SD076 GIANT BALLOONS

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Back when I released UFX018 NITROUS BLASTS a friend got in touch after playing with the CUX100k recordings of the balloon sounds in that UNIT FX library and suggested I do more, as the extended freq response of the recordings had enabled some very interesting design. So while I still have compressed-air routed to the studio, I did a little research & found a local supplier for giant balloons. Fully inflated they measure about one metre/3 foot in diameter, so I’m very thankful for my compressor – inflating them manually would have made for very slow work!

As I started to rig mics for the recording I had a sudden spark of an idea: how would sound be altered inside a giant balloon? What sort of acoustic & resonances would be accentuated?

I tried a physically small omni mic, a LOM Usi Pro and got it inside before inflating the balloon, and through headphones the results were encouraging. Checking the recordings in the studio, the bottom end being generated by the large balloons was really quite powerful. And the combination of external Sanken CUX100K mics with the LOM Usi Pro inside is quite extraordinary! So I set about extracting as many sounds as I could find, including:

HITS – deep bassy soft booms – freely held, suspended, pressed into a wooden crate, and also dampened. Hit with a range of mallets, also capturing some gravity mallet bounces. And three pops!

PLUCKS – sharp attack – by squeezing & twisting a bit of the balloon surface between my fingers, I could pull it out a bit & release it.
This sent a bright impulse/snap/hit into the balloon. Along with these single plucks, I also did double plucks using two balloons and varied the offset between the left & right balloons. Sometimes hitting tight sync but others generating interesting flams & offset impacts… ‘KaTHUD!’

FRICTION – after three recording sessions experimenting, I had an idea to apply gaffer tape to the balloon, as a surface to create friction with. This created some of the deepest bass – grinding my thumb, and using a heavy gong friction mallet was very powerful. Smaller friction mallets generated creaky squeaks when used directly on the balloon surface, but applying pressure & moving slowly generated some interesting stutter patterns and groany creaks, almost like pulse trains.

PRESSURE – I deliberately inflated each balloon to a different pressure, thinking the surface tension would also then vary & likely the resonance & decay. I recorded as I inflated each & after popping three of them, I also captured some short, powerful air blasts into balloon fragments. Also some deflating air sounds…

Quite a large & varied collection of powerful sounds that will be fun to find uses for.
Recorded 32bit 192kHz using Sanken CUX100K microphones plus a LOM Usi Pro inside the balloon, this new library is now released 24bit 192kHz with full UCS metadata

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