DIY microphone Asbjoern Andersen


Sound designer and field recordist Pasi Pitkänen recently embarked on a quest to build a DIY ORTF stereo mic with very low self-noise - here's how he did it:
Interview by Anne-Sophie Mongeau, photos courtesy of Pasi Pitkänen
Please share:
 

Hi Pasi, thanks for doing this interview! First, can you introduce yourself and your work?

Hey all, thanks for having me here! For over a decade I have been involved in audio as a sound designer, field recordist and a sound effect library developer. Throughout the years I have gathered solid knowledge in planning, recording, processing and designing top-notch audio content for games and other media. Currently, I work as Head of Audio at Rovio Entertainment Corporation where I manage a team of seven audio professionals. In my free time I create and publish sound effect libraries and try to experiment with audio as much as possible.
 

Why did you want to create a DIY Rode NT1 ORTF stereo setup? Did you have a specific need behind it? What do you use it the most for?

I think it was about two years ago when I stumbled across a DIY Perks video on YouTube and there, this guy had made himself a super low-noise microphone. When I saw that video I instantly wanted to do my own take on that and contacted a friend of mine who is basically a universal genius, so I knew he could help me with this and do a great job at it!



The Ultimate DIY Microphone (super low self-noise!)


The DIY Perks video that inspired Pasi to start his own microphone project

I love recording ambiences and sound designing them as well so I have become quite nitpicky on self-noise and the quality of the source material that I use. I wanted to have this super low self-noise ORTF setup that I can take to my field recording trips and get really clean recordings without the need to do too much noise reduction on the material.

I have been using this setup to record really quiet room tones and ambiences. I plan to record more in the future of course and maybe even focus more on the room tones side.

Here is a rough list of the process that we took while making this microphone setup:

Specification received from Pasi:
– 17cm distance for microphone capsules
– Angle between capsules 110′
– Maximum 00 for the mechanics 60mm

Disassemble Rode NTI -A microphones
– Measure and 3D model capsule and PCB

Use 50 mm standard aluminum tube as a starting point for the mechanics
 

FIRST PROTO (proof-of-concept)

In 3D model:
– Place capsules and PCB’s inside of the pipe in desired locations
– Design brackets for the capsules
– Design spine mechanic for the whole microphone
– Design main pipe and space reservation for meshes

Try to find readymade mesh grille without success
– Fold first ones by hand from steel mesh
– Inner meshes are made from tea strainer meshes

Use standard 60mm pipe parts as outer mechanics
– Meshes are attached with metal screw-on hose clamps

Spine is made from 3mm aluminum sheet
– PCB’s are fixed with screws and nuts with spacers

Capsule holders are 3D printed in local university workshop
– Poor quality

5-pin standard size XLR connector is used on end of a 50cm cable


SECOND PROTO

Use learnings from first prototype to revise the 3D models

*Redesign
*Only thing to remain is SOmm standard tube as a base for mesh sub-assembly

– Capsule holders
– Spine
– Main pipe
– Meshes and their fixing

Have pipe mechanics milled in lathe

Mill and solder spine mechanics
– Only screws are needed for fixing, necessary spacings are milled

New capsule holders are ordered from commercial supplier
– Much better quality

Source and purchase aluminum and stainless mesh for grilles

Design and manufacture press tooling to press mesh grilles
– Hone the pressing process
– 5-pin MiniXLR panel connector is used, which is installed in main
pipe
– 5-pin MiniXLR to standard S-pin XLR cable is outsourced

Study and build aluminum anodizing process
– Fail miserably and paint parts

Assemble parts with heat fitments, screws and epoxy
– Find out that painted meshes and epoxy won’t let galvanic connection to be formed between meshes and main rest of the mechanics (this causes audible hum in recording)

Fix
– Remove glued meshes
– Make new ones
– Clean surfaces
– Use revised gluing technique
– Reassemble microphone

Finished (For now…)

 

Pasi’s DIY ORTF stereo mic
How does your DIY setup compare to commercial alternatives?

I didn’t do too much research or comparison on what is out there but of course I knew the basic setups that people have been using for field recording. I found most of them to be impractical for my use and some of them were just either too heavy or too pricey. I think that my DIY setup is one of quietest ones out there since its using the great Røde NT1 (black model) capsules which have 4.5dB self-noise. Of course we can debate on the sound quality of the capsules and how they compare to more expensive microphones in the market but my main focus was on the self-noise and ease of use anyway – and I think the capsules sound great too.

I wanted the DIY setup to be light and easy to use so I could put it in to a windshield and just head out to record various things without taking too much equipment with me. Basically this setup is two Røde NT1 (black model) microphones in one custom made body. I don’t expect the build quality and durability to be as top-notch as it is with Røde and other microphone manufacturers but the setup is built really well and I expect it to last for a long time too. If it does not then I can always ask my friend to fix it..haha
 

[tweet_box]How to create your own DIY ORTF stereo mic set up with Pasi Pitkänen[/tweet_box]  

What justified the design and materials? What were the reasons behind the choices made? Did you get your inspiration from other DIY set ups/commercial alternatives?

After watching the DIY Perks video I quickly sketched out a quick mockup of the design in photoshop and sent that to my friend. I was really lucky that my friend was open and willing to try out to do this thing..if he had not then I would not have this DIY setup at all. HUGE thanks to him for that!

