For obvious reasons, the Toy’s sound effect needs to be replaced. I do have a few options, with John Wick’s Heckler & Koch P30L being one of them. The sound effect during the Swimming Pool scene was so good. But since this Blaster looked more like a revolver type, I might just have to use the actual sound effect from the movie. There is not much resources on the Internet plus the downloadable ones from a Game was too short. In the end, I went back to the Blade Runner Movie.
Of all versions of the Movie, the ‘best’ Blaster sound effect came from the remastered version. The sound was brutal and (to me) really suits the design of the gun.
This copy of the Remastered version with DPP5.1 allows the Audacity 3.7.7 to split the audio tracks into 5 separate Audio Channels. One of the channels has the best sound of the blaster being fired. The other channels would have muffled SFX or echoes, etc. After searching the shots in the scene, I took the one at around 57m 41s and converted it into MP3. Right now, I included that ‘click’ sound before the blast. And yeah, I sampled John Wick’s Heckler & Koch P30L too. Maybe I’ll even get some from the Tunnel Shootout in John Wick 2.
Making the Bang
For that firing sound, you’ll simply need a MP3 Sound Playback Module. There are a few ways to get the sound into the module, namely via analog recording (through a microphone or an inline connection) or, digital upload/programming (via a USB upload or a Device specific Programmer). Controlling the said module can be, depending on its features, either from a series of push-buttons, or from a microcontroller. In this Project, I am looking at the former since this is just a single sound (or ahem, bank of sounds).
The sound module this time, would be the JQ6500 which you can upload directly to its SPI Flash memory (capacity?) and a 3W amplifier. I had the other sound modules but they all have gone missing after the Move. Therefore, it would be another week or three before they arrive. Controlling the module is through the push button on the trigger but I might put in a selector switch so it can have two different SFX. I will have to see how the module reacts if I pressed the button a tid longer than it should be; would it repeat or, just stop after playing the first sound? If I am using a microcontroller, this would be a PIC from Microchip and not through the Arduino (too big) unless I know how to bootload it or something. In the meantime, here is a very nice Datasheet via somanapallidinesh’s GitHub for reference.
While waiting for the components to arrive, I found a 10mm x 10mm 6-position switch. The Seller asked which type I needed as there are two variations, namely the Encoder and Direct Switching. I asked for the latter. And from another vendor, I found a very nice knob design too, and although it was marked as black, it is actually transparent black. Also note that the knob has numbers from 1 to 10 while the switch has only 6 selections. This could mean each selection has 60° to work on instead of 36°, and so, the knob ‘settings’ will never match. Ha ha ha. Only time will tell if these two items fit together and if the switch worked as intended.
Because of the switch, I have modified the circuit a little. This means I can potentially have 5 SFX. However, as I have mentioned earlier about the JQ6500’s potential auto-repeat function, this might change. I don’t think I will design a PCB for this though since I can just solder wires to the Module directly.
Update: 08.03.2026
So, I have my five SFX now, which is 2x PKD Blaster, 2x H&K P30L (Swimming Pool) and one TTR TR-1 (Tunnel Shootout)
