typical hit sound
- Thread starter dre83
- Start date
Depends on what kind of hit you need. I assume you're talking about body hits?
On the light end, you can punch the meaty part of your palm, on the thumb side. You can also use a variety of raw steak cuts. While you have them out and are recording, you might as well go ahead and try some slaps as well just to build the library.
For a fatter punch, wrap a phone book in duct tape and hit it with a bat.
If you need bone crunch in there, wrap some fresh celery in a damp chamois and give it a good, quick twist.
And, of course, the best hits will come from layering some of these together and manipulating them (pitch/time, etc.) to taste.
On the light end, you can punch the meaty part of your palm, on the thumb side. You can also use a variety of raw steak cuts. While you have them out and are recording, you might as well go ahead and try some slaps as well just to build the library.
For a fatter punch, wrap a phone book in duct tape and hit it with a bat.
If you need bone crunch in there, wrap some fresh celery in a damp chamois and give it a good, quick twist.
And, of course, the best hits will come from layering some of these together and manipulating them (pitch/time, etc.) to taste.
yes I know. But... My question was: wat was used to make that typical hit sound that you find on the internet...
Like the "typical scream" would be the "Wilhelm scream"... and then the answer would be "a guy just shouting 25 times untill that one was the on".
The answer for "what's that typical eagle sound coming from", would be "a soundguy who was in the mountains and recorded it"
So the answer to "WHERE is that TYPICAL hit sound coming from" would be....
Like the "typical scream" would be the "Wilhelm scream"... and then the answer would be "a guy just shouting 25 times untill that one was the on".
The answer for "what's that typical eagle sound coming from", would be "a soundguy who was in the mountains and recorded it"
So the answer to "WHERE is that TYPICAL hit sound coming from" would be....
The sounds of Bruce Lee's punches are still echo'ing around the world. If you listen carefully on a quiet night, you can hear them. I think that might be were they came from 
But seriously, I don't really know off hand, but check out filmsound.org. They have all kinds of info about stuff like this.
But seriously, I don't really know off hand, but check out filmsound.org. They have all kinds of info about stuff like this.
And the answer is a combination of what I listed. There are several variants on the "typical" hit sound, mostly combinations of hits (raw steak, phone book) and bone crunch (celery in a wet chamois). Those are the things that were used to create many of the generic hits. You might even hear a generic "whoosh" preceding the hit, which is created with swords, golf clubs, wooden dowels, rope... anything that can swing through the air and make a really nice whoosh.
Not to be nit-picky, but the "typical eagle sound" used in TV and films is actually the cry of the Redtail Hawk. In fact, no matter what raptor you see in a production or over which geographical region it is flying, you will most likely hear the call of the Redtail. The cry of the American Bald Eagle is not nearly as graceful in real life.
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Well it was that sound I ment with "eagle sound", but someone has recorded it once 
But for the hits I thought someone had found a kind of material or something that was a part of the typical "dchhhchch" sound.
But thanks for the hints though.
Another question: hot water doesn't need to be re-invented... Is it ok to use soundlibary hit and punch sounds ?? Because it already exists.... Or not ??
It's just an open question..... So don't start telling me I have to make it myself.... I avoid soundlibraries
It's an opinion question.... So the answer starts with "I agree" or "I don't agree"
But for the hits I thought someone had found a kind of material or something that was a part of the typical "dchhhchch" sound.
But thanks for the hints though.
Another question: hot water doesn't need to be re-invented... Is it ok to use soundlibary hit and punch sounds ?? Because it already exists.... Or not ??
It's just an open question..... So don't start telling me I have to make it myself.... I avoid soundlibraries
It's an opinion question.... So the answer starts with "I agree" or "I don't agree"
unclebob6958
Well-known member
No, it's not a crime, but it makes your project sound like all other projects, and tends to give a humorous patina to it since the sounds have become so cliche. Of course, maybe the cliché is exactly what you want, but then it should be well thought out; for example, I'm so sick of hearing the Wilhelm Scream I could just barf.
Another issue is that sounds are just like the rest of the film; you want then to be unique, if at all possible. After all, if you're going to use the same typical sound FX from libraries why not just recycle the scripts/dialog, the sets/locations, the editing and the score as well? (Of course, that's what many say Hollywood has been doing for quite while now :cheesy
In this day and age with inexpensive digital recorders and quality mics on a budget there's no excuse for not doing a lot of the sound FX on your own.
