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chosing a first sound bank for sound design work
Hi
I’m starting in the sound design world, I come from the electroacoustic composition field and tape music world. I got a few jobs working as assistant to a professional sound designer and mixer doing a lot of the actual sfx work for him, playing around with his very extensive sound bank accumulated over the years. And I enjoy the work a lot.
I got myself a few on my own contracts coming up, and it wouldn’t be right for me to just use his sounds. From an ethical point of vue, they come with his name, and if I’m not working for him I don’t want to be using them.
I know that kind of collection takes years to build, and a lot of money over time, but I’m looking at starting my own sound bank collection, and need some suggestions. Of course I do a lot of field recording myself, and have accumulated a decent amount of sounds, but I think it’s still fairly limited, and I think I need a good starting off collection to fill in the gaps, and prevent me from going out and recording everything I need.
I like Sound ideas products a lot, but of course their major collections like the 6000 series or Digieffects are a bit over budget for me at the time. I’d like some suggestions, obviously I understand the importance of good sounds and that isn’t cheap, but I’m sure there is a well rounded under 1000$ decent collection out there… no?
thanks for any help
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3 Replies
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I generally pick up another small collection (or two or three) with each project I do. On one I’ll need a “muscle” car, for another I’ll need weapons, crowd wallas for a third and, of course, I buy lots of one-offs from SoundDogs.com where you can purchase by the sound. Combine that with a very active field recording schedule and you will build your personal collection quickly. Sound folks also trade from their personal collections – I’ll give you my recordings of New England crickets for your recordings of Mid-West locusts, for example.
Another great resource is Freesound.org. You need to credit the creator of the sounds you use (it’s Creative Commons, read the license carefully) but it’s free.
Peace,
Bob
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Filmmaking is the art of the invisible;
If anyone notices your work you haven’t done your job right. -
Bob,
Great post! Thanks for hanging with the Cow.
Pierre, I have a pretty nice recording of 17 year cicadas if you need one before the next time they’re due.
Regards,
Ty Ford
Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field GuideWatch Ty play guitar -
Thanks for your replies guys, appreciate it.
Bob, very good advice. I think I’ll narrow things down based on what I’m likely to need for my next project and don’t have. It’s also nice to now sound folks help each other out, always refreshing. I already knew about freesound.org, I’ve found some real gems at times there, Sounddogs.com for buying individual sounds is a ressource I didn’t know about so thanks for that as well.
cheers
Pierre
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