Hi Bryan, what’s your overall approach to trailer sound?
My approach is really from several angles at once:
First I realize that it is my job to make the film makers happy and to make a trailer that is exciting or captivating for the audience. You only have a short time to tell your story and draw them in so the vision needs to be clear. You can’t leave it up to the mixer to figure out, you have to lay it out so that it sings on its own.
That said I take the music and the story into very strong consideration. I try hard to compliment the music and express the sonic story as much as possible. Working with music is an art in itself that involves both pitch and rhythm but telling the story within that context can be very tricky… especially if you want it to be exciting. Clarity is key.
What makes for a great trailer soundscape?
Soundscapes can tell sorts and reveal concepts that music can’t because it is based on sounds that are grounded in life, unlike music. Music is great at expressing feeling and emotion on a subject level. but sound design is rooted in life experience. The sound of a train of in the distance, a jet fighter ripping by or even ring of a gunshot.
We all can relate to those ideas because we all have been collecting those sonic images our whole lives… through life, through cinema and in our dreams.
A great soundscape is one that pushes what is familiar into a new experience
I think what makes a great soundscape is one that pushes what is familiar into a new experience. One that makes you collect all of the sonic images that bring to life all the images.
What are your favorite tools for trailer sound creation?
Having great sound source is key and knowing what will and what will not work is very important. I am all about processing chains.
I have saved templates that specific processing chains I like to use for certain things, I have racks that I have saved in Soundminer and lately I have been doing a lot of that same thing with Patchwork. That is a great plug-in that allows you to stack processes from top to bottom and left to right with an overall dry/wet control. I use Waves TransX quite a lot.
I like the GRM stuff, Soundtoys, Melda and a host off odd ball processors. I am always looking out for different processes and tools for shaping sound. Lately I have been having lots of fun with Reaktor. The Twisted Tools stuff is great and Meltedsounds Whoosh is endless fun.
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Who doesn’t recognize the sounds of construction work and the toughest duties ever known to humankind. Drilling, hammering, building and constructing. (Swearing not included). Packed with 237 different sounds to immerse you audience in the true hardwork day to day
Recorded with
Sound Devices 633
Rode NTG3
Rode NT4
Seymour Duncan SCR-117 %OFFEnds 1576796399 -
Weapon Mech & Reload Sounds is a sfx library recorded for police / military related film or video games. Recorded at 24/96,(real guns and soft/air guns) with 3 microphones (omni, cardioid and shotgun), you can use one sound or mix the 3 layers together for more impact!
Key Features:
Library ships in 96kHz, 24bit
408 files, more than 800 sounds
Effective workflow: well-grounded Soundminer Metadata
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Lethal Blow is a collection of high quality fight sound effect. It features 925 sound effects; 600 source recording and 325 designed sound effects. It comes loaded with all sorts of sounds – from simple punches to multi-layerd crunchy blows and and meaty hits.
All source sounds ware recorded with top tier microphones; Sennheiser MKH8040 and MKH8060 at 192kHz/24Bit with a Sound Devices recorder.Collection consists of two main categories:
DESIGNED 96/24 (325 SFX)
Bone Breaks – Crunchy breaks, snaps and tears.
Grabs, throws and blacks.
Bright Punches – Punches with meaty bottom and pronounces “beef slap” transients.
Crunch Punches – Punches layered with bone breaks and cracks .
Dark punches – Punches with more of a deep, organic, thump-y sound.
Rips and tears – Fatality-like, gory tears.
Simple Punches – Organic sounding, deep punches that consist of only few layers (compared to other punches).
Punches “Xtra” – Punches without Arm movement/scuffle/whoosh – just a hit that you can layer with your own woos/scuffle
Skull crashes – Gory, slimy skull crashes and splits
Swooshes, whooshes snd scuffles.SOURCE CONSTRUCTION-KIT 192/24 (600 SFX)
Scuffles, arm movements and whooshes – Cotton, denim and nylon.
Snaps – Leak snaps
Flesh drops – Dropped oranges
Cotton transients – Cotton hoodie hit with a soft drum mallet
Real chest punches – Closed fist
Meaty punches – Beefy, organic punches (punching beef steaks).
Lettuce punches and smacks – Deep, wet lettuce punches plus exaggerated transient sounds.
Real chest smacks – Open fist
Meat movement – gory, slimy, beef movements.
Meat Slaps – Beef steaks dropped on a tile floor with pronounced transients
Small crack – cracking eggshells
Bell pepper rips – Tearing, ripping apart Bell peppers for crunchy snaps and cracks
Whooshes and swooshes – Airy whooshes
Fabric Movement – random, cotton cloth whooshes and multiple swishes.325 designed sound effects will get you started right away and save a lot of time when cutting fight scenes.
600 high quality source recordings will allow you to design all kinds of punches, bone brakes and gore sound effects from scratch, exactly to your taste.All sound effects are highly tweakable. You can fine-tune them to your liking; pitch them up/down to remove/add weight whilst retaining details and clarity.
Download includes:
96-192KHZ 24BIT version (925 SFX/562MB)
44.1KHZ 16BIT version for Unreal Engine (925 SFX/264MB)
192KHZ 24BIT BONUS source recordings (58 SFX/30MB)
RECORDED WITH: Sound Devices MixPre 6 + Sennheiser MKH8040 + Sennheiser MKH8060
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The “Electro-Mechanics ToolKit 2” Sound Effects Library features a wide range of versatile electro-mechanic motors, engines, tools and toys.
