In these 3 interviews, you'll hear what it takes to get started and succeed in Sound Editing from Lucy J Mitchell, Production Sound from Irin Strauss, and Sound for Advertising from Chris Pinkston:
By Jennifer Walden and Asbjoern Andersen. Images courtesy of Lucy J Mitchell, Irin Strauss, & Chris Pinkston.
• How to succeed in sound design for Film, Documentaries, and Trailers – with Nia Hansen, Peter Albrechtsen, & Karél Psota
• How to succeed in UI/UX Sound Design, ADR Recording, & Audio Programming – with Henry Daw, Emma Butt & Adam Croft
• How to succeed in sound design for Games, Animation, and Television – with Anne-Sophie Mongeau, Jeff Shiffman, Kate Finan, & Peter D. Lago
• How to succeed in Audio Branding, Music Editing, and sound for VR – with Steve Keller, Steven Saltzman, Helena McGill & Anna Woźniewicz
• How to succeed in Field Recording, Foley and Teaching Sound – with Thomas Rex Beverly, Ronnie van der Veer, and James David Redding III:
• Explore more than 40 additional resources on how to succeed in sound here
Sound Editing – insights from Lucy J Mitchell:
• What working in sound editing entails:
As a freelancer, my job is two-fold — the actual sound editing side, and the “running a business as a freelancer” side.
“Sound Editor” is a term that covers a variety of jobs. This can be just dialogue or effects editing, Foley or ADR editing, voiceover recording, or, for factual television, full tracklaying, which is doing everything: music, dialoduge, and effects.
For music, the picture editor will have cut the tracks up, to work with the visuals or to use more interesting parts of the song or whatever. But their edits aren’t always hugely accurate and you need to move stuff around to beat-match and make it all in time!
Trying to explain what dialogue editing entails would take a whole other article, but to summarize, you need to smooth over dialogue cuts made by the editor when mixing takes, or cutting down lines, etc. This is more difficult when using different clips with varying background sounds and noise floors. Your aim is to make the mixer’s life as easy as possible, so chose the best sounding microphones rather than leaving eight of them on the timeline for the mixer to trawl through. Remove clicks, lips smacks, rogue breaths and random noises. If required, perform some noise reduction on especially noisy/buzzy/hummy tracks. (Check with the mixer if they would rather do this themselves or not.)
Your aim is to make the mixer’s life as easy as possible, so chose the best sounding microphones rather than leaving eight of them on the timeline for the mixer to trawl through
Lay these all up in a clear way for the mixer to be able to do their job easily. If different clips need different treatment or EQ, put them on different tracks, and have them on neighboring tracks if possible so the mixer doesn’t need to spend time finding out which fader they need.
Sound effects editing is what it says on the tin. Sometimes it is purely “say what you see” spot effects for things that happen on-screen that need to be heard, like doors opening for example. Atmosphere effects need to be added to act as a bed for everything, like distant traffic, spring birds, country wind, etc. The atmospheres make everything cohesive. Then there are more individual background effects to set the scene. In an office for example, you might add phones, a printer, typing on a computer, outside traffic, etc. Then there are other sounds needed for creative effect, like whooshes, low bass hits, etc., the sorts of sounds you’d hear in a cinema trailer.
• What it takes in terms of skills and gear:
Gear-wise, you need a DAW you are familiar with (or feel is important to learn). Whether that be Avid Pro Tools, Logic, Adobe Audition, or whatever your preference, you will need to purchase some sort of software. Then all you really need is a computer that meets the software’s minimum tech spec requirements and either headphones or speakers.
Skills-wise, you need to know how to use the software, and have a good ear. And as a freelancer, you need to be good at dealing with clients as you are essentially running a business and have to do everything yourself. Organization is also key.
• How to learn it:
There are lots of college and university courses these days that are very good, and also specific to audio, not just “media studies.” However, this is not essential. I didn’t have any relevant training before my first job as a runner. I studied classical music and musicology at university. If you can’t do a tech degree, don’t be worried about the competition. I was the only one of my peers who did not have one and I seem to have done alright!
