Basis for Hollywood silencer sound

[dbooksta]

I was wondering why Hollywood almost always has silenced guns making a whistling "pteeew" sound since I've never heard a real silenced gun do that.

My previous guesses included:

• Some older style of suppressor, maybe wipe or grease-based, made sounds like that, and Hollywood just stuck with it.
• The barrel restrictors they put on real guns to cycle on blanks actually make that sound through baffle suppressors.

Now I think I've got it: Real guns do make that sound if you listen to them from the perspective of a target. At 12:56 in this video the shooter places the camera on the target berm and shoots a silenced (presumably supersonic) 9mm at it from a distance. Sounds just like the movies!

[Artful]

By gosh I think you got it. That's from 150 yards away!

http://soundfxnow.com/tag/suppressed-gunshot/

[CThomas]

Already discovered a couple weeks back and by me

Quote from original thread on that vid posted here.
I have to say the sound from you firing the second gun from the truck was Hollywood sounding.

I personally do not think the sound used by Hollywood originated from an actual gun shoot. After having heard thousands upon thousands of actual suppressed gun shots I not not ever recall hearing what Fireman captured in his vid. I think the sound Hollywood uses was just something a sound tech guy came up with but that it was not based on an actual suppressed gunshot.

[dbooksta]

I personally do not think the sound used by Hollywood originated from an actual gun shoot. After having heard thousands upon thousands of actual suppressed gun shots I not not ever recall hearing what Fireman captured in his vid.

How many times have you been standing next to a target downrange being shot with a suppressed pistol shooting supersonic ammo?

To me it seems likely that, at some point if not frequently, Hollywood would have put mics "downrange" while shooting.

[T_Tactical]

I don't think Hollywood used an actual gunshot. I've heard the same sound a suppressed pistol makes in an action movie sound exactly like a laser gun in a sci fi movie.

Why would they go to the trouble of setting up mics 150yds down range to shoot a suppressed pistol with supersonic ammo to try and create the sound of a suppressed pistol shooting subsonic ammo at the shooter? They wouldn't. This is Hollywood, they aren't out playing around with live rounds anyhow.

They created the sound the same way they created the sound for a laser gun in Star Wars, they made it up based on how they thought it should sound.

[Bendersquint]

I personally do not think the sound used by Hollywood originated from an actual gun shoot. After having heard thousands upon thousands of actual suppressed gun shots I not not ever recall hearing what Fireman captured in his vid.

How many times have you been standing next to a target downrange being shot with a suppressed pistol shooting supersonic ammo?

To me it seems likely that, at some point if not frequently, Hollywood would have put mics "downrange" while shooting.

I have been down range when supersonic has been fired within 10 feet and it didn't sound like the Hollywood noise.

According to LucasArts the sound was made up.

[copenhagen]

I personally do not think the sound used by Hollywood originated from an actual gun shoot. After having heard thousands upon thousands of actual suppressed gun shots I not not ever recall hearing what Fireman captured in his vid.

How many times have you been standing next to a target downrange being shot with a suppressed pistol shooting supersonic ammo?

To me it seems likely that, at some point if not frequently, Hollywood would have put mics "downrange" while shooting.

I have been down range when supersonic has been fired within 10 feet and it didn't sound like the Hollywood noise.

According to LucasArts the sound was made up.

Even when you do not hear any muzzle report, it still sounds like a bull whip being cracked above you (IE if one goes several feet over your head). I do not suggest that you try to verify this statement by experimentation.

[Bendersquint]

Even when you do not hear any muzzle report, it still sounds like a bull whip being cracked above you (IE if one goes several feet over your head). I do not suggest that you try to verify this statement by experimentation.

Been there done that only a few select shooters I would allow shoot in my direction and they are deployed right now.

I will say that a 22lr CCI SV in the same setting is more on the sound of a razor blade cutting through fabric as it flies by. But still lightyears away from Hollywood silencer.

Hollywood silencers also get rid of the brass bouncing on the ground noises too!

