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Emulating a human scream

Posted: 02 Jul 2023
by gribbly
Hi all, I've gotten interested in emulating a realistic human scream using synths. I don't mean dubsteb obviously synthetic "screams", I mean trying to match the actual sound of a human screaming as closely as possible. (Please note I'm not interested in using samples for this project, I want to synthesize the sound "from scratch").

The best example I can find on YouTube is this video - this is exactly the sound I'm trying to get in Reason:



Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with the modular synth setup in the video, so I haven't been able to figure out how to replicate it in Reason (yet!). Anyone got tips or pointers? Can anyone decode what is happening in that video? I suspect the setup is actually pretty simple if I could puzzle it out! The video description links out to this post on a modular synth forum, but there is too much jargon for me to figure out what it means:

https://modwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 4&start=10

Any help appreciated!

Re: Emulating a human scream

Posted: 02 Jul 2023
by _andreypetr_
You can try to reach something similar to human in Objekt
I tried once and got crying baby or something
Cry Baby.cmb.zip
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Cry Baby.mp3
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Re: Emulating a human scream

Posted: 02 Jul 2023
by TritoneAddiction
Well this is my attempt at synth screaming. :puf_smile:
All done with stock stuff (Europa, Scream4, Channel EQ, Audiomatic, Rv7000).


Re: Emulating a human scream

Posted: 02 Jul 2023
by joeyluck
TritoneAddiction wrote:
02 Jul 2023
Well this is my attempt at synth screaming. :puf_smile:
All done with stock stuff (Europa, Scream4, Channel EQ, Audiomatic, Rv7000).

This is great! Is this a patch you can share? :)

Re: Emulating a human scream

Posted: 02 Jul 2023
by selig
joeyluck wrote:
02 Jul 2023
TritoneAddiction wrote:
02 Jul 2023
Well this is my attempt at synth screaming. :puf_smile:
All done with stock stuff (Europa, Scream4, Channel EQ, Audiomatic, Rv7000).

This is great! Is this a patch you can share? :)
YES! I tried this year ago and never came close - this right here is nightmare material!

Re: Emulating a human scream

Posted: 02 Jul 2023
by joeyluck
gribbly wrote:
02 Jul 2023
Hi all, I've gotten interested in emulating a realistic human scream using synths. I don't mean dubsteb obviously synthetic "screams", I mean trying to match the actual sound of a human screaming as closely as possible. (Please note I'm not interested in using samples for this project, I want to synthesize the sound "from scratch").
I know you don't want samples, but perhaps as reference? If you've heard of the Aztec death whistle, BOOM has a free library of samples:
https://www.boomlibrary.com/sound-effec ... h-whistle/



It's a real world object that creates a sound like screaming. Perhaps that would come in handy when trying to recreate with synths?

I've actually considered buying one of these. People sell cheap 3D printed ones.

Re: Emulating a human scream

Posted: 02 Jul 2023
by TheGodOfRainbows
TritoneAddiction wrote:
02 Jul 2023
Well this is my attempt at synth screaming. :puf_smile:
All done with stock stuff (Europa, Scream4, Channel EQ, Audiomatic, Rv7000).

That’s awesome! Everybody does know about the screaming patch in Thor, right? I’ve always loved that one.

Re: Emulating a human scream

Posted: 02 Jul 2023
by TritoneAddiction
Updated the link. Just realized you could get way more realistic sounds when playing around with the pitch bend. Here's my updated synth scream attempt. Also having a slight volume decrease nearing the end of the phrase seems to add to some realism as well. :puf_smile:


I'll share some patches in case someone's interested. Feel free to use them as they are, or to use them as spring boards for your own patches.
They're pretty much only usable between the C2-C3 range.


My tip: The foundation for a screamy sound is to have noise as a modulation source on the oscillator.

Re: Emulating a human scream

Posted: 02 Jul 2023
by gribbly
Thanks for all the responses so far, this is great!

_andreypetr_ that baby cry sounds great! Thx for sharing.

Love the idea of trying Objekt, I didn't think of that! I've been going down a Complex-1 rabbit hole instead. And having fun, but not making much progress towards my goal.

TritoneAddiction that is awesome and already closer than I've gotten. Looking forward to checking our your approach. Thanks for sharing the patches!

I'll share any progress I make back to the thread.

Re: Emulating a human scream

Posted: 02 Jul 2023
by Aosta
This is an interesting subject, so who is going to be the first to attempt to create a realistic sounding human fart? :thumbup:

Re: Emulating a human scream

Posted: 02 Jul 2023
by _andreypetr_
Aosta wrote:
02 Jul 2023
This is an interesting subject, so who is going to be the first to attempt to create a realistic sounding human fart? :thumbup:
Poopey

Re: Emulating a human scream

Posted: 02 Jul 2023
by Oenkenstein
Aosta wrote:
02 Jul 2023
This is an interesting subject, so who is going to be the first to attempt to create a realistic sounding human fart? :thumbup:
It is sample based, but the K1 Granular Synth has a smelly one.
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