Homemade Sound Effects With Big-Budget Impact (page 2)

• Fire Crunch cellophane wrap or wax paper.
• Rain Sprinkle rice, birdseed or coarse sand on a metal sheet or other thin surface.
• Thunder Flex or jiggle a large sheet of aluminum.
• Icky slime Squish pasta with your hands, or squirt it out of a rubber glove.
• Frying Touch wet rags to a hot surface (stove burner).
• Sci-fi phaser Tap on the guy wire attached to a telephone pole or antenna. You'll get a different sound depending on where you hit the wire; near where the cable meets the ground usually works well.
• Ticking bomb Close-mike a mechanical alarm clock, grandfather clock or watch.
• Walking through brush, bushes Crackle corn husks or squeeze the whisk of a straw broom.
• Mechanical door Roll a metal-wheeled skate or skateboard on concrete or metal.
• Bubbles Use a straw or rubber hose to blow bubbles in a pan of water. For a more dramatic effect, use a larger hose and a bigger container of water.
• Water Stir a pan of water with your hand, or use a kiddie swimming pool for "larger" water sounds.
• Slap Clap two thin boards together, or clap wet hands together.
• Body blows Hit a pillow or fabric sofa cushion. For a lighter sound, slap a vinyl cushion.
• Horse hooves Hit coconut shells on a hard surface or gravel.
• Footfalls in snow Step down on cornstarch or cat litter.
• Footfalls in leaves Crunch corn flakes or potato chips with your feet or hands.
• Clothing rustle Rub different types of fabrics together.

Before you set out to make your own effects, come up with a list of all the sounds your video needs. Round up the materials you think may give you the sounds you want, and find a relatively quiet place to record. A checklist can be handy for keeping track of which effects you've recorded, and which ones you still need to capture.

You have several methods at your disposal for recording the sound effects. The easiest and most obvious is to use your camcorder, a technique that has several advantages. First, the camcorder offers the simplicity of a recorder and microphone all in one unit. Second, because it shoots video as well, you get a visual record of each effect. When scanning a tape for an audio effect, this gives you visual cues of their whereabouts. If you want to get really elaborate, you can even make up small slate cards that list the sound effect, the name of the video and the date.

Finally, recording sound effects with your camcorder gives you sounds in a format you're already equipped to handle: videotape. For folks with an editing system, this sets you up for easy, accurate synchronization of sound effects and video.

On the negative side, the camcorder's audio system may not offer great fidelity. And if you're recording very quiet sound effects, you may end up with more motor noise from the camcorder's transport than sound effect. Finally, the camcorder's auto gain control can compromise the realism of the effects.

Attaching an external mike to your camcorder is an even better way to record sound effects. You end up with audio on videotape, but you eliminate the chance of transport noise ending up on tape. Most external mikes offer fidelity that exceeds that of the camcorder's built-in mike to boot.

A third method is to use a VCR (preferably a hi-fi stereo model) to record your audio tracks. Hi-fi VCRs offer fidelity that rivals that of compact disc, and many have record levels you can set manually. Connect a microphone to the VCR's mike input jack or plug a mixer or your camcorder's audio output to the audio input jacks. This will allow you to record clean audio onto a video format. If you want to have a visual record of the effects, plug your camcorder's video output into the VCR. Set up a wide shot to take in all the action.

Finally, you can use a traditional audio recorder. A standard audiocassette deck will work OK, but its fidelity is not stellar. Better by far is a MiniDisc or DAT recorder--these digital recorders will give you crisp, noise-free recordings. With an audio recorder, you can plug a mike in directly, or run the mike through an audio mixer first. The latter method gives you a little more control over the sound as you record.

Regardless of what recording method you use, remember to monitor everything with headphones to be sure you're getting clean audio on tape.

With all your sound effects captured on audio or video tape, it's time to integrate them with your video. How you accomplish this depends on what sort of equipment you have, as well as the type of video you're making.

Videographers with accurate editing systems will be better able to match sound effects precisely with some on-screen action. Those without editing gear are safer sticking with sound effects that aren't synchronized to visuals. For the full scoop on inserting sound effects, see "Edit Your Audio, Too" in the September, 1997 issue.

Regardless of how you create them, record them or edit them, sound effects will breathe new life into your videos.

Contributing Editor Loren Alldrin is a freelance video and music producer.

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