I have been recently thinking about how best to create sound effects for card games, specifically games like black jack, poker and so on. There are two areas of sound effects I’ve been interested in; the sounds of the cards themselves, and sounds of the chips on the table.
For the sounds of cards themselves I initially took up a deck of cards, set up a large diaphragm microphone about 10-15cm away and started recording shuffling and card movement sounds. When it came to mixing however, I found that the recordings sounded thin and lacked body. I found it more appropriate to do some research of how card games used sound effects and whether they were realistic sounds or not. I decided to use Party Poker as my source and immediately noticed that the sound effects were not only realistic but were ‘in your face’. It got me thinking, so I changed to large pieces of thin cardboard and awkwardly shuffled these. The smooth sliding sound of the card translated much better for a closer, more realistic sound.
For the sounds of the chips on the table I recorded a combination of poker chips from a poker set and a set of dominoes and recorded them being dropped onto a felt table. These props together gave a realistic sound of the chips on the table.
