swimmer's ear audio filter?

July 14, 2014 9:30 AM

What audio filters and/or effects would best simulate the unpleasant stuffy sound of having water in your ears? I'm more interested in the impression of stuffy ears than a technically accurate simulation of what's going on in the ear canal.
posted by moonmilk to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Often when I'm messing around with a EQ, mixing down a song, this kind of sound happens inadvertently. Just cut everything down, and then turn up the lows and the mids until it sounds right. Blocking the high frequencies is all you have to do.
posted by umbú at 9:38 AM on July 14, 2014

Or just use a low pass filter with no resonance
posted by mike_bling at 9:45 AM on July 14, 2014

Response by poster: Low pass filter seems too obvious - I was hoping for something more complicated so I could mess around more! But I think you're right.
posted by moonmilk at 9:48 AM on July 14, 2014

I think a standard cinematic technique is also to add a bit of reverb.
posted by BillMcMurdo at 10:06 AM on July 14, 2014

Since there are audible artefacts as well when that happens, I would also add some sounds to it. Slow moving, LP filtered noise, simulating water hitting the ear drum.
posted by hz37 at 2:39 PM on July 14, 2014

You could also add some brown noise (which gives a watery roar to the background noise) to the mix and mess around with the highs, turning on and off to give the impression of air bubbles in your ear canal or when its filling up. I think just turning down the highs on normal sound would not be realistically "dirty" enough.
posted by guy72277 at 12:59 AM on July 15, 2014

Artifacts from hiss- and noise-reduction plugins pushed too hard always remind me of water in my ears
posted by STFUDonnie at 6:03 AM on July 15, 2014

Response by poster: Thanks - I'll give all these suggestions a try!
posted by moonmilk at 7:16 PM on July 15, 2014