Sound effects libraries in various surround sound formats. Also check out the Ambisonics sound category.
The “Abstract Ambiences” is a collaboration of SoundBits and Monte Sound.
This bundle offers you a collection of abstract and surreal ambiences, ready to be used in your next production. Wether in surround or stereo, this kit will be sure to please. The bundle offers a full mix, as well as a construction kit to mix and match the stems as you wish, giving you maximum flexibility in post production.
All sounds are delivered in 96kHz / 24bit. All sounds are royalty free.
Think of movies like “Alien”, “Event Horizon” “or games like “Dead Space”, “Doom” or “Bioshock”. But you will also get the right feel and idea for other disturbing-cyberpunk and unsettling industrial dark spaces.
A symbiosis of organic original field-recordings like Room Tones, Construction Sites, Traffic, Fun-Fair, Motors, … and synthetic elements like spectral- and granular synthesis.
Whether you need whoosh sound effects in surround or stereo, the Synthetic Blender and Whooshes Library gives you the tools for doing it properly:
BLENDER & WHOOSHES – Surround Sound Design Box:
• Each surround sound contains 5 separate sounds in mono: FR, FL, C, RS, LS
• Movements included: front to rear, rear to front, left to right, right to left and circular
• Additional stereo mixdown files for prelistening
• Effective workflow thanks to well-structured, appropriately-named files
• More than 130 ready-to-use surround sounds, surround sound effects (1.2 GB)
BLENDER & WHOOSHES – Stereo Construction Kit:
• Easy, effective workflow with comprehensive EBU/BWF and WAV-Metadata (for use in any DAW)
• Categories for sounds: long, medium, short, high, mid, low
• Tonal direction (up, down or even)
• Each sound pitched twice
• More than 500 stereo sounds (1.4 GB) HD 24 Bit / 96 kHz
BLENDER & WHOOSHES – Surround + Stereo Bundle:
The bundle gives you the advantages of both the Construction Kit and the Design Box.
Southern African Ambience is a collection of rich and immersive savanna ambiences, recorded by George Vlad and Daan Hendriks in the north of South Africa, just on the border with Botswana.
Library highlights:• Lush ambiences, each over 4 minutes and up to 10 minutes in length, in stereo and surround
• Huge amount of birds, with 45 species identified in metadata
• Mammals such as Baboon, Bushbuck and Black-backed Jackal
• Crickets, cicadas, flies and frogs
• Download the surround demo wav here
Excerpts from The Audio Spotlight’s review:
“The quality of the recorded sounds is phenomenal”
“A special mention goes to the Baboons which are scary as hell”
“The birds are fantastic”
– read the full review of Southern African Ambience here
Old House is a collection of doors, creaky wood floors, cupboards, footsteps, surround roomtones and various actions captured in natural reverb in a 1913 French traditional rural house.
You’ll also find creepy resonant footsteps upstairs (recorded from downstairs), distant doors, antique clocks, wooden stairs or even barn doors and windy roomtones.
This library is the perfect match for any project taking place in places like mansions, castles, old country house, pretty much any reverberant interior with that vintage feel.
The vast majority of the sounds were simultaneously recorded from 3 perspectives :
This lets you pick the best sonic perspective for each situation. From an up close / full sounding LCR array to a fully reverberated distant pair.
During the 3 day recording session, we also captured impulse responses in many areas of the house, these could come in handy if you want to make other SFX match with our Old House natural reverb, these are delivered in a separate folder, with pre-saved Altiverb presets.
Like all aXLsound collections, this sound library includes detailed, comprehensive, UCS compliant metadata.
We also added markers to some of the longer files so you will quickly identify the most interesting parts. (see picture below)
Eerie Forest is a collection of subtle ambiences recorded at night in dense forests in the regions of Transylvania and Moldova, Romania over two trips in Spring and Autumn 2017. The library features soft wind, distant hum, vegetation rustles, dogs barking at various distances, church bells tolling, a variety of owl species and other birds like ravens and woodcocks. All these elements are not foreground, but rather washed-out, echoey and atmospheric.
Eerie Forest is not suitable for foreground sound elements as the recordings are very soft and subtle. Make sure you check out the demos before you purchase.
Amazon 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.
We present here an ambience sound library from the collection ‘Wonders of Nature’ that captures the magical essence of dormant snowy forests.
‘Winter forest’ is not just about silence, it unfolds the delicate flow of lone natural immensity. Over the span of 2 years we recorded the cold north wood forest of the Laurentian in Canada.
We captured chilly breezes, sparse birds, creaking barks, freezing rain, raven’s vocalizations, wolves, long cold silences. All of which resonate through these unique sceneries of quietude.
We took care to record different time of the day but also different settings as well as various weather conditions as wind, blizzard, snow, freezing rain, stillness.
