Choosing a Sound Effects Library

When choosing a sound effects library, what do you look for? For people new to the industry, there are a few key questions they need to answer in order to determine what kind of sound effects library that need for their productions. To start off with, while there are a variety of sound effects library publishers, there are a few that one would consider to be the premium sound effects publishers and that have been around for quite some time, two in specific: Sound Ideas and The Hollywood Edge. Both these companies have been in the industry publishing sound effects for a very long time, and focus on high quality sound effects.

Sound Ideas started by creating their first sound effects library– the Series 1000 - on reel to reel tape in 1979. Since then they have created sound effects for the past thirty years, moving from CD formats to hard drive sound effects libraries as of late. Sound Ideas has established themselves as a premium provider of sound effects by constantly innovating and creating exclusive partnerships with providers such as 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros.

The Hollywood Edge is seen by many as the Hollywood sound effects library. The Hollywood Edge contains the Premiere Edition sound effects libraries which contain a great selection of general sound effects for film productions. Many of their sound effects are used in award winning Hollywood movies and productions. Other note worthy mentions for a sound effects library are the BBC Sound Effects Library, Digital Juice Sound FX Library, and the acclaimed Sound Storm Sound Effects Library. Here are a few items to look for when you choose a sound effects library created by a premium publisher.

An important item when choosing a professional sound effects library is that it comes with metadata. Metadata is essentially a description of the sound effect. Today, much of the metadata would be created with software called the Sound miner toolset which allows the sound effects to be easily indexed. When it comes to indexing and searching for sound effects, the metadata is there to make sure you can find the sound effect you are looking for once you need it!

Further, if you want true feature film quality in your production, it’s important that your sound effects library come either in Red Book Audio format (for a CD sound effects library) or WAV files (if you are looking at a hard drive sound effects library). If you are purchasing a sound effects library in a hard drive format, premium sound effects providers will provide their sound effects in WAV format, either in 16 bit or 24 bit WAV files (24 bit preferred if your workstation can handle it). If purchasing a sound effects library in CD format, the Red Book Audio Format is the audio standard format the audio industry adheres to so that all CD players can read the CD (important if you want your sound effects!) Even with a CD in Red Book Audio format, you can still rip the files to WAV format to use in your productions. In summary, make sure your sound effects library publisher has a reputation for creating a high quality sound effects library.