The design was built so I could put it inside my Rycote ORTF windshield kit using the Rycote universal studio mount

Of course I wanted to have a high quality setup with as little money as possible. The plan was to use the original capsules and electronics from the Røde NT1 mics and arrange them nicely inside one aluminium body and have the capsules in ORTF configuration. The design was built so I could put it inside my Rycote ORTF windshield kit using the Rycote universal studio mount. The Rycote USM supports microphones up to 55mm in diameter so we made the call to have the aluminium body as 50mm just to be safe.

The body of the microphone is using basic aluminium pipe from the local hardware store combined with some custom metal work done by my great friend. He had the raw material for the milled parts laying around as well. We also decided to 3D print the microphone capsule holders that my friend modeled, which after some iteration turned out great! Of course we used the Røde microphone capsule holders (originally Rycote Lyre design) as a reference. No need to reinvent the wheel.

Then we had to tackle the cable issue and we first tried with normal 5pin XLR plugs but they were too bulky and cumbersome. So we ended up integrating a 5pin miniXLR plug to the body of the mic and also purchased a 50cm long cable that has one 5pin miniXLR plug on the other end and a normal 5pin XLR plug on the other. That did the trick!

To cover the capsules we tried at first to use normal metal mesh and even tea strainer / infusers as a combo, which we quickly found out did not do the job efficiently. We decided to buy aluminium and stainless mesh for the grilles and my friend would then use his own press tools (which I think he even made for this project) to press and mold these high quality grills for the capsules! That guy is a genius!

Overall I learned that it takes A LOT of time and money to make a proper setup. Maybe my perfectionism and nitpicking had something to do with it as well.. haha.

The whole process – in pictures:

 
Pasi Pitkänen captured a series of photos of the whole DIY adventure, and if you want to see the process from start to finish, here it is.

 

What was the biggest challenge in completing this DIY ORTF Stereo set up?

According to my friend the biggest challenge was to come up with a design that would be manufacturable with his primitive tools. He also had a desire to make the design mass producible. We are not quite there yet though.

For me the biggest challenge was to convey my idea / design to my friend and put it into words. I guess one of the challenges was also to troubleshoot this ground hum that we got in the first prototypes. My friend found out that painted meshes and epoxy didn’t let a galvanic connection to be formed between meshes and main rest of the mechanics so we made changes to the design and the hum was gone.
 


Popular on A Sound Effect right now - article continues below:


Trending right now:

  • Whoosh Sound Effects Swish and Flick Play Track 1992 sounds included $60

    Swish and Flick is a sound pack featuring a collection of high-quality whooshes, designed whooshes, whoosh source, and tonal content.
    This pack features 1992 sounds across 138 .wav files (20 Designed, 118 Source) exported at 192kHz/24bit. Aimed at professional sound designers and editors looking for clean, mastered, ready to use assets with plenty of variation for game audio or linear media.
    Recorded on the SD 788T with Schoeps MK 4 & 8 along with the CMD42 digital preamplifiers, as well as an MKH 8040 XY pair (among others), and meticulously cleaned up in iZotope RX while persevering optimal signal to noise and frequency content.
    Detailed UCS meta data is embedded.
    Thanks for taking a listen!

    20 %
    OFF
  • Uncategorized Overkill – Gore And Splatter Play Track 3390 sounds included, 160 mins total $112.49

    Unleash pure audio carnage with OVERKILL – a brutally detailed 5.7 GB sound library featuring 3390 hyperreal gore sound effects across 607 files. Whether you’re designing subtle, skin-crawling tension or full-blown splatter mayhem, Overkill gives you the raw, visceral tools to cover the entire spectrum of gore – from nuanced realism to over-the-top brutality.

     

    DESIGN KIT (360 Sounds – 60 Files)

    A collection of brutally crafted, drag-and-drop sound effects, organized into game-ready actions and categories.

    • Stab: Precise, piercing attacks with bladed weapons like knives, daggers, and swords.
    • Hit: Brutal strikes using blades such as machetes, katanas, and sabres.
    • Cut: Clean or messy slices delivered by weapons like katanas, knives, machetes, and sabres.
    • Slam: Heavy, crushing blows with blunt weapons like warhammers, morning stars, flails, crowbars – and even axes used with brute force.
    • Crush: Full-on head or body crushes – whatever happens when too much pressure turns flesh and bone into pulp.
    • Explode: Full-on body explosions – when guts, bones, and blood violently erupt in every direction at once.

    All of these categories are featured in both a realistic, organic style and an exaggerated, highly stylized, over-the-top version.

    In addition the Design Kit features Projectile Impacts from Guns, Shotguns and Arrows.

     

    BUILDING BLOCKS (384 Sounds – 64 Files)

    The goal behind our Building Blocks is to provide pre-designed sound layers that streamline your workflow. We’ve created straightforward, easy-to-use categories that let you quickly build new sounds or enhance your own designs.

    All following categories are available in both Wet and Dry:

    • Impact: Ideal as punchy sweeteners for heavy weapon hits and brutal moments.
    • Whoosh: Quick, clean lead-ins to enhance any kind of gore sound.
    • Crack: Perfect for highlighting the snap of shattered bones and broken bodies.
    • Tail: Drag and drop to add lingering, gruesome sustain to your gore effects.

     

    CONSTRUCTION KIT (2653 Sounds – 483 Files)

    For our Construction Kit, we wanted to give you the best of both worlds to meet (or should we say meat) all your needs. You’ll get cleaned raw recordings for full flexibility in your own processing, plus pre-processed and layered sounds to spark creativity, fuel inspiration, and give you everything you need for hyperrealistic gore design.

