In this week's Sunday Sound Effects Round Up we have a new library aimed at games designers from the David Frederick Signature Series, a look at a new independent sound effects library - Articulated Sounds, Shapingwaves Release their Insects & Swarms sound library, with a special 15% discount offer, and we finish with two more articles from the A Sound Effect blog.
David Frederick Signature Series MFX Sound Effects Library
This series has apparently been purpose built for game designers. From AK47's, M240G's, M4/M16, Glock's, Rockets, Mortars, Jets, Helicopters, M1 Tanks, Horse & Buggies, Race Cars, Space Ships, Vehicles, Ships, Boats, Trains, Sci-Fi, Ambients, Lasers, Interface-Level & Game SFX's, Sword Fights, Horror, Musical Effects, to Scream's and Flesh Tearing effects.
- Target: Game & App Developers, Film, TV, Interactive, Advertising and more
- File Format: 44.1K - 16 Bit Stereo Wav File
- Size: Over 1,100 "Hollywood" quality SFX (2+GB!!!)
- Categories: Ambient's, Creatures, Explosions-Destruction, Foley, Horror, Interface-Levels, Military, Sci-Fi, Tools, Transportation, Industrial, Musical Effects, Weapons
- Price $99.99 - normally $149.99
Articulated Sounds
Stephane Dufour got in touch to tell me about Articulated Sounds as I hadn't come across them and so I popped over to the site and found an interesting selection of sound effects collections as well as a blog with some articles that we will come back to in future round ups.
But back to the libraries, - 3 took my fancy, the first was Quiet Streets as I am always looking for street ambiences for use in documentaries and dramas and as it also included the option of surround effects as well this went in the basket.
The next library I spotted was Dice Sfx, which is a library full of dice related effects which stood out as being different, so that went in the basket.
Finally 100 fountains intrigued me as I couldn't imagine that there could be enough variety in fountains, but listening through to the samples it became apparent, that this amount of variety was possible to that was the last one I added to my basket for now.
Once I had downloaded them using the links from the web page ad also the convenient email that arrived very quickly I arranged them on my sound effects drive and got Soundly to catalogue them for me. So what I think of them? Well you will have to wait until the next round up to find out. If you cant wait then pop over to Articulated Sounds and check them out for yourself.
Shapingwaves Release Insects & Swarms
David from Shapingwaves has been in touch to tell me about their latest library release, Insects & Swarms. This Insect sound library covers buzzing, humming and swarming sounds featuring bees, flies, mosquitoes and other winged insects. From massive swarms in different densities and activity levels to individual fly by sounds and landings, their aim is that this insect sound library covers pretty much all variants of insect wing buzz sounds.
In the library there are 14 long takes (up to 9 minutes in length) of bee swarm sounds, recorded in beehives containing in excess of 10.000 bees. The closeup sounds were captured by placing DPA 4060 microphones inside the wooden containers housing the beehives.
For other takes the Sennheiser MKH microphones were positioned at the entrance and between containers, creating detailed passes of worker bees entering and leaving the hive, taking off and landing.
There are some recordings that were made a bit further away from the swarm, resulting in a more distant “garden” perspective. They also made a very close perspective recording of bees aggressively defending the hive, while a honeycomb was removed by the beekeeper and replaced with liquid sugar for feeding purposes.
The collection includes 19 fly swarm sounds with different species, varied swarm densities and activity levels. These swarm sound recordings range from 1 to 6 minutes in length. In addition, there are 51 other sounds of flies (single insects, different species) flying and landing, captured in a controlled environment.
The isolated sounds of cicadas were captured outdoors in remote pine forests in Greece, while the cricket sounds were recorded in a studio environment and so you will find a variety of chirping sounds from individuals and small groups in this insect sound library.
They even got access to the Max Plank Institute for Infection Biology to record mosquito sounds in their laboratories. They recorded mosquito swarms in an insectary, covering different sized groups and single insects in isolation. In addition, this insect sound collection includes seamless loops of continuous, designed mosquito wing buzz sounds.
Summary
- 185 WAV sounds of bees, flies, mosquitoes, cicadas and designed insect sounds
- Single insect sounds & swarms
- Isolated insect sounds
- Seamless loops & long recordings
- Varied activity levels
- Purchase supports WWF & NABU
- Descriptive filenames
- 96 kHz / 24 bit WAV files
- Embedded Soundminer metadata
- 2+ hours of audio
- Price $129
Pro Tools Expert Exclusive Discount Offer
If you would like to get a 15% discount on the Insects & Swarms library from Shapingwaves then you can use the special discount code PROTOOLSEXPERT-BUZZ but make sure you enter this code on the checkout page to take advantage of this offer.
Articles On The A Sound Effect Blog
As in the last edition of the Sunday Sound Effects Round Up we have been playing catch with all the excellent articles that Asbjoern has been posting on the A Sound Efects blog.. To read the interview in full just click on the link...
How Rick Allen captured the sounds of a Tesla (and what they sound like): With electric cars growing in popularity, lots of people have been asking for a dedicated electric car sound effects library. Only problem: How do you capture the sound of a car that hardly makes any engine noise? Recordist Rick Allen was up for the challenge, and he’s now released an interesting new SFX library with a huge collection of recordings from several Teslas. Here’s how he did it.
Rick starts by introducing himself "My friends say I am a “bordering-on-mad audio geek” that just can’t stop recording sounds. I’ve been doing it my entire life. I started my career in broadcast sound design. After working in New York City for 10 years, I launched my own sound design studio. As I expanded into game and audio-for-video/film projects with companies like Disney, American Express, Hewlett-Packard and Starbucks, I was constantly trying to up my game with original and unique sounds to use as starting points in my sound manipulations. That’s how I started recording my own sound effects. It quickly became an obsession".
Creating the terrific sci-fi sound of ‘Titanfall 2’: In this exclusive A Sound Effect interview, the Titanfall 2 sound team gives you an in-depth look at what it took to create the game’s terrific sound.
They cover everything from their creating realistic sci-fi weapon sounds, building robot languages, improved audio tools and refreshing existing sounds, to recording new sounds. Respawn’s award-winning Senior Audio Director Erik Kraber and his sound team of Senior Sound Designers Tyler Parsons and Rick Hernandez, Sound Designer Brad Snyder, and Dialogue Lead Joshua Nelson share their sound story on Titanfall 2. Here they discuss their improved audio tools, refreshing existing sounds, creating realistic sci-fi weapon sounds, building robot languages, recording new sounds (like shipping container impacts), sounding Titan BT in story mode, crafting rich backgrounds and much more.