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I can't seem to find a recording of a bird (a crow in particular) flapping its wings as it flies away in to the distance. I imagine it would be a hard sound to capture. How can I make this sound? Is there a way to make it using a synth? I heard that's how you can make large 'dragon-like' wing sounds.
OR
Is there a material I can use and perform the wing flaps as foley? Such as paper?
(I may have just answered my own question. Ha!)
Foley, is the way to go here. I've caught wing flaps (of crows actually), but the ambient sound was too great for them to be a focal point of the mix.
Try flapping a pair of gloves (leather, fleece, whatever best matches mood/picture). I've also heard of successes performing wing flaps with a feather duster. I'd think paper is too crinkly, although a pillow case might be effective and easy to manipulate. I've even used a loosely-held tissue in front of a large diaphragm mic and pulled it tight to get a flappy, low-end thwump for a sweetener.
Foley indeed, but adding a few real pigeon/crow wings flapping away in there works quite well too, it adds that quick whooshy air sound between the flaps. The thing to do would be quite obvious : If you're in a city, find a not too exposed park on a sunday morning (quiet background), bring some bread, feed the birds. And then run in the middle with your microphone in hand. It's stupidly fun.
Gloves, soft cover books (not pocket size) and umbrella work pretty well.
Umbrella is good for bigger single flaps and if you edit umbrella recording a bit you can create wingflap loops of bigger birds like eagle and such. Also a classic approach for bats and dragons.
Try some bigger soft cover books. For example the sound design book of Ric Viers works pretty well :) These are imo good for a sound of swarm of birds. Somewhat harsher tone than gloves.
Great ideas so far. Have a pair of real wings but also a real feather duster is great as well as leather or suede gloves (soft leather) I also use these for dog ears flapping. If the wings are really big, I take a thin shirt, put it on and pull it out with the mic underneath it and with the feather duster beat it against the shirt. works well.
Good luck
I am going to recommend audioblocks.
A quick search on their site for "birds wings flapping" brings up several results
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