[Brian Nelson]

Hello gentlemen,

Myself and some fellows are preparing to create a sound effects library of medieval weapons and armour. We plan (among other things) to use simulations of leather, maille, and plate armour.

Because we can't logistically record impact sounds with every single variant of these types of armour, I am trying to determine a single, all-around, decently representative form of these three types of armour.

My current plan was to use boiled horse leather (very thick) for the leather armour. Soft leather underneath riveted maille for the maille armour. About soft leather under about ten layers of linen under about a 1.2mm steel plate for the plate armour.

Do these approximations seem decently accurate? Please let me know what (in each of your opinions) is the most "average" way each type of respective armour would be worn. Or, let me know how YOU would wear each type of armour (or any type) and I can "average" this like a survey. Your insights would be invaluable!

Regards,

Brian

[Nat Lamb]

The only thing I would add is to perhaps do a seperate recording of a hit on a helm, they seem to sound different to impacts on other solid metal armour (to me at least, but that is a pretty small sample group)

[Dan Howard]

You probably need to add a hit on an unarmoured part of the body and a hit on a shield. Do you need to distinguish between cuts and thrusts? An edge hit sounds completely different to a hit with the point of a weapon..

[Brian Nelson]

Thanks. We will be using a shield made from planks, just cloth over meat (clothed body part), meat, helms, a bunch of things and will be stabbing, slashing, butt-striking, etc. with a lot of different weapons. But do my approximations for those three armour types seem adequate?

[Mart Shearer]

I don't understand why you would want leather under mail. Perhaps a quilted coat will do to simulate an aketon.

[Dean F. Marino]

[J. Nicolaysen]

Dear God, try to get rid of the SHWING sound from drawing a sword from a wooden scabbard...


Your work in getting more accurate and interesting sound effects will be much appreciated by all, however much you are able to include.

[Raman A]

[Brian Nelson]

Thanks guys. We did a firearms library last year with an emphasis on realism. Exact sounds for exact weapons. If people want to add the schwwiiiiiiinggg of a drawn blade...that's their call.

[Gehrig JonLou]

If you want an authentic sound behind your armor use a pork shoulder. It has skin, flesh, and bone analogous to a human body for a low price (usually less than 2 dollars a pound). For example use the leather (I recommend soaked and baked over boiled as it can be tricky to get the boil right) on top of the pork shoulder and hit that.

For the chain I recommend riveted alternating with solid links, as this was the most common and effective form of chain, on top of a padded underlayer: 10 linen layers is best, or 6 to 2 linen layers stuffed with wool padding... on top of a pork shoulder.

I like that you have the 10 linen layers for the plate as well, but again pork shoulder... ideally on a pell of some kind with some give. Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJUIsTQ6eGs

[Brian Nelson]

[Mart Shearer]

There is no evidence for wearing mail over leather. Records for leather clothing are exceptionally rare as well. There is little evidence for wearing mail over padded defenses in Europe until the second half of the 12th century, and no evidence for using 10-layered (or more) jacks beneath mail. The ordinance of St. Maximin de Treves , published October of 1473 calls for the wearing of a 10-layer, sleeveless, linen jack over a mail shirt.

The 1322 London regulation calls for varying stuffing depending on if the cover is of cotton or silk.