Werner Herzog’s recent film, Encounters At the End of the World, includes an astounding recording of antarctic seals under the ice.  A scientist remarks that it doesn’t sound like animal sounds, but more like Pink Floyd.  Although I generally eschew imitative synthesis, I could not resist trying to make some sounds similar to these seals.  I don’t know that I’ve succeeded very well, but here it is.

The higher pitched sound is made with a MOTM-300 VCO followed by two MOTM-420 filters in series.  The two lower pitched sounds are made with two MOTM-310 VCOs, each followed by a CGS Synthacon VCF in band pass mode.  I used the Rich Chorus Echo preset of the Lexicon MPX-1 to fill it out.  Various semi-random controls are applied.