FX025 FLEXATONE

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The Flexatone was invented in 1922 and to call it a quirky percussion instrument is an understatement. Shaking it causes two sprung ball mallets, one on either side, to strike a metal blade subject to thumb pressure, which produces the classic cartoon glissando effect. But if you ignore (or mute) the built in beaters, it can be bowed and tuned like a Musical saw. I also discovered that its a rich source for resonant metal hits, sounding almost sword like at times….

Check out the video for some of the techniques I used for sound effects rather than percussion. I quite enjoyed playing with pitch bends while playing, although playing a repeatable melody is a challenge, but there are three sets of takes where I tried using it as a squeaky creature vocal.

Having control of pitch also meant I inevitably tried to emulate some doppler passes. When bowed the bends evoke a fast whistling projectile, while some takes shaking it feel like that sound from a classic movie onboard a train & hearing crossing bells doppler past…

While the obvious or traditional uses for these sounds are in animation and cartoons, the scope of this little library includes game audio and many other practical and/or impressionistic applications in film sound design.

Recorded 32bit 192kHz using Sanken CUX100K LR and MKH8050 C, this new little library is released 24bit 192kHz with full UCS metadata and photos.