Studio Wormbone – Metal In Water

‘Metal In Water’ from Studio Wormbone explores the artistic properties of forged industrial materials from an entirely new perspective.  It marries the harmonic overtones of steel, aluminum, bronze and iron with the highly emotive way that water influences resonance.  This collection is packed with unique percussives – and so very much more!

Sound waves travel four times faster in water than in air.  So when the deep tones of bell-like metallurgy meet up with reverberation enhancing H2O, magic follows.  Sometimes this results in ridiculously long and crystal clear sustains.  Other times enhanced echoic refractions happen, or pitch warping when propagating the water while it oscillates and/or dunking the metal after playing it.

We’ve all heard examples of it before – the ghostly clangourous tones of a submarine hull being struck in a movie soundtrack.  Or a stainless steel kitchen bowl half filled with dishwater getting banged against the side of the sink and sloshed as you’re washing it.  Or two near empty aluminum drinking thermoses colliding with one another.  When people encounter these sounds in their lives they pause and listen.  The peculiar relationship between these media – the solid of the metal, the liquid water, and the gaseous air that finally brings the sound to our ears – imbues the sounds with an alluring quality that is simultaneously mesmerising and otherworldly.  It’s just unusual enough to command our attention.  And it’s mysterious enough to secure our mind and make us want more.

But perhaps more importantly, this interaction pulls at your emotions in unpredictable ways for reasons that go beyond science.  It can tug your heart toward loneliness.  Or ring the klaxon of alarm.  Or sooth as irresistibly as a Bhuddist monk’s meditation bowl.  The range of diversity of feeling in this composite collection is like no other.

Sound Categories: Many of the files included here are percussive hits with sharp transient attacks for rhythmic musicality.  There’s also a range of other timbres that are conveniently organised into “Bowed”, “Dark”, “FX”, and “Glissandi”, “Scrapes & Rubs”, and “Strike Cluster” folders. The majority of these sounds are atonal so they’ll fit whatever key signature your music happens to be in.

As with most of the other Studio Wormbone releases, variety reigns supreme herein.  These sounds are pulled from the full width of the spectrum of distinctiveness.  Sources include a collection of objects like waterphone, bowls/pans/vessels, Tibetan singing bowl, and a one-of-a-kind solid steel spiral sculpture with amazing vibrational properties. These unique timbres would sit beautifully nestled within a number of mixes like house, drum and bass, dance, electro, glitch, industrial, and IDM, as well as pop/rock and film composition.

These samples are provided in WAV/AIF in 24bit/44.1khz resolution, and are of course royalty free. Every sample has been professionally recorded, edited, and mastered with the utmost care, and is usable with every major audio software program (Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase, Sonar, FL Studio, Sony Acid, Garageband, Ableton Live, Reason, Reaper). All files are compatible cross platform with either Mac or PC.

With the exception of a few sounds in the FX category, all of these recordings were kept as acoustically pristine as possible. They were captured with a high end Neumann microphone and followed the shortest possible signal path (without additional dynamic, equalization, or artificial reverb) to your ears.  They are rich with nature’s subtle complexity.  All of them are calibrated with precision to make your next production inventive, far sighted, and mind-blisteringly innovative.

Drench the ordinary. Submerge conservative thought. Immerse your next track where the elements meet with Metal And Water for an entirely new musical experience!