    Our Construction Kit includes:

    • Blood: Vile drips, juicy splatters, and bone-chilling squeezes.
    • Gut: Rich with drops, impacts, squishes, and visceral movement.
    • Flesh: Brutal impacts, rips, strains, and movements.
    • Bone: Crisp breaks and sharp snaps.
    • Texture: Hyperrealistic wet and dry constant textures.
    • Weapon: Resonant metal slices, stabs, and hits, as well as whooshes for weapon hits and ricochets.
    25 %
    OFF
  • Step into a world of spells, mysticism, and creative power with Spells Variations Vol. 2, the follow-up to our acclaimed magical sound collection. This time, we’ve expanded the elemental and thematic range, offering 405 professionally crafted sound effects that are fully categorized and ready to use.
    Inside, you’ll find a wide variety of magical types:
    🔥 Fire
    💧 Water
    🌪️ Air
    🌍 Earth
    Electricity
    ❄️ Ice
    ☠️ Poison, Mud, Rocks
    ✨ As well as Arcane, Dark, Monstrous, and other mystical spell types.

    Each category is organized into individual folders, with multiple variations for every spell, giving you complete flexibility to choose the perfect sound for each moment, All this makes a total of 44 different spells.
    Just like in Volume 1, every sound in this collection was recorded, edited, and mastered at 192 kHz / 24-bit, ensuring top-tier quality and adaptability—perfect for professional sound designers or anyone looking for drag-and-drop magical effects for games, trailers, animations, or any audio-visual production.

    More about the pack
    – Intuitive file naming
    – All you’ll ever need regarding magical sounds [Use them again & again
    – Use the sound effects over and over, in any of your projects or productions, forever without any additional fees or royalties. Use the SFX in your game, in your trailer, in a Kickstarter campaign, wherever you need to, as much as you want to.
    – Totally mono compatibility
    – All sounds have several variations.
    – Use your imagination and feel free to use any sound for a creature other than the one described, remember that the world of sound is totally subjective.
    – For any questions or problems: khronstudio@gmail.com

    Features
    – 405 spell sounds
    – Format: 192KHz / 24 bits
    – Win/Mac: Yes
    – Minutes of audio provided: 22:26

    18 %
    OFF
  • UNLEASH THE SOUND OF UNSTOPPABLE POWER

    SUPERHEROES – SPEED & STRENGTH is the definitive superhero sound effects collection, capturing the raw intensity, high-speed movements, and groundbreaking impacts of cinematic action.

    Crafted for professionals, it delivers superhuman momentum and powerful action sounds ideal for film, trailers, AAA games, and post-production. Every superhero sound is engineered for precision, realism, and relentless cinematic energy.

    SUPERHEROES - SPEED & STRENGTH | Sound Effects | Trailer

    Pure Superhero Sound

    Go beyond generic action sound effects with the first dedicated superhero sound effects library. Every superhero sound is meticulously crafted to enhance speed, strength, and impact, delivering energetic whooshes and crushing hits that feel grounded yet extraordinary.

    Hybrid Sound Design Mastery

    Achieve a perfect balance of superhero energy and real-world authenticity. Expertly processed organic recordings, creating dynamic action sounds ideal for high-stakes cinematic scenes, impactful trailers, and immersive gaming experiences.

    Perfect for Professional Sound Designers
    Whether working on blockbuster films, action-packed trailers, or AAA game titles, SUPERHEROES – SPEED & STRENGTH is a professional-grade toolkit built for sound designers who demand powerful, cinematic, and impactful sound design at the highest quality.


    INCLUDED SOUNDS – KEYWORDS
    ABILITIES, AIR, BURST, COLLISION, DASH, EXPLOSION, FIGHTING PUNCH, FIGHTING WHOOSH, FLASH, FLIGHT LAND, FLIGHT SONIC BOOM, FLIGHT TAKE OFF, FLUTTER, HYPER SPEED, IMPACT, KNOCKOUT, LIGHTNING FAST, MOTION, MOVEMENT, ORGANIC ENERGY, PARTICLES, POWER PUNCH, SPRINT, WHOOSH, ZAP
    20 %
    OFF
    20 %
    OFF
    20 %
    OFF
    20 %
    OFF

Latest releases:

  • UNLEASH THE SOUND OF UNSTOPPABLE POWER

    SUPERHEROES – SPEED & STRENGTH is the definitive superhero sound effects collection, capturing the raw intensity, high-speed movements, and groundbreaking impacts of cinematic action.

    Crafted for professionals, it delivers superhuman momentum and powerful action sounds ideal for film, trailers, AAA games, and post-production. Every superhero sound is engineered for precision, realism, and relentless cinematic energy.

    SUPERHEROES - SPEED & STRENGTH | Sound Effects | Trailer

    Pure Superhero Sound

    Go beyond generic action sound effects with the first dedicated superhero sound effects library. Every superhero sound is meticulously crafted to enhance speed, strength, and impact, delivering energetic whooshes and crushing hits that feel grounded yet extraordinary.

    Hybrid Sound Design Mastery

    Achieve a perfect balance of superhero energy and real-world authenticity. Expertly processed organic recordings, creating dynamic action sounds ideal for high-stakes cinematic scenes, impactful trailers, and immersive gaming experiences.

    Perfect for Professional Sound Designers
    Whether working on blockbuster films, action-packed trailers, or AAA game titles, SUPERHEROES – SPEED & STRENGTH is a professional-grade toolkit built for sound designers who demand powerful, cinematic, and impactful sound design at the highest quality.


