The British Library is home to the UK’s national sound archive, an extraordinary collection of 6.5 million recordings of speech, music, wildlife and the environment from the 1880s to the present day.
However, these audio collections are under threat. Produced on media that in many cases have become unstable over time, they are at risk both from physical degradation and from the obsolescence of technology to replay them.
A tiny selection of the sound recordings stored on physical media by The British Library
The British Library has therefore launched a new programme, entitled Save our Sounds, to raise awareness of the looming crisis for audio collections and to raise the funding to digitise and digitally preserve the most fragile and unique recordings. At the same time the Library needs to ensure that new systems are developed for the acquisition of future sound production in the UK.
Save our Sounds has the following key aims:
• to preserve as much as possible of the UK’s rare and unique sound recordings, not just those in our collections but also key items from other collections across the UK
• to establish a national radio archive that will collect, protect and share a substantial part of the UK’s vibrant radio output, working with the radio industry and other partners
• to invest in new technology to enable the Library to receive music in digital formats, working with music labels and industry partners to ensure their long-term preservation.
The British Library is initiating a project to collect information about the UK’s recorded heritage with the aim of creating a directory of sound collections in the UK
To get the programme underway, the British Library is initiating a project to collect information about the UK’s recorded heritage with the aim of creating a directory of sound collections in the UK.
We are looking for information on collections held in libraries, archives, museums, galleries, voluntary organisations, companies, studios, record labels, broadcasters, press and in private hands. By telling us what you have, you can help us plan for their preservation for future generations.
Anyone who would like to contribute to the directory should go to the UK Sound Directory page, where you will find further details and a form that you can fill in. The survey runs until 31 March 2015, and we’ll be publishing the finished directory soon after (though we will only publish details of specific collections where you have given us permission to do so).
There will be further Save our Sounds activities in the future, and you can track progress through our Sound & Vision blog or follow us on Twitter via @soundarchive. And do use the #saveoursounds hashtag. It’s vital that we spread the word.
(Images courtesy of The British Library)
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Cinematic & Trailer Sound Effects Four Elements – Elemental Magic Play Track 3050 sounds included, 251 mins total $149
Master the Art of Bending the Elemental Forces
Unleash the raw power of fire, water, earth, and air with this comprehensive 9 GB sound library featuring 3050 high-quality sound effects across 630 files. Whether you’re designing cinematic soundscapes or enhancing video games Four Elements delivers the tools you need to harness the energy of the natural world.
Construction Kit – 2443 Sounds
A treasure trove of raw, organic, and processed sounds including seamless loops divided into Fire, Water, Air, Earth and Explosion categories. Customize every detail with an extensive selection of sound components.
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Game-ready sound layers featuring Impacts, Whooshes, and Textures as seamless loops. Elevate transitions and enhance atmospheres with loops and pre-designed sound layers.
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Design Kit – 192 Sounds
A collection of ready-to-use sound effects divided into Attack, Bend, and Explosion categories for quick integration into your projects. Perfect for high-energy scenes and immersive storytelling.
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THE RAW SOUND OF CINEMATIC FIGHTING VIOLENT COMBAT is a professional sound effects library built for fight scenes that demand impact. Packed with punch sound effects, fight sound effects, and powerful combat sound effects, it delivers everything from raw realism to over-the-top cinematic action. With improved fidelity and greater variation than its predecessor CLOSE COMBAT, this collection gives sound designers production-ready audio for film, TV, and games.
From Realism to Cinematic ExaggerationDial in the tone you need with dedicated categories: Martial Arts, Grounded, Over The Top, and Gory. Whether it’s kung fu sound effects, karate sounds, or exaggerated wrestling hits, you can shift seamlessly from authentic to stylised.
Successor to Close CombatVIOLENT COMBAT builds on the legacy of CLOSE COMBAT with higher fidelity recordings, better-organised categories, and more variation. It’s the ideal companion, giving you the flexibility to cover every style of fight scene.
Sounds That Land With ForceRecorded with a wide range of props and techniques, each fighting sound effect has real weight. Where needed, selective pre-processing boosts impact, avoiding the flat results of real fight recordings.
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Included Sounds – KEYWORDS
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638 meticulously processed stereo fire spells sound effects recorded in 96 khz and 24 bits for high audio definition.
The collection comes with hundreds of variations, more than 1 hour of content and many different type of fire spells. It also includes source sounds for more flexibility for your projects.
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The library is fully focused on fire spells. You will find simple one shot magic firebolt, powerful high level fire spells, fire sword, berserker enchantments and so on. Spells such as fireball, firewall, rain of fire, meteor, fire nova, magma storm, pyroblast, sword of Avernus, etc. are included in this library.
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