Underwater Sound Effect
 

Can someone recommend either a plug-in or audio workflow to achieve an underwater sound effect?

Specifically, I am going to apply it to a boat engine sound.

Thanks in advance,

Brian

Preview of "CATCH A RISING BULLET"
http://films.thelot.com/films/34064
Short Film "Lipstick & Lithium"
http://films.thelot.com/films/23105

Get an aquarium.
Put a speaker next to it.
Put a microphone in a condom
Put it inside the aquarium, you'll need BB shot to help hold it down.
Put a CD of engine noises in your CD player and play it out to the speaker.
Move the water around.

Presto~ underwater sounds.

Or you can spend a lot of time twiddling EQ, chorus, flange, phase, compression. :-)

There is an old book on sound design, can't recall the name. They went through the same things we did when working on a submarine film; they tried to create the sound design in a studio, and found it worked better to go to the local swimming pool, and also to use large aquariums. YMMV

Spot,

You always come through with the answer.

In my entire film, this will amount to all of five seconds, but I think I'll do it anyway.

Thanks again!

Brian

Don't forget to include the "PING" "PING" of sonar sweeps. Everybody knows they're always present in any underwater environment, even swimming pools, heck, even bathtubs!

<Couldn't resist!>

More importantly, don't forget to notify the wife before she sees any condoms lying around.

Generally the underwater sounds you hear on TV are effects emulating scuba. The sonar ping is classic, but unless you are editing Crimson Tide 2, it might be a little over the top.

As a side note, I accidentally left my mic recording sitting right next to a noisy computer once, and when I got it in my audio app, I didn't remember what it was. After playing it many times, I finally remembered and played with the EQ's and dropped the lows... it sounds just like you have water in your ears from a swimming pool. I'm still waiting for when I use that one.

Or use a recording of an engine idling, slow it way down, and play with damping points in the EQ to get that somewhat muffled, not quite present underwater thing.