If you’re looking for some truly wild animal vocalizations, Andy Leeder just released a magnificent new library that brings you intense sounds of Southern Elephant Seals. It was captured over a 12-month period on Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean - and he went through terabytes of raw sounds to bring you 425 recordings of bellows, barks, cries, hisses, and breathing, captured at 24 bit / 192 kHz. Check it out below:
Hear the trailer:
Just published - secure your 20% launch discount here:
What’s included
- Adult male vocalizations - relaxed bellows and low growls through to chest heavy roars
- Pup and weaner vocalizations - strange cries, barks, hisses, and unexpected calls
- Adult breathing noises - close breaths, airy exhales, rumbling breath cycles, snorts, and growls
- Pup and weaner breathing - soft breaths, strained breath cycles, and startled puffs
- Adult female vocalizations - urgent barks, wet grumbles, and longer distressed calls
Organised into five folders, with each file featuring individually written descriptions. The high sample rate leaves room to pitch, stretch and process the sounds well past their original form.
“They’re brilliant sounds and full of character. It’s definitely a top-end library that I’d buy and use a lot.”
- Rob Malone
“Really inspiring for creature design. The recordings sound super clean and consistent, almost like they’re in a studio environment. Fantastic captures!”
- Ollie, Rare Finds Sound Design
Andy Leeder on the making of the library
Southern elephant seals have an imposing presence, one that you feel as much as hear. Beachmaster bellows carry a deep weight and are powerful enough to vibrate through your chest, while pups bark and weaners produce strange, unexpected cries.
The recordings move from soft, vulnerable breaths and uneasy cries to deep rumbling exhales and towering bellows. Beachmasters already sound like enormous creatures, but the females, pups and weaners bring an entirely different range of barks, cries, hisses and unusual vocal textures. Together, they offer natural sounds that can become everything from animal voices rooted in the real world to creatures yet to be imagined.
Recorded and delivered at 192 kHz, the sounds also hold up remarkably well when pitched down, stretched and processed, giving you room to push them far beyond their original form.
Across twelve months on Macquarie Island, I learned to wait for the rare calm spells the Southern Ocean allowed. Between wind, rain and surf, I placed microphones around the seals without disturbing them, trusting that over enough recording sessions some would move close. Often enough, they did.
I spent months working through terabytes of recorded material and kept finding moments that surprised me. A massive beachmaster bellow, a curious sound from a weaner, or a breath recorded remarkably close to the microphones.
“I selected the recordings that best captured this range, then carefully edited and organised them for creature design. I wanted the finished sounds to be clean and detailed without losing the visceral feeling of being there, close to the animals.”
Explore the full Out There Audio catalogue:
The seals are the newest addition to Out There Audio’s rare catalogue of libraries recorded in the same part of the world: Antarctic wildlife and ambiences, sub-Antarctic winds recorded in gusts of 50 to 150 kilometres per hour, and the interiors of a working Antarctic research vessel:
