Hunting down breath sounds was not so challenging I must say.
It is quite easy to record someone breathing and process it a little bit to make it sound better. So, I decided to be a bit more creative and record different kinds of breathing just in case you are looking for wheezing breath or panting or fast breath ect.
Working on this sound reminded me of an an article I read about the making of Thriller by Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones. In order for Michael Jackson to sound intense and make his vocals sound like he is on the run or something, quincy made him run around the studio for a while and then recorded him singing the song. ( just a small detail I remembered). That gave the song a lot more attitude, and obviously it worked great.
Recording breath sounds
I stood in front of the microphone and started breathing normally. Then I moved to heavy breathing and then to panting. To be able to record breathing directly with a sensitive microphone I needed to be cautious sense. Wind and air movement sound very bad recorded directly. So, I breathed not at the microphone but beside it. That gave me a good audio signals but no poofs and wind noises one usually hears.
Download free breath audio samples
(Left click for preview, Right click to download)