Another issue is that sounds are just like the rest of the film; you want then to be unique, if at all possible. After all, if you're going to use the same typical sound FX from libraries why not just recycle the scripts/dialog, the sets/locations, the editing and the score as well? (Of course, that's what many say Hollywood has been doing for quite while now :cheesy
In this day and age with inexpensive digital recorders and quality mics on a budget there's no excuse for not doing a lot of the sound FX on your own.
Well the Wilhelm scream.... it's so recognizable.... But if I record crickets and you "steel" them and use them... How could I proove it are my crickets ?
Or, how can you proove you've not used a soundlibrary and recorded yourself. Sounds like wind, dogs barking, rain, machines....
Or, how can you proove you've not used a soundlibrary and recorded yourself. Sounds like wind, dogs barking, rain, machines....
Noiz2
Sound Ninja
A few things. There is no "typical" hit sound, just as the wilhelm scream is not the "typical" scream.
You may mean "stereotypical" as in the ones used by B movies and early TV shows over and over again.
In that case you have to back a ways since it really is from a time when sound libraries were on film loops and it was a big pain to add fresh material, so the same sounds tended to get pulled over and over on projects with quick posts.
As to hits, they were probably Foleyed a lot of the time because when you cutting mag hits would be a really slow edit so it probably was faster to Foley. And big studios had Foley stages so it wasn't a big deal to do it. In that case it would be a bunch of hand on body sounds and maybe some of the rolled phone book (wrapped in duct tape and hit with a baseball bat.
If you jump to Hong Kong action films those are a bunch of the same slappy hit laid all over the place. Often only loosely in sync.
Anyway they were used mostly because of time not because people didn't know better. It was /is typical in LA for an editor to come in and get handed a drive with a few choices for different SFX that they are to cut in. It's the supervisor that would have pre spotted the film and picked the library. On a tight schedule that library might be rather small. Northern California (in the hey day of the Bay Area sound - late 70's - late 90's) started a different approach where editors had their own libraries and shows recorded a lot of new FX for every show. It also started to be looked down on to be using sounds out of libraries. That worked it's way into the industry and now even though in LA your still likely to get handed a drive, it probably has a bigger library and you probably have more ability to add. Also pretty much all films now record a lot of new SFX for each show, so the studio libraries are pretty huge.
The sounds they don't want to keep control over or don't have much use for or are covered by other libraries are open to license to outfits like Sound Ideas.
So if you see a set of "Jurassic Park" sound Effects from some major player you can be pretty sure that no "signature" sounds are in there. Also possibly no sounds that actually ended up in the film. Which doesn't really matter since as I pointed out in the post stickie none of the "sounds" you here in a film with a budget are a single sound anyway. The TRex roar is going to be 3-20 heavily manipulated sounds layered up to match that particular roar. It won't be used again. Even if the same sounds are layered in the same order somewhere else in the film it will be edited slightly differently, it will never be exactly the same.
RE: legality
You can not use others sounds legally with out permission. It's not grey, it's the same as music.
Depending on how "clean" the sound is it can be very easy to prove. Get a suspect bit, invert and get cancelation, it's a match. If you have manipulated the sound a bunch then it gets harder and grayer.
In the US whoever creates the recording owns the copyright, unless there is an agreement transferring that right. So I do post on your film and record some great sound. You get the right to use it IN that film, only. I own the copyright and the right to use the sound wherever else I want.
But it can get very complicated. What if the recording is of a public space? What about those voices? That identifiable car horn?
Right now it seems to sit at, if your in public you have given up your ownership to your "sound". But that isn't the way images work so I suspect it's just a big lawsuit away from changing.
In terms of recorded sound not many people are looking too hard because of the chain of ownership issues. I have worked for a number of large studios and Skywalker Sound is the only one I had to sign the kind of total ownership of work out put agreements that you get in software companies etc. And as careful as they are they got stung for selling a sound in a library that it turns out they didn't own.
It's very hard with these big libraries to keep track of what is yours VS what is Royalty Free licensed VS what is licensed for just that show.
As a general thing I don't know of anyone who was gone after for using a sound (as opposed to stealing part of a final mix off the DVD) in a film. It almost always comes about when they decide to sell sounds. It goes out on some commercial library and someone who worked on it or recorded it goes "I know that sound". They do a quick compare and call a lawyer. Actually more often they call the whoever and go hey you know that's my sound, and work out some arrangement.
