How To Make Cicada Sound

Question

I'm here because I've met some troubles in the project wich i'm working in. One of the most important character in the movie is : a cicada.

The problem is, i have to make the cicada lives with the sound, and I've tried everything : Find Cicada sound in Librarys do not work because there are too much cicadas and I just need ONE cicada ! I've searched on youtube, soundcloud but I really can't find a good sample of ONE cicada singing. I've tried to buy a cicada on the internet : Impossible. I've contacted Insects sellers : No answer.

So the best way ... In fact the only way is to reproduce MY own cicada sound, here is the real problem, it's pretty hard. at the moment I've found some good results with old toy wich has mechanism with springs.

But if someone has ever done this before, I'd really appreciate some help.

Thank you all, Have a nice day.

Answer 1

Try searching "cicada" on YouTube in foreign languages. Like Zikade, Cvrčci, セミ, Cicale, Цикадовые, Τζιτζίκι, böceği, 蝉

Maybe you'll get better sources like this one:

This recording on Wikipedia is also useful: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/New_Zealand_cicada_song.ogg

Answer 2

Recordings do exist. I remember Tim Prebble posting a good one:

http://www.musicofsound.co.nz/blog/cicadas-meet-pitch-shift

Maybe try to get in touch with him?

Answer 3

Hmm, tricky. I have several close up recordings of a single cricket and a few wind up toy sounds that might serve as a base for designing your own. If you like me to email to you just contact me on kyle[at]squeakyfish.com.au

Or if you've got some artistic liberty, there's some very expressive beetle noises in this library: http://www.therecordist.com/flying-insects-hd-pro