What makes a good explosion sound effect?
An explosion is about a dramatic event that is possible within a storyline, and out of all the special effects, it is one of the most challenging to capture to a high standard. The reason for this is the sheer number of sonic facets that make up an explosion, not to mention that they generally have to be recorded from a safe distance so that the recording engineer and equipment are not injured or damaged.
Capturing all the elements
When a large object explodes, say a building from a detonated bomb, the blast produces shrapnel and debris, for example, the sound of falling shattered bricks and mortar. This produces a depth to the sound that requires the correct distance of recording, otherwise only the distance rumble and associated thunder like vibrations will be captured (which has a limited dramatic effect, on its own).
Setting the distance
High quality explosion sound effects are captured from sound engineers that know the optimum distance from which to record the blast, which is usually a planned detonation of a building as part of demolition works. This means that every aspect of the bang is captured, from the BOOM - shockwave of the explosion, the sudden change in air pressure, the falling particles and debris and even the sound of the dust settling, the swirling wind and the twisted metal.
Same deal, smaller scale
The same is true for smaller scale explosions, like the type produced by a grenade when it is about to explode. Record too close to the blast and you only pick up distortion, too far away and you just get the vibrations - either of which would never cut it in a Hollywood motion picture with a respectable budget.
Cry havoc and let slip the mics of war
For similar reasons, the sound of a large military gun shot, or distant artillery in a battle, is equally challenging to capture and to do it justice. A good sound engineer is capable of capturing the many different frequences of such a complex sonic event and packaging it into a sound sample of just a few seconds duration that is instantly recognisable and convincing. When done correctly, it is amazing how much the audio aspect fills in the blanks for the audience - to the point where it is also possible to save budget on the visual side of things. How many times have you seen a gun being fired in a movie with no flak or recoil visible from the gun itself? Exactly - all you need is a shot of someone holding a gun, a gun shot sound effect, and some clever editing!
Dive, dive, dive
Take also underwater explosions: how does one go about capturing the sound of something exploding under water? Well the clever sound engineers know exactly how to capture this in an authentic way using a combination of traditional and modern recording and sound engineering techniques. Kids: don't try this at home!
Sound as the weak link
Remember that nothing negates the intended emotional impact of a movie, animation or video game (whatever the medium) than poorly captured, stock sounds! If your media, video game, movie or even music production calls for a high quality explosion sound effect, for whatever reason, don't settle for the sound of a firework as it won't provide convincing results!
Tradebit: #1 for sound effects libraries
If you're looking to download decent quality explosion sound effects to use in your production, you need to take all of this into consideration - and more. Don't settle for badly recorded explosions that have a poor bitrate or samplerrate and potential copyright concerns. You could spend days hunting files down for free, and may even find them on a suspicious website loaded with pop-ups, but there may be consequences later (viruses, the aforementioned copyright issues or just general lack of quality).
Tradebit has one of the largest online sound effect repositories, and hundreds of explosion sound effects. Although the bomb sounds mp3 files available on our site are not free, they are VERY reasonably priced - and those few cents are well worth allaying your concerns over copyright and quality. We offer our sounds in both mp3 and WAV format and with a license that means you can immediately use it in your own production.
Professional audio engineers that know really good quality sfx when they hear them come to Tradebit for the best download experience around.