    INCLUDED SOUNDS – KEYWORDS
    ABILITIES, AIR, BURST, COLLISION, DASH, EXPLOSION, FIGHTING PUNCH, FIGHTING WHOOSH, FLASH, FLIGHT LAND, FLIGHT SONIC BOOM, FLIGHT TAKE OFF, FLUTTER, HYPER SPEED, IMPACT, KNOCKOUT, LIGHTNING FAST, MOTION, MOVEMENT, ORGANIC ENERGY, PARTICLES, POWER PUNCH, SPRINT, WHOOSH, ZAP
    20 %
    OFF
    20 %
    OFF
    20 %
    OFF
    20 %
    OFF
  • Uncategorized Overkill – Gore And Splatter Play Track 3390 sounds included, 160 mins total $112.49

    Unleash pure audio carnage with OVERKILL – a brutally detailed 5.7 GB sound library featuring 3390 hyperreal gore sound effects across 607 files. Whether you’re designing subtle, skin-crawling tension or full-blown splatter mayhem, Overkill gives you the raw, visceral tools to cover the entire spectrum of gore – from nuanced realism to over-the-top brutality.

     

    DESIGN KIT (360 Sounds – 60 Files)

    A collection of brutally crafted, drag-and-drop sound effects, organized into game-ready actions and categories.

    • Stab: Precise, piercing attacks with bladed weapons like knives, daggers, and swords.
    • Hit: Brutal strikes using blades such as machetes, katanas, and sabres.
    • Cut: Clean or messy slices delivered by weapons like katanas, knives, machetes, and sabres.
    • Slam: Heavy, crushing blows with blunt weapons like warhammers, morning stars, flails, crowbars – and even axes used with brute force.
    • Crush: Full-on head or body crushes – whatever happens when too much pressure turns flesh and bone into pulp.
    • Explode: Full-on body explosions – when guts, bones, and blood violently erupt in every direction at once.

    All of these categories are featured in both a realistic, organic style and an exaggerated, highly stylized, over-the-top version.

    In addition the Design Kit features Projectile Impacts from Guns, Shotguns and Arrows.

     

    BUILDING BLOCKS (384 Sounds – 64 Files)

    The goal behind our Building Blocks is to provide pre-designed sound layers that streamline your workflow. We’ve created straightforward, easy-to-use categories that let you quickly build new sounds or enhance your own designs.

    All following categories are available in both Wet and Dry:

    • Impact: Ideal as punchy sweeteners for heavy weapon hits and brutal moments.
    • Whoosh: Quick, clean lead-ins to enhance any kind of gore sound.
    • Crack: Perfect for highlighting the snap of shattered bones and broken bodies.
    • Tail: Drag and drop to add lingering, gruesome sustain to your gore effects.

     

    CONSTRUCTION KIT (2653 Sounds – 483 Files)

    For our Construction Kit, we wanted to give you the best of both worlds to meet (or should we say meat) all your needs. You’ll get cleaned raw recordings for full flexibility in your own processing, plus pre-processed and layered sounds to spark creativity, fuel inspiration, and give you everything you need for hyperrealistic gore design.

    Our Construction Kit includes:

    • Blood: Vile drips, juicy splatters, and bone-chilling squeezes.
    • Gut: Rich with drops, impacts, squishes, and visceral movement.
    • Flesh: Brutal impacts, rips, strains, and movements.
    • Bone: Crisp breaks and sharp snaps.
    • Texture: Hyperrealistic wet and dry constant textures.
    • Weapon: Resonant metal slices, stabs, and hits, as well as whooshes for weapon hits and ricochets.
    25 %
    OFF
  • Bundles MASTERGUN – NSV Play Track 872 sounds included $125

    The Master Gun NSV Sound Effects library is recorded using a large array of various microphone configurations, we recorded shots from several distances in an open shooting range in the Nevada Desert.

    Raw Recordings

    Our raw shots features a total of 26 channels including 12 Stereo and 2 mono sources. All of our close and mid spaced pair Microphone options can be used as two independent mono microphones. The right side of every spaced pair will have more Mech than its left side counterpart.
    Every single gun has been recorded using the same gain settings on the same recorders, and we have level matched each microphone option between the same calibers so your 50ft microphones will be the same or similar across all libraries that share the same calibers. This makes mixing large amounts of weapons easier as the loudness and character of each gun is predictable.

    Our foley features a total of 4 audio channels with 1 Stereo and 2 mono sources, including the Sanken CO-100k which captures frequencies above 100kHz for extreme pitch shifting workflows.

    Designed Mixes

    Created from the ground up we’ve designed a collection of game-ready mixes for your next project. If you are creating your own custom weapons system and would like to use our designed mixes in your project, you can use our no-tail options which are our realistic designed mixes without our tail layers. Just drag, and drop.

    UCS compatible metadata embedded

    All files contain extensive metadata to provide you with the fastest and easiest workflow possible. Metadata can be read and processed by audio management tools. Some digital audio workstations feature an included search tool that can also read embedded metadata.

