How to create a big space rumble sound

  • I am trying to recreate the sound of a big spaceship passing by, like a nice low rumble but clean at the same time.


    It's for a slow motion sequence of a video where you see a car slowly driving ahead


    What are the best sounds to do this and how can I get this sound?


    Thanks for your help :)

  • The rumble of any kind of vessel is defined by 2 factors - one is its motor, and the other is its hull or body by which the motor is supported and responds to the motor with resonance that is determined by its materials and structure. When synthesizing this sound, the oscillator takes the part of the motor and the filters simulate the body's response. a low saw wave through a simple lowpass filter is the simplest form.
    Regarding the body you can create complex frequency responses by using the 2 main filters and the one of the types available in the effect section's filterbank, in various configurations. Another neat trick is to control the resonance amount by a fairly slow LFO (LFO2 is pre-routed to the main filters, and don't miss the S&G shape).
    Regarding the motor you can choose if you want a "pure" "tuned" motor with just one sawtooth oscillator, or a "dirty" motor with some white noise and making it go slightly out of tune using a high rate LFO but with a very small modulation amount (LFO1 is pre routed for this and S&G is nice here too). You can also decide you want more than one motor and introduce oscillators 2 and even 3 and detune them to your liking.
    You can add spatial presence with a twin unison and some pan spread, you can also increase the amount of motors using the unison's detune. Some delay with a long time factor can give the impression that the rumble is reflected by the surroundings (e.g. buildings, hills, etc.).
    Happy tweaking!

  • Thanks for the tips ;)


    I have tried the low saw wave sound with a low pass filter but it sounds too noisy and dirty.


    I'm more after something clean not too overpowering...