A white sphere wears over-the-ear headphones. Asbjoern Andersen


We have some interesting new podcasts to share with you for those long summer drives, cool morning runs, or everyday commutes.

Conor O’Sullivan, Sound Design Lead at Google, talks about his holistic process of creating sounds for the Google Pixel, influenced by UX and haptic design. Arkadiusz Reikowski shares how he created the beautiful music for the horror sequel Layers of Fear 2. Ecophon, a Swedish-based acoustics company, covers the psychological and physiological effect of sound treatment on people. Rachel Sim joins Matt and Gord as a co-host of the Beards, Cats, and Indie Game Audio Podcast. A newly-featured podcast, 99% Invisible, talks about sounds of hospitals and how they effect health care workers and patients. A classic episode of Radiolab: hear about how our brains process sound and learn about the language of music with UC San Diego Professor Diana Deutsch. And on The Six Figure Home Studio Podcast, learn how to approach the business side of sound by honing in on your clients’ needs and focusing on large profitable projects.

Method Podcast – Conor O’Sullivan of Google Pixel

Episode outline: ‘In this episode, Aidan Simpson interviews Google Sound Design Lead Conor O’Sullivan about the nuances of crafting product sounds and the choices that shape everything from notification pings to haptic feedback. The conversation also covers the elements that make up Google’s sonic branding, including resolving G chords and piano music. A few highlights:

On the value of sonic subtlety, 9:31
“I do think your goal as a sound designer is to provide feedback that doesn’t jump out too much. It sounds very counterintuitive—you’re designing sound that you don’t want to be heard—but in a lot of cases, it makes sense.”

On working with a multidisciplinary team, 15:57
“We have a team of writers—the UX content team—and they’re absolutely awesome at naming our ringtones. They really capture the feeling of the sound. Our default notification sound is called Popcorn. It’s such an awesome name for that sound. If you’re to imagine what popcorn sounded like musically, you’d pick something like that.”

On using sound to build a brand, 10:22
“I really think about creating sound as creating a soundscape. You want to be able to tell a story from end to end.”

Conor O’Sullivan is a sound designer and composer originally from Ireland, now based in San Francisco, CA. Conor is best known for his work in the emerging field of sound design for consumer products, including interface sounds for the Google Pixel phone.’

Hear the episode:


 

Level with Emily Reese – Ep 109: Arkadiusz Reikowski

Episode outline: ‘Polish composer Arkadiusz (Arek) Reikowski did an outstanding job with the music for Layers of Fear 2.

I’m always wary of horror scores; they can get repetitive, they’re often noisy and dissonant with sounds designed to make you uncomfortable on listening.

Arek’s score is so…. pretty. It’s heavy, but it’s heavy in a beautiful way. I really was deeply impressed by this music, and I hope you enjoy our conversation.’

Hear the episode:
 

A Sound Effect on People – Listen In | That Sounds Better

Episode outline: ‘A Sound Effect on People [not related to A Sound Effect] explores how we’re all affected by sound, or to use a technical term, by acoustics. We’ll investigate how poor acoustics can be disruptive, even harmful, while good acoustics can help us learn, work productively, even heal. We’ll discover that our responses to sound are both psychological as well as physiological, and we’ll learn that people with different personalities react in different ways to the same sounds. A Sound Effect on People is produced by Room 7540 in partnership with Saint-Gobain Ecophon, a manufacturer that specialises in developing and producing materials that improve room acoustics.’

Hear the episode:

Popular on A Sound Effect right now - article continues below:


Trending right now:

  • The Seagulls sfx library includes 28 tracks of both single, isolated seagull screams, and bigger flocks of nesting seagulls, calling out to each other and their chicks. There are plenty of classic call sounds, but also some weird throaty and raspy screaming, and what could sound like seagull laughing sounds.

    All tracks are recorded with the very useful zoom function of the Telinga microphone and dish.
    Library includes both untreated tracks, and noise reduction processed tracks in two separate folders. Noise reduction processed tracks have carefully been cleaned up with a CEDAR NR system.

    Though these birds are in an abundance around most harbours and industry around here, they are not always easy to record. You mostly hear them from a distance, or from places not easy to access. When you try to get close to them, they will usually fly away.

    Many hours have been spent on rooftops, gardens, backyards, a junkyard, and different harbours to get this material.

  • Strident and Demonic

    Expand the timbre of your horror violins and cellos with CIRCUS, a sinister sample pack featuring 180 WAV sounds of screeching or high-pitched string noises, perfect for horror music and dark sound design.

