New sound effects: Chicago ambiences, wood, soccer, sports, trucks, snow, drones – and locking mechanisms

'Chicago - Urban Atmosphere' by Perception Sound has over 5.5 hours of ambiences from all across the Windy City. This library has recordings of crowds, busy streets with honking and sirens, the 'L' train, tourists on Michigan Ave, bridge underpasses in the Business District, alleys and rooftops at night, Millennium Park, Wrigleyville, Midway Airport, and more! With over 10 GB and 333 minutes of content, you'll be so immersed in Chicago life that you'll start to crave an Italian Beef at Portillo's.

'Lockdown' covers a very specific and often forgotten need. This massive library by echo | collective has sounds of lockdown mechanisms with carabiners, wrenches, knives, can openers, tongs, crimpers, filing cabinet doors, vehicle doors and more with multiple performances of each device. How abundant are these performances? With 1700 files and two Kontakt instruments, this library has the flexibility and variety to flesh out the devices, machines and living areas in your game or film.

If you work for HGTV or your projects feature DIYers, this is the SFX library for you. 'Cabinet Shop' by Perception Sound has loads of wood-working tools including tables saws, drill presses, band saws, radial arm saws, air compressors, jointers, sanders, hammers, hand saws, lathes, pressure releases and more. It also has ambiences of the air conditioners, nail guns, staple guns, heaters, fans, and clocks. So for sounds from the shop, this library has you covered.

Designing sports scenes can be quite the challenge, both in recording and editing the sounds. 'Soccer SFX' by Stuart Duffield relieves some of the stress. This library has 100 sounds of balls bouncing on every imaginable surface—flagpoles, nets, knee caps, chests, plastic posts, wood posts, and more. It even has a ref whistle and footsteps sounds. If you are working on a project featuring this sport, the Soccer SFX library will get you started.

Pole Position Production has a new library featuring a very rare vehicle. 'Volvo F12 Truck' features this 1992 model truck, and with 205 sounds and more than 10 GB of content, there's lots of material to work with. With startups, idling, shutdowns, acceleration, decelerating, steady RPMs, passbys and more recorded with four high-quality mics, you can be sure this library has what you need for your film or game.

'Sports' is a catch-all library for summer, winter and even indoor sports. It contains sounds from popular sports such as baseball, tennis, skiing, snowboarding, weight lifting, table tennis, bowling, golf, and hockey. Covering so many sports, this library by SFX Source features 159 sounds of everything from bouncing balls, racquets hits, putts, bell rings, referee whistles and ambiences from the sports. It even has several materials of baseball bats, crowd noises, badminton matches, ski slopes, weight drops and so much more. If you're after a sports library with a broad coverage, this one delivers.

'Snow' is 40 minutes of your favorite wintery precipitation. This library has scrapes, slides, crunches, impacts, snowballs, debris, and whooshes, all recorded in the Eastern Sierras in 4-6 feet of snow at 10,000 feet of elevation. It also has footsteps in the same 4-6 feet of snow, and if you've ever tried this before, you know what kind of pain and suffering — or perhaps just extreme discomfort — Perception Sound is saving those in need of these sounds.