Product Description
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.
Original cover illustration by Lucut Bogdan
What’s included:
Adult Male Vocalizations
Relaxed bellows and low growls through to chest heavy roars and powerful calls, showing the full weight and range of 4,000 kg adult males.
Pup & Weaner Vocalizations
Strange cries, barks, hisses, and unexpected calls that move from quiet and vulnerable to urgent and confrontational.
Adult Breathing Noises
Close breaths, airy exhales, rumbling breath cycles, snorts, growls, and textured mouth sounds, ranging from soft and relaxed to deep and weighty.
Pup & Weaner Breathing
Soft breaths and small exhales alongside quick, strained breath cycles, startled puffs, and rough, stuttering detail.
Adult Female Vocalizations
Urgent barks, wet grumbles, and longer distressed calls.
425 individual recordings across five organised folders. Delivered as 24 bit, 192 kHz WAV files with UCS compatible metadata and individually written descriptions.
“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