The library is available in stereo, and surround.
Ambisonic Steam Trains features recordings of 3 different narrow-gauge railways in Saxony/Germany where they meander through narrow valleys and bends.
The library includes more than 3.5 hours of recordings that are taken directly at the train drivers position in the cabin as well as from wagon platforms and passenger seats.
Also recordings of train pass-bys, shunting and service operations in the depot are included.
With the Ambisonic format it is guaranteed that the acoustically rich and diversified surroundings of steam trains in action are captured spherical in each and every detail.
Ambisonic Steam Trains is available in two versions:
Ambisonic and Stereo
The Ambisonic version delivers 4 channel A-Format files recorded with the Ambeo VR microphone in upright position.
These files need conversion to B Format prior to further processing.
The Stereo version contains the same number of files with equal playing length, but, as the name suggestions, only in stereo versions. All takes are already decoded to 180° stereo that can be manipulated with any stereo width plugin.
This is an Ambisonics sound effects library – and by using the free SoundField SurroundZone 2 plugin you can convert the included A-format files into your preferred format (stereo, 5.0, 5.1, 6.0, 6.1, 7.0 or 7.1 surround). Note: The library also contains ready-made stereo mixdowns for your convenience.
If you're after hospital sounds, here's a beautiful suite of surround sound hospital ambiences.
Access to hospitals can be tricky. Credentials are required, and different rules must be followed for every step one takes deeper into the building. It's not as simple as just grabbing a rig and walking in the front door.
Our hospital ambiences were recorded during one extensive day long shoot where we were granted access to one of the nation's top medical campuses. There are surprisingly few “hospital machines” making beeping noises at any given location within the building, which gives these sounds the flexibility to be used in any large institutional building.
Each location was recorded in dual MS and decoded using the excellent Schoeps double MS decoding tool.
The end result is an immersive set of recordings that show off the reality of what a hospital really does sound like. Pick up a copy and cover your hospital scenes the right way.
Two versions are available:
African Jungle is a huge collection of unique ambiences recorded in Central Africa’s Congo Basin rainforests. To my knowledge, these are the first surround field recordings made in this area. Last year I spent a whole month off the grid, listening to and recording a variety of habitats at all times of day and night, at the height of the rainy season when birds are most vocal. It took me many days of travel to get to these places, from using trains, boats, cars and planes to hiking on foot in the jungle.
'Asia Reminds II – Japan Ambiences' delivers a generous amount of recordings (more than 5 hours total) from a trip to Japan. It's divided into three distinct ambience types: City ambiences, Nature / Town ambiences and Trains / Stations ambiences & FX folder.
You obtain three format folders : Stereo / MS / 5.0 Upmix
'Asia Reminds II – Japan Ambiences' ambience types:
City ambiences include recordings from Osaka to Tokyo such as geek Denden town & Akiharaba Arcade-Pachinko room, Stroll in Nishiki market, Kitanomaru Park, Famous Shibuya crossing and more.
Nature / town ambiences include recordings from famous Kyoto Bamboo Forest, Philosopher's path, Kibune-Kurama Forest and more.
Trains / Stations include recordings from Osaka / Kyoto / Tokyo Stations, Stroll in Fujikyoko Line, Railroad Crossing and more.
FX include gashapon machine, Crows & Birds, Train doors etc…
'Asia Reminds – Japan Ambiences' : with a total of 76 audio files in each of these folders: STEREO (48 kHz / 24 bit), MS & UPMIX 5.0 (96 kHz / 24 bit).
It also includes 117 FX sounds.
You have access to two download folder :
We recorded everything you would expect from such a place: extremely quiet room tones with various levels of rumble, water dripping sounds of many densities, at various distances, howling and whistling winds, all sorts of underground water streams, plus a terrific metal door, phantom-like distant voices, and a few rock falls.
The Cave contains more than 43GB / 206 Files.
WHAT’S INSIDE
All files are 24Bit/192kHz WAV Surround / LCR / Mono files & 24Bit/96kHz Stereo Version files.
All meticulously embedded with Soundminer & UCS Metadata.
INCLUDED SOUNDS – KEYWORDS
WATER, WATER DRIPPING, WATERFALL, WATER LAPPING, CASCADE, RIVER, UNDERGROUND AMBIANCES, CAVE, ROOM TONES, RUMBLE, WINDS, AIRFLOW, HOWLING, WHISTLING, METAL DOOR, ROCK FALLS
Nordic Nature is a collection of evocative and immersive ambiences recorded by George Vlad and Pete Smith over a three-year period across the wilderness of Sweden and Norway. It is available as 24/96 Stereo and Surround and features highly-detailed metadata and separate documents listing the species identified.