There are lots of college and university courses these days that are very good, and also specific to audio, not just “media studies.” However, this is not essential
There are lots of books you can read — Dialogue Editing for Motion Pictures by John Purcell is great. There are online tutorials for pretty much anything on YouTube.
But I would say even if you have the degree, read the books, and watch the videos, there is nothing better than watching someone actually do the job in the real world — whether that be work experience, an internship, or making tea at a company and watching someone on your lunch break. You could know Pro Tools inside out but not know how to lay up a dialogue session for a mixer. I am a huge advocate for this type of learning.
• How to find work:
Freelance work is hard to find. People don’t usually advertise a freelance opening. If you want a full time job, there seem to be lots of Game Audio opportunities all the time. But for film and television, even for large post houses, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a job posting for a sound editor. Only runners. I hate the phrase “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” You, of course, need to be good at your job. However, there is a lot to say in this industry for networking and getting yourself out there. In this line of work, bookings will come through recommendations, or having met you and remembering you.
In this line of work, bookings will come through recommendations, or having met you and remembering you
I personally would not recommend starting out as a freelancer as you will be competing against a lot of experienced editors with long IMDb listings. I have a solid and varied CV and still am not the go-to person for lots of dramas and films like I’d like to be. My CV has got me meetings with people. Meeting them is what makes them remember me.
• Essential advice for working and making it in sound editing:
I would recommend starting as a runner or assistant (or editor if you’re lucky) in-house somewhere to build up your professional CV and learn as much as you can from both your superiors and peers. The experience you gain in work ethic and team working is also invaluable. Then make the leap to freelancing a few years down the line if that is your desire. That will put you in a much better position to do so. I don’t have a showreel, and don’t know many people at my level who do.
Always be willing to learn. This is an ever changing industry with technology and also people’s wants and needs, and you need to stay on top of that.
Be persistent. People in our industry tend to genuinely be passionate about what they do, so prove that you are too. People like enthusiasm. If someone doesn’t reply to your email, chase them! Sometimes people just forget to reply!
• Further reading and resources:
I already mentioned the book on dialogue editing. I read Audio Post Production for Television and Film by Hilary Wyatt and Tim Amyes, and Pro Tools 101 from the Cengage Learning course when I first started out and found them very useful, as someone who had zero audio knowledge!
Nowadays, I tend to read a lot of audio blogs. If any of you already follow me on Twitter you will know that I share a huge amount of content from various blogs (including this one!) as I sometimes find reading a whole book tough going, and articles are easier to digest for me personally. The ones I like that are more techy and useful for learning about the job are Pro-Tools Expert, Pro Audio Files, Pro Sound Effects, and Mix Online, and of course it’s good to read up on general audio stuff in Resolution Magazine, Sound on Sound, and Audio Media International to name a few! There are so many!
About Lucy J Mitchell:
Named one of Broadcast Magazine’s “Top 30 under 30” in 2013’s Broadcast Hotshots feature, Lucy is a freelance sound editor for TV, film, and computer games, handling all aspects of sound editorial (voiceovers, dialogue, sound effects, ADR and Foley editing). Her credits include EastEnders, Top Gear, David Attenborough’s Rise of the Vertibrates, You, Me & Him, and computer game Guitar Hero Live. She is currently building a fully soundproofed studio in her garden for VO, ADR, and Foley recording and is setting up her new business LJ Studios — a full service audio post facility with eight freelance audio and music specialists on-board.
Website: www.LucyJSound.com
Popular on A Sound Effect right now - article continues below:
Latest releases:
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Ambisonic – Transportation is a great collection of ambisonic ambiences recordings performed at various transportation scenarios.
It is aimed to provide you with great spherical content to wrap your dialogue or main focus content, allowing you to create a conniving and immersing soundtrack.
You will find recordings such as a Train car interior, Jumbo jet interior, multiple cars interior under different driving conditions,
Bus interior, public transportation stations and much more.This collection is great for post-production, VR/AR interactive sound-design, game developers and any real-time 3D audio engine.
All files are tagged and categorized for your convenience – supporting multiple tag filtering browsing applications.A Sennheiser Ambeo microphone paired with Zoom H8 was used to create this product.