  • Whoosh Sound Effects Swish and Flick Play Track 1992 sounds included $60

    Swish and Flick is a sound pack featuring a collection of high-quality whooshes, designed whooshes, whoosh source, and tonal content.
    This pack features 1992 sounds across 138 .wav files (20 Designed, 118 Source) exported at 192kHz/24bit. Aimed at professional sound designers and editors looking for clean, mastered, ready to use assets with plenty of variation for game audio or linear media.
    Recorded on the SD 788T with Schoeps MK 4 & 8 along with the CMD42 digital preamplifiers, as well as an MKH 8040 XY pair (among others), and meticulously cleaned up in iZotope RX while persevering optimal signal to noise and frequency content.
    Detailed UCS meta data is embedded.
    Thanks for taking a listen!

    20 %
    OFF
  • Bundles MASTERGUN – HK21E Play Track 1521 sounds included $60

    The Master Gun HK21E Sound Effects library is recorded using a large array of various microphone configurations, we recorded shots from several distances in an open shooting range in the Nevada Desert.

    Raw Recordings

    Our raw shots features a total of 28 channels including 13 Stereo and 2 mono sources. All of our close and mid spaced pair Microphone options can be used as two independent mono microphones. The right side of every spaced pair will have more Mech than its left side counterpart.
    Every single gun has been recorded using the same gain settings on the same recorders, and we have level matched each microphone option between the same calibers so your 50ft microphones will be the same or similar across all libraries that share the same calibers. This makes mixing large amounts of weapons easier as the loudness and character of each gun is predictable.

    Our foley features a total of 4 audio channels with 1 Stereo and 2 mono sources, including the Sanken CO-100k which captures frequencies above 100kHz for extreme pitch shifting workflows.

    Designed Mixes

    Created from the ground up we’ve designed a collection of game-ready mixes for your next project. If you are creating your own custom weapons system and would like to use our designed mixes in your project, you can use our no-tail options which are our realistic designed mixes without our tail layers. Just drag, and drop.

    UCS compatible metadata embedded

    All files contain extensive metadata to provide you with the fastest and easiest workflow possible. Metadata can be read and processed by audio management tools. Some digital audio workstations feature an included search tool that can also read embedded metadata.

Need specific sound effects? Try a search below:


 

Would you recommend this project for an electrical novice?

I think my friend agrees with me when I say that it took time, blood, sweat and even tears to make this DIY setup. Since we decided to use the original electronics I guess the main learnings for him were to learn to make the body of the microphone, learn how to press high quality metal mesh grills etc.

If you know a friend who is up for taking this challenge then of course go at it! Personally I would not take the challenge of learning all these new things. It would take forever and I would lose interest in the whole project.. haha.
 

Do you have any sound examples recorded with this set up? Did you make a comparative recording between your setup and any other ORTF alternative?

I do have two room tone sound effect libraries that I have recorded using this setup already, called Office Space and Learning Space. Both of them have audio demos on the product page so definitely give them a listen! I was so happy with the results this DIY setup so I did make a quick comparison with my Sennheiser MKH8040’s just to see how big of a difference there is in self-noise. It was a really noticeable difference.
 

Fruits of the labour:

Pasi Pitkänen has recorded two libraries with his DIY microphone setup:

  • Roomtones Learning Space Play Track 23 sounds included, 69 mins total $20

    Learning Space is the go-to collection for clean and constant school environment room tones and ambiences

    Learning Space has over 1 hour / 2.2 GB worth of material that covers a whole large air-conditioned modern school building and also a small air-conditionless old abandoned school building. The length of the room tones are around 3 minutes and all the room tones are calibrated to -30 LUFS.

    The whole library was recorded with a custom designed very low self-noise (4.5 dB) ORTF rig that gives you only the noise of the room and minimal noise from the recording equipment itself.

    The variety in the sounds of the room tones gives you a great palette to experiment with various sound design tools so you can create e.g. spaceship ambiences, drones and otherworldly textures.

    You get the sounds in two formats: 96 kHz, 24 bit and in 44.1 KHz, 16 bit, for more convenient ways of utilizing the sounds in games and other media.

    Room tones / locations:

    Abandoned School Hallway • Abandoned School Kitchen • Abandoned School Large Classroom • Abandoned School Small Classroom • Boiler Room • Cleaning Closet • Gym Hall • Hallway • Kitchen • Large Classroom • Lobby • Locker Room • Small Classroom • Small Gym Storage Room • Small Storage Room • Teacher Lounge Toilet • Teacher Lounge • Toilet • Vestibule

  • Roomtones Office Space Play Track 134 sounds included, 360 mins total $39

    Office Space is an extensive and the go-to collection for clean and constant office environment room tones and ambiences. The library has over 6 hours / 11.7 GB worth of material that covers a whole large modern office building from top to bottom. The length of each room tone is 3 minutes and all the room tones are calibrated to -30 LUFS.

    Office Space was recorded with a custom designed very low self-noise (4.5 dB) ORTF rig that gives you only the noise of the room and minimal noise from the recording equipment itself.

    The huge variety in the sounds of the room tones gives you a great palette to experiment with various sound design tools so you can create e.g. spaceship ambiences, drones and otherworldly textures.

    You get the sounds in two formats: 96 kHz, 24 bit and in 44.1 KHz, 16 bit, for more convenient ways of utilizing the sounds in games and other media.

