For my Ball-rolling game project in Unity 3d, I needed to replace the temporary engine sound I used as a placeholder. I wanted to record actual rolling friction sounds that would be modulated by the FMOD autopitch function for a more realistic experience. After a bit of experimenting with things I had around the house, I decided on using the big red marble from an optical trackball.

First, I tried the inside of a computer case. It had a nice resonance, but I had difficulty getting more than a half-second’s worth of rolling before it smacked into the side of the lid.

Similar to the metal lid problem, I couldn’t get much of a good roll. I found I could rock it back and forth to sustain it a little longer, but this gave it a seesaw effect of pitching up and down. Note, that this was just a quick test recording I did with the air conditioning running, so the quality is not up to snuff.

A few days later, I took inspiration from the wall of death/wheel of death motorcycle stunts. I started looking for round surfaces that I could rotate the ball around the inside of, centripetally.

The cake carrier gave me quite a few variations in tone. I could use the clear plastic part with or without the bottom lid for different effects.

The metal pot is one that I’ve used in the past for PVKII, to impart the voice of the Heavy Knight with a ringing, metallic resonance. Whether or not the bottom of the pot was damped help give some extra tonal possibilities to the pot as well.

The watering can didn’t end up working out very well for the ball-rolling project, but I did end up sampling it as percussion for the game’s music. Look for a new video of the game project shortly.