Best 'Found Sound' Percussion: Clocks, Glass & Industrial

If you turn on the radio or watch a modern action movie trailer, you are almost certainly hearing Damage. Heavyocity essentially took a junkyard, recorded everything being smashed and destroyed, and then processed it through enough distortion to melt a speaker cone. Damage 2 takes that 10-year legacy and makes it cleaner, punchier, and vastly more versatile, moving beyond just "loud" into "architectural" sound design.

The "Kit Designer" allows me to build custom ensembles from dumpsters, metal sheets, and exploding cars, which is a game-changer for avoiding the "preset fatigue" that plagued the original library. It is aggressive-very aggressive. I used the "Armageddon" kit on a recent chase scene, and the low-end thud of the dumpster hits shook the room so hard I thought my sub was going to blow. It is not for subtle underscoring, but for "The World Is Ending" moments, nothing hits harder.

Soundiron are the undisputed kings of weird sampling, and Rust 3 is a masterclass in capturing the soul of inanimate objects. While Damage focuses on the impact, Rust focuses entirely on the rich, harmonic resonance of metal-old gas tanks, sewage pipes, and strange kinetic sculptures. I often use this library when I need a sound that feels "heavy" but isn't necessarily a drum. The tonal sustain is incredible, creating long, evolving textures from simple strikes.

The sounds are eerie, mournful, and incredibly atmospheric. Playing a melody on a rusted water tank creates a texture that a standard synthesizer just can't replicate. It has inherent imperfections and overtones that feel "real." On a recent horror game project, I used the "Modular Box Cello" patch to create a melody that sounded like a ghost crying inside a ventilation shaft. It feels old, haunted, and physically tangible. It evokes a sense of decay that is perfect for post-apocalyptic settings.

Creating risers and transition effects from scratch is usually a boring, technical chore, but Meteor makes it genuinely fun. It acts as a layered "Ris-and-Hit" generator on steroids, allowing you to combine field recordings-like thunder, ice cracking, or metal scrapes-to build custom cinematic effects. I love that it doesn't sound like a generic white-noise sweep. Every rise has a distinct organic texture to it, adding character where synths fail.

The library of sources is fantastic, featuring high-definition recordings of nature and destruction that would cost thousands to license individually. Being able to time-stretch a recording of an avalanche to sync perfectly with my project tempo is a superpower for trailer editing. I used Meteor to create a custom "Logo reveal" sound for a client recently, layering a cymbal scrape with a backwards piano, and it was done in under two minutes. It saves hours of manual editing and processing time.

This instrument looks like a steampunk toy-featuring a big gear wheel interface-but the sound engine underneath is incredibly sophisticated. It combines samples of machines, clocks, and metals with a synthesis layer. As you turn the wheel (which I map to my mod wheel), the sound morphs from a literal recording-like a music box or a ratchet-into a washed-out, ghostly pad that retains the rhythmic characteristics of the original sample. It bridges the gap between mechanical noise and musical atmosphere.

It is fantastic for adding motion to a stagnant track. It ticks, whirs, and breathes, ensuring that the soundscape never sits perfectly still. For magical realism or fantasy scores, it adds a layer of intricate detail that keeps the listener's ear engaged without overpowering the melody. I used the "Clockwork" preset on a documentary about time travel, and the subtle ticking rhythm provided a constant forward momentum that glued the scene together.

You don't realize how much you need a high-quality clock sample library until you are scoring a scene where a bomb is ticking or a character is waiting nervously in a lobby. "Clocks" covers every timepiece imaginable, from massive, booming grandfather clocks to tiny, frantic pocket watches. I keep this in my template specifically for "ticking clock" moments, which happen more often in film scoring than you might think. Having a dedicated tool for this saves me from scouring generic SFX libraries for hours.

The "rhythmic loops" section is where it really shines for me. They create a subconscious tension that drives a scene forward without sounding like "music" or interfering with dialogue. It is the ultimate subtle suspense tool. On a recent thriller project, I used a slowed-down grandfather clock loop as the rhythmic backbone for the entire third act, and it added a layer of inevitability that drums simply couldn't convey. It created a subconscious urgency that kept the audience on the edge of their seats.

This isn't "found sound" in the traditional "guy with a field recorder" sense, but the "Junk" and "Metal" galleries in HZ Percussion are legendary for a reason. Zimmer is famous for sampling weird things-oil drums, blast shields, giant sheets of titanium-and playing them in a massive hall. The result is a percussion sound that feels industrial yet sophisticated, with a natural decay that no reverb plugin can fake.

The sound is huge-almost too huge for small mixes. The Air Studios hall creates a natural reverb tail that sounds expensive and wide. When you hit the "Anvil" patch, it sounds like Thor slamming a hammer. It is physical. It is standard orchestral percussion aimed at people who are bored of timpani. I used the "Paper Djun" drum on a trailer track recently, and the low-end thud was so massive I had to high-pass it just to leave room for the bass synth.

Part of the affordable "Originals" range, this is a simplified toolkit of bowed glass and struck metal that punches way above its price point. It is icy, cold, and pure. While it definitively lacks the deep editing options and round-robins of the bigger legacy libraries, the raw sound is pristine and mix-ready. I often reach for this when I need a texture that sits "behind" the strings without muddying up the midrange. It adds a high-frequency shimmer that lifts the entire track without needing EQ.

It is perfect for "Nordic Noir" scoring-that cold, detached, wintery vibe that is so popular right now. The "Bowed Glass" patch is one of my favorite pad sounds ever. It cuts through a mix like a laser but still feels organic. I used it to double a violin melody on a sad cue, and it added this fragile, glass-like quality that made the violin sound like it was shivering. It is the perfect layer for adding cold, fragile emotion to an otherwise standard cue.