    Room tones / locations:

    Auditorium • Bunker Shelter • Cleaning Closet • Communal Kitchen • Corridor • Elevator Interior • Elevator Lobby • Gaming Area • General Open Office Area • General Open Office Printer Area • Hallway • Large Meeting Room • Large Room • Large Storage Room • Large Vestibule • Lobby • Lounge • Main Lobby • Massage Room • Meeting Room Lounge Area • Parking Garage • Printer Room • Recycling Room • Restaurant Corridor • Restaurant General Dining Area • Restaurant Kitchen • Restaurant Service Cashier Desk • Sauna • Sauna Changing Room • Sauna Lounge Area • Sauna Shower Area • Server Room • Small Cleaning Closet • Small Communal Kitchen • Small Kitchen • Small Meeting Room • Small Phone Booth Room • Small Room • Small Shower • Small Vestibule • Staircase • Storage Room • Toilet

    Bonus content:

    As bonus content you will get over 20 minutes worth of recordings of an elevator and a large office printer. The bonus content was recorded in both XY and ORTF so you can easily mix and match them to your projects.

    Elevator Door Open Close (Interior and Lobby perspectives) • Elevator Interior Move Up Down Ground Floor to 4th Floor • Office Printer Paper Tray Open Close • Office Printer Print Start Loop End • Office Printer Scan Glass Start Loop End • Office Printer Scan Paper Holder Start Loop End • Office Printer Wake Up From Sleep Mode

 

What other DIY projects do you have under your belt, and are you working on any other DIY project at the moment?

I have this binaural rig that I need to finish some day. It is this really low budget DIY setup that I put together from a plastic pipe, two round thick wood panels and silicone ears that I bought from a acupuncture webshop. The mics that I plan to put inside the ears are the Clippy Stereo EM172 ones that I bought from micbooster.com. The plan is to use this setup inside the Rycote ORTF windshield so I get great wind protection as well.

I think that’s all folks! If you managed to read this far I humbly thank you for reading! You can find me on Twitter rambling about game audio and sound design if you are interested in that sort of stuff.

 

Big thanks to Pasi Pitkänen for sharing his DIY experience!


 

 

Please share this:


 



 
 
THE WORLD’S EASIEST WAY TO GET INDEPENDENT SOUND EFFECTS:
 
A Sound Effect gives you easy access to an absolutely huge sound effects catalog from a myriad of independent sound creators, all covered by one license agreement - a few highlights:

  • Whoosh Sound Effects Swish and Flick Play Track 1992 sounds included $60

    Swish and Flick is a sound pack featuring a collection of high-quality whooshes, designed whooshes, whoosh source, and tonal content.
    This pack features 1992 sounds across 138 .wav files (20 Designed, 118 Source) exported at 192kHz/24bit. Aimed at professional sound designers and editors looking for clean, mastered, ready to use assets with plenty of variation for game audio or linear media.
    Recorded on the SD 788T with Schoeps MK 4 & 8 along with the CMD42 digital preamplifiers, as well as an MKH 8040 XY pair (among others), and meticulously cleaned up in iZotope RX while persevering optimal signal to noise and frequency content.
    Detailed UCS meta data is embedded.
    Thanks for taking a listen!

    20 %
    OFF
  • Uncategorized Overkill – Gore And Splatter Play Track 3390 sounds included, 160 mins total $112.49

    Unleash pure audio carnage with OVERKILL – a brutally detailed 5.7 GB sound library featuring 3390 hyperreal gore sound effects across 607 files. Whether you’re designing subtle, skin-crawling tension or full-blown splatter mayhem, Overkill gives you the raw, visceral tools to cover the entire spectrum of gore – from nuanced realism to over-the-top brutality.

     

    DESIGN KIT (360 Sounds – 60 Files)

    A collection of brutally crafted, drag-and-drop sound effects, organized into game-ready actions and categories.

    • Stab: Precise, piercing attacks with bladed weapons like knives, daggers, and swords.
    • Hit: Brutal strikes using blades such as machetes, katanas, and sabres.
    • Cut: Clean or messy slices delivered by weapons like katanas, knives, machetes, and sabres.
    • Slam: Heavy, crushing blows with blunt weapons like warhammers, morning stars, flails, crowbars – and even axes used with brute force.
    • Crush: Full-on head or body crushes – whatever happens when too much pressure turns flesh and bone into pulp.
    • Explode: Full-on body explosions – when guts, bones, and blood violently erupt in every direction at once.

    All of these categories are featured in both a realistic, organic style and an exaggerated, highly stylized, over-the-top version.

    In addition the Design Kit features Projectile Impacts from Guns, Shotguns and Arrows.

     

    BUILDING BLOCKS (384 Sounds – 64 Files)

    The goal behind our Building Blocks is to provide pre-designed sound layers that streamline your workflow. We’ve created straightforward, easy-to-use categories that let you quickly build new sounds or enhance your own designs.

    All following categories are available in both Wet and Dry:

    • Impact: Ideal as punchy sweeteners for heavy weapon hits and brutal moments.
    • Whoosh: Quick, clean lead-ins to enhance any kind of gore sound.
    • Crack: Perfect for highlighting the snap of shattered bones and broken bodies.
    • Tail: Drag and drop to add lingering, gruesome sustain to your gore effects.

     

    CONSTRUCTION KIT (2653 Sounds – 483 Files)

    For our Construction Kit, we wanted to give you the best of both worlds to meet (or should we say meat) all your needs. You’ll get cleaned raw recordings for full flexibility in your own processing, plus pre-processed and layered sounds to spark creativity, fuel inspiration, and give you everything you need for hyperrealistic gore design.

