Product Description
AQUATICA: Water & Underwater SFX
AQUATICA SFX is a comprehensive collection dedicated to water in all its forms: the rough sea against a cliff, the constant murmur of a mountain stream, and the vast, alien world that begins just below the waterline.
The hydrophone microphone capturing what the surface hides — container ships and oil tankers grinding past, tugboats manoeuvring in a working harbour, ferries arriving, propeller cavitation, and the deep structural resonance of a port seen from underneath. Alongside these, the collection covers the full surface spectrum: binaural and Ambisonic sea ambiences, waterfalls, streams, fountains, and close-up domestic plumbing.
Every file was recorded along coastline, at high sample rates and in 32-bit float or 24 bit, so the material holds up under extreme pitch-shifting, time-stretching and granular processing. Slowed down, a tugboat propeller becomes a leviathan; a boiling ampoule becomes a geothermal vent.
Inside the Collection
The library is organised into UCS-compliant categories to streamline your workflow:
- Underwater (25 files, 1h 31m) — The core of the library. Container ships, oil tankers, ferries and tugboats passing and manoeuvring; harbour and port activity; underwater river flow, shoreline waves and cliff surf, recorded with three different hydrophone setups. Also included is a pond micro-fauna ambience: the clicking, ticking biophony of aquatic insects and invertebrates, captured in still fresh water. Several takes run 8 to 18 minutes, giving you long, uninterrupted beds rather than short one-shots.
- Surf (15 files, 50m) — Sea waves in every mood: stormy swell crashing on cliffs, rough sea from the beach, calm breakers on sand and pebbles. Includes true binaural and dummy-head recordings, an Ambisonic dune beach ambience, and a coastal scene with a Coast Guard AW139 helicopter passing overhead.
- Flow (19 files, 37m) — Streams, creeks and rivers, from delicate trickles to swollen flood water. Includes a 4-channel AmbiX river ambience for immersive and VR work.
- Wave (8 files, 22m) — Calm to distant wave activity on sand and rock, plus 360° open-sea Ambisonic soundscapes recorded away from shore.
- Waterfall (3 files, 6m) — A woodland stream waterfall inside a cave, recorded close and at distance.
- Plumbing, Drain, Fountain & Misc (9 files) — Running showers, sink and drain, toilet flush, city fountain splashes, water flowing down a sewer grate, and water moving inside industrial pipes with rising pressure, captured with contact microphones.
- Bubbles (2 files) — Liquid boiling in a glass ampoule: tight, close-mic’d chemical bubbling, ideal as a layering element.
Audio Technical Info
- Total Files: 81
- Total Running Time: 3 hours 37 minutes
- Format: WAV — Mono, Stereo, Binaural & 4-Channel AmbiX
- Sample Rate: 32-bit float, 192 kHz / 32-bit, 96 kHz / 24-bit, 48 kHz
- Recording Gear: Zoom F3, Zoom F6, Zoom H3-VR, Zoom H1essential, Tascam Portacapture X8; Hydrophone H27S MKII, Hydrophone MSH27M, Potar Design Hydrophone; Audio-Technica BP4025 and AT897, Lewitt LCT 440, LOM Usi Pro, Earsight Binaural, Earsight Nano, Dummy Head BE-P1, Korg CM-300 and Metal Marshmallow Pro contact microphones
- Metadata: Fully integrated with the Universal Category System (UCS) standard, with embedded descriptions and originator info
Ideal For
- Film & Documentary: Coastal and maritime ambiences, harbour scenes, river and mountain locations.
- Underwater & Submarine Sequences: Authentic hydrophone material for diving scenes, submarines, shipwrecks, sonar environments and freshwater wildlife.
- Games & VR: Ambisonic and binaural beds for open-water, beach and river environments.
- Sound Design & Sci-Fi: Processed at 32-bit float, hulls and propellers become creature movement, engine rumble and alien atmospheres.
Foley & Domestic Scenes: Showers, sinks, drains and pipes for everyday interiors