We both plan on returning to Scandinavia and these trips will result in at least two library updates.
A slight breeze, the city rumble, distant people chatters, a bird passing by, crickets chirping, a little rain or snow, the tranquility inside the city is a fragile and magical moment.
City streets are the channels of all the possibles, a heat place for sensorial stimulus connecting people lives and their urban activities throughout the day. Yet when it becomes quiet we still perceive its energy and are able to sense the mood of the moment with serenity.
These recordings were made at ground level with very little editing in order to keep them natural and as close as a human would experience the city on a daily basis. At times, distinct activities can be heard in the distance although the most noisiest events were taken out. Each file is loopable.
Also, every season and weather condition are represented. This library has been thought for the universal need of sonic bed in urban scenes, used as glue or ‘exterior roomtone‘.
This selection is the result of 15 months of recording throughout the multicultural city of Montreal (considered the most European City in North-America). The mix of culture in this city gives it a universal flavor that makes it belongs to the citizen of the 21st Century world.
The library contains 60 Stereo ambience and 27 Surround ambience recordings. Each sound files are between 1 to 5 minutes long. The surround recordings are embedded in an interleaved wav files of 4 channels (quad).
“Summer in the fields – Crickets and cicadas” is the right Library if you are trying to create a natural sound scenario during the summer.
The library contains over 8.4 GB which exceeds 1.43 hours and a total of 30 files of high-quality material in discrete 5.0 surround format.
Atmospheres ready to be combined with other elements to create the right sound for the image you are working on.
The Library was built in Europe – Italy, in the Lazio countryside. Between the end of May and the beginning of September and the sultry heat is audible in the recordings.
The squealing of cicadas is a fundamental sound element to design the sound of a warm and dry outdoor environment.
At night the crickets are beautiful.
Each place has its crickets that emit sounds at different rates and frequencies.
Agitated, calm, psychedelic, relaxing …
Crickets are a fundamental element to create an emotional night scene.
Other animals are obviously present in the recordings; morning birds, owls, crows, geese, insects and bees, chickens, etc.
The registered natural fields are near lakes, rivers, chicken coops/farms, country houses, woods and cultivated fields.
The large part of the files have not human elements like traffic or agricular sounds, other ones have some distant traffic and are pretty for contemporary countryside.
For this sound effects library, we traveled across Alaska, from the extreme north to the south coast to capture the spirit of these nordic and wild landscapes: Boreal forests, arctic and alpin tundras, glaciers, rivers, and lakes.
Here the soundscapes reflect the extreme weather conditions: Silent ambiances punctuated by the elements: Wind, snow, rain, serving the erosion.
In this wilderness, animals remain discreet. We had the chance to capture many birds with our microphones: Owls, ducks, seagulls, trumpeter swans, bald eagles, common ravens, migratory birds, and many other species – and a few other animals: Hoary marmots, arctic marmots, squirrels and moose.
-The sound bank contains 66 sound takes recorded in ambisonic at 24/96khZ (a total of 330 files).
here is an exemple of an ambisonic recording embeded in a 360° movie (go on youtube to listen the 360° sound) :
Make the first step into the terrifying, creepy and mind mangling sonic experience of “Surrounding Horror“, with weird and abstract sounds from all around you.
You get 22 Horror Ambiences / Soundscapes created and mixed in 5.1 Surround (SMPTE) to give an instant horrifying setting for your productions.
Additionally, you get Stereo Downmixes of the surround versions.
Now available: ANGST | Surround Horror Series
[Updated 11/2018 : The extension “Ghosts Return” has been added as a bonus to this library]
Looking for haunting, spooky sounds (ready for VR and 360 degree content) – this library gets you up to 600+ sounds to work with. The Ghost Designed Sound library offers 20 atmospheres and 125 sound elements finely crafted, and spatialized in 360° (3 format options: Ambisonics, Surround 5.1, or stereo).
The Ghosts Construction Kit delivers 545 raw sound sources (monophonic). It provides the sonic material to create custom sound effects and soundscapes of ghostly auditory experiences with your own settings.
Human Africa is a collection of authentic ambiences recorded in rural and urban locations across various countries in Africa.
The library covers a wide range of settings, from urban idyllic countryside ambiences and conversations in various languages to traffic and skyline soundscapes. Each file is carefully meta-tagged with location, time of day and language (if present) information.
African Wild West is a collection of lush and immersive ambiences recorded in Senegal over the course of a 3-week trip in 2017. The library consists of 70 recordings totaling more than 6 hours, available both as stereo and surround. The recordings have been captured with a Sennheiser Double Mid-Side rig both at all times of day and night in the following locations:
This library is a bespoke collection of crowd recordings from all over foggy London Town. We hand picked the finest pubs based on the locals and acoustics, with each recording offering a unique sense of space and character. From the sweet and quaint to the darn right scary, we shot them all!
