5 Killer Features in Soundly (+ get access to the full version for 14 days!):

It’s no secret that there are dozens of apps that help manage sound fx libraries. Both Mac and PC users can find many options that help sound pros sort and find collections of sound clips.

However, as soon as Soundly launched it was doing things differently. How? In this post by sound effects guru Paul Virostek, he highlights five killer features that make Soundly break away from the pack.

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Written by Paul Virostek

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1. Organize Your Sound Library

What it does: Soundly makes it easy to add, sort, and search sound libraries. It can index local, cloud, and network clip collections. Adding sound fx is as simple as dragging and dropping them onto Soundly’s window. Each library is displayed separately, so filtering results is easy. The app provides search suggestions and tracks search history. Playback – including from the cloud – is fast and fluid. A slick waveform display allows playing and processing whole clips, and even smaller portions, too.

Why it’s cool: It’s a common problem. You have some sound fx on your laptop. Others are on an external drive on your desk. More still are scattered across a network NAS drive. It’s tedious to hunt and peck across a handful of locations to find the sound you need. It’s worse when you have the pressure of a deadline. Soundly keeps all your sounds in one place, lets you search them swiftly and audition them easily. It’s fast, effortless, and, with its new 2.0 interface, attractive, too.
 

2. Import Clips to Apps

What it is: Adding and finding clips is great, but sound pros need to use them, too. Soundly allows sound clips to be transferred to editing apps with a tap of a button. The app can send entire clips, or selected, small portions of longer files. It’s simple: just drag the section into an editing app and the clips is transferred. Pro Tools users have bonus features: single or multiple clips can be transferred with “handles” either to the cursor location in an editing timeline or the bin.

Why it’s cool: No one wants to be slowed down by digging through folders and navigating editing app file browsers. That slows work and kills creativity. With Soundly, a simple mouse drag can take the cool sound you’ve found and send it to any other app. It’s even quicker for Pro Tools and Reaper users: just click the Pro Tools icon to send the clip selection to the timeline cursor. That makes it faster to get clips into your project and get back to work.
 

3. Cloud Sound Library

What it is: Soundly doesn’t just manage clips, sort them, and send them to other apps. It launches with access to a professionally recorded sound library that is streamed instantly from the cloud. Any user can access 1000 popular clips, and Pro subscribers can choose from around 40,000. The sound library features everyday sounds that will are useful in any project, as well as elite recordings such as military vehicles, too. Want more? No problem. The Soundly store offers the Freesound.org library, as well as collections from independent community field recordists and sound designers.

Why it’s cool: Merely downloading the app gives users access to 1000 pro sound effects completely free of charge. That’s a good way for budget-conscious sound pros to enhance their existing sound collections. And, when you have a little more cash or are working on more demanding projects, getting instant access to 40,000 more clips is only a few clicks away. Soundly’s cloud library makes worrying about finding the right sound effect a thing of the past.

4. Metadata Editor

What it is: Soundly can embed invisible bonus metadata text to sound files. It reads popular iXML, BWAV, and MP3 formats, and writes back to the universal BWAV standard description field.

Why it’s cool: metadata’s bonus text information helps organize sound collections and find clips within them. That eliminates mental clutter, speeds sound clip selection, and help you make better choices. For sound librarians, Soundly can apply metadata in batches, too, making it easy to enhance existing sound collections with helpful metadata text. Worried that it will cost hundreds of dollars to do this, like any other metadata app? Don’t be. Soundly embeds metadata free of charge.
 

5. Cloud Collaboration

What it is: You’re hooked on Soundly. You’ve converted your colleagues and friends, too. That’s how Soundly’s fifth killer feature helps: Soundly’s cloud collaboration tools allow you to share sound libraries and playlists of clips with others. You can even upload your own sound libraries to the cloud so they can be shared, too.

Why it’s cool: Did you find the perfect bird ambience for a studio project? Maybe you found a fighter jet pass that’s the ideal building block for a starship. It’s easy to save it to a playlist, then email the sound supervisor or other editors your list of selections. When they have a license to the same library they can start working with those clips right away. Are you a lone wolf working on your own? Soundly hasn’t forgotten you, either. Soundly’s cloud storage allows you to upload your own clips to the cloud. That means you can access them at other facilities, or at home, after work.

These are just five cool features in Soundly. There are many others: granular search results sorting, text file import and export, audio processing, and much more.

A big thanks to Paul Virostek for this Soundly guide!

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