GPL eagle sounds for the gryphon

[johndh]

I don't know about everyone else, but it has always bothered me that basically any fictional bird, whether it be a gryphon, a phoenix, or a giant eagle, always sounds like a red-tailed hawk. If you ever see an eagle in a movie (or the intro to the Colbert Report), it's a red-tailed hawk that's doing the voice. Admittedly, the red-tailed hawk is an awesome-sounding bird with an iconic screech, but eagles do not sound like that. I mean no offense to whoever made the current sounds, but if gryphons are supposed to be part eagle (specifically they look the most like bald eagles), then they should sound like an eagle.

Thankfully, we have some GPL-licensed, high-quality, lossless eagle calls at our disposal!
http://opengameart.org/content/bald-eagle-screams

Sadly, I know next to nothing about sound development, so I pose the question to y'all: What needs to be done to get these sounds to fit the quality and style of Wesnoth's unit sounds and potentially replace the (artificial?) hawk calls the gryphon currently uses?

[zookeeper]

Well, first of all I think they need to be lower-pitched. Realistically high-pitched sounds like that do sound a bit out of place amongst the rest of the soundscape, as most of the sounds are pretty heavily based around middle frequencies (I'm not sure whether that's a technically accurate description of it, though). Also, their sound sound be lower and deeper simply due to the fact that they're big and strong creatures. In any case, I don't think there's any particular reason to try to make them sound specifically like eagles or hawks, there ought to be plenty of other birds that sound more like what one might expect a real gryphon to sound like. I'd even suggest mixing in some growls from a lion, bear or other large animal, since the sound should have quite a bit of "beast" in it, in addition to "bird".

So basically what you need is perhaps somewhat obvious:

1. Similar amount of variations as the current ones (doesn't need to be exactly the same).
2. Have them sound better and/or more fitting than the current ones, in context of the rest of the sounds.

The current sounds are of course rather cliché, but that doesn't really bother me that much so I'm not volunteering to do it myself. If I did, then my usual workflow would involve listening to lots of animal sounds somewhere, experimenting on ones which I think fit the feel of the creature and seeing which ones could be mixed together (and in what ways) in order to try to come up with a satisfying sound.

[johndh]

Thanks for feedback, zookeeper. Some of it is, as you said, somewhat obvious, but this isn't my usual part of the forum and I don't know how the process around here usually goes, so I figured I'd err on the side of caution.

I'd even suggest mixing in some growls from a lion, bear or other large animal, since the sound should have quite a bit of "beast" in it, in addition to "bird".

Anticipating this, I'm already on the lookout for some lion sounds. I don't know how it would sound to simply mix them together and change the pitch, but I suspect it wouldn't be that great, so I'm thinking of trying to make the eagle sound more like a lion and vice-versa, and see what comes out. My Audacity skills are very limited, so I expect this to be a learning experience.

The current sounds are of course rather cliché, but that doesn't really bother me that much so I'm not volunteering to do it myself.

I know it's kinda nit-picky of me, but I'm a nit-picker by nature. Once you're really familiar with red-tailed hawks and the sounds they make, you hear them everywhere, so I figure these will be useful assets for various purposes.

[zookeeper]

I'd even suggest mixing in some growls from a lion, bear or other large animal, since the sound should have quite a bit of "beast" in it, in addition to "bird".

Anticipating this, I'm already on the lookout for some lion sounds. I don't know how it would sound to simply mix them together and change the pitch, but I suspect it wouldn't be that great, so I'm thinking of trying to make the eagle sound more like a lion and vice-versa, and see what comes out. My Audacity skills are very limited, so I expect this to be a learning experience.

Yeah, just mixing two sounds together rarely works that well; you'll usually need to do speed/pitch-shifting, fade-in/out, and some EQ'ing on them separately to make them sound more similar to each other and/or to make one smoothly transition into the other. Audacity's "Sliding Time Scale/Pitch Shift" can also be surprisingly useful in some situations, so don't forget to experiment with that.

EDIT: As for where to look for source material, there's at least pdsounds unfortunately but it has very little animal sounds, although the parrots might be useful. Then, there's only a few sounds here, but maybe some of them would work (the elk?). And then there's Freesound.

[StandYourGround]

Since the gryphon has an eagle head and not a lion one, I don't see why it would be roaring. Maybe a more powerful sounding melee attack would be appropriate.

[zookeeper]

Since the gryphon has an eagle head and not a lion one, I don't see why it would be roaring. Maybe a more powerful sounding melee attack would be appropriate.

Well, because it's not an eagle, it just has an eagle's head, so there's no reason why we'd want it to sound only like an eagle. Better to have the sound be characteristic of the creature as a whole, when possible. But if you'd want a more realism-based excuse, then I'd argue that the sound doesn't just come from one's head or beak, but from the throat, lungs, vocal chords etc.

[StandYourGround]

Well, because it's not an eagle, it just has an eagle's head, so there's no reason why we'd want it to sound only like an eagle. Better to have the sound be characteristic of the creature as a whole, when possible. But if you'd want a more realism-based excuse, then I'd argue that the sound doesn't just come from one's head or beak, but from the throat, lungs, vocal chords etc.

Speaking as someone who has done impressions for entertainment, I can tell you the majority of what makes a voice (or creature's roar) sound the way it does are the articulators. Mouth, tongue, teeth, throat, etc. My vocal range is fairly deep, but that doesn't stop me from being able to accurately impersonate characters with higher voices. Applying this to the gryphon, even if it may have big and powerful and deep- ranged vocal chords, lungs, etc., a majority of the sound it produces is going to be influenced by the eagle head and mouth. When a lion roars, watch what it does with its mouth. An eagle head is simply much too different. The sound a gryphon makes likely should have a hint of lion in it, but it's not going to sound anything like the MGM mascot.