This package includes 68 Samples – 136 Files.
A total 2h 37m of content.
First Order AmbiX B-Format and Stereo @ 96Khz / 24bit.Download a Demo here:
Want to hear an example of the included recordings? Download the B-format Demo Here27 %OFFEnds 1574204399 -
Editing footsteps in audio post-production can be time-consuming. Footstep Loops II is a sound library that delivers a comprehensive kit of footstep sound effects made to ease your daily work.
The collection contains footstep sounds of various shoes and surfaces, recorded in different paces and edited to continuous but lively 30-second sound loops.
VARIETY
The Footstep Loops II Sound Library covers a wide range of different footsteps:
Barefoot, Socks, Slippers, Flip-Flops, Sneakers on Wood, Sneakers on Concrete, Boots on Wood, Boots on Concrete, Heels on Wood, Heels on Stone;
Grass, Gravel, Forest, Foliage, Dry Foliage, Stones, Puddle, Mud, Snow;
Stairs up + down: Wooden Stairs, Metal Stairs, Stone Stairs
PACEEach type of footsteps is available as a set of 13 sound files that represent a range from walking very slowly up to very speedy. Paces are sorted by Footsteps per Minute (FPM):
Ground Footsteps: from 40 FPM to 160 FPM
Stairs Footsteps: from 60 FPM to 180 FPM (up) / from 80 FPM to 200 FPM (down)
LAYERSSince all (ground) footstep loops have the same FPM paces, they can be layered easily. E.g. you can add a puddle sound element to sneakers walking on concrete etc.
CLOTHINGYou can add clothing as a layer to make the movements sound more natural. The sounds of jeans & jacket fit to all ground footsteps. Furthermore, versions with well-balanced clothing sounds of all main footstep loops are already included as ready-to-use files!
ADDITIONAL ELEMENTSSome experimental elements are also included in the library:
2 layers of floor creaks and one layer that adds the sound of keys in the pocket while walking.
TIME-COMPRESSPaces of the sound loops included in the Footstep Loops II sound library increase in steps of 10 FPM each. If you need a value in between, time-compress the file just a tiny bit – the quality loss is almost inaudible in modern digital audio workstations.
ONLINE FOOTSTEPS GENERATORTo get an impression of what you get with the Footstep Loops II sound library, go HERE and play around with footsteps online.
- 663 audio files
- 331 minutes total runtime
- all files contain meta-data / keywords for easy search
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All sounds from this library are included in:
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43 locations from various perspectives.
STREAM / RIVER & WATERFALL features WATER MOVEMENT from JAPAN and NEW ZEALAND.
Each STREAM and RIVER have their unique flows, and varieties of topographies gives each its characteristic sound – and WATERFALLS from small to medium adds nature feeling to it.
In addition, the library also features places where SPRING WATER GUSHES in Japan, and huge ELECTRIC WATER PUMP from New Zealand and more.Recorded @ 24 Bit / 96 kHz with ortf, spaced omni, XY and carefully edited.
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The Renault Master IV 2.3 DCI 165 sound library features 76 high-quality files recorded with a multi-mic setup. The engine was recorded in sync with cabin interior ambients, and you can expect different styles of driving, from casual city driving, through accelerations on a highway up to rpm ramps and constant rpm loops for game audio.
In addition to engine recordings, this sound effects library features exterior passes, whooshes and other road-related sounds recorded in mono and stereo. Last but not least, different foley recordings covering exterior and interior sound effects.
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Rock, Brick and Dirt 3 is the third of the series! This bundle includes all remastered sounds from RBD 1 and 2. With more than 100 new files recorded and designed. It’s a package of impact, Smash, Crumbling, Scratching, Landfall and more rock debris sounds. The library contains 333 files of various recording texture and perspective.
A good package to add a dirty texture to your production.
Each sound has been meticulously edited individually, All files were recorded and are delivered in 24bit 96kHz Broadcast Wave files, all embedded with metadata information for easy import and ensure fast and easy workflow.
