Selecting alternative sounds

“For percussion samples, any object that you can hit or shake is fair game”

While classical orchestral and ethnic sounds are great, to create something truly original you’ll probably want to throw the sound selection net a little wider. This could involve simply searching for other regular sounds and using them percussively, possibly by editing them to make them shorter or repitching them – but there’s no need to stop there. When it comes to capturing percussion sounds, the whole world is your oyster.

In movie production, sound effects are created in a controlled studio environment – a process that’s known as ‘Foley’. The equipment used for this usually bears little relationship to the sounds that it generates, and in fact, we’ve become so accustomed to the larger-than-life Foley sounds we hear in movies that the sounds of real life often seem somewhat dull and mundane in comparison.

For percussion samples, any object that you can hit or shake is fair game, although recording it may not be as easy a task as you’d expect. Close miking often sounds lifeless, while ambient miking can easily become too ambient, so be prepared for quite a bit of trial and error. Try stamping flamenco-style on a wooden floor or board (hard shoe heels will be particularly effective), slamming doors or using unusual items as beaters. A telephone directory slammed down on a table (or the closed lid of a piano!) can produce a pretty usable thump, as can whacking the bottom of a plastic tub – a laundry bin, for example.

This ‘found sounds’ approach can be particularly fruitful in your kitchen, which will be full of appliances, metal hardware and hard surfaces that can be used to produce edgy sounds. With some judicious editing, layering and repitching, you can render these totally unrecognisable from their sources, turning them into unusual percussive tones. Possibilities include appliance doors (microwave, fridge, washing machine), switches on kettles, toasters and so on, and – for industrial metals – the evereffective scrape of a grill pan being moved in and out of the cooker.