Great story from Radium Audio on recording lions for doing the new voice of Leo, the iconic MGM lion.
Big cats play games just like their smaller household cousins – lions don’t just roar on demand. Bad-Boy and Shy-Boy, only 2 metres from our tent, amuse themselves at our expense by remaining utterly silent, loitering nearby with the occasional menacing glare until we give up and retire to the tent for some sleep. Then we hear not just roaring but a kind of unearthly prehistoric keening, a song they sing to each other, one by one, multiplying and echoing throughout the entire reserve, a choral symphony of 35 lions in full voice under the African starry night sky, which of course ceases as soon as we run back outside to turn the mikes on! We spend the entire night fitfully dozing, fully clothed and shoe’d and in and out of the tent like bedraggled jack-in-the-boxes, much, we suspect, to Bad-Boy’s and Shy-Boy’s quiet satisfaction.
[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/radium-audio/lions-the-group-sings-at-night”]
More here.
