Whats' the best way to make foley sound for a swimming pool at a uni without having to book out a actual pool for a whole day? Please help????

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    Altiverb... it's probably cheaper to book the pool ;) – Tetsujin Feb 1 '18 at 11:00
  • Would you consider booking a smaller local pool, or is that undesirable as well? – user22688 Feb 3 '18 at 18:28

I would try to get a plastic basin that can be filled with water. Fill it up outside and be ready to refill it. Get you mic(s) ready (not close enough to get splashed) and start recording.

I'd start with the smallest sounds first, like sloshing the basin back and forth and then small splashes. Smack your hands flat into the water. Then escalate up to dropping a watermelon in and/or dropping some large flat thing (for a belly flop kind of sound).

The biggest problem (of course) is that most of the sounds will be a bit "small" sounding. You could totally foley a kiddie pool this way, but a high-diver, not so much. My idea when I started writing this is that you would take the "small" splashes and other nosies and pitch shift them down until they sound big and heavy enough. Then you'll probably have to layer on a splash at the original pitch to keep the high end in and mix the two together. That would be for an adult diving in kind of sound or a cannonball dive.

Remember, all you need to do is create a convincing illusion, it doesn't have to be perfect, and a public pool has a lot going on that is not water noises. Lots of outdoor background chatter, children laughing or happily screaming, the occasional lifeguard whistle, maybe an ice cream truck in the distance or something like that. The rest of the picture will help make the water sounds more convincing.

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I would get creative with alternate water sources and effects. Perhaps you can use a tub instead.

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  • Hi Jeremy, Welcome to Sound Design! I would recommend making an edit to explain why you would do that, and what steps you would take in the process. As is, this is quite brief and not quite the type of answer described on the help center page. For example, how would you make a bathtub in a bathroom sound like a large open room with a pool in it? – user22688 Feb 4 '18 at 18:25
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    @AytAyt - I'm so tempted to just type 'using Altiverb'... though that would hardly be constructive ;) – Tetsujin Feb 4 '18 at 19:43
  • @Tetsujin yeah, i still stand by my comment, just book a local pool, maybe overnight so it would be cheaper. I always prefer to get as close as I can with the source sound. It would take FAR too much work for me to put an actually constructive workaround up haha. – user22688 Feb 4 '18 at 19:46

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