How To Make Explosion Sounds

Summary of Explosion SFX Creation & Sound Design Techniques

The creator explains how to design convincing explosion sounds by breaking an explosion into three components—transient, body, and tail—then demonstrates a practical workflow for building dynamic, characterful explosions without relying only on canned samples.

Key Artistic Concepts: Explosion Elements

• Transient

  • A very sharp, short, high “piercing” moment at the start
  • Often described like a shrill, loud spike that hits immediately

• Body

  • The “meat” of the explosion
  • Where you sculpt details about what explodes (e.g., stone, plasma, fire, glass)

• Tail

  • The part that carries most of the spatial/room information
  • Helps sell distance and environment
  • Noted as something that may be swapped or adjusted depending on location in games

Core Creative Process: Create Dynamics with Timing

Instead of stacking sounds endlessly or over-processing right away, the creator emphasizes intervals—spacing elements so they feel alive and layered.

• Delay layers by ~25–50 ms
  • Gives each component room to “breathe”
  • Helps the explosion feel less “stuck” or cluttered

Timing as Character

This timing idea is also compared to making two versions of a car door sound:

• One version is straightforward/functional
• Another version has more character, implying internal mechanics and details

Demonstration: Building an Explosion with Everyday Objects (Step-by-Step)

Transient

• Record a bass drum for punch
• Shorten it by:
  • pulling up the end of the sample
  • using a crossfade
• Processing:
  • Transient Master for clarity
  • high-frequency distortion
  • multiband saturation to emphasize impact

Body

• Record ice falling on concrete
• Slow down the gunshot recording by 50%
• Combine them to create a “crispy” middle layer

Tail

• Process the original bass drum to shape tail character
• Add another drum recording
• Processing:
  • heavy reverb
  • compression
  • EQ focused on high frequencies

Debris / Bonus Details

• Record debris rolling down a slope (rocks and dirt)
• Add:
  • multiband compression (for mixing/bass control)
• Use these layers for extra realism and motion

Additional Creative Approaches Encouraged

• Aim for explosions to have individuality, expressiveness, and clarity
• Look for fine details beyond the “rapid chemical reaction”
• Be imaginative about sound sources, including:
  • synthetic elements
  • sounds of ruins/destruction
  • animal voices
  • objects like wind chimes, oil into fire, doors slamming, and white noise
• Emphasis: use unique sources so your explosions don’t sound like everyone else—while also not breaking other people’s things

Creators / Contributors Mentioned

• Tyler (from After Touch Audio)