    Creative Tension

    This collection offers a curated selection of screeches, high-tension tremolo, heavy jeté strokes, dark demonic textures, finger patterns, chaotic string elements, clock loops and bow accents.

    Haunting and Experimental

    Create haunting atmospheres, perfect for horror, thriller or experimental soundtracks. Every element has been designed to unsettle and disturb, blurring the line between music and noise.

    80 %
    OFF
    Ends 1760911199
  • This foley collection features the unique sounds of “Animal Footsteps” across diverse terrains. From the soft padding of paws and the scuttling of insects to the rhythmic clop of hooves and the delicate patter of birds, you’ll find every sound you need to bring your wildlife scenes to life.

    Each sound has been captured in studio and divided into specialised categories including Paws With Claws, Paws Without Claws, Reptiles, Rodents, Crustaceans, Arachnids, and more.

  • Materials & Texture Sound Effects Glacier Ice Play Track 300+ sounds included $40

    Glacier Ice is a library containing over 300 high quality sounds of ice cracking, breaking, shattering in various sizes of blocks – recorded entirely in the Italian Alps over the course of two winters.

    The library contains sounds of all dimensions, from ice cubes being dropped in a drink to a designed iceberg collapsing.

    The majority of the material was recorded at 192 KHz with a Sanken CO100K and a stereo pair of Sennheiser MKH8040, making this library greatly flexible for pitch shifting and all sorts of heavy processing.

    A small section recorded at 96KHz features sounds recorded exclusively with contact microphones placed directly on the surface of a frozen water stream.

    Bonus: Two extra libraries included for free:
    This library also includes two additional releases from Mattia Cellotto - for free: Crunch Mode delivers 230 crunchy sounds made with a variety of vegetables, fresh bread, pizza crust and a selection of frozen goods. The Borax Experiment gets you 158 squishy, gory, slimy and gooey sounds.

Latest releases:

  • Woodpile Chaos is a gritty collection of 82 wooden hits, creaks, and scrapes — a wild mix of organic textures born from raw timber and controlled destruction.

  • This is big set of scary sound effects, that will make your game, or any other project performance much more impressive!

    Dark, evil ambient loops, ambient noises, scary sounds, heavy rumbles, moans, metal squeaks, scratches, cracks, debris sounds, sub bass sound FX, background white noises, thunder strikes, electric sounds, engine loops, electric sparks and many, many more!…

    40 %
    OFF
  • Car Sound Effects Ford Puma 1997 sports car Play Track 206 sounds included, 48 mins total $65

    All files are recorded 32bit, 192 kHz, with RØDE NTG1, Line Audio Omni1 and FEL Clippy XLR EM272 microphones, Sound Devices MixPre-6 II recorder. Library contains wav files of driving, interior and exterior foley, mechanical and electrical sounds. It is only available in UCS.

  • Ambisonic Sound Effects Red Deer Play Track 13+ sounds included $80

    A small collection of High quality, close up red deer recordings.

    Red Deer Roars and Moans and other vocalisations from different habitats. (mountainous areas and forest)

    Recorded over the years during the rutting season, varying distances but mostly up close and face to face with this loud and scary mammal.

    20 %
    OFF
  • Take full control of your interface sound design with the Ultimate UI Click & Select SFX Bundle — a massive collection of 1,054 professional-grade UI sound effects across seven expertly crafted libraries by RawAmbience.

    From crisp button clicks and smooth menu transitions to RPG-style selects, denies, and toggles, this all-in-one bundle gives you everything needed to design intuitive and immersive UI audio for games, apps, web, or interactive media.


    Your complete UI sound design toolkit.

    The Ultimate UI Click & Select SFX Bundle delivers a polished collection of responsive interface sounds, including:

    • Click & Select UI RPG SFX 1 & 2 – Over 456 sounds tailored for RPG and interactive UI: selects, hovers, alerts, cancels, access-denied, and more.
    • Click Menu Sound Effects 1 & 2 – 281 high-quality menu interaction sounds for toggles, clicks, opens, closes, and confirmations.
    • Click Sound Effects – 110 versatile UI clicks designed for modern app and game interfaces.
    • Essential Menu Click Sounds – 107 precise and minimal click sounds, ideal for clean, modern UIs.
    • Essential Menu Select Sounds – 100 select-focused sound effects, delivering clean, modern UI feedback for toggles, confirms, menu navigation, and precise user selections.

