Sound FX synthisizing software?

[Age of Armour]

Regretfully, I know nothing about sound and have zero musical talent but occasionally I could use a sound effect or two. I have recorded a few by "Foley-ing" sounds then tweaking the clips in Audacity. Many things like wind, mechanical sounds and gunshots seem like they could be synthesized.

Are there any free or low cost programs available for audio novices like me? I hate to be cheep but... well, I am hehe. It is just something I doubt I will ever delve into far enough to need high end audio production software.

Additionally I have been wanting to attempt creating a percussion only song for an animation project using Taiko drums. Any sequencer/synthesizer recommendations?

Thanks in advance,

William

Thought of another question that has been vexing me for years...

What is the effect called where voices seem to have some sort of ummm... off pitch, digitized... harmony? Examples would be the effect commonly heard in sci-fi films like Star Wars and the new Battle Star Galactica when using encrypted radio transmissions.

[Sub7th]

The effect you're talking about is usually a vocoder with a harmony effect or sometimes just a vocoder.
But you could get a cool robotic effect with a Flange and an autotune.

Sound Effects don't have to be expensive.
It's nice to have your own midi keyboard and VST's (Virtual Studio Technology). But a lot of my sfx come from collections that I've bought or made over the years.
You can find some really inexpensive SFX collections like "Authentic Sound Effects", which I got volumes 1-4 for about $10 each at Amazon if I remember right. They're not gorgeous but if you know how to fix up sounds they're good enough.
Also Video Co-Pilot has a great set of sound effects to get you started for a bit more money about $100

What you absolutely need for SFX creation is an audio app with multiple tracks and a set of VST FX, this way you can start layering your foley's and FX for new sounds. You can get something like Cubase Essential for $50. It has up to 64 tracks, some good VST effects and a bunch of VST instruments (though I wouldn't hope for much there).

Once you have the capability to layer and tweak it's kind of like seasoning your food. You just have to remember which sounds you have and try to imagine what they could sound like tweaked or layered. You can use your EQ's to pull out the low ends and get a squeaky, high freq sound or drop your highs and only use the lows from that foley to sweeten another sound.
Some of my favorite effects to layer in there are Stereo flange, reverb and distortion.
Those are all pretty common effects.

Some of the filters you'll need to clean up your sounds are Compressor, Expander, Limiter, Multiband EQ, and maybe a smoother or de-clicker for some bad recordings.
All of those are pretty typical and common filters in Audio recording apps and DAW's (Digital Audio Workstations)

And that would probably be good enough for a low cost SFX editing set-up.
If you have After effects or Premier you could actually get started with that, though you'd need a lot of RAM (at least 4GBs).
I think Vegas has some sound effects filters as well.

I have to say an app that lets me have my video track playing with my SFX while I work makes everything easier, I use Nuendo which is kinda pricey but I'm sure there are others that are more affordable.
Before that I had to mix my tracks tacking time notes as I went and then is was a process of constantly checking, editing and rechecking my final mux.