (losing velcro straps in the process, which gave the costume extra cheap look).
The Predator's face is another Halloween prop available for instance on eBay. It is a latex mask, that is rather big and therefore does not sit well on a regular-size human head. To give it proper look, I decided to insert a small size helmet (like this one) inside. The helmet gives the mask a "skull", and the mask sits perfectly on it. The helmet also sits tight on your head, thus giving you full motion control. Additionally, the helmet is great housing for all the electronic components required for head tracking, sound effects, and the lights.
The Predator faceplate (the famous Bio-Mask with 3 laser sights) was 3D printed. I borrowed the design from this Thingiverse author, but subsequently "assembled" the 3 pieces together in TinkerCAD, and enlarged to fit the latex mask. Actual 3D printing was done by the Voodoo Manufacturing (who are just amazing!) since the part ended up too large for home printing. I added "laser sights" to the Bio-Mask for additional "targeting" purposes. The dreadlocks on the mask looked so cheap that we decided to replace them all. See the steps below how it was done.
The design of both right and left gauntlets are borrowed from Thingiverse (left gauntlet, right gauntlet). Again, I "assembled" them in TinkerCAD, modified left gauntlet to house control electronics, and 3D printed using Voodoo Manufacturing as monolithic pieces. All the STL files are enclosed. Models are here: right gauntlet, left gauntlet, blades.
Although I could 3D print a replica of the actual Predator cannon, I decided to modify an alien toy gun (Ray Gun Toy Black Atomic Alien Space Gun). I gutted the gun, cut off the handle, and fitted it with a laser pointer, 9 bright white LEDs at the front, a 3-color LED in the glass bulb in the middle, a PWM control board, an MPU9250 IMU, and 2 servo motors for head motion tracking. All of this is connected to the Predator "Backpack" via RJ-45 network plugs and cables.
The front LEDs are used to simulate a plasma blast. 3 color LED is used to simulate "energy pulsation" during laser tracking and plasma blast. IMU (gyroscope and accelerometer) is used to establish 3D position of the cannon and compare it with 3D position of the helmet for head motion tracking. PWM board controls the servos and turns LEDs on/off (or dims them appropriately).
The backpack houses the main control unit, sporting a Teensy 3.5 board running at 120 Mhz and doing most of the heavy lifting of three-dimensional positioning calculation for head tracking. The choice of Teensy 3.5 is due to the fact it has a math co-processor that takes care of all the floating point calculations of the Madgwick sensor fusion algorithm.
The costume motion, light and sound effects are controlled by the Wii Nunchuk controller, connected to the left Gauntlet. A Wii Nunchuk controller has two buttons up-front, a joystick at the top and an accelerometer.
Each of the buttons (or joystick positions) could be interpreted as a single "click", double-click or a long press. Additionally, we can detect if the controller is positioned sideways or upside-down.
This is a complex project. If you embark on it the result is not guaranteed. "Your mileage may vary" as they say... I will try to help time permitting with advice, but please do rely on your experience and skills as primary drivers for this endeavor.
RJ45 carries enough lines to support 2 x 5v power lines, 2 x i2c lines, and 2 x ground lines. Separate power lines are meant for electronic components (IMU, PWM driver circuits) and power lines of the servo motors. A 470uF capacitor is soldered across the power lines to smooth out power surges due to servo movements.
A Helmet serves as a skull for Predator's face mask. It also contains the sound system with 2 x 4W speakers, and the master MPU9250 gyroscope/accelerometer for the head movements tracking. The helmet also has 2 yellow LEDs above the eyes to simulate those "yellow flashing eyes" of the Predator. 152ee80cbc
b1 preliminary for schools trainer audio download
guessing game ppt free download