You may mean "stereotypical" as in the ones used by B movies and early TV shows over and over again.
In that case you have to back a ways since it really is from a time when sound libraries were on film loops and it was a big pain to add fresh material, so the same sounds tended to get pulled over and over on projects with quick posts.
As to hits, they were probably Foleyed a lot of the time because when you cutting mag hits would be a really slow edit so it probably was faster to Foley. And big studios had Foley stages so it wasn't a big deal to do it. In that case it would be a bunch of hand on body sounds and maybe some of the rolled phone book (wrapped in duct tape and hit with a baseball bat.
If you jump to Hong Kong action films those are a bunch of the same slappy hit laid all over the place. Often only loosely in sync.
Anyway they were used mostly because of time not because people didn't know better. It was /is typical in LA for an editor to come in and get handed a drive with a few choices for different SFX that they are to cut in. It's the supervisor that would have pre spotted the film and picked the library. On a tight schedule that library might be rather small. Northern California (in the hey day of the Bay Area sound - late 70's - late 90's) started a different approach where editors had their own libraries and shows recorded a lot of new FX for every show. It also started to be looked down on to be using sounds out of libraries. That worked it's way into the industry and now even though in LA your still likely to get handed a drive, it probably has a bigger library and you probably have more ability to add. Also pretty much all films now record a lot of new SFX for each show, so the studio libraries are pretty huge.
The sounds they don't want to keep control over or don't have much use for or are covered by other libraries are open to license to outfits like Sound Ideas.
So if you see a set of "Jurassic Park" sound Effects from some major player you can be pretty sure that no "signature" sounds are in there. Also possibly no sounds that actually ended up in the film. Which doesn't really matter since as I pointed out in the post stickie none of the "sounds" you here in a film with a budget are a single sound anyway. The TRex roar is going to be 3-20 heavily manipulated sounds layered up to match that particular roar. It won't be used again. Even if the same sounds are layered in the same order somewhere else in the film it will be edited slightly differently, it will never be exactly the same.
RE: legality
You can not use others sounds legally with out permission. It's not grey, it's the same as music.
Depending on how "clean" the sound is it can be very easy to prove. Get a suspect bit, invert and get cancelation, it's a match. If you have manipulated the sound a bunch then it gets harder and grayer.
In the US whoever creates the recording owns the copyright, unless there is an agreement transferring that right. So I do post on your film and record some great sound. You get the right to use it IN that film, only. I own the copyright and the right to use the sound wherever else I want.
But it can get very complicated. What if the recording is of a public space? What about those voices? That identifiable car horn?
Right now it seems to sit at, if your in public you have given up your ownership to your "sound". But that isn't the way images work so I suspect it's just a big lawsuit away from changing.
In terms of recorded sound not many people are looking too hard because of the chain of ownership issues. I have worked for a number of large studios and Skywalker Sound is the only one I had to sign the kind of total ownership of work out put agreements that you get in software companies etc. And as careful as they are they got stung for selling a sound in a library that it turns out they didn't own.
It's very hard with these big libraries to keep track of what is yours VS what is Royalty Free licensed VS what is licensed for just that show.
As a general thing I don't know of anyone who was gone after for using a sound (as opposed to stealing part of a final mix off the DVD) in a film. It almost always comes about when they decide to sell sounds. It goes out on some commercial library and someone who worked on it or recorded it goes "I know that sound". They do a quick compare and call a lawyer. Actually more often they call the whoever and go hey you know that's my sound, and work out some arrangement.
The whole "sfx for a given project can only be used for that project" is VERY important. I remember when I first started out, I was an intern at Danetracks in West Hollywood. Those are the folks that did all the matrix movies, and we were absolutely FORBIDDEN to use any sound in the SFX library that were created for the matrix movies. If we got caught using them (they had a tracking system for who was pulling what effects), you could get fired. They to a great approach to feature film sound design, and created whole new libraries for each project by recording sounds that they needed. I remember on 13 Ghosts we spent a day recording me and another intern shatter all different types of glass. Nothing is cooler than taking a 3x3 foot sheet of glass, throwing it in the air, and letting it smash on the ground...and then doing it over, and over, and over, and over again. By the time we were done, we had a layer of about 10 inches of shattered glass covering the entire floor of the studio.
