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Sword Sound Effects

Does anyone have/know of a good source for sword sound effects? I particularily like the sound effects used in the Animatrix "Last Flight of the Osiris" if anyonw has these sound effects or know how they made those sounds.

thanks for any help.
 
Why don't you take a trip down to your local medieval fort and record your own...

Er....

well... see what they have on www.flashkit.com...

And try typing sword sound effects into some search engines... You might also be best buying a sound effect Cd or DVD rom!

but apart from that... not sure...
 
If you have a good quality recorder, it should be easy to record your own. Find a couple of pieces of relatively smooth metal. A pair of flanges, pipes or bars, perhaps. A flange & a bar... you get the picture.

Bang them together to see if they have the kind of ring you want to hear. Run one along the other to see if it gives the sound you want for when a sword is drawn from it's scabbard.

Good luck, have fun, & don't bang your finger!
 
I've also had good results with banging real swords together, depending on the quality. What types of swords are you using? I think the trickiest part is getting a subtle "swish" right before the clash.
 
It's also very helpful if you have actually seen/experienced a metal sword in live action. Real swords can have a distinct ring to them that you will only get from a piece of hand tempered 1/4"-1/8" steel. Even the length of the blade will affect the accoustical properties of the weapon. If you can find some videos online of re-enactments etc you should be able to get a good feel for the sounds involved and then you can move on to "spice them up" a little if you feel it is necessary.
 
Shaw said:
It's also very helpful if you have actually seen/experienced a metal sword in live action. Real swords can have a distinct ring to them that you will only get from a piece of hand tempered 1/4"-1/8" steel. Even the length of the blade will affect the accoustical properties of the weapon. If you can find some videos online of re-enactments etc you should be able to get a good feel for the sounds involved and then you can move on to "spice them up" a little if you feel it is necessary.

I agree. It definitely helps to know what a real sword is like, particularly the exact type of sword you intend on using. It also depends on how stylized you're trying to go with this. Realistic sword sounds are actually quite boring compared to Hollywood versions, especially when done on film (real-life sword clashes are much more intense, imo, since they're right in front of you... that's just hard to translate into film), so it helps "spice them up," as mentioned.

One simple example is from Hero, when Jet Li draws his sword. It has a distinct metallic sound, followed by a schiiiiingg sound. Neither of these are very dramatic sounds in real life, especially considering that the scabbard is often wooden or padded inside.
 
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