OVERKILL is the latest release from Rock The Speakerbox, and it's a brutal one. Here they give you the story behind the making of their extremely gory sound effects library - and they share some inspiring sound effects ideas that go beyond the usual lettuce and tomatoes sources for gore SFX:
Check out the trailer for OVERKILL (warning: It’s graphic)
When we started sketching this library, one goal ruled them all: flexibility. We wanted a toolkit that could handle anything gore-related, from the smallest tissue tear to a room-painting explosion of viscera. Hitting that mark meant two things:
- Pristine CK recordings – absolutely clean, so they can handle extreme processing.
- A huge prop palette – the broader (and nastier) the props, the richer the results.
Below we’ll dive into our recording workflow, the props that made the mess, and the processing tricks that turned everyday items into Overkill’s sonic carnage.
Hear the demo for OVERKILL here
Recording
Tiny, quiet gore sounds are brutally unforgiving, any room noise or reflection ruins the magic, so almost every construction kit (CK) file was captured in an acoustically treated studio. Dead silence in the space means you can pitch, distort, and stretch without dragging hiss or reverb along for the ride.
Our mic lineup
- MS close: Sennheiser MKH 8040 + Schoeps CCM8
- XY close: matched Sennheiser MKH 8040 pair
- Ultra HF spot: Sanken CO-100K
- Low noise LDCs: Lewitt LCT 540 S (single & AB)
- Alt MS: Sennheiser MKH 416 + Schoeps CCM8
- Utility shotgun: Sennheiser MKE 600
- Contact & Hydrophone: LOM Geofón and Ambient ASF-2 MKII hydrophone
- Alt AB: LOM Basic Ucho
Capturing each take from a stack of mic perspectives gave us total freedom in the editing process, letting us cherry-pick and layer the best combinations for every sound, while preserving a lot of natural variation in the library.
Special offer – get OVERKILL at 25% off:
For a limited time, you can get OVERKILL at an exclusive launch discount – get it below, while you have the chance:
Oh, and if you already own THE VAULT by Rock The Speakerbox, you can get a special deal on Overkill – contact us here for details.
Props
Yes, vegetables are the classic gore standard (and they still rule) but we found there to be countless options beyond lettuce and tomatoes:
- Veggie staples: peppers, cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, watermelon – crushed, ripped, or stabbed for instant flesh and bone crunch.
- DIY blood bags: water balloons (thin water or thicker, soapy mix) popped with knives for splatter bursts.
- Soaked fabrics: T-shirts, towels, and other fabrics drenched then squeezed for juicy arterial spurts.
- Stab beds: kitchen knives plunged into salt, wet dirt, and soaked sponges for that gritty stabbing sound.
- Slime textures: rubber gloves packed with mayonnaise or gelatin – pull, twist, and you’ve got sticky connective-tissue sounds.
Truth is, the list is endless; a creative performance and layering matters more than the prop itself.
Breaking down the layers in one of the sounds in the library
Processing & Design
Overkill has lots of organic sounds (spot-on recordings ready for your own FX chain). But there are also a lot of pre-designed files to spark ideas and creativity.
- Morphing magic: Melda MMorph and Zynaptiq Morph 3 worked wonders when creating new and interesting sounding textures.
- Granular processing: U-he Uhbik-G and Melda MGranularMB made every wet sound even thicker and more disgusting.
- Radium layering: loading multiple CK Files into Soundminer Radium is an awesome way to generate new gore assets by layering, pitching and processing with the DSP-Rack. With this technique you quickly get bigger sounding assets that you can use to design heavier gore sounds (like our HEAVY DS set).
Because the sources are so clean, you can push gain, pitch, distortion, and stretching way past normal limits before artefacts creep in.
Final Words
Whether you need a barely audible skin tickle, a juicy tendon snap, or an all-out cranial eruption, Overkill has you covered. Dive in, twist the props, mangle the files, and let your next project drip with visceral, hyper-real gore.