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Night Cityscapes delivers the urban sounds of a sleeping city. The collection includes more than 3 hours of night and early morning ambiences that are recorded in Sofia, Bulgaria. All recordings were made between 01:30 and 05:30 am. This collection will uncover city in a way you may not know.
You will find atmospheres of quiet and empty small streets in the city center, where can be heard some air conditioners, urban hum and light traffic in the far background.
Lonely sounds of traffic lights. One single taxi passes and disappears into the night, and then it is followed by silence. Empty streets and squares with distant voices and footsteps going somewhere. Major boulevards with light night traffic. Industrial empty streets, where electric buzz and big air conditioners can be heard.
Very, very early morning atmospheres filled with singing birds eager to foreshadow the beginning of a new day.
‘Night Cityscapes’ will fill the missing part of your nocturnal urban atmospheres.
Gear used: Sound Devices 633, Neumann KM184 in ORTF configuration
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Environments Ocean Ambience 1 Caves, Crevices and Waves Play Track 186 sounds included, 121 mins total $19.99Small Cave Ambiences / Big Wave Crashes / Coquina Rock Hits
If you’re in need of an Ocean/Beach library, this is it. The library covers a range of material from small enclosed spaces with the sound of distant waves droning to massive waves crashing against the coquina rock.Although it is, in essence, an ambience library I recorded and edited material for maximum flexibility for further sound design capabilities.
The library was recorded over a period of 4-weekend trips to Washington Oaks State Park near Flagler Beach, FL.
Types of Recordings:
- Small Cave & Rocky Crevice Ambience (Wet and Dry)
- Ocean Waves Crashing on Rocks / Varying Perspectives
- Coquina Rock Hits / Smashes
- Isolated Individual Wave Crashes
- Shell / Rock Splashes
Bonus Forge / Reaktor Sample Maps Also Included
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Environments Spirit of Sound Effects: Thunder Volume 1 Play Track 102 sounds included, 55 mins total$150$77Here is the thunder I recorded in 1988, to DAT with an ORTF pair of Schoeps MK-4s, which includes a strike from ~12′ away! Hair standing up on end and everything. You may know some of this material as what I released through “The Hollywood Edge Signature Series” back in 1993. Well, a lot has changed. More than half the material was then unusable back then due to rain ‘ruining’ the recordings. Not so with Izotope RX 7 Advanced. Rain? What rain? Not a drop survived. Not. A. Drop.
Painstakingly remastered to 96kHz 32-bit floating-point (no shortcuts padding it with useless zeros: That would be cheap and lazy). Embrace it; it’s our near-future and everything I publish from here on out will be as such.
Hundreds and hundreds of mic capsule failures were repaired along with plenty of distortion – without removing any time; so if you line up the old with the now new, they won’t hold sync for long. Back then all I could do was cut out time. No more. Come hear the utter clarity and crispness of this thunder as it should be. To differentiate and make it quick and easy for people to cut, I’ve called the very close strikes “Lightning” and the not-as-close strikes “Thunder”. Already prepped in/for Soundminer ready to go, and a spreadsheet document for those using other systems.
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Ambisonics Surround Sound LAB Complete Collection Play Track 4500+ sounds included, +1000 mins total$1,400$399The Surround Sound LAB Complete Collection is a bundle containing the whole Surround Sound Lab Catalog. We offer it as a perpetual audio one-time subscription, getting you 4500+ files, 240+ GB of audio and free updates as the catalog grows! This one-time bundle purchase gives you access to all the Surround Sound LAB libraries, including new future releases!
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The Car Destruction sound effects collection contains chassis scrapes, dragging, flipping, road rail scratching, multiple car chassis dropping takes include rolling down a slope, falling onto the ground, and impacting other cars.damaged engine idling and slow to fast driving with gearshifts, ramps, and steady RPMs from both onboard and exterior perspectives both on two cylinders and without oil and more.
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A must-have collection for winter sounds, this library consists of many years' recordings of snow and ice, skiing, textures, ambiences, foley and so on. It contains lots of skiing, jumping, rails, freezing cold winds, ski resort ambiences, lifts, walking in snow and on ice, texture details such as snow spray, tires driving, skidding and spinning on ice and snow, drilling in ice and much more.
