Heya, I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips on creating footsteps. Up until now I''ve been sampling all of my "simple" sounds from movies/sfx cd''s, but I really want to learn how to do it myself. Ironically, I have no problem with more intricate fx like weapons, vehicles, ambient loops... I''ve tried things like a coffee-cup on a cloth covered table for wood steps, rubbing thick bristle brushes for grass, but I can''t seem to come up with anything good (at least not deus ex/unreal quality). I''ve had the hardest time with marble footsteps (ie the sound of a mage''s footsteps in a castle''s throne room)... I wish I never would''ve started sampling other people''s fx, I''ve become a bit too dependent on it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Perhaps you could add an echo... If you in a castle (a stone room) it should echo _alot_

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As far as footsteps on a marble floor(in a large room, I would assume), try getting two dress shoes with very hard heels(like the kind they rent out at tux shops), and slap the heels together. In my minds'' ear, that might emulate the sound pretty well.

Andrew - When it comes to reverb I''m a big fan of EAX and sound propagation (in the slightly rare event when I work with programmers who put effort into the sound engine). I try to avoid static reverb. If the mage walks into the throne room and then turns down a hall I want the reverb to adjust dynamically (instead of using marblestep-largerev.wav and marblestep-hallrev.wav, etc)...

Krikkit - Thanks, actually I did try that with various materials; no success. So far for marble I''ve tried coffee-cup on a bare table, whacking two materials together (shoes, two pieces of wood, marble coasters, blah...).

Thanks for the replies. I''m probably over-thinking this whole thing, it absolutely should NOT be this tricky...

This may be a bit too simplistic, or i'm missing the point of the question, but if you want footsteps on marble, then rent yourself a good dat or other recording medium rig and go record footsteps on marble. Most high rent buildings or museums and alike have the floors your looking for. I had the same need and rented the gear and solicited permission to record at a local art museum to great effect. Then you can manipulate the enviroment post recording with something like SmartTools or miles or some other prog for spacial(spelling?)effect or algorithms.


Just my 2cents

[edited by - mungo on June 16, 2002 9:48:26 PM]

quote: Original post by Mungo
spacial(spelling?)

spatial

Crispy