Hey, I found this guide on creating all kinds of SFX. Pretty interesting stuff and thought it would be helpful. http://www.epicsound.com/sfx/

Yeah... I would think lighting them on fire would yield better results. ;P

great guide thanks

Hi,

I have just a little bit of experience creating sound effects from developing The Trouble With Robots, here are my tips for beginners:

1. Minimize background noise. Turn of unnecessary equipment, close windows, and avoid recording when something noisy is happening nearby. Put the microphone as far away from your computer as you can. It's easy to see the difference these things make by recording silence in different conditions and comparing the levels of fuzz you get - and this is much cheaper than sound proofing!

2. Try to make your sounds as loud as possible without 'clipping' (which is where the sound waveform goes above the top or below the bottom level that can be recorded, resulting in a crackling sound). This is preferable to recording a quiet sound and amplifying it a lot, because that will also amplify the noise.

3. Record lots of variations of each effect. This way you can choose your favourite, and potentially introduce alternatives if the sound is played frequently.

4. Experiment with speeding up and slowing down recordings. As a rule, speeding up a sound makes it sound like it came from something smaller, whereas slowing it down makes it sound like it came from something larger. The latter is particularly useful if you're recording household objects which are typically smaller than the game objects you want to represent.

5. Be patient. Often you won't get the sound you want on your first attempt, so try different things until you have something that sounds good. If a particular effect is troubling you then don't give up, but put it down and come back another day with fresh ideas.

- Geoffrey White
http://www.digitalchestnut.com
http://www.facebook.com/thetroublewithrobots

Pretty nice article and info here

I am just starting to get into SFX at the moment and wondered what kind of microphone is best as an "all rounder" to use in a home studio for SFX/voiceover recording?

Lots of good info here guys: http://designingsound.org/

Pretty nice article and info here

I am just starting to get into SFX at the moment and wondered what kind of microphone is best as an "all rounder" to use in a home studio for SFX/voiceover recording?

It pretty much depends on your budget, man. The Rode NT1A is a pretty good option to start with. It has a ridiculously low noise floor (which is a must when recording foley or sound effects), it's very affordable (around $270) and is built like a rock. If you have a bigger budget, Earthworks has some incredible studio microphones (especially the QTC50).