7 Sound Stories Worth Reading: Game Audio Outsourcing, Immersive Audio, Interactive Vs Linear Sound, A Great Ben Burtt Interview & Much More:

Seven featured stories about sound designers

Posted December 9, 2017 by Adriane Kuzminski in Sound community highlights

If you're looking to catch up on the interesting innovations happening in audio, here's your chance! In this roundup, you can learn: how to become a better outsourcer, a clever approach to horror and stop-motion animation sound design, the difference between interactive and linear audio processes, audio's role in creating immersive experiences in Mixed Reality, how Ben Burtt views failure and perseverance, and how sound is created for Star Wars toys. Happy reading!

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Audio Outsourcing Success: Essential Tips, Thoughts and Working Practices from Adele Cutting:

Ever wonder what it takes for a successful collaboration between a videogame studio and an audio production studio? Based on 20+ years of experience from both sides of this process, BAFTA and Develop award-winning audio director Adele Cutting from Soundcuts Ltd shares her essential insights on how to achieve quality results as an audio outsourcer for games:

Read the in-depth story on succesful game audio outsourcing

How Jeff Schmidt created the terrifying sound for hit podcast series ‘Inside The Exorcist’:

The devil is in the details, and that’s certainly true of the soundtrack that Jeff Schmidt created for Wondery’s seven-part podcast Inside The Exorcist by creator/writer/host Mark Ramsey. Here’s how he created the sound for the series, covering everything from creating sinister drones, clever sound design and recording approaches, to crafting those demonic voices and much more:

Read the in-depth story behind ‘Inside The Exorcist’

Creating classic stop-motion sound for ‘Moomins and the Winter Wonderland’ – with Michał Fojcik and Heikki Kossi:

Here’s how supervising sound editor Michał Fojcik and Foley artist Heikki Kossi brought the wintry world of ‘Moomins and the Winter Wonderland’ to life with sound:

Read the story behind the new Moomin stop-motion film

Great reads from the sound community:

Creative Assembly’s Charles Pateman on how game audio differs from linear media: For Audio Media International, Charles Pateman from Creative Assembly shares his thoughts about the differences between interactive and linear audio. From the iterative process and no picture lock to our relationships with other departments, Charles shows us how we have a special workflow that challenges “traditional” production.

How Immersive Sound Brings Mixed Reality to Life: Technology writer Alice Bonasia writes about the role of spatial audio in building believable, multi-sensory virtual environments. She speaks with HoloLens inventor Alex Kipman, developer Kean Walmsley, and Auro-3D founder Wilfried Van Baelen about what makes a convincing experience and the challenges sound designers and developers face.

A Conversation with Ben Burtt on Perseverance: Shaun Farley from Designing Sound interviews Ben Burtt about his decades-long pursuit to create “classic” sounds during his highly respected career. He shares the trial and error process he developed by learning from his mistakes, and how – with the trust of the director – this workflow can lead to “wonderful undiscovered worlds”.

Interview: The Force is with Tracy W. Bush, audio designer for Star Wars toys: Over at Gigantic Software, Krystle Becknauld interviews Tracy W. Bush, audio director at Sphero, about the company’s new line of Star Wars toys. He talks about their new products, including models of BB-9E, R2-Q5, R2-D2, and their evil counterparts, and how they developed their bleep-and-bloop languages and emotions even before the The Last Jedi has been released!

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THE WORLD’S EASIEST WAY TO GET INDEPENDENT SOUND EFFECTS:

A Sound Effect gives you easy access to an absolutely huge sound effects catalog from a myriad of independent sound creators, all covered by one license agreement - a few highlights:

City Life Sound Effects British Sirens Play Track 48 sounds included, 12 mins total $25

This library consists of sounds of authentic British sirens recorded during a 3 month period in London including while in Covid-19 lockdown. The sirens’ source vehicles include ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks. Recoding techniques include recording with a spaced pair of 2 DPA 4060’s in DPA BLM6000 Boundary Layer Mount with wind protection as well as following the source with Sennheiser 8060 shotgun when opportunity allowed. As a result, the library offers 48 sounds recorded in 24bit/96kHz format delivered in 64 files with a total runtime of approximately 12 minutes. The sound was edited in RX7 to remove the occasional sounds of birds.

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Roomtones Hospital Ambiance Play Track 24 sounds included, 59 mins total $33

Hospital Ambiance is 59 minutes/1.80 Gb of ambiance recordings from an old hospital. 24 separate files – recorded in 24bit/96kHz A-B stereo. All sounds are UCS-compatible.

Hospital Ambiance was recorded in the rooms and corridors of the old (now defunct) Aarhus County Hospital in Aarhus, Denmark. A prominent feature is the lack of acoustical treatment in corridors and hallways, giving a rather hard and reverberant sound, which is typical of Danish public building styles of the 1930’s and 40’s.

Elevators and automatic doors are heavy and noisy; humming and clanking as patients and staff pass through them. Electric vehicles used to move patients and supplies around inside the complex are old and not exactly noiseless either. Finally, while I did not have access to operating rooms or the like, I did get into a couple of basement corridors, where there were less people and more Hvac noise (yay!).

