Someone on the Indy Mogul forum posted asking about foley, and I ended up pretty thorough, so I figured I’d post it here, too.
I crunched handfuls of dried spaghetti, tore open the insides of a watermelon, and whipped a pile of clothes with a thick rope for bone-breaking, gut-stabbing and punching, respectively. (I’ve read a thing about using celery for bone-breaking, but I ended up preferring the spaghetti, myself.) Oh, and I did an electrocution sound by running an electric clipper over an aluminum can, but the real trick is I took two different parts of that noise and in my audio software, I applied one as a modulation of the other.
I had to replace most of the audio from the second half of Jethro Atom because of too much wind noise.
Foot steps were me walking on dried rice. Eating noises were me eating a banana, skin and all. Various electronic devices were usually the same electric clipper I mentioned above, or an electric typewriter, combined and sped up or slowed down. Punches were me punching myself in the gut. (This was before I recorded my rope beating.) Sizzling noise was a sliced apple on a hot frying pan. (Turn the stove off before you record) Some of the lasers and beeps and stuff were computer generated.
Sometimes I’ve replaced noises I just didn’t like enough. I didn’t think the sound of my shower curtain opening was scary enough for a horror scene, so I put wire clothes hangers on the shower curtain rod and pushed them aside. I think I’ve replaced the sound of one door with another door or a cupboard or something if I find one with a noise I like.