"Shell Shocked" sound effect...?

[Steven Bills]

In various war movies, and video games for that matter, when a soldier gets hit hard by say, a grenade, they go down, the video gets blurry, and the sound gets almost muted. How would I go about making audio in my Vegas timeline sound like this?

Shell shocked may not be the right phrase, but hopefully you get my gist.

Thanks for the help,

SB

[Jarrod Whaley]

Can you maybe post a sample of the kind of effect you're talking about? I can almost hear it in my head, but not quite.

[Alex Thames]

Like in Saving Private Ryan when Tom Hanks gets "spell shocked" right? The last fight when he's down, shooting his sidearm at the tank...the sound is somewhat muted, then the tank blows up and you think it was his pistol that did the trick, but then you see planes overhead dropping bombs.

[Steven Bills]

Well, I don't know where I could find an example, but I know that it's in the TV series Band of Brothers, the video game Call of Duty, and the movie Black Hawk Down.

If that helps any...

[Steven Bills]

Originally Posted by Alex Thames

Like in Saving Private Ryan when Tom Hanks gets "spell shocked" right? The last fight when he's down, shooting his sidearm at the tank...the sound is somewhat muted, then the tank blows up and you think it was his pistol that did the trick, but then you see planes overhead dropping bombs.

I haven't seen Saving Private Ryan, but from your description, yes, it sounds right.

[Jarrod Whaley]

It sounds to me like all you'd really need to do is roll off the upper-mid and high-frequencies. Granted, I still don't know exactly what you're looking for, but it sounds like an EQ thing based on what I can guess.

[Edward Carlson]

I would say take out the high and mid frequencies, then bring the levels down. Just making it quieter won't really help. You might also try a compressor effect (not familiar with Vegas, but it probably has audio filters. Try compressor or limiter.) You want to make it sound like the person has lost his or her hearing temporarily from an explosion. You might also want to add a long beeping sound every so slightly when the person's hearing is coming back (because their ears are ringing.)

[Graham Bernard]

I was watching, again, and being moved once again, by Saving Ryan . . what I do remember was the subtle but effective use of, I think, gently reversing a kinda Doppler-shift in the audio as objects came closer and, as has been said, over time bringing-in from muffled mids to brights. The sequence where the landing group is either drowning or struggling to get back to the surface AS the bullets zip and ping through the water about them. This was done over a very short sequence, you wouldn't want to dwell on it too much, otherwise the effect OF the effect just becomes annoying. Meaning you would need some visually entrancing footage to carry it off.

[Ian Stark]

If it's the 'deaf as a result of a grenade going off next to your ear' effect you're looking for then Edward's suggestion sounds good to me (lose high and mid frequencies using EQ and bring overall levels down to muffle the sound). If you have a wah wah effect then that also might do the trick (obviously with it in a fixed state - not 'talking'). Some EQs have a 'telephone box' or 'next door noisy neighbours' preset which would do a good job here - don't think Vegas does though, sorry, you'll have to experiment with the EQ settings.

I would also try adding a very high pitched tone into the mix (a tone generator or one of the really basic presets in a software synth should do the trick - here's a selection of free ones from the excellent KVR Audio site:

http://www.kvraudio.com/get.php?mode...&sort=1&rpp=15

Sorry - just seen Edward also suggested that! Still, the link to the free synths might be of use!

[Steven Bills]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I'll try it out this weekend and see (er, hear) how it goes.

SB