Topic starter
25/05/2012 4:42 pm
I am currently creating sound for a film which depicts General Grant's Civil War steamboat "River Queen." I'd like to reproduce accurately the sound of that boat's steam whistle (assuming it had one). Can anyone give me a clue as to what type of sound is plausible?
25/05/2012 5:05 pm
Just surf this site over to the audio/video recordings of the different steamboats' whistles and you have your answer. My favorite is the BELLE OF LOUSVILLE's three bell whistle. It has authority but doesn't, "cause a grown man to cry," as Roddy Hammett once declared about the NATCHEZ's Lunkenheimer.
25/05/2012 6:05 pm
Ben,
The majority of those East coast sidewheelers probably had single barrel whistles, So the sound of the Belle of Louisville or Natchez would not be appropriate. Probably the sound of any old factory whistle with a single barrel would do nicely, as long s it wasn't too high piched. I looked ae several phos of of the River Queen but couldn't tell where the whistle was.
Also, those East Coast boats all had condensers, so there wouldn't have been any "choo, choo"exhaust sound at all.