Mechs & Robots

MECHS & ROBOTS grew out of a specific frustration: sound designers often keep rebuilding the same mechanical elements on every project. The goal was to build a coherent mechanical system once and build it right.

The Construction Kit recording sessions focused on capturing naturally large, interesting sources rather than relying on pre-processing to manufacture scale. Metal footstep and movement recordings were made at three physical sizes using actual heavy hardware: tool cabinets, ammunition boxes, extractor hoods, steel beams, car jacks, and sheet metal. Each piece was chosen for its sonic character, not just its size. Metal scrape, rattle, and impact categories were recorded with the same approach: real materials, real mass, recorded clean.
The Mechanical category covers the functional world inside a mech: gears, ratchets, clunks, clicks, levers, slides, and rotations, captured using industrial and vintage mechanical sources including signal box levers, typewriters, jet cockpit hardware, sewing machines, winches, and commercial door mechanisms. The Servo category spans six motor configurations: plastic and metal housing in small, medium, and large, captured from real motors including 3D printer arms, cordless screwdrivers, drill presses, electric garage doors, and robot arm components.

Synthetic components were designed specifically to complement the recorded material: granular servo movements, synthetic braams, glitch elements, power-up sweeps, telemetry sequences, and vocal-quality synth droid sounds. These are not generic SFX patches. They were built with the mech design system in mind, using the same relative scale and tonal character as the recorded categories.
Eight Designed characters were built from this material across four size classes, each fully specified with 12 sound categories.