A Sound Effect - over 1,000 free SFX

[Guy Rowland]

Well this is nice - sound effects consortium A Sound Effect have just released a whopper of a taster of their sound effects collection - 1.3gb, over 1,000 effects (with the obligatory newsletter sign-up):

http://www.asoundeffect.com/1000-free-sound-effects/

I've had a trawl through these. The majority fall into the electronic sound design camp which is a pity, but there are some very useful gems in there too. Quality is uniformly excellent.

Also in the festive sound effects giveaway spirit, Airbone Sound have a Jet Fly Bys collection for free, up to 96/24 quality:

http://www.airbornesound.com/downloads/ ... d-effects/

[wst3]

Thanks for the reminder(s) Guy!

I was introduced to "A Sound Effect" when John Leonard moved his SFX sales there (one of the unintended consequences of re-framing VAT?). In this case some good came of it - I discovered an unknown treasure trove of sounds!

And I'll probably buy a couple today as I wander around<G>...

[Ages]

Thanks. I will check these out

[Lawrence]

Free is my favorite price!

Sadly, after having spent a half hour listening through to these, I can't really recommend that anyone else does. Mostly electronic and not very useful, at least to me.

[Guy Rowland]

Indeed Larry, as I said most are electronic, but there are some good non-electronic ones in there too. And about 5% of the electronic ones might come in handy.

[Lawrence]

It was a good thing to post, Guy, and I didn't mean otherwise.I own the old Sound Ideas General, Hollywood Edge, Hanna Barbera, etc. Dunno what I thought I needed!

[Guy Rowland]

I can never have enough, personally. I own 73,000 sound effects, my database tells me, including some from all those you mention. Nothing is ever enough! Cataloguing is all important though - if I can't find it in a hurry, it may as well not be there, so I do spend time with a new library making sure the naming conventions make sense to me, and changing them if not.

BTW - that Best Service set that was cheap a month or two back has proven to be poor. It's only when you turn to it in anger that you really get a feel for a library's worth, it's strengths and weaknesses. Far more weaknesses than strengths - my initial pot-shot assessment of 75% good was way off.

[Killiard]

Thanks for posting this Guy. I have quite a bit of SFX but some of it is starting to sound a bit dated now (mostly the BBC stuff). I have Sound Ideas, Audio Pro, Hollywood Edge, BBC SFX and some other bits and bobs.
I find nowadays I try to record what I can myself, or pinch something from Freesound.

I almost got the best service library the other month, but I figured there'd be too much overlap with what I already have!

[Guy Rowland]

Wouldn't you know it, just used a Best Service effect this morning, just the thing. But that there is sfx, and why I buy any good quality collection at a decent price I can - you just can't have enough. This is on my sound work mostly, but not entirely - last week I used a load of sound effects as part of some show stings I delivered - the assumption on their part (clients I'd not worked with before) is that it would all be included. 2 hour turnaround too - so having a good stock to hand is invaluable, for those who dabble in such things.

(I agree about BBC sfx by the way - really not used by me anything like as much as many others, but they too have their place in the mix).

[Lawrence]

I can never have enough, personally. I own 73,000 sound effects, my database tells me, including some from all those you mention. Nothing is ever enough! Cataloguing is all important though - if I can't find it in a hurry, it may as well not be there, so I do spend time with a new library making sure the naming conventions make sense to me, and changing them if not.

I know there are all sorts of database conventions out there, but I did something years ago by instinct, something that nobody has mentioned to me. All my sfx stuff was on about a hundred CD's. I imported them all into iTunes. It took a while,but now it's all searchable,

[X-bassist]

Thanks Guy, might it be a good time to start a SFX deals thread? I'm looking to replace a lot of my stuff off CD's (16bit, 44.1) with newer and higher quality material (96k,24bit or better) so that I can manipulate them more- even 44.1/24 files fall apart when pitched down an octave or two, but 96k is surprisingly more robust. I'd be glad to add my finds to the thread. In my mind any decent collection with some strong examples (without too much fat) for $30 or less is a pretty great deal (if you can use the sounds). Seeing some collections on sale for half that should be listed, would be great to keep adding to one thread for those people who are looking.

I skipped the $99 deal, as I felt it was prob too much fat for what might be useable. But I have found more libraries worth exploring since then that are designed with a higher quality in mind, yet occasionally are on sale for some great prices (especially this time of year). I realize SFX can be a rabbit hole that's difficult to know where to stop (you seem to suffer from the "there is never enough" syndrome with SFX) but I'm thinking of it like VI's, you start with the basics (what you really need to do the job at hand) then add the less conventional more and more until you have enough variety to cover most of what you want, without too many duds. That last part is important, as it is more useless items in your playlist, and more hay between you and the needle. Make the stack smaller, but fill it with needles.

[Guy Rowland]

Thanks Guy, might it be a good time to start a SFX deals thread?

This IS a good idea - in fact a general sound effects thread would be great. Pro Tools Expert do a sound effects deals round up every Sunday which is always worth keeping an eye on, but there's not a lot of objectivity over there when it comes to quality, so feel very free to get one going...

BTW, I'm strictly 48k 16 bit, with every new library batch saved to be in that format. I do get that for extreme sound design it's far better to go for 96, but for workaday uses 48/16 is just peachy for me.