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The Gut-Wrenching Gore Library gathers 712 clips in 26.96 gigabytes. Recorded from 6 synchronized perspectives in 192 kHz, it shares horror sound design elements in two themes: male and female vocalizations and fruit destruction.
The vocalization showcase screams, choking, gurgling, gobbling, teeth and biting, and breathing, each with a variety of takes and performances. Body blows, stabs, hits, and gore were provided by tearing, breaking, and squeezing fruit, vegetables, and other food such as watermelons, leeks, porridge, yogurt, tomatoes and others.
The package includes Pro Tools and Reaper mixing sessions, and embedded metadata in every clip.
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The Junkyard Metal sound library includes 3183 clips in 98.49 GB. It collects the sound of metal hits, drops, pick ups, rattles and clatters, rumbles and rummaging, rocking, rolling, and scraping.
Featuring diverse props ranging from large metal storage containers, diesel tanks, shopping carts, and tractor buckets to to smaller propane tanks, crates, shopping carts, and bolts, nails, and ammunition, the collection provides multiple performances in each clip.
The sounds were performed from light to heavy intensities and captured at 192 kHz, 24-bit resolution with Sanken, Sennheiser, Neumann, and Schoeps microphones.
The bundle is delivered with Pro Tools and Reaper mixing sessions, full professional embedded metadata, and metadata keyword import files in 7 languages.
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Production Sound – insights from Irin Strauss:
• What working in production sound entails:
You need a thorough knowledge of the principals and applications of audio recording plus the tools needed to provide exceptional sound quality to production for each job.
• What it takes in terms of skills and gear:
While it is relatively easy to learn the basics of production sound through books and various tutorials you can find online, or even in class, the best way to get a working knowledge is experience and that means working on film and video projects. Also, being a good listener, being able to discern what is good clean sound and knowing the limitations in each location what can be achieved.
People skills are also a plus. “It takes a village” is a good catch phrase to make a project come together. Even with sound, you may need to call on different departments to aid you in achieving your goal and knowing the proper channels to go through (etiquette) to do so.
As you progress in your profession in production sound you may need to buy equipment pending on the role you take in the department. A sound mixer will need a good recorder, a variety of microphones, boom poles, monitoring devices, possibly a sound cart, and a wireless system. The boom operator may want to buy their own pole, a set of headphones, a box to put their boom pole in on-set, and basic utility tools to make quick fixes if they should arrive. The sound utility will want to carry a pouch with wireless accessories, spare batteries, scissors, tape, and maybe headphones as well though the mixer should have enough to go around.
• How to learn it:
There are several approaches to learning the job like those mentioned above. In my opinion, finding a mentor to help you along is the ideal way to segue into the field. If you want to be a sound mixer, my advice is to learn the basics of boom operating. The boom operator may get into certain situations on-set that may require the expertise of someone who’s been in similar positions. The knowledge is invaluable and will facilitate a smooth workflow, solving problems as they arise.
In my opinion, finding a mentor to help you along is the ideal way to segue into the field
To be a good boom operator takes on-set experience and lots of it. It takes time, patience, and a lot of ego shredding.
Shadowing a sound mixer as they work is a great way to learn mixing. Ask a lot of questions, and learn why certain mics are used in different situations, or when to mix boom, wires, or both, and how to plant microphones, and so on.
There are also film schools that offer courses in production sound and theory. It is a good way to establish a foothold by working on student projects which is one way of getting off to a good start.
• How to find work:
Once you’ve become an established boom operator or sound mixer it becomes easier, not to say that it is easy at all to land a long-term job. The best way to do that is to start off doing short term jobs until a long-term job offer comes along. Some people prefer one over the other. But most of the time it’s through references from your contacts.
Also, you can seek them out by researching what’s out there through your local mayor’s office, or website that lists available jobs, like Staffemeup MediaMatch, or Mandy. Make calls to other sound people and let them know you’re available or if they know of jobs coming up. After awhile you may want to join the union and through them you may be able to find work.
