Looking into buying a sound library

macgregor

macgregor

Veteran
Hi all,
I'm interested in buying a sound library with a bit of everything (ambients and the most typical foley sounds). I´m not looking for explosions or spaceships collections. Just things like rain, dog, telephones, car passing by, shoes walking...

Could you direct me a bit on what to buy or where to go?
Is there an online alternative that works well? I know of sounddogs, but I don´t want to be paying for each individual file and also, the previews are so low quality that it´s hard to tell if they're good.
 
Well First off... It's Foley not foley. Watch out here come the Foley police!

Foley Police.gif


As stated above BBC is pretty good. But it is also a bit dated (that's a plus and a minus) and it's british, so things like telephones are, well british.

Hollywood Edge has what they call the Super Single, which is a single CD with a good variety of stuff (I think there are two now). There is a CBS library that has some decent stuff in it. Digital Juice sells sets that are large but there is a lot of filler. Still if they are on sale (usually around $100) it's a good deal for the good stuff.

Hollywood Edge also has some smaller sets like "The Edge". Most of the well respected providers (as opposed to the 1001 horror sounds (all of which suck)) charge about $100/ disk. The Super Singles I think are around $60, and BBC is an exception.

All the above is a decent start. If you plan on working on better films the sounds you are going to want will need to be more specific than "footsteps" and that is either going to take some pricey collections or a bunch of recordings. I would go with the later. Use libraries for the stuff you can't record and record everything you can. Eventually you will have a great library of your own recordings that you own ALL the rights to.
 
I started with the Sound Ideas general 6000 library, and it served me well for a while, then I expanded with the big Hollywood Edge library, and slowly expanded over time.

One great free resource is freesound.org. They don't have everything, but it's a great resource nonetheless.

Here is a good list from filmsound.org

http://filmsound.org/sound-effects/libraries.htm
 
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I agree with the above. But from personal experience, those get really generic/boring REALLY fast. I know you're looking for a general variety of FX, but also check out the more specific ones from The Recordist, Rabbit Ears Audio, Hiss and a Roar, BOOM. There's a nice list of independent libraries on Designsound.org. The independent ones have excellent material. I've met and had lunch with a few of them and they are great guys who are very passionate about sound. All of them have excellent recordings and their quality is above and beyond. They have high sample rate versions, which can utilize for sound design.

As Noiz2 said, there's nothing like starting your own library. Sometimes it might be faster to record the darn sound versus searching for it in a massive library!
 
To kind of add on here. The other reason to have a library that you recorded is that you have something to trade. Sound editors trade all the time. But you need something you can trade. Wherever you are, especially if it's not SF, NYC, LA, is a place that isn't covered enough. I traded fight sequences for ambiences in New Zealand. I needed muskets and asked. With in an hour I had some fresh musket recordings from some reenactment. BUT I had stuff I could reciprocate with.

Most folks are very generous with their recordings but not so much if there is no payback. It's only fair and all you have to do is go out and record. And that is FUN!.
 
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