Step 1: Our first sound combines foot stamps and a large book whacked on a cupboard. The stamping is hard and percussive, while the book whack is fat and heavy. We pick a few of the stamps and a couple of the thumps, and offset the timing slightly, particularly for the stamps. A bit of careful balancing and we have a slightly flammed attack with a solid thump. (Audio: Step 1)
Step 2: Recording a knife slicing through something on a chopping board (a carrot, in our case) can sound great. For a percussive sound we need a tight one-shot effect, so we’re editing the tail of our recording. However, we keep the front slicing effect, which sounds a bit like a reverse snare. We’ll need to bear this in mind for timing purposes later.
Step 3: If you want a musical accent that really cuts through, it’s typically done with some kind of cymbal or white noise effect. However, a good found sound alternative is breaking glass, which can also impart an urban or desolate feel. Here we have three samples, layered for energy and power.
Step 4: Metal objects usually produce a ringing sound with a quick decay. Striking a fire extinguisher gets us a ringing tone, which we can pitch down to create a darker effect. We use a varispeed-type pitchshift, so that the sound becomes longer as we pitch it down.
