As a day job I do so sound design for things, and every now and again I think, “this needs to be less woody, glassy, metallic etc.” the one which often catches me out though is plastic. It’s quite subjective and can either be seen as cheap/lifeless or more rubbery, cheeky etc.
I’m curious how you lot interpret the idea of what a plastic tone is, and what sort of synthesis you imagine creates it. Bonus points for any cool references!
My first thoughts are FM, low pass gates, filter pings, and then maybe getting into more foley and contact mic world of stuff.
It’s funny to me that that this should be so hard to pin down considering that plastic is a synthetic material, compared to wood metal and glass. I guess there are more processed forms of all of the above. Also, different common sizes and shapes which we’re all exposed to in our environments.
I think I have a couple of plastic acoustic instruments around here… (instruments having plastic reeds), like a melodica or a magnus chord organ. The bass note section of plastic reeds sound particularly nice to me. Due to it being injection molded, there is a lot more accuracy, but it’s sort of lifeless when compared to manually tuned metal reeds?
Sometimes the blow section of mutable instruments elements could sound plasticky. Like a plastic bag crinkling.
it’s interesting that you went for the timbre of plastic notes, where I immediately think of tapping on or knocking different kinds of plastic. Depending on the type, thickness, elasticity of the polymer and age (how much of the petroleum has dried up already) plastic can have very different sounds from a sharp tick tick, back to a wooly thud which to me sounds similar to the beater hitting a kick drum. The question would probably have to be asked how and for what the plastic sound is being used, as kicking an office wastebin will sound markedly different from the resonant body of a plastic kazoo.
tires peeling out, sneakers squeaking on a basketball court, rubber balls bouncing, rubber bands twanging, crushed up plastic sounds, plastic containers having different resonant thunks, zip ties being zipped shut, a plastic ruler being held against a table and then twanged like a door stop, etc
all real life plastic sounds that are fun to try and emulate/sounds I hear that make me think “plastic”
I think it really depends on the shape, size, and density of the plastic object in question. A flute or recorder can be made of plastic and they would sound completely different from crinkling a plastic bag. I think you need more info than just the material to derive a sound. I’m not a plastic expert though