    Perfect For:

    • Game menus and HUDs (RPGs, mobile, indie, AAA)
    • Web and app UI feedback
    • Interactive experiences (VR, AR, touchscreen)
    • UI prototyping and UX testing
    • Accessibility-focused sound design
Need specific sound effects? Try a search below:


Beards, Cats, and Indie Game Audio – Ep 56: Our new co-host

Episode outline: ‘With this episode we welcome our new co-host, Rachel Sim. Rachel will be filling in at times so Gord can take a break. This time around we talk about how Rachel came into the industry, mentorships, community support and as always answer some questions.’

Hear the episode:
 

99% Invisible – Sound and Health: Hospitals

Episode outline: ‘Sound can have serious impacts on our health and wellbeing. And there’s no better place to think about health than hospitals.

According to Joel Beckerman, sound designer and composer at Man Made Music: “Hospitals are horrible places to get better.” Hospitals can be bad for your health because hospitals sound terrible. But sound designers and health care workers are looking to change that.

This is part two in a two-part series supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation about how sound can be designed to reduce harm and even improve wellbeing.’

Hear the episode:
 

Radiolab – Musical Language

Episode outline: ‘In this hour of Radiolab, we examine the line between language and music.

What is music? Why does it move us? How does the brain process sound, and why are some people better at it than others?

We re-imagine the disastrous debut of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in 1913 through the lens of modern neurology, and we meet a composer who uses computers to capture the musical DNA of dead composers in order to create new work.’

Hear the episode:
 

The Six Figure Home Studio – Ep 86: How To Turn a $1,000 Project Into A $10,000 Project

Episode outline: ‘Do artists constantly turn you down due to price?

Are you losing projects to other competitors that are simply undercutting your rates?

If so, this episode will walk you through how you can charge 10x more than your competition and STILL win the project.

In this episode you’ll discover:
• What results you could see by switching to a project-based pricing model
• Why business is about helping people, not stealing their money
• How understanding your clients’ needs lets you add more value to the project and charge more than your competitors
• How using this method can remove any competition from the playing field
• Why comparing yourself to other businesses doesn’t work; you need to follow your own path
• Why taking fewer, larger projects is typically more profitable than many small projects
• How Chris killed his dreams of a successful comedy career during this episode
• What changing your services from a commodity to a high-value service can do for your business’

Hear the episode:
 

 

 

Please share this:


 



 
 
THE WORLD’S EASIEST WAY TO GET INDEPENDENT SOUND EFFECTS:
 
A Sound Effect gives you easy access to an absolutely huge sound effects catalog from a myriad of independent sound creators, all covered by one license agreement - a few highlights:

  • Strident and Demonic

    Expand the timbre of your horror violins and cellos with CIRCUS, a sinister sample pack featuring 180 WAV sounds of screeching or high-pitched string noises, perfect for horror music and dark sound design.

    Creative Tension

    This collection offers a curated selection of screeches, high-tension tremolo, heavy jeté strokes, dark demonic textures, finger patterns, chaotic string elements, clock loops and bow accents.

    Haunting and Experimental

    Create haunting atmospheres, perfect for horror, thriller or experimental soundtracks. Every element has been designed to unsettle and disturb, blurring the line between music and noise.

    80 %
    OFF
    Ends 1760911199
  • Stockpile your arsenal of HANDGUNS with this mini pack of cutting edge sounds of modern warfare, designed by our team of AAA-industry veterans and huge fans of games like Gears of War, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Battlefield, Killzone, Command & Conquer, Red Alert and many more.

    From PISTOLS, HANDGUNS, and SILENCERS to GUNSHOTS, ZAPS, and BULLET RICOCHETS, quiet WEAPONS HANDLING, this mini pack of sounds will give you everything you need for any HANDGUN-wielding SOLDIERS or AGENTS!

    KEY FEATURES:

    • Huge variety of big and small weapons, mechanical industrial and modern clean sounds, different types and intensity variants
    • Ready to use – requires no editing, labeling or splicing
    • Categorized, organized and individually labeled files for maximum use efficiency
    • All files are included in Hi-Rez WAV, SD WAV and HQ MP3 formats

    GET THE MODERN WARFARE WEAPONS SOUND PACK NOW!

    13 %
    OFF
  • Creature Sound Effects STOMPS – Creature Footsteps Play Track 8500+ sounds included From: $299

    We’re incredibly excited to introduce the ‘STOMPS – Creature Footsteps’ sound effects library – these are footsteps like you’ve never heard them before!

