Noiz2
Sound Ninja
I have seen a number of posts about FX, where to get them etc, so I thought I would pontificate a little. 99% of my work is post audio and most of that is FX editing so I have some experience to draw on.
First there are a lot of SFX libraries out there and in "pro" circles they are all frowned on to some extent. They are also used constantly. The reasons they are frowned on are that they are used constantly and to a certain extent because anybody can get them. They are also often not great for film work. The two big faults are very dry recordings, they don't sound like they were recorded in the world but in some isolation chamber. This makes them in theory useful in more situations but in fact it means that you have to work to make them fit in almost any situation. Ironically this is less of a problem on a big project where your using a ton of tracks than with a small one where the sound is going to be more on it's own. Another shortcoming of most commercial libraries is "coverage". If your doing a film and you need to cover a Mustang that your hero drives you need lots of coverage. Door opens and closes, hard, soft. Gear shift moves, starts, stops, glove compartment, window ups and downs. Very few libraries offer that kind of coverage.
So the first choice if you have the know how and/or the budget is to go out and record your own. You can get exactly what you need and you can get tons of coverage. The downside is you have to go do it and that can be expensive. Also if sound isn't your thing you probably don't have the equipment or the interest to do it. It's a lot of work recording FX. And it can be dangerous. Creating / designing sounds fall into this same category Upside, personalized sounds that are exactly what you want, downside you have to be able to create that perfect sound and you may not have the experience tools or interest.
And some things you just can't record. Somethings are very expensive and or dangerous to record. So the second choice is to trade with someone who has recordings of what you need (this requires you to have a library of sounds you own so you have something to trade). Some times people will just give you the sounds, but that happens more often when somewhere down the line they may ask you for some sounds so again you really need to have some recordings. You can also buy sounds. The custom sellers tend to be very expensive, though Sound Dogs has a lot of original recordings that are reasonably priced. And then come the libraries. They have a lot of stuff and if you have enough libraries there is probably something that will do. On the high end there are some very useful libraries like "The Works" loaded with mechanical and electrical things. Lots of coverage and very well recorded. Hollywood Edge tends to have more "natural" recordings than Sound Ideas which many find to be too sterile. At the low end there are the Electra FX CD's (CD copies of the LP's with little if any cleanup), and a slew of "gross" and "scary" CD collections. Brainbridge is another very "consumer" FX library. On the way up there is Network and Valentino and some others that are basically re-mastered recording from old mono LPs. Some are better than others. BBC which sort of falls in this category is actually a very nice set. Digital Juice is somewhere between the top and the bottom. It has a good range of FX. Some are your consumer cheesy ones like "Zombies moaning", etc. but there are some good things. It suffers from a lack of coverage and a lack of specifics (most car sounds a listed as generic types rather than the actual car recorded) but it is very cheap so... I bought it recently because it was on sale and it has a bunch of vocal recordings. Your generic TV announcer, News bites, ad bits and such plus it has a good smattering of production music. I wouldn't score a film with this but if you need to create some TV or Radio sound this is the perfect thing and I didn't have any of that I could use in a commercial way. If I had to buy some general FX libraries I would probably go for the Hollywood Edge Premier Edition and maybe the BBC set. But if I was on a tight budget the DJ set isn't bad.
Well this has been longwinded but maybe it will be useful.
First there are a lot of SFX libraries out there and in "pro" circles they are all frowned on to some extent. They are also used constantly. The reasons they are frowned on are that they are used constantly and to a certain extent because anybody can get them. They are also often not great for film work. The two big faults are very dry recordings, they don't sound like they were recorded in the world but in some isolation chamber. This makes them in theory useful in more situations but in fact it means that you have to work to make them fit in almost any situation. Ironically this is less of a problem on a big project where your using a ton of tracks than with a small one where the sound is going to be more on it's own. Another shortcoming of most commercial libraries is "coverage". If your doing a film and you need to cover a Mustang that your hero drives you need lots of coverage. Door opens and closes, hard, soft. Gear shift moves, starts, stops, glove compartment, window ups and downs. Very few libraries offer that kind of coverage.
So the first choice if you have the know how and/or the budget is to go out and record your own. You can get exactly what you need and you can get tons of coverage. The downside is you have to go do it and that can be expensive. Also if sound isn't your thing you probably don't have the equipment or the interest to do it. It's a lot of work recording FX. And it can be dangerous. Creating / designing sounds fall into this same category Upside, personalized sounds that are exactly what you want, downside you have to be able to create that perfect sound and you may not have the experience tools or interest.
And some things you just can't record. Somethings are very expensive and or dangerous to record. So the second choice is to trade with someone who has recordings of what you need (this requires you to have a library of sounds you own so you have something to trade). Some times people will just give you the sounds, but that happens more often when somewhere down the line they may ask you for some sounds so again you really need to have some recordings. You can also buy sounds. The custom sellers tend to be very expensive, though Sound Dogs has a lot of original recordings that are reasonably priced. And then come the libraries. They have a lot of stuff and if you have enough libraries there is probably something that will do. On the high end there are some very useful libraries like "The Works" loaded with mechanical and electrical things. Lots of coverage and very well recorded. Hollywood Edge tends to have more "natural" recordings than Sound Ideas which many find to be too sterile. At the low end there are the Electra FX CD's (CD copies of the LP's with little if any cleanup), and a slew of "gross" and "scary" CD collections. Brainbridge is another very "consumer" FX library. On the way up there is Network and Valentino and some others that are basically re-mastered recording from old mono LPs. Some are better than others. BBC which sort of falls in this category is actually a very nice set. Digital Juice is somewhere between the top and the bottom. It has a good range of FX. Some are your consumer cheesy ones like "Zombies moaning", etc. but there are some good things. It suffers from a lack of coverage and a lack of specifics (most car sounds a listed as generic types rather than the actual car recorded) but it is very cheap so... I bought it recently because it was on sale and it has a bunch of vocal recordings. Your generic TV announcer, News bites, ad bits and such plus it has a good smattering of production music. I wouldn't score a film with this but if you need to create some TV or Radio sound this is the perfect thing and I didn't have any of that I could use in a commercial way. If I had to buy some general FX libraries I would probably go for the Hollywood Edge Premier Edition and maybe the BBC set. But if I was on a tight budget the DJ set isn't bad.
Well this has been longwinded but maybe it will be useful.