Noiz2
Sound Ninja
Anyplace that has franchise films usually has a restricted access area for the sounds connected to those shows.
Not many films (I would probably say no films) use exclusively new recordings. But most quality shows use very few sounds that are available to the public. So for instance there is very little pulled from collections like Sound Ideas. There will be sounds pulled from editors libraries and designers libraries and then there will be a bunch of stuff created just for the film and a lot more recorded just for the film. If it's not a franchise film, all those NEW sounds will go into libraries and used on future films.
Not many films (I would probably say no films) use exclusively new recordings. But most quality shows use very few sounds that are available to the public. So for instance there is very little pulled from collections like Sound Ideas. There will be sounds pulled from editors libraries and designers libraries and then there will be a bunch of stuff created just for the film and a lot more recorded just for the film. If it's not a franchise film, all those NEW sounds will go into libraries and used on future films.
in the late 80s I made some sound library cd roms for several companies with my Sony F1 and 2 Schoeps colette mics on a cart with a car battery. I travelled all over the place, recorded nature sounds and dragged steel pipes through tunnels at night and what not....even hung this http://www.klavins-pianos.com/ from a ceiling and hit its double t iron with a sledgehammer while somebody sat on top and pushed the pedal down...all these sounds are sold and used worldwide. I also worked foley and kneaded potato starch to fake somebody walking in the snow....today I would just use library if I could because I dont have studio rooms anymore. Some of my sounds have become standard useage and I hear them once a week in some film....
During the past several years, while working in games, rarely would we have the budget or time to record custom effects, so we had to rely on commercial libraries. I made a really strong effort to manipulate whatever I was using so it wasn't obvious that I wasn't pulling sfx from a regular library.
way to go !! :thumbsup:
Noiz2
Sound Ninja
Games are another area where your likely to sign a total work out put agreement, since they are always hoping to start a franchise.
Related to the "standard sound" topic.
I worked on a hateful project a couple of years ago. First time director with NO experience at all and 3/4 mill of other peoples money to explore his mid life crisis. He was hell for everyone, few actually survived the shoot. But anyway were in post and he has this demon and he wants a scream for it. So we layered up sounds and had what we thought worked pretty well. He comes in and says no that's not a demon scream. OK, so I ask him what he thinks a demon scream sounds like. He doesn't want any animal sounds... and "it sounds like you know a demon scream!". At this point other than the fact the guy is a dick (in general not because of the above) this isn't so unusual. People have a hard time talking sound. But after way too long all I've been able to get is it should sound like a demon scream. I finally get a bit exasperated and say but you do realize there isn't any such thing? It must sound like something at least a little, that really exists. I need some direction. And he gets all out of shape and says "A STANDARD demon scream. They are used all the time in movies!!! I just want the standard Demon scream! How hard can that be. Just go online and get one." So I go OK lets go to Sound Dogs and search for a demon scream. They had one, it was some manipulated cat scream. "No that isn't a demon scream". So I just started playing him stuff out of my library that was screechy (it was the one characteristic he could name). Finally we found something that had been developed for a game, it was an early sketch and not what was used so I could use it. His response was "See I told you it was a library sound!". I pointed out that THAT sound was not a library sound it was part of MY library, had never been used in a film and took two editors about a week and a half to create and cost about what his post sound budget was in total. It didn't sink in at all.
The sound he likes was a mix of manipulated camels, leopards, monkeys, and metal on dry ice. The original sound was around ten layers wide and most of those had been pitched or manipulated in some way.
But I'm sure his version of the story goes something like "I told him to use the standard FX and after hours he finally pulled one out of a library". I pitty the next poor soul who has to deal with this jerk.
The point of the film was so he could play director and hit on the actors. His casting apparently was very focused on who he thought he had a chance to sleep with. And the acting showed it.
I'm not naming names because a lot good people got sucked into that nightmare. Hey a low budget film with a decent budget!
Noiz2
Sound Ninja
It was a lean year and I had turned down work to clear time for this film, but I did in the end say "go to hell".
But this is not a business of "fine art", it's a team sport. You have to roll a certain amount and usually new directors learn and get better. It took me too long to realize this wasn't about making a good film.
The point was, albite long winded, that many/ most people think that a "sound" heard on screen is "A" sound. In reality it is a collection of sounds that have been worked and edited very specifically to a given moment. You can't do that by pulling a "stock" SFX off a CD.
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