Canadian field recordist wants to change sound effects crowdsourcing – here’s how he’s making it happen:

 

Hi Paul, please introduce yourself and the CrowdsourceSFX project:

Hi Asbjoern, thanks for taking the time to chat with me about the project. I’m a sound editor and field recordist from Toronto, and I’m really excited to share with you my new project, CrowdsourceSFX.

CrowdsourceSFX is a platform where field recordists can contribute their recordings to a library to gain access to the final collection. On top of that, once the libraries are closed they will be made available for sale to non-participants and the profits will be distributed among the contributors. It’s essentially a way that recordists can quickly improve their libraries while also earning royalties from their sounds.
 

How did you get the idea for the site – and how’s it different from other SFX crowdsourcing projects out there?

The basic concept behind crowdsourced libraries has been around for many years now, but I think the main thing that sets CrowdsourceSFX apart from past efforts is that once one of our libraries is closed people who did not contribute can still access the sounds by purchasing the library.

I missed out on some of the famous early crowdsourced projects, and it struck me as really unfortunate that these libraries are off limits to future editors

In the past crowdsourced libraries were only available to those who contributed sounds, which worked well in a short-run context but didn’t age or scale very well. Being relatively new to the audio community I missed out on some of the famous early crowdsourced projects, and it struck me as really unfortunate that these libraries are off limits to future editors. So I decided to try to adapt the idea into a more ‘future-friendly’ version of itself, which is how CrowdsourceSFX came about.
 

What are your current crowdsourcing projects, and how can people participate in making them?

There are currently three libraries that are open for submissions:

– Door Creaks & Beyond
– Forest Ambiences
– Electrical Noises

To participate in a library you can head to a library’s page and submit your sounds in the ‘Submit Your Sounds’ section. Submissions for these first three libraries are open until April 30th. If you are interested in having your name (or website or logo) included in the final library, you can send that along to me by email.
 

What’s so useful about crowdsourcing, from a sound effects creation perspective? And with many different participants, how do you ensure consistent, high-quality results?

I think that one of the best strengths of crowdsourced libraries is in the diversity of the sounds.

Rather than having just one recordist’s interpretation of a subject you end up with a much wider array of sounds

Like most existing sfx libraries, crowdsourced libraries are often focused around specific themes, but by crowdsourcing a library you can feature hundreds of recordists, drawing from various disciplines, locations, and inspirations; Rather than having just one recordist’s interpretation of a subject you end up with a much wider array of sounds.

This can also work in the opposite direction though. The more diverse a sound library is, the more difficult it is to maintain quality control. In order to encourage high quality recordings I have installed a few concepts: Lower quality sounds will receive fewer royalties (more accurately, they will receive fewer points, which will result in a smaller percentage of ‘ownership’ of a library, which results in fewer royalties); Poor quality sounds will be rejected; and finally, I will be going through all the sounds and normalizing the metadata so that the library will feel tied together with consistent metadata.

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Another benefit of crowdsourced libraries is that they tap into a different category of sounds. Generally speaking, if you want to grow your sound library you can either purchase commercial libraries or you can record your own. However, there are many recordists (like myself) who take many field recordings but haven’t made them commercially available, due to either the challenges involved (metadata, packaging, etc), lack of sufficient material, or simply because they may not want to market themselves or their sounds. By showcasing the sounds of all types of recordists – not just those who sell their sounds – crowdsourcing taps into an ocean of sound that was previously inaccessible.
 

Can sound effects creators also help decide what crowdsourced libraries you create?

Absolutely! These first three libraries were my own ideas, but all future libraries will be determined by popular vote, based on ideas that are submitted by the audio community.

All future libraries will be determined by popular vote, based on ideas that are submitted by the audio community

On our homepage there is a suggestion box where people can submit their ideas and vote on existing ones. So far it looks like the next three libraries are going to be ‘Walla’, ‘Room Tones’, and ‘Animal Sounds’, but that could change depending on if we get more votes.
 

How do you see the site evolving, and what are your plans going forward?

My main objective with the project is to maintain a high output of high quality libraries. So far the project has received an incredibly positive response from the community, which erased any initial concerns about opening three libraries simultaneously. So I’ve set a goal of releasing 3 new libraries every two months — which if it stays on track and participation grows, we will hopefully crowdsource 15+ libraries by the end of the year.
 

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