Dunedin company develops new game using animal sounds to make music
On bass we have the kākāpō, on drums the minke whale, and up front on leading vocals, the tūī.
Now you can perform as your favourite New Zealand wildlife supergroup, by making one-of-a-kind music with some of the country’s unique species.
Electronic musician Stef Animal loves to make music out of unusual sounds. That interest has led to her Dunedin-based company, Spookysoft Games, developing a music-making game featuring a diverse range of talent.
The unusual line-up of musicians include an elephant seal, a cicada, a kina (sea urchin), and a paddle crab.
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“We were trying to go for a wholesome conservation approach to appeal to kids with animal sounds,” said Rachel Anson, who was tasked with researching the sounds.
“This was the best job I ever had. I’d make a coffee, get my headphones on and research sounds.”
That included the aforementioned paddle crab, whose claws and legs make a zipping noise when rubbed together, or that a leopard seal made a sound like a “ray-gun”.
“It was unreal.”
Sounds were provided by scientists, filmmakers and wildlife enthusiasts.
Those sounds were then added to their game – Animal Tracks – developed for TVNZ’s HEIHEI platform thanks to funding from NZ On Air.
Users – children and adults alike – did not need any knowledge of music theory to play, Animal said.
“Some animals make sounds which are good for making actual tunes out of, and some animals don’t. That is the fun thing, because organic sounds are full of surprising harmonics and details.”
It was hard to capture that “noise and chaos” with a synthesiser.
“You can’t fake
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