HISS and a ROAR release royalty-free sound effects & sound design libraries created by award winning film sound designer Tim Prebble and while there is nothing new about the idea of selling sound effects online, these libraries take a different philosophical approach, which we believe is fundamental to the art of sound effects editing. We believe the four most important assets for a sound editor or sound designer are: an open mind, sharp ears, experience and a personal sound library. But what about ProTools? Plugins? A recording kit?
The truth is that anyone can buy these things, and if they were lost in a catastrophic disaster then pending the insurance claim you would simply go & replace them. They are valuable and important but not irreplaceable.
The first three assets are about creative development and I offer what help I can via my blog:
The Music of Sound. I also highly recommend you frequent FilmSound.org and DesigningSound.org
Being an artist is a never ending evolutionary process; the day I stop learning is the day I stop breathing. But it is the creative role of the sound library that I would like to stop and consider.
As a sound designer with credits on over 30 feature films, I well know the creative value of my sound library and while the ideal is to always record a totally new pallet of sounds for every film, sometimes schedules and budgets can make this difficult.
So how do we resolve this compromise? Resort to a commercial sound library?
As I see it there are two important issues with regards to sound libraries,
the first is variety. When I record a sound eg a door creak, I don’t record one version of it – I aim to record a definitive collection of performances. Later back in the studio, as a sound editor I audition the various performances and select and manipulate the takes that I feel best suit the intended use. I need that variety of performances because until I am editing it in context it is impossible to know exactly what will work the best – it’s about feel and instinct. But its also about finding the best sound.
The second issue is about memory. By finding and recording that sound myself I will never forget what it looked like, felt like and the acoustic space it existed in. I embed this information in the metadata of the sound files, but the most crucial aspect of this is knowing your library.
So the libraries I release aim to affordably solve both of these issues:
1. The libraries are not over-designed generic composites: I aim to provide a huge range of the source material to help you do your best work by editing, manipulating & layering individual elements to achieve a unique solution.
2. The libraries are context based. They are not a random collection of sounds, they are specifically targeted at particular circumstances that I have had experience with on many features films. And as you become familiar with the contents of each library it will feel as though you were there at the recording session too.
Context is everything: I have noticed during my 20 years of working in the film industry that there are certain sounds in my library which have become incredibly handy due to recurring demands and my library priorities are driven by this knowledge. The first sound library is a good example of this;
Vegetable Violence is actually the fifth time I have recorded such a collection. And it’s no coincidence that each of the previous sessions occurred during my work on a horror film; first in 2003 with The Locals then in 2005 for Boogieman, then in 2006 for Black Sheep and again in 2007 for 30 Days of Night. Each time we captured different performances and props because each film has unique requirements; a mutant sheep bite is different to a vampire bite after all… But with this new library I aimed to record the definitive high resolution library, employing all the knowledge of what was actually useful from those recording sessions while making these films.
DELIVERY FORMATS:
While all the recording, editing and mastering of each sound library is done at 24bit 96kHz, we offer four levels of delivery, targeted at the potential use for the sounds:
1. MAX LIBRARY is a definitive library provided at 24bit 96kHz for sound editors and designers who need the extended resolution for manipulation and processing and who also need a large range of performances with each prop.
2. MID LIBRARY is provided at 24bit 48kHz and contains the same number of props as the MAX Library, but with approximately half as many performances.
3. LITE LIBRARY is provided at CD quality 16bit 44.1kHz contains the same number of props as the MAX Library, but with five performances with each prop.
4. FREE LIBRARY is provided at CD quality 16bit 44.1kHz and contains the same number of props as the MAX Library but with just a single performance with each. This library is perfect for low/no budget projects and youtube videos, student films, music projects etc… This taster is also a means of auditioning the sounds in context at a decent resolution before deciding whether to purchase a full library.
All libraries are provided as a collection of stereo .WAV files, carefully labelled & tagged with Metadata compatible with the ProTools workspace, SoundMiner, Basehead, Snapper and AudioFinder sound library software.
NOTES ON USE:
Apart from the .WAV files I also include a ProTools (Mac) session with all files laid consecutively on a single stereo track. Why? Well the fastest way to import the entire library into a session you are working in, is to import the stereo track from this session. And in fact this is a technique I use a lot, as compared with accessing files from the Region list or the workspace browser, using a library track allows you to reorder files, drop markers & comment on favorites & even rename sub-regions within the track for further reference.
Another note: any files I provide that are a series of variations on a sound (eg a celery crunch) are spaced 1-2 seconds apart. Why? It provides an efficient means of trying alternate takes of a sound: sync the first sound to an onscreen action and trim it to length. By then putting the nudge amount to 1 second and using the Control and numeric keypad plus and minus, you can quickly step through all the variations in the file without having to resync. Heres a quick example of what I mean:
DOWNLOADS
Downloads use lossless compression via .RAR format
Windows users can use Winrar
Mac OSX users can use Stuffit expander
The MAX library is so large that I have split the file into three segments – download all segments and then open the first one to decompress.
FEEDBACK
I very much appreciate feedback so as you use the library please let me know any problems and/or ideas you might have to improve it. I’d also love to start a log of projects that each library has been used on, so let me know what you are using the sounds on.
I have another eight libraries in various states of development, but if you have an idea for a library I would be very happy to reward you if it is a unique idea and one that I haven’t already thought of.
Also note – if you have bought the MID Library and wish to upgrade to PRO, I’m happy to charge you only for the difference – drop me a line and I’ll sort it out for you…
CONTACT:
email Tim Prebble
Support Independent Sound Libraries!
Check out the excellent sound libraries from:
Michael Raphael
Chuck Russom
Frank Bry
MEDIA:
- Interview at SoundDesign.info
- Article at Designing Sound
- Vegetable Violence Review by Miguel Isaza
- Swish at Designing Sound
- Vegetable Violence at No Fat Clips
- Article at Sound & Motion blog
- SWISH MAX review by Miguel Isaza
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