[Speed-Racer]

All depends on the "Foley Studio" and what prerecorded/contrived sound is used, none are actual firearm suppressors.

[piglatinhater]

Its made it up, from the same people in Hollywood that go through a new spouse every year, addicted to Botax, support obama, make millions of dollars and have no grip on real life, etc...

[Historian]

Its made it up, from the same people in Hollywood that go through a new spouse every year, addicted to Botax, support obama, make millions of dollars and have no grip on real life, etc...

+1.

Taking a chance of being pilloried by knowledgeable members here
I assert that the most effective silencer ever has been the one I saw as a child at the
1944 movie with Boston Blackie ...Chester Morris ... who screwed into the barrel
of a snub nose .38 a tampon sized silencer and that was the quietest I ever
have run across over the intervening years. No developer to date has even comes close.

Sorry Silencer Co.

[markm]

I have been down range when supersonic has been fired within 10 feet and it didn't sound like the Hollywood noise.

I've been down range about 45 degrees from the bullet path... 30 feet away... and an AR15 is painful to the ears.

[everyusernametaken]

Haha, I just made this same comment on m4carbine about that downrange 9mm in fireman's video sounding like the movie "silencer" effect. I hadn't seen this thread, but apparently, I concur that it does sound like a match.

[dbooksta]

I don't think Hollywood used an actual gunshot. I've heard the same sound a suppressed pistol makes in an action movie sound exactly like a laser gun in a sci fi movie.

Why would they go to the trouble of setting up mics 150yds down range to shoot a suppressed pistol with supersonic ammo to try and create the sound of a suppressed pistol shooting subsonic ammo at the shooter? They wouldn't. This is Hollywood, they aren't out playing around with live rounds anyhow.

They created the sound the same way they created the sound for a laser gun in Star Wars, they made it up based on how they thought it should sound.

The observation wasn't to suggest that every movie silencer is a real, unmodified recording of the gun depicted. Granted, there are almost certainly movies where the sound has been "completely made up." Rather, it was that there is a basis in real life for the sounds put to suppressed guns in post-production, including the "pteew" no suppressor owner ever hears.

OP was that, contrary to the belief and experience of most suppressor owners, we now have at least one example -- with a low-fidelity hobbiest mic no less -- of a suppressed gun making something like the classical hollywood sound we've been mocking all these years.

Most of us hear our gunshots from near the muzzle, to the side, or behind it. It might be interesting to put mics downrange more often to see what other sounds one gets in the "danger zone," and which combinations of guns, cans, and ammo produce them.

[Bendersquint]

Most of us hear our gunshots from near the muzzle, to the side, or behind it. It might be interesting to put mics downrange more often to see what other sounds one gets in the "danger zone," and which combinations of guns, cans, and ammo produce them.

Even the few times I have heard it downrange it sounds nothing like what Hollywood portrays.

Next time we are testing suppressed rifles we will put one downrange next to the target to see what we get.

[everyusernametaken]

Most of us hear our gunshots from near the muzzle, to the side, or behind it. It might be interesting to put mics downrange more often to see what other sounds one gets in the "danger zone," and which combinations of guns, cans, and ammo produce them.

Even the few times I have heard it downrange it sounds nothing like what Hollywood portrays.

Next time we are testing suppressed rifles we will put one downrange next to the target to see what we get.

I agree that the actual movie sound effects are likely synthesized, but to be fair, there have been countless films and TV shows depicting suppressed firearms over the years, and not all of the effects used sound exactly alike. I can't be certain of the specific technique they are using in all of them.

I didn't mean to imply that the suppressed 9mm downrange sound we're talking about here is the actual source of what we hear in movies and TV shows. I just meant that it sounds very similar to some that I recall from movies I've seen.

[WasDustyJacket]

There was ONE James Bond movie, Sean Connery, where he is at the randge shooting at a moving target.

That is the only time I think they got the sound pretty close.

[Fireman1291]

The ammo used in my video was 147grn subsonic speer lawman