ambient background winter wind. Created by blowing softly near or into the microphone.  Good for winter environments and a feeling of desolation.

[Ambient] Winter Wind 01

[Ambient] Winter Wind 02

The sound of skiing and/or snowboarding on snow at a reasonable distance. This is another effect best achieved by creating it yourself while watching the recorded footage. I used a sheet of paper against sandpaper, you may want to experiment with different grades of sandpaper for different sounds. 

To make the sound of turning or skidding to a halt on your ski's try speeding up your motion of the paper and then make a tight turn. Add some powder snow tossing noise (corn starch moved around) and you should get a convincing skier.

[Vehicle] Skiing Snowboarding

The rustling of cloth created by manipulating a jacket similar to the one both my actors were wearing. This is an effect best recorded while watching the actor go through the motions. Give the clip a few watch throughs and then try to replicate the characters' motions with similar clothing.

[clothing] jacket 2

Rattling gun noise accomplished by lightly shaking and/or manipulating metal objects like can openers or small coins. Best recorded while watching the actor's motions so you can line up the rattle more effectively and realistically with the motions.

[guns] metal rattle

Gunshot noise accomplished by several layered tracks off a bunch of different things. There's a lot of freedom with these, you need a heavy impact noise, a piercing ringing for the gun and a low-pitch drum for some emphasis.

[guns] Pistol Shot

The sound of space ambience generated by recording a gentle hum noise like your voice, a fan or an air conditioner. In post I lowered the pitch and extended the clip by slowing it down. This gave me a solid 10 minutes of ambient space noise.

This is one of those effects you DO NOT need to watch the clip while you make it unless there are fluctuations in space during your shot. Most ambience shots simply can be placed afterwards since they are in the background.

[ambience] space

The upper track of the distant explosion sound. This was the bulk of the noise I used in my explosion. The other part was this same sound but with the pitch ramped down and the length extended. 

[explosion] distant

lazer noises created by bouncing around a slinkie. This sound doesn't need to be paired with the video, it can easily be added in later if you have one or two shots being fired.

This is the only way I've ever heard of to make a lazer sound without modifying the noise or creating it entirely in audio editing software. You can also try messing around with magnets (rattlesnake magnets?) or hitting a tight metal wire with a sledge hammer (lightly).

[scifi][gun] heavy lazer

a sound I created using a slinkie again. Hung from a metal object (in my case the microphone itself). This fit my video especially well because there is a scene where one ship is firing several shots at once, rather than trying to match up the sound live (very difficult in this case) i created a general multiple shots being fired. I dropped the slinkie once and then allowed it to vibrate afterwards.

[scifi][gun] rapidfire lazer

computer noises that sound like star trek L-CARS. Basically futuristic button pushing made up of complex, high pitch noises. If you can see the hand pressing buttons you'll want to line up the noise while watching the footage. Although this is difficult because you'll need to do lots of modification in post. You may want to line things up in your sound editing program.

I banged metal objects together, sped up the sound, and kept only the reverb after the initial clash. I also raised the pitch on many of them and then lined up the segments to sound like complicated clicks and beeps.

[scifi] general computer

General Button Noises

[scifi] computer 'accepted'

Made by sliding one's hand against the edge of a book and allowing the cover to freely fall. Also thumbed rapidly through the pages for several cards being flipped in sequence. 

In most cases it is good to watch the video while you record so you can line up the footage effectively. It will sound much more natural if the 'flips' actually follow each other rather than being overlapped in post.

In my particular case I made this for an online poker game so the motions were very discreet and independent and I needed something that could be paired to an action or a button and be repeated endlessly and still sound good. Because of this I constructed the sound in post out of several sequences of cards being flipped in tandem.

If you have a close up on a single card than you can use something heavier like a large group of pages slapping downward all at once or even a hardcover book. If a single card is the focus then add emphasis to bring attention to it.

[prop] Playing cards

The poker chip noise, used some wooden bar tokens and shook them around to get the sound I was looking for. You can either throw them out onto whatever surface they are supposed to be on and they will clatter about realistically or you can shake them around in your hand. 

The more you have in your footage the more tokens you should have in real life unless you want to layer a LOT of sounds together. Luckily these do layer and add pretty seamlessly.

Poker Chips

the original pots and pans sound used to create the futuristic keyboard and computer noises seen in episode 4: sci fi sounds.

DIYFoley

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