In Depth: Gunfire and Weapon Sound Effects UPDATED

In depth Gunfire and weapons sound design

February 13, 2023

In any action film or video game, the sound is as important as the visuals. This article will focus specifically on Gunfire and Weapon Sound Effects. We’ll feature tools to help you create your sound design, resources for sound effects, a few tutorials, and perhaps, a few freebies.

The Sound Design of Firearms

Nicolas Titeux wrote a fantastic article about creating realistic sound designs for weapons in games and films. He starts by talking about the loudness of firearms (over 150 dBA). He talks about how sound recordists capture weapons sounds and plays a comparison of the recordings at different distances. He also links to a couple of videos about mixing and layering sounds. Watch a scene below of a breakdown of the sound design in a scene from Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Updated 13 February.

Look for the NEW badge to see new content.

NEW What do bullet impacts sound like? Tons of different materials shot!

Garand Thumb explains what different bullets (22LR, 9mm, .223, 12 gauge slugs, and .308.) sound like striking different objects.

Tools for Gunfire and Weapon Sound Effects Sound Design

There are several tools to help you create amazing sound design for your action film and below, we’ll list some of the best tools around.

How to Create Great Sounding Gun Fights

One of my favorite tools for sound design is Audio Design Desk. It’s intuitive and fast and can create a stellar soundscape in minutes. Plus, it’s affordable and infinitely expandable.

In this tutorial, Jared Otto from Audio Design Desk shows you how to add gun movement sounds, bullet sounds, and impact sounds. He explains how to layer your weapon sound design realistic. You can read more on the ADD Blog, which features more tips on creating elements like The “Whiz”, impact, and splatter.

Audio Design Desk

Sound Design Reimagined - Comes with tens of thousands of Sounds and Music Cues!

When budgets are tight and deadlines even tighter, don’t let technology frustrate you from being the best. Audio Design Desk was created to get the technology out of the way of your craft.

Learn MoreTry Audio Design Desk for free!

Sound Design in Under 10 Minutes: Gun Fire & Footsteps with Weaponiser

Another great tool for making sound designs for a gunfight is Krotos Audio Weaponizer. In this tutorial, learn how to use preset sounds and modify them to fit your needs.

Krotos Audio Weaponiser Basic

The Ultimate Weapon Sound Design Solution

Weaponiser is an inspiring audio layering solution that allows you to design, customize, and perform a huge range of sound effects in real-time – all from within one plugin.

Navigate a comprehensive range of built-in factory assets to layer, sequence, and design unique sounds with ease. Customize and create endless variations to your sound effects instantly, and use MIDI and automation to program or perform your variations with speed and precision.

Weaponiser gives you the power to experiment while keeping your project in sync. Effortlessly adjust presets and save hours of editing time for a smooth and creative process every step of the way.

Quickly import your own sounds, and layer up to 80 audio files using 4 powerful engines and 3 built-in synthesisers to create a huge range of sound effects.

Learn MoreTry Krotos Audio Weaponiser Basic for free!

Krotos Audio Weaponiser Fully Loaded

Your Secret Sound Design Weapon

Weaponiser is an inspiring audio layering solution that allows you to design, customize, and perform a huge range of sound effects in real-time – all from within one plugin.

Generate infinite sound variations, and save hours of editing time

Weaponiser is the powerful sound design sampler that allows you to design, customize, and perform a huge range of sound effects at high speed – all from within one plugin. Transform your sound design with endless flexibility and fuel your creativity with Weaponiser!

Learn MoreTry Krotos Audio Weaponiser Fully Loaded for free!

Tsugi Gamesynth

For amazing sound design in games, check out Tsugi GameSynth.

Sound Effects Packages

There are many construction kits and libraries with gun and weapon sound effects.

Boom Library

If you are looking for thousands of sound effects, BOOM Library includes thousands of high-quality sound effects, used by the likes of EA, Netflix, LucasArts, Epic Games, Marvel Studios, Disney Pixar, and many more.

Boom Library SFX Guns

Get the first multichannel source recording weapon library in the world! This Construction Kit ships as a complete 2 DVD set full of basic royalty-free source sounds.

There are three separate offerings for this product:

BOOM Library SFX Guns – Designed
BOOM Library SFX Guns – Construction Kit
or get both in the BOOM Library SFX Guns Bundle

First, a couple of examples of what the bundle sounds like.

NEW Boom Library World War II Firearms

This new library, the largest collection of WWII-era weapon sound effects, includes shots and mechanical sounds from assault rifles and pistols. Designed offers fully designed, ready-to-use sounds, the construction kit offers all the raw individual sounds, or get everything with the bundle.

Learn more about BOOM Library World War II Firearms

Boom Library Cyber Weapons

If you are in need of sci-fi weapon sounds, laser hits, and other cyber weapons, Boom Library Cyber Weapons has you covered.

Video Copilot MotionPulse

Video Copilot MotionPulse Audio SFX – BlackBox Bundle

Video Copilot MotionPulse Audio SFX – BlackBox Bundle which features 2,000 multi-layered sound effects, all 5 sound design packs, and over 25 categories of sound mixing tutorials, fully mastered. SoundFX Pack – 24-bit, 96Khz, WAV, and MP3 formats. The Full Audio Sound FX bundle includes:

It’s compatible with Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Audition, Magix Vegas, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Pro Tools, Apple Logic Pro, and most audio/video apps.

RodyPolis Shootout Audio Pack

RodyPolis Shootout Audio Pack comes with 140 Sound FX, including 27 Gunshots of pistols, shotguns, and Assault Rifles. There are gun reload sounds, explosions, blood splatter, and more. The files are in WAV 24Bit 96kHz.

FREE Free Sound Effects

There are loads of places online to download free sound effects but the quality varies a lot, and here are a couple of places with quality offerings.

Free Gun SFX from Film Riot – Really nice stuff.
Gun Sounds at SoundBible.com. Note the different Creative Commons licenses.
Free Guns and Weapon Sound Effects from AudioMicro.com
Gun-Related Sounds at SoundCrate.com. Lots of options.
NEW Guns Shooting 1 – Free Sound Effects from Media Tools. Link in description.

Make your own Gun Sound Effects

Make Your Own Gun Sounds Effects! – Film Riot

This is a pretty old video however it’s still entirely relevant. Ryan uses old firecrackers to make his own gun sound effects from scratch.

Designing Period Guns

Is your film from the 1800s or do you have a 12 gauge double barrel shotgun in your movie? Jeff Carpenter has a 2 part series on the topic of vintage weapons.

NEW How To Make Modern Gun Sound Effects For Film & Video Games Part 1

Aftertouch Audio explains how to create modern gun sound effects. He records the gun sounds at a shooting range and finds that the sounds are pretty thin and dull. He takes them into his studio and adds extra elements to beef up the sound.

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Posted by Michele

In Depth: Gunfire and Weapon Sound Effects UPDATED

The Sound Design of Firearms

In this Article

NEW What do bullet impacts sound like? Tons of different materials shot!