All waiting to be cut up, layered, edited and mangled with FX to become spaceship engines, robot movements, sci fi doors, weapon mechanics.
This library is not meant to be a comprehensive tools library but rather a composite toolkit to bring futuristic electro-mechanic machines, devices, weapons, vehicles, … sonically to life.
All cleaned and edited for direct use in your upcoming projects.All sounds have embedded BWF Metadata.
Categories: Air Compressor • Angle Grinder • Band Saw • Belt Sander • Bowling Alley Machinery • Buffing Machine • Turning Lathe • Buzz Saw • Chop Saw • Doors & Shutters • Electric Drill • Electric Screwdriver • Electric Wood Plane • Evacuator • Film Projector • Fine Blanking Tool • Fretsaw • Grinding Lathe • Hand Blender & Mixer • Hoist Industrial • Industrial Vacuum Cleaner • Jigsaw • Mechanic Toys • Metal Saw • Milling Machine • Stationary Drill • Strimmer • Toy Helicopter
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Looking for sounds of a remote controlled car? Here you go: This sound effects library features 170 sound effects of the Reely Core RC Car. You get several on-board and external driving sounds, pass-bys, close-up steering mechanics and idling mixtures, and of course some crashes. All sounds are edited and cleaned for direct use in your upcoming sound design projects. All sounds contain detailed BWF Metadata.
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The past few years have seen a lot of sound designers creating their own libraries and releasing them independently of any publishers. What does this mean for sound designers such as yourself?
I am a big fan of Independent sound libraries because they make it easy to expand your possibilities at what is usually a very reasonable cost. Most of the independent libraries are recorded at a high quality and you know when go for something that for example Frank Bry has recorded that it is going to have all of the character you need it to. But there are a lot of great independent library makers out there and they deserve a lot of credit for making our lives a lot easier.
Have you considered making your own indie trailer SFX library?
Here is one I get asked quite a lot. The short answer is no. As I work on a trailer I am essentially coming up with a whole pallet of sounds that fit the style of the whole trailer campaign, from the first teaser until the featurettes. Some trailers campaigns have 15 different trailers to them and for each one there has to be a consistent style to them that makes a connection with the feature film. The reason why I have not considered an indie trailer sound library is because those sounds really belong to the life of the trailer.
Right now I am focused on making the best tracks I can.
What are the three most important things to get right when doing sound for trailers?
First you better get the music ironed out correctly. It amazes me sometimes how poorly the music editorial can be on some trailers. Second is the Dialogue.
Clean, understandable dialogue seems like a given but it is one of the hardest challenges in trailer audio.
Having clear, clean, understandable dialogue seems like a given but it is one of the hardest challenges in trailer audio.
Last is the sound design and sound effects editorial and how it relates to the music and dialogue. I think it is obvious but worth mentioning is that having a skilled mixer to make the trailer come together is vital. Their choices on what to play and not play ultimately shape the product into what it will be. My goal is to give them as little to think about as possible.
How has sound for trailers evolved during the time you’ve worked with it, and what trends do you see in trailer sound – and trailers in general?
Trailer sound has changed in dramatic ways. Trailers are now big business with composers, vendors, producers, editors and studio creatives all having a deep interest in how the get made. Trailers are all over the internet with websites dedicated to trailer content, websites dedicated to trailer news and trailer music companies being listened to like pop music on the radio.
I think if you went back 15 years or so you would find a very different trailer world. The industry has evolved but so have trailers. The visuals have gotten better, the audio and the audience for them has grown. I like artistically stylized trailers, what I don’t care for are commercials that are trailerized. I understand there is a market out there for that it is just not what I am personally in to.
So yeah I have been a part of it for a long time and I have seen a lot of changes. I hope that the industry continues to change for the better.
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from a myriad of independent sound creators, all covered by one license agreement
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Animals & Creatures Amazon Jungle Play Track 49 sounds included, 357 mins totalFrom: $95From: $66.50Amazon Jungle is a collection of unique ambiences recorded in the Amazon rainforest on the border between Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. The library was recorded during the rainy season when birds are vocal and humidity is at its highest. These recordings feature species such as the Screaming Piha, Toucans, Howler Monkeys, Trogons, Tinamous, Owls, very vocal Bamboo Rats and a multitude of insects and frogs.
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Lo-Fi Sci-Fi is a library packed full of characterful, authentic and gritty sounds. It was lovingly created by sound designers Barney Oram and Derek Brown, in homage to classic late 70’s and early 80’s sci-fi movies.
The collection is comprised of a wide range of sounds, including metal, organics, fire, mechanical, interfaces, creatures, foley and footsteps, abstract, ambience, and much more.Lo-Fi Sci-Fi features 620 24bit / 48kHz WAV files in total, including 45 designed sounds and 575 source sounds.
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For our Boxing Gym library we visited three different gyms around the UK. Two in London and a children’s gym in Newcastle and present a wide range of sounds to enhance your library.
We captured a variety of punches at various strengths, multiple perspectives and on different equipment; punch bags, pads, punch ball and speed ball, featuring single hits and combinations of impacts.
Additionally, we recorded body falls in the ring, corner pads and ropes. Footwork in the ring with; steps, scrapes and shuffles.
Plus ambience recordings of both adult and kids training sessions incorporating sparring, shadow boxing, fitness training, press-ups, sit-ups, skipping.
All of our sounds have been recorded in high-quality 24bit, 96kHz using Sound Devices recorders and Sennheiser, Schoeps and Line Audio microphones. Each file has been tagged with detailed Soundminer metadata to speed up workflow and increase organisation.
+ free sounds with every issue: