There seem to be sound effects that are unique to anime, and I was just wondering if there were free stock sounds available, or information on how such sounds are made.

For instance the typical "cutting" sound you tend to hear in anime and some fighting games, are sounds like that just made completely digitally, like with an oscillator, or is it something else?

Sound effects are commonly made by several methods:

1) Uses foley recordings that a sound designer records noises out in the field or an environment. Later the sound designer will edit these sounds.

2) Uses royalty free sound effect libraries that he purchases.

3) Uses synths to create sounds.

Most often all three methods are used to create a sound effect. Some websites have an a la carte approach where you can pick which sound effect you want to buy and others sell bundles that you pay for.

Thanks,

Nathan

Yeah, but I want to know about particular kinds of sounds.

Sounds like this (the sounds the weapons make, mostly)


As I said, these are really common sounds in anime, so I'm interested to know where they originated or were first used, and how they were made.

They're common in SFX libraries too. See here, for instance. As for how they were made? Probably something mundane, like running a wrench along a metal pipe, or dropping a cantaloupe on a trash bag filled with air.

Remember, sounds like that far predated anime or video games.

Exactly Sneftel.

Kiiryu- if you're interested in the origins of these sounds and how they were made then I suggest you read up on foley from martial art movies of the 60s, 70s and onward. Many of these older movies set the standard for how martial arts sound and carried over (or influenced heavily) anime and video games.

As far as how the sounds are made? Go back and see my original post. There are all kinds of sounds that once you layer them together and add effects (like reverb, chorus, distortion) and layer them with synth oscillators.... you can achieve all kinds of cool stuff!

Thanks for the advice guys, and I'll check out some of the older movies.