In some of the recordings, faint, muffled or smeared voices can be heard. While I have removed passages with distinctly Danish words (which might also be connected with specific, recognizable persons), there is still a certain tone and pitch to the Danish language, which may come through on occasion.
All in all, this is the sound of a place that is no more, as this old hospital is being turned into expensive apartments or something to that effect.

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Door Sound Effects Locker Doors Play Track 104 sounds included, 4+ mins total $12

This is a collection of 5 different metal lockers, opened, closed, banged and handled for all of those school hallway situations you’ll come across. They are super clean and were recorded with close and “roomy” perspectives for all but one.
Multi-channel, mono close, stereo room.

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Explore the full, unique collection here

Latest sound effects libraries:

Hand Combat Sound Effects Massive Punches Play Track 505 sounds included, 1 mins total $29.99

MASSIVE PUNCHES – 505 files of punch sound effects, from several sparring sessions. From quiet taps and hits to thudding and cracking impacts. Massive Punches comes in at over 1 minute, of real skin on skin body and head shots. Bring the power of bare knuckle to your next project. Recorded at 192kHz and 32bit, using microphones capable of recording ultrasonic frequencies. Massive Punches filenames are in the Universal Category System format with additional Metadata baked-in.

Don’t need a Massive amount of Punch sound effects? We offer ‘Mini’ sound effect libraries as companions for all of our ‘Massive’ sound effect libraries. All recordings are unique to each library with no overlap. Go Mini today, and upgrade to the corresponding Massive library later, when you need more of that particular sound effect.

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Hand Combat Sound Effects Mini Punches Play Track 60 sounds included $6.99

MINI PUNCHES – 60 files of punch sound effects, from several sparring sessions. From quiet taps and hits to thudding and cracking impacts. Mini Punches comes in at over 15 seconds, of real skin on skin body and head shots. Bring the power of bare knuckle to your next project. Recorded at 192kHz and 32bit, using microphones capable of recording ultrasonic frequencies. Mini Punches filenames are in the Universal Category System format with additional Metadata baked-in.
Looking for a Massive amount of Punch sound effects? We offer ‘Massive’ sound effect libraries as companions for all of our ‘Mini’ sound effect libraries. All recordings are unique to each library with no overlap. Go Mini today, and upgrade to the corresponding Massive library later, when you need more of that particular sound effect.

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Environments & Ambiences Textured Rain Play Track 116 sounds included, 135 mins total $41.30

Textured Rain features meticulously recorded rainfall on a wide variety of surfaces and objects. Each sound is delivered as a seamless loop, with three distinct intensities per surface for maximum flexibility.

Captured in a controlled environment using mainly a DIY rain machine, this collection was recorded in both stereo and mono, ranging from light drizzles to heavy downpours and offering consistent, adaptable textures without unwanted background noise.

The library includes performances on car interiors, metal and plastic props, umbrellas, vegetation, fabric, debris and more. Perfect for layering in film, games, or other audio projects, these rain loops are ideal for crafting atmospheres, enhancing ambiences, and adding realistic environmental detail.

‍Loops in mono and stereo

This sound pack have been recorded using multiple mono and stereo microphone configurations and exported as seamless loops for easy drag and drop in your project.

‍Props and textures recorded

Aluminium plate • Car interior • Fabric • Galvanized container • Galvanized tub • Glass plate • Green and dead leaves • Metal barrel • Metal roof • Metal sheets and plates • Metal scrap • Mud puddle • Newspapers • Plastic container • Plastic roof • Plastic sheet • Plastic tarps • Reed screen • Roof tiles • Shopping bags • Stainless steel sheet • Steel box • Tent • Trash bags • Trash can • Umbrellas • Water • Wheelie bin • Window skylight • Wood floor • Wood planks

… and more!

‍Gear used

MixPre-6 II • F6 • MKH8040 • MKH30 • C411 • MKH416 • LOM Usi Pro • Oktava MK012

‍Metadata

This sound library is UCS compliant and comes with fully embedded metadata compatible with Soundly, Soundminer and Basehead.

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Destruction & Impact Sounds Extra Crunches Play Track 74 sounds included, 27 mins total $9.99

EXTRA CRUNCHES – is an auxiliary sound library containing 74 unique sound effect files of crunches. From close up scratching and popping to loud and rough breaking and chomping. Whether it’s crunches or crumbs you’re looking for; This Extra sound effects library will help supplement the snacks and cracker needs, of your next project. Extra Crunches comes in at over 27 minutes and was recorded at 192kHz / 32bit using an ultrasonic microphone. All of our libraries comply with the Universal Category System naming convention standard, allowing for accurate and easy granular searches.

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Industrial Ambiences Airflow Collection Play Track 36+ sounds included, 157 mins total $48

Moody wind drafts for game & cinematic sound design can always give depth and realism to your production. This collection of airflow sounds covers structural air pressure, howling and whistling wind through doors, rattling frames and cracking stuff. Perfect for creating bunker-like atmospheres, tense survival settings, or immersive environmental layers, these sounds bring authenticity and emotion to your projects. Whether you need subtle drafts creeping through an abandoned shelter or violent gusts shaking a refuge, this library delivers a versatile toolkit ready for games, trailers, and film sound design.
Only acoustic recordings are used, no designed sounds. UCS compatible file names and embedded file descriptions for your comfort.

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