Enjoy cutting crowds of all flavours; The pissed and disorderly, jovial folk waxing lyrical, raucous football fans, relaxed pub garden chatter, through-the-wall conversations, Quiz Night whispers, and a f*ckload more! This library is diverse, rich, and comprehensive. Whether your scene is contemporary or period, we’ve got you covered.
Obviously not a musical note in sight and where you need it most, we’re offering up two perspectives with our binaural quad recordings. With a little panning you will be immersed in your choice of London local… Drink up!
Available in three versions:
London Pubs Vol 1: Primary interior perspectives
London Pubs Vol 2: Secondary perspectives for quad use, exterior pubs, football crowds, pub sound effects
London Pubs Complete: Features everything from vol 1 & vol 2
Whether you need sci-fi ambiences in surround or stereo, the bundle gives you the tools for doing it properly:
Sci-fi Ambiences Surround Design Box:
• More than 50 ready-to-use sci-fi ambiences in 5.0 surround
• Easy integration: All files loop perfectly and have a uniform length of 40s
• A fresh selection of extremely abstract, organic sounds in stunning sound quality
• Soundscapes, drones, machine, steam, motor sounds, radio messages, eerie textures & more
• Each surround sound is comprised of 5 separate sounds in mono: L, R, C, LS, RS
• Perfectly balanced surround sounds for easy integration in games, cinematics & radio play
• HD 24 Bit / 96 kHz for frequencies up to 40 kHz and easy pitching
• All sounds are royalty free and instantly downloadable
Sci-fi Ambiences Stereo Construction Kit:
• More than 120 sci-fi ambiences in stereo
• Easy integration: All files loop perfectly and have a uniform length of 40s
• A fresh selection of extremely abstract, organic sounds in stunning sound quality
• Soundscapes, drones, machine, steam, motor sounds, radio messages, eerie textures & more
• HD 24 Bit / 96 kHz for frequencies up to 40 kHz and easy pitching
• Easy, effective workflow with comprehensive EBU/BWF and WAV-Metadata (for use in any DAW)
• All sounds are royalty free and instantly downloadable
Sci-fi Ambiences Surround + Stereo Bundle:
Get both versions together for maximum flexibility and some nice savings!
A comprehensive sound library from the enchanting world of the Middle Ages featuring meticulously recorded elements that come together harmoniously to create a realm of realism that transports your audience back in time, including isolated elements, acoustic impulse responses, noiseprints, and ambience loops.
ROOM TONES – Industrial Building delivers hugely atmospheric ambience recordings gathered in an '80s Industrial Building in the east of Dresden, Germany.
The library sounds were captured with a 4 channel 60 cm IRT cross and 4 Sennheiser MKH8020 omnis mounted. The recordings took place on a stormy and rainy Sunday. Due to the blank surfaces inside the building, thin single-glass windows and large air shafts, the weather elements got massively amplified by walls and floors.
Additionally the rain water pipes are placed inside the building which caused a constant sound of flowing water. Also the sound of the central heating was clearly perceptible along the floors.
The library contains 19 scenes recorded in 4-channel IRT surround. Each scene consists of 2 complementing stereo tracks and is more than 3 minutes long.
With A Sound Effect, Asbjoern has created a web site where our international community can browse, learn, and share the vast fruits of our labors. Together we are accelerating the very real potential power of sound design as a recognized art form.
A Sound Effect is an excellent resource for us to keep our animated films sounding unique and exciting.
A Sound Effect is a great asset to have discovered.
We found the site very easy to navigate, purchasing and downloads were effortless and the effects themselves are awesome! Asbjoern has done us all a great service.
We’ll definitely be back!
There are many great independent sound effect libraries available these days. The main problem with having so many, is keeping track of them!
A Sound Effect is a great hub, and is one of the first places I visit to look for sounds by category or genre. I started coming here to see if I could find libraries that I knew I had heard, but forgot WHERE I had heard them.
And in the process discovered libraries I never would have found otherwise. Great work! Keep it up!
We're always looking for new sounds to mangle, so when A Sound Effect had a holiday sale, I tried them out.
The purchase experience is really smooth and quick, and delivery is almost instant.
I'll definitely come back to them again in the future!
A Sound Effect is a wonderful resource for indie sound effects libraries. On top of that, it has some of the finest sound design, film and game audio interviews!
I often need very specific types of sounds so I've become a big supporter of independent recorders.
Until now I've always had to go to their individual websites. Now I can find them all in one place.
And, Asbjoern is great to work with!
A Sound Effect is a well curated boutique sound effects shop and a great place to find industry interviews and learning resources.