BBC Sound Effects Library - 42 Rain Sound Effects

Rain Sound

The consistent sound of rain has been with us constantly since the birth of our planet. Rain drips and patters onto the ground in millions of different ways; rain drips onto streets and makes it's specific sound on roofs, stone, wood, rain on cement, rock, rain on dirt, rain on grass, fields, bushes, trees, leaves, even rain onto water itself which is a characteristic water dripping sound - as well as in many other variations and combinations of elements.

Rain Sound Effects

Like a deluge, hard rain pours down onto the country. Strong rain sounds are similar in character to white noise, just like the sound of waterfalls. This constant, monotonous sound has a very distinct calming effect. If you want to make rain sound more interesting in your sound design, you can combine different intensities of rain sounds with each other, e.g. dripping and pattering rain sounds combined with hard rain creates a sense of depth and structure and yields very nice rain sounds.

Rain Sounds on Different Surfaces

Rain sounds different from one surface to another. If rain drips onto sheet metal, the sound is more like a loud patter. The stronger the rain, the more drum-like the rain sound. Rain drops hitting cement or stone surfaces create a dull, monotonous noise that can be quite relaxing. Rain that streams continuously from roof gutters creates a gargling, rushing sound, depending on the intensity.

When rain drips onto window glass or a sky light, the sound is usually quite loud and drum-like. The sound of rain hitting wood is quite unique, though: rain sounds on wooden beams, slabs or roof have a distinct wet and glitchy character. Rain and wood create a dull, glitchy sound.

Classic rain sounds consist of rain hitting mud, dirt or forest floors. These dull, dripping sounds are yet another reminder of how long we have been used to them as a race of beings - they have been with us for aeons.

Rain Sounds in the Forest

Rain in the forest is one of those sounds that are hard to capture. Rain is generally a very flat sound that is hard to capture with microphones. The structure of the rain disappears in a sound carpet made out of noise. When recording rain in the forest, we recommend that you capture different perspectives of the rain sound, i.e. by going close to dripping elements and combining these individual rain sounds later on to give the sound a structure.

Rain dripping on large leaves, twigs or bushes creates an atypical rain sound that is different from the one made by rain hitting the forest floor. Rain often drips from the trees in big drops, because it collects on the leaves first before running off. While these drops create a very typical pattern for rain sounds in the forest, they are rather hard to capture, sometimes combining them with similar dripping sounds might help.

Rain Sounds and Civilisation

Cities and streets sound very different in the rain. Wet streets create a distinct dragging sound, when cars and other vehicles race across the slick tarmac. Distant noises tend to disappear in a sound carpet of white noise created by the rain -- or, in other words, the rain covers the cacophony of modern civilisation with a comforting carpet of white noise.

Rain and Storm Sounds

Storm sounds as well as lightning and thunder sounds are collected in a separate thunderclap category. Naturally, storm recordings contain rain sounds as well. But you don't always want thunderclaps in with your rain recordings, so we put rain sounds and rainy storm sounds into separate categories.

Hail Sounds

Hail sounds are a very interesting element for sound designers. Hail sounds are basically similar to rain sounds, but they are much harder and more intense. This is fairly useful when trying to create heavy rain. When designing sounds, you often have to exaggerate the intensity of a sound to achieve the desired effect; in this respect hail sounds are an ideal tool to create heavy rain in sound editing.

In the Coll Anderson Sound Archive you will find some nice, impressive hail sounds that are ideally suited for the creation of heavy rain.

Rain Stick Sounds

Rain sticks are commonly used to create artificial rain. A rain stick is a hollow rod with nails on the inside, filled with pellets. The rain stick is closed on both sides, so that the pellets that are used to create the rain sound can't fall out. If you move the stick, the pellets will trickle through the nails, creating a rain sound that sounds very authentic.

Rain sticks were used in theatre and film post-production (foley stage). Nowadays, rain sticks can be bought at music stores; they are used for all sorts of purposes, including meditation.