• Essential advice for working and making it in production sound:
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find work since the market is getting saturated with sound mixers and there are a limited amount of jobs. So my advice to anyone getting into the field is to expect a few lean years starting out and don’t give up. Your passion for your profession and positivity will be your selling point as like-minded people will want to work with you. Love what you do. Keep learning as much as you can about your craft.
Expect a few lean years starting out and don’t give up. Your passion for your profession and positivity will be your selling point as like-minded people will want to work with you
Get in touch with working professionals and colleagues and ask for their advice. I’m sure they would be happy to talk to you. Keep learning and work hard and soon you will be an asset to any sound crew. I guarantee you will be sought after and before you know it able to pick and choose your jobs.
• Further reading and resources:
I’ve written a few articles that get into more of the specifics of production sound mixing and the role played on-set along with the relationship formed with producers and directors on some links in my website www.soundmindpictures.com
I can also recommend some books to read like Jay Rose’s “Producing Great Sound for Film and Video.” And Ric Viers’s The Location Sound Bible.
About Irin Strauss:
Irin Strauss is a veteran freelance production sound mixer with 28 years experience. He has worked on both coasts but primarily resides in New York. Projects include, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Manny and Lo, Blues Clues, Sesame Street, Tangerine and Madam Secretary. He currently lives in Westchester, New York.
Website: www.soundmindpictures.com
These interviews are also available in the massively-popular - and entirely free - Sound Success Guide, a 60+ page guide featuring insights from 20 industry experts on how to get started and succeed in 18 different types of audio jobs:
Sound Design: Advertising
– insights from Chris Pinkston:
• What working in sound design for advertising entails:
Being a sound designer/mixer in the ad business is very similar these days to longer-form industries. In fact, more often than not, we’re doing long-form projects, augmented reality, video games, and virtual reality projects in addition to documentaries and animated short films/TV shows.
However, the main difference for commercials specifically is there are usually several shorter versions of the same commercial that need to be created. Also, advertising sound post houses are generally not union-based. Projects can last weeks and months or they may last an hour or two. We do mix ads for cinema on occasion, but usually we are mixing in the broadcast or digital spectrum. Like any short-form subject, advertising is often about selling concepts rather than complete story acts. The commercials I work on are usually packed with great talent on the production, editorial and agency side, so usually I’ll get very cinematically-driven projects to design sound for. I’m always fascinated when talking with other filmmakers about how they were able to pull off some of the amazing visual ideas that they do in such little time. I love the advertising world because people are usually friendly and well-versed in the audio language. Clients are usually very excited to be a part of the sound process so that makes it all the more rewarding.
• What it takes in terms of skills and gear:
We expect the same level of skill-set and experience as in any other post production audio business. We all use Pro Tools, but we also use other software to help out with sounds that Pro Tools can’t make.
On the technical side, having a strong knowledge of Pro Tools and basic machine room skills is a must.
We’re often mixing in music from composers, and knowing how to mix that in with dialogue and sound effects is essential
As mixers, about half the time we’ll be recording the actor’s voices in our booth or remotely. We’re often mixing in music from composersm and knowing how to mix that in with dialogue and sound effects is essential.
Having great people skills is also a big plus.
On the creative side, studying how film editorial and story devices work is very important. I’d recommend watching a lot of movies/TV shows/commercials and reading about how the sound/picture editors created those sounds. There are many devices that are commonly used today (ie, French New Wave) that weren’t being used 20 years ago. With that in mind, it’s also good to study film history and see how those concepts worked.
Creating sound for advertising can be either entry-level or an advanced career. I and many of my colleagues have worked in a variety of avenues in the audio business and most mixers have many years of experience. When I started in the business in the late 1990s, it was important to know about timecode, video machines frame rates, laybacks and the recording process. Those skills still apply today, regardless of technology changes.
• How to learn it:
There are many avenues in learning the job. I started in film school, which I highly recommend. In film school, you get to be a part of every side of the project, so you can understand what those skills are when becoming a sound editor. I think learning how films are edited and created are essential for a career in audio.
I think learning how films are edited and created are essential for a career in audio
We also get interns that are still in college and wanting to explore the audio business as a career. On the mixing side, some are lucky enough to start as mix assistants and on the editