Sounds recorded for maximum impact
There’s a movie with a most inexplicable scene. There’s the character reflecting on her mistakes and crying on the couch and then – THUNK! – a frog lands next to the speakers. And then another frog, another frog, and another. And each one lands with a bass heavy whack, as though they’re reflections of our heart.
The movie is Magnolia (1999) by Paul Thomas Anderson. “This famous notion that goes back to the Romans,” Anderson said in an interview with Sven Mikulec for Cinephilia & Beyond, “People have been able to judge the health of a society by the health of its frogs. The health of a frog, the vibe of a frog, the texture of a frog. Its looks, how much wetness is on it, everything. The frogs are a barometer for who we are as a people. We’re polluting ourselves, we’re killing ourselves, and the frogs are telling us so, because they are getting all sick and deformed.”
The scene comes at a pivotal moment in the three intertwined storylines. Each scene of frogs smashing to smithereens on solid grounds underfoot came at moments of maximum impact, and each sound was designed for that maximum impact.
Just like with this sound pack. Each sound is designed for maximum impact.
About the sounds
In the best fight scenes and in scenes designed to grab our attention, there’s always an extra “thump” in the sound. The sound in nature of course doesn’t come with those deep, heart-rocking bass blasts, but rather the impacts were designed to hit heavier.
Abstract sounds were featured in our last pack. This time it’s all about upping the ante in making you feel the hit on screen in your gut. Our sound engineers went about hitting pipes, doors and logs, trying to find the best rumbling reverberations that are perfect to use to augment the sounds of your plunges, punches and parries.
We present you 500 sounds to pulverize the subs of your audience. From tree branches getting whacked and stones hitting electrical towers to metal rods hitting things and heavy metal hitting more heavy metal, from iron sticks hitting poles and garden hoes smashing things to pickaxes thudding different grounds, we’ve got all sorts of thudding sounds for you ready to go.
What can you use these sounds for?
These sounds are meant to be layered. Line them up to where you need the effect and combine them with other sounds so that you can get the perfect impact and tail that matches the scene.
When designing impacts further, here’s a few good tips to follow when you think of layering your sounds:
- Use another kick to further emphasize the punch
- Another low end sound for more depth
- A high-end flam sound with a touch of transient at the front
- Another high-end dragged-out sound that adds a nice sparkle
After you have the right samples (many of which can be sourced from this upload), then you can add some processing, like with reverb and distortion. From there, just a few experiments and you should be able to find something good.
By the way, did you know there was a great program for designing sounds like impacts? It’s called Soundweaver from BOOM Library. Check it out!
Stay tuned for the next upload when we’ll be bringing you loads of impacts!
We release new sound effects for Smartsound Cloud every two weeks. Sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date with each new release.
