Audiohero – The Prodigy

A good intro package to Audio Hero. Do note that you will only be given a Coupon code to use at https://download.audiohero.com when purchasing this package plan from ASFX – which is a bit unique compared to every other product available on ASFX. Dont forget there is also a more expensive, though cost-effective package here https://www.asoundeffect.com/sound-library/audiohero-the-hero/
 
The short: Audio Hero is a website front-end powered by https://www.sourceaudio.com/ with a giant collection of audio from half-a-second length foley to 5 minute long drones and stock music across different genres. YMMV when being critical of selection quality, however you have over 250,000 files to listen through to find what you want.
 
I do recommend giving this service a try, but I have a few criticisms about the site and the way it presents its selection too.
 
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Skepticism had the best of me at first – filtering through 250,000+ audio files to find the ones you want is pretty daunting. And to be perfectly honest, finding exactly what you want can be a bit of a pain – even with the audio fingerprint search.
 
A bit of a tangent, but the fingerprint search helps you find audio similar to an audio file you provide, either in the form of an uploaded file or a URL to youtube/soundcloud or some other media. The search results though, fingerprint or keyword, always seem to skirt around what you are looking for exactly, though it comes pretty close.
 
Most of my gripes actually come from the amount of -noise- that will appear in search results. For instance, when looking for stock music you’ll find the same track in a 15 second format, a 30 second format, a 60 second format, a full format – oh – and sometimes an “alternative mix” too, which generally just removes the lead instrument from the song. All the options are great, but having all these options fill up page-after-page makes the whole process of finding stock music a pain. Especially since you can’t combine all the different length -duplicates- (for lack of better word) and you can only sort by ascending length. You won’t be able to filter for tracks are at least 60 seconds in length either.
 
On that subject, the stock music selection is quite varied, but all a bit *meh* in quality. Most of it comes from the same “Sounds Incredible (S.I.) Publishing” company and while none of it is really bad, a lot of it would probably fail to stand on it’s own. I guess that’s why they call it stock music~
 
The Sound Effect & Element selection seems to make up the vast majority of their site. After the week-or-so I’ve spent looking through it, all I can really say is that there is a-lot-of-stuff in it. I know that’s probably the dumbest thing to read after the 250k+ number you saw before, but the sheer volume of the collection really covers such a wide range of effects and elements that you’d be hard-pressed to not find what you are looking for. Just remember that it’s a bit like finding a needle in a haystack….
 
Downloads are presented in either a .mp3 or .wav file format and though individual music is distinctively 5x more expensive than individual sound effects, they each count for only 1 download from your allotted 50 per month. Once you’ve paid for a download, you can actually download the file as many times as you would like in either .mp3 or .wav – though the particular sound’s information page won’t indicate it visually. You can see a list of all your previous purchases under “My Licenses” in the Account Dashboard, each with their own quick download link for future access.
 
The Hero and The Prodigy packages featured on ASFX are directly available from the Audio Hero website, as well as some monthly plans that fit in-between and even the ability to pay for individual downloads without a package plan. Without a plan, however, individual sound effects cost $1.99 and music costs $9.99 – so relatively speaking, The Hero package is, without a doubt, the most cost effective investment if you decide to stick around Audio Hero for a while. For more details on all the packages available on their website, you can find information at https://download.audiohero.com/?#!custom_page?pageId=2118
 
Conclusion: While good, I personally prefer the quality of packages available on ASFX. Some users might prefer the “pick-from-our-giant-library” approach, as also found with Soundly, however I find the quality in presentation and final-product to be much more satisfying here on ASFX than on Audio Hero.
 
With all that said, I recommend finding your own personal experience with Audio Hero. Registration is free and you can actually begin listening through the selection to get a taste for it yourself right here http://download.audiohero.com/#!explorer