Sound FX Libraries

[Eric Lawrence]

I am in the market for some new sound fx libraries and would love to hear from everyone what your favorite or go to libraries are. They can any type and any size, just which library you use the most and why.

[dfisk]

I started with the Sound Ideas General 6000 library. Nothing fancy. Just general stuff. Hollywood Edge has a similar one that's also pretty good. I ended up having both. Patricio Lebinson (sp?) had a great explosion sound effects library, but I'm not sure if it is commercially available anymore. Other than that, most of my library is stuff I recorded myself or created myself. On one of the games I worked on, I had to create a bunch of magic and creature sounds, so I spent a lot of time with sounds from my library, and using some cool plug ins (thank you Izotope, Sound Toys, Pitch n' Time, and Metasynth). I've also looked at licensing sounds from people like Charles Maynes, who is a great sound effects recordist (as well as a fantastic sound designer and all around good guy), but I was laid off from my last game company before I could get to that point. When I was starting out, a lot of us young sound editors working on low budget stuff would trade sound effects as well. I usually didn't trade the big commercial libraries, just stuff I recorded. doing that is a great way to expand your library. There is also freesound.org that is a website that has sound effects people have recorded from all around the world and uploaded to the website. It's kind of hit or miss in terms of the quality of what you'll find, but that's usually a go-to website for me if I need something quick these days.

[Zach Noblitt]

Have you ever heard of Damage made by Heavyocity? I haven't heard it yet but it looks like a really useful tool for sound design, etc.

[dfisk]

I haven't heard of it. I know there are lots of smaller libraries out there that concentrate on specific types of sounds that many people talk very positively about.

[Zach Noblitt]

It's always fun to record your own sounds if you have the means.

[ccsnd]

I started with sound ideas and hollywood edge. now it's mostly stuff I recorded myself.

[Marc Wielage]

Digiffects is also pretty good, and for weird, seldom-heard sounds (at least in American productions), you can find some unusual ambiences and backgrounds from the BBC and also the DeWolfe library. Both are pretty useful. I do think the Sound Ideas and Hollywood Edge libraries have good stuff in them, particularly if you use them as a starting point for layering or creating new sounds.

I'll also grab stuff ala carte from Sound Dogs (sounddogs.com) from time to time, when I'm up against the wall and need an unusual effect I don't already have in the library.

[Olle Sjostrom]

I can vouch for freesound.org.

Have used all the major general effects libraries. While they have better "quality" in their recordings, the tones and colorations you can find on freesound are sometimes unique.

[dfisk]

Digiffects is also pretty good, a

THAT's the other one I have I couldn't remember the name of. That's a really good one that not many people have. Once you've been using the Sound Ideas and Hollywood Edge libraries enough, you'll start to hear the sounds on TV and in movies all over the place. Digiffects is a great alternative. Another great library is called Ultimate Weapon. It's a great gun library.

[bleueblancrouge]

it all depends on the project. i work in film and tv fiction. in general i think i'll be using the Premiere Edition from Hollywood Edge more (a small percentage more) than others. Digieffects might be a close second. i find Premiere to have a mix of three elements needed to be considered a little better than the others; diverse sounds, interesting sounds, and better sounding; compared to the other large libraries (Sound Ideas, BBC, DeWolfe, Digieffects, Soundstorm) that might have a lot more of one of those criteria but not a more equal amount of each. they all have strengths and weaknesses. i do go to Sounddogs for stuff i can't find.

being a freelancer i worked two months ago at a post house that had the soundstorm library and there are some extremely interesting and amazingly recorded effects in there.

i usually end up choosing a little bit of every library if it fits the project, but using my own recorded material will always win out over any library sound effect. last week i was at another post house that had an in house library that they recorded over the past 50 years. needless to say i had a wealth of material that fit the project i was on perfectly. it really doesn't matter what kind of library i use, it's more about how much material do i have to work with. diversity becomes the spice of the soundscape.

and as dfisk said, because of it as a personal choice i now avoid certain sounds that are overused, or i skip the first 30 seconds and use another part of the recording. can we be more creative with our choices please? we should be. of course, we might be the only ones that really notice things like these. but for myself, i can't be stagnant in formulaic processes. i don't have it in me.

P. mpse

[studiomprd]

anyone interested in some libraries on 1/4" tape ??

[dfisk]

anyone interested in some libraries on 1/4" tape ??

will it have to be baked?

[studiomprd]

" will it have to be baked? "

it depends...

[bleueblancrouge]

oh yeah, i'll be up for it. if you'd like to,PM me and let me know what you've got mr. senator. and you can expound on "it depends"

[sounddguy]

anyone interested in some libraries on 1/4" tape ??

I got some great hard drive collections at 33 1/3 rpm.

[sounddguy]

There are some nice specialty groups at http://www.chuckrussomfx.com/ http://hissandaroar.com/ http://hartfx.net/

http://rabbitearsaudio.com and probably a few more I'm forgetting.

[nysounds]

There are some nice specialty groups at http://www.chuckrussomfx.com/ http://hissandaroar.com/ http://hartfx.net/

http://rabbitearsaudio.com and probably a few more I'm forgetting.

I've used stuff from all of the above, Hollywood Edge, and Blastwave FX, but I mainly record and edit my own custom stuff now if I have the time.

[VM]

With a few friends we give our sounds for the on line library : "surround library", all are 5.1 sounds.

http://www.surround-library.com/home

[Philip Perkins]

I agree that the larger SI and Hollywood Edge libraries are a good place to start for a personal library--just wait for the sales. CD libraries sometimes show up used on Ebay and CL etc--I've gotten a few that way. Sound Dogs is good--mostly all the commercial libraries put together, but some really good more obscure stuff too (Coll Anderson etc). The really juicy action-movie type sfx we got from personal libraries of sfx recordists--generally a BIG jump in quality from the older CD-based libraries.

phil p

[Mix7]

My bookmarks

Airborne Sound

Blastwave Fx

Boom Library

C. A. Sound, Inc.

Chuck Russom Fx

echo | collective

FSE

HartFX

HISS and a ROAR

Hollywood Edge

JordanFehrFX

New Sound Lab

Pole Position Production

Rabbit Ears Audio

Sonic Salute

Sound Dogs

Sound Ideas

Soundrangers

SoundStorm

Stout Sound

Surround Library

Takoma

The Recordist

The Sound Collectors' Club

TonSturn

WRAUGHK FX

YourSounds

[Philip Perkins]

THANKS!

phil p

[Marc Wielage]

Great list, Mix7.

[Dennis Kersten]

cool list, thanks for sharing!

[soundmanjohn]

My initial two offerings are here: http://www.johnleona.../immersive.html and I'll set up a 50% discount for JW Sound listers for these and future offerings.

Enter OFFER50 at checkout for the discount.

John

[macruth]

There are some nice specialty groups at http://www.chuckrussomfx.com/ http://hissandaroar.com/ http://hartfx.net/

http://rabbitearsaudio.com and probably a few more I'm forgetting.

I love these FX libraries and the crowd-sourcing ethic, and the communities that have developed to support these efforts,

I'm all in!