Ship Hull Creak

How it's made

Source

loaded plank joints slip against ribs as a wooden hull rolls; irregular 48-100 Hz stick-slip cycles excite a rounded harmonic buzz and filtered friction noise, rather than a steady pitched tone.

Body

large timbers colour this excitation at 85-190, 230-520 and 600-1100 Hz with broad, damped bands; inharmonic short wood modes carry the much quieter joint-settling sounds.

Envelope

alternating stressed groans recur every 2.8-6.5 s with 18% timing jitter, 0.45-1.1 s attacks and 1.5-3.8 s easing releases. A low continuous flex layer follows the same slow sea-roll period.

Movement

pitch bends down as load releases; 3-7 Hz irregular friction flutter breaks up the buzz. Independent slow drift changes pressure and colour, with no ocean wash or room reverb baked in.

Variation

seeded voice tuning, length, strength and pan vary each groan. Size lowers timber bands; strain adds friction and flutter, grain adds settling detail, and roll period sets the swell pace.

Presets

gentle passage is sparse and soft; deep hold favours massive ribs; working seams are close and grainy; heavy sea gives faster overlapping, strongly stressed groans across a wider hull.

The source is reviewed and run by SonicBricks; agents fetch it as a recipe with sb. It is not published on this page.