    Our Construction Kit includes:

    • Blood: Vile drips, juicy splatters, and bone-chilling squeezes.
    • Gut: Rich with drops, impacts, squishes, and visceral movement.
    • Flesh: Brutal impacts, rips, strains, and movements.
    • Bone: Crisp breaks and sharp snaps.
    • Texture: Hyperrealistic wet and dry constant textures.
    • Weapon: Resonant metal slices, stabs, and hits, as well as whooshes for weapon hits and ricochets.
    25 %
    OFF
  • UNLEASH THE SOUND OF UNSTOPPABLE POWER

    SUPERHEROES – SPEED & STRENGTH is the definitive superhero sound effects collection, capturing the raw intensity, high-speed movements, and groundbreaking impacts of cinematic action.

    Crafted for professionals, it delivers superhuman momentum and powerful action sounds ideal for film, trailers, AAA games, and post-production. Every superhero sound is engineered for precision, realism, and relentless cinematic energy.

    SUPERHEROES - SPEED & STRENGTH | Sound Effects | Trailer

    Pure Superhero Sound

    Go beyond generic action sound effects with the first dedicated superhero sound effects library. Every superhero sound is meticulously crafted to enhance speed, strength, and impact, delivering energetic whooshes and crushing hits that feel grounded yet extraordinary.

    Hybrid Sound Design Mastery

    Achieve a perfect balance of superhero energy and real-world authenticity. Expertly processed organic recordings, creating dynamic action sounds ideal for high-stakes cinematic scenes, impactful trailers, and immersive gaming experiences.

    Perfect for Professional Sound Designers
    Whether working on blockbuster films, action-packed trailers, or AAA game titles, SUPERHEROES – SPEED & STRENGTH is a professional-grade toolkit built for sound designers who demand powerful, cinematic, and impactful sound design at the highest quality.


    INCLUDED SOUNDS – KEYWORDS
    ABILITIES, AIR, BURST, COLLISION, DASH, EXPLOSION, FIGHTING PUNCH, FIGHTING WHOOSH, FLASH, FLIGHT LAND, FLIGHT SONIC BOOM, FLIGHT TAKE OFF, FLUTTER, HYPER SPEED, IMPACT, KNOCKOUT, LIGHTNING FAST, MOTION, MOVEMENT, ORGANIC ENERGY, PARTICLES, POWER PUNCH, SPRINT, WHOOSH, ZAP
    20 %
    OFF
    20 %
    OFF
    20 %
    OFF
    20 %
    OFF
Explore the full, unique collection here

Latest sound effects libraries:
 
  • UNLEASH THE SOUND OF UNSTOPPABLE POWER

    SUPERHEROES – SPEED & STRENGTH is the definitive superhero sound effects collection, capturing the raw intensity, high-speed movements, and groundbreaking impacts of cinematic action.

    Crafted for professionals, it delivers superhuman momentum and powerful action sounds ideal for film, trailers, AAA games, and post-production. Every superhero sound is engineered for precision, realism, and relentless cinematic energy.

    SUPERHEROES - SPEED & STRENGTH | Sound Effects | Trailer

    Pure Superhero Sound

    Go beyond generic action sound effects with the first dedicated superhero sound effects library. Every superhero sound is meticulously crafted to enhance speed, strength, and impact, delivering energetic whooshes and crushing hits that feel grounded yet extraordinary.

    Hybrid Sound Design Mastery

    Achieve a perfect balance of superhero energy and real-world authenticity. Expertly processed organic recordings, creating dynamic action sounds ideal for high-stakes cinematic scenes, impactful trailers, and immersive gaming experiences.

    Perfect for Professional Sound Designers
    Whether working on blockbuster films, action-packed trailers, or AAA game titles, SUPERHEROES – SPEED & STRENGTH is a professional-grade toolkit built for sound designers who demand powerful, cinematic, and impactful sound design at the highest quality.


    INCLUDED SOUNDS – KEYWORDS
    ABILITIES, AIR, BURST, COLLISION, DASH, EXPLOSION, FIGHTING PUNCH, FIGHTING WHOOSH, FLASH, FLIGHT LAND, FLIGHT SONIC BOOM, FLIGHT TAKE OFF, FLUTTER, HYPER SPEED, IMPACT, KNOCKOUT, LIGHTNING FAST, MOTION, MOVEMENT, ORGANIC ENERGY, PARTICLES, POWER PUNCH, SPRINT, WHOOSH, ZAP
    20 %
    OFF
    20 %
    OFF
    20 %
    OFF
    20 %
    OFF
  • Uncategorized Overkill – Gore And Splatter Play Track 3390 sounds included, 160 mins total $112.49

    Unleash pure audio carnage with OVERKILL – a brutally detailed 5.7 GB sound library featuring 3390 hyperreal gore sound effects across 607 files. Whether you’re designing subtle, skin-crawling tension or full-blown splatter mayhem, Overkill gives you the raw, visceral tools to cover the entire spectrum of gore – from nuanced realism to over-the-top brutality.

     

    DESIGN KIT (360 Sounds – 60 Files)

    A collection of brutally crafted, drag-and-drop sound effects, organized into game-ready actions and categories.

    • Stab: Precise, piercing attacks with bladed weapons like knives, daggers, and swords.
    • Hit: Brutal strikes using blades such as machetes, katanas, and sabres.
    • Cut: Clean or messy slices delivered by weapons like katanas, knives, machetes, and sabres.
    • Slam: Heavy, crushing blows with blunt weapons like warhammers, morning stars, flails, crowbars – and even axes used with brute force.
    • Crush: Full-on head or body crushes – whatever happens when too much pressure turns flesh and bone into pulp.
    • Explode: Full-on body explosions – when guts, bones, and blood violently erupt in every direction at once.

