Sound Effects

Comment

Comment by Steven L. Beckel on February 7, 2011 at 7:05am

For the poor college student, there are a few options that you can use until you make enough to invest in some standard libraries. A Google search for "free sound effects" can net you some interesting gems, but may miss a few of the more useful sites. Freesound.org is a collection of user-submitted Common License sounds which you can use. Findsounds.com is a search site that grabs sounds from all over the web. Sometimes the quality is not so great, and the selection is really weird, but sometimes you can grab something really cool. Soundsnap.com has a few subscription rates that can be useful if you need to grab just a few sounds. And Sounddogs.com is my favorite site. If you use the shopping cart to gather your choices, and make sure you only pay for your solid choices, the pricing is not that bad, and the selection is great! Also, don't pay for a stereo sound if you don't have to. You save money by only paying for the channels and quality you need.

But the best thing you can invest in is a few inexpensive microphones, a recording device, and make your own. It's not as expensive as you think. I have a large mobile recording rig that can do lots of tracks and things, but sometimes I just prefer taking a couple of small mics and a Zoom H4n out to a park and finding my own backgrounds. Archive everything with good descriptions on your own HD, and in no time you'll have a lot of sounds to choose from. I still use some of the thunder cues I recorded 20 years ago.

Comment by Candyce Iseminger on February 6, 2011 at 5:18pm

What about those of us that are poor college students? where would you suggest that I go to find a decent sound library?

Comment by Jacob Coakley on January 25, 2011 at 10:45am

I'm with Rich and Richelle on this one. Hollywood Edge is the place if you need some libraries on CD - for everything else I needed when I did sound design I was a big devotee of of SoundDogs.com

Comment by Richelle Thompson on January 24, 2011 at 1:05pm

Along with Hollywood Edge I'm a fan of Sound Ideas. They have several great libraries. I invested in the 6000 series which is the most modern and comprehensive. The BBC library has some good atmosphere tracks - but anything practical (like sirens or phone rings) are without question British. Public and academic libraries with media collections often have one or more you can check out... And I agree with Rich. SoundDogs.com has lots of good options. Cheers! ~R

Comment by Rich Dionne on January 21, 2011 at 2:48pm

I own a copy of the Hollywood Edge Premier Editions 1 & 2 (some 50 discs), which I use heavily. I also have become a big fan of SoundDogs.com, which, while expensive, has a pretty extensively library.