    STOMPS is a massive collection of more than 8,500 files to boost your creativity and help you add special footstep sounds to your new project.

    The library is organized into 3 categories –
    Source, Textures, Design:

    In the Source category you’ll find the “best of” several hours worth of our recordings sessions, with more than 7,500 files (with lots of variations) organized into 83 folders. Every single sound is the product of a new recording.

    You’ll find the sequences that include: 2 Legs WALKING, 2 Legs RUNNING, 4 Legs GALLOPING, 4 Legs TROTTING, and 4 Legs WALKING.

    We used all kinds of weird props to record original, versatile sounds with lot of character, different textures, and in very different frequency ranges.

    These sounds form the DNA of your future footsteps. You’ll have lots of different sound colours to play with, ranging from very small and harsh sounds to very low and bold ones, and all the ranges in between.


    In the Texture category, you’ll find more than 600 sounds with different textures to help you customize your footsteps. These textures are also a very valuable sonic material that will help you construct lots of varying sound design work.


    Finally, we have the Design category. Here you’ll find more than 500 processed sounds created by veteran sound designer Michel Marchant, covering a wide range of characters like Robots, Snow Creatures, Distant Dinosaurs, Rock Golems, Armies, Colossus and many, many more!


    Update: Glued version also included

    STOMPS now also features a special GLUED version, with the exact same content but with variation files edited together to reduce the number of single files in the collection, and making search through all sounds easier.

    With “STOMPS, Creature Footsteps,” you’ll have anything you’ll need to create everything from small creature footsteps to big, out-of-this-world ones.

Explore the full, unique collection here

Latest sound effects libraries:
 
  • Woodpile Chaos is a gritty collection of 82 wooden hits, creaks, and scrapes — a wild mix of organic textures born from raw timber and controlled destruction.

  • This is big set of scary sound effects, that will make your game, or any other project performance much more impressive!

    Dark, evil ambient loops, ambient noises, scary sounds, heavy rumbles, moans, metal squeaks, scratches, cracks, debris sounds, sub bass sound FX, background white noises, thunder strikes, electric sounds, engine loops, electric sparks and many, many more!…

    40 %
    OFF
  • Car Sound Effects Ford Puma 1997 sports car Play Track 206 sounds included, 48 mins total $65

    All files are recorded 32bit, 192 kHz, with RØDE NTG1, Line Audio Omni1 and FEL Clippy XLR EM272 microphones, Sound Devices MixPre-6 II recorder. Library contains wav files of driving, interior and exterior foley, mechanical and electrical sounds. It is only available in UCS.

  • Ambisonic Sound Effects Red Deer Play Track 13+ sounds included $80

    A small collection of High quality, close up red deer recordings.

    Red Deer Roars and Moans and other vocalisations from different habitats. (mountainous areas and forest)

    Recorded over the years during the rutting season, varying distances but mostly up close and face to face with this loud and scary mammal.

    20 %
    OFF
  • Take full control of your interface sound design with the Ultimate UI Click & Select SFX Bundle — a massive collection of 1,054 professional-grade UI sound effects across seven expertly crafted libraries by RawAmbience.

    From crisp button clicks and smooth menu transitions to RPG-style selects, denies, and toggles, this all-in-one bundle gives you everything needed to design intuitive and immersive UI audio for games, apps, web, or interactive media.


    Your complete UI sound design toolkit.

    The Ultimate UI Click & Select SFX Bundle delivers a polished collection of responsive interface sounds, including:

    • Click & Select UI RPG SFX 1 & 2 – Over 456 sounds tailored for RPG and interactive UI: selects, hovers, alerts, cancels, access-denied, and more.
    • Click Menu Sound Effects 1 & 2 – 281 high-quality menu interaction sounds for toggles, clicks, opens, closes, and confirmations.
    • Click Sound Effects – 110 versatile UI clicks designed for modern app and game interfaces.
    • Essential Menu Click Sounds – 107 precise and minimal click sounds, ideal for clean, modern UIs.
    • Essential Menu Select Sounds – 100 select-focused sound effects, delivering clean, modern UI feedback for toggles, confirms, menu navigation, and precise user selections.

    Perfect For:

    • Game menus and HUDs (RPGs, mobile, indie, AAA)
    • Web and app UI feedback
    • Interactive experiences (VR, AR, touchscreen)
    • UI prototyping and UX testing
    • Accessibility-focused sound design

   

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