    All of these categories are featured in both a realistic, organic style and an exaggerated, highly stylized, over-the-top version.

    In addition the Design Kit features Projectile Impacts from Guns, Shotguns and Arrows.

     

    BUILDING BLOCKS (384 Sounds – 64 Files)

    The goal behind our Building Blocks is to provide pre-designed sound layers that streamline your workflow. We’ve created straightforward, easy-to-use categories that let you quickly build new sounds or enhance your own designs.

    All following categories are available in both Wet and Dry:

    • Impact: Ideal as punchy sweeteners for heavy weapon hits and brutal moments.
    • Whoosh: Quick, clean lead-ins to enhance any kind of gore sound.
    • Crack: Perfect for highlighting the snap of shattered bones and broken bodies.
    • Tail: Drag and drop to add lingering, gruesome sustain to your gore effects.

     

    CONSTRUCTION KIT (2653 Sounds – 483 Files)

    For our Construction Kit, we wanted to give you the best of both worlds to meet (or should we say meat) all your needs. You’ll get cleaned raw recordings for full flexibility in your own processing, plus pre-processed and layered sounds to spark creativity, fuel inspiration, and give you everything you need for hyperrealistic gore design.

    Our Construction Kit includes:

    • Blood: Vile drips, juicy splatters, and bone-chilling squeezes.
    • Gut: Rich with drops, impacts, squishes, and visceral movement.
    • Flesh: Brutal impacts, rips, strains, and movements.
    • Bone: Crisp breaks and sharp snaps.
    • Texture: Hyperrealistic wet and dry constant textures.
    • Weapon: Resonant metal slices, stabs, and hits, as well as whooshes for weapon hits and ricochets.
    25 %
    OFF
  • Bundles MASTERGUN – NSV Play Track 872 sounds included $125

    The Master Gun NSV Sound Effects library is recorded using a large array of various microphone configurations, we recorded shots from several distances in an open shooting range in the Nevada Desert.

    Raw Recordings

    Our raw shots features a total of 26 channels including 12 Stereo and 2 mono sources. All of our close and mid spaced pair Microphone options can be used as two independent mono microphones. The right side of every spaced pair will have more Mech than its left side counterpart.
    Every single gun has been recorded using the same gain settings on the same recorders, and we have level matched each microphone option between the same calibers so your 50ft microphones will be the same or similar across all libraries that share the same calibers. This makes mixing large amounts of weapons easier as the loudness and character of each gun is predictable.

    Our foley features a total of 4 audio channels with 1 Stereo and 2 mono sources, including the Sanken CO-100k which captures frequencies above 100kHz for extreme pitch shifting workflows.

    Designed Mixes

    Created from the ground up we’ve designed a collection of game-ready mixes for your next project. If you are creating your own custom weapons system and would like to use our designed mixes in your project, you can use our no-tail options which are our realistic designed mixes without our tail layers. Just drag, and drop.

    UCS compatible metadata embedded

    All files contain extensive metadata to provide you with the fastest and easiest workflow possible. Metadata can be read and processed by audio management tools. Some digital audio workstations feature an included search tool that can also read embedded metadata.

  • Whoosh Sound Effects Swish and Flick Play Track 1992 sounds included $60

    Swish and Flick is a sound pack featuring a collection of high-quality whooshes, designed whooshes, whoosh source, and tonal content.
    This pack features 1992 sounds across 138 .wav files (20 Designed, 118 Source) exported at 192kHz/24bit. Aimed at professional sound designers and editors looking for clean, mastered, ready to use assets with plenty of variation for game audio or linear media.
    Recorded on the SD 788T with Schoeps MK 4 & 8 along with the CMD42 digital preamplifiers, as well as an MKH 8040 XY pair (among others), and meticulously cleaned up in iZotope RX while persevering optimal signal to noise and frequency content.
    Detailed UCS meta data is embedded.
    Thanks for taking a listen!

    20 %
    OFF
  • Bundles MASTERGUN – HK21E Play Track 1521 sounds included $60

    The Master Gun HK21E Sound Effects library is recorded using a large array of various microphone configurations, we recorded shots from several distances in an open shooting range in the Nevada Desert.

    Raw Recordings

    Our raw shots features a total of 28 channels including 13 Stereo and 2 mono sources. All of our close and mid spaced pair Microphone options can be used as two independent mono microphones. The right side of every spaced pair will have more Mech than its left side counterpart.
    Every single gun has been recorded using the same gain settings on the same recorders, and we have level matched each microphone option between the same calibers so your 50ft microphones will be the same or similar across all libraries that share the same calibers. This makes mixing large amounts of weapons easier as the loudness and character of each gun is predictable.

    Our foley features a total of 4 audio channels with 1 Stereo and 2 mono sources, including the Sanken CO-100k which captures frequencies above 100kHz for extreme pitch shifting workflows.

    Designed Mixes

    Created from the ground up we’ve designed a collection of game-ready mixes for your next project. If you are creating your own custom weapons system and would like to use our designed mixes in your project, you can use our no-tail options which are our realistic designed mixes without our tail layers. Just drag, and drop.

    UCS compatible metadata embedded

    All files contain extensive metadata to provide you with the fastest and easiest workflow possible. Metadata can be read and processed by audio management tools. Some digital audio workstations feature an included search tool that can also read embedded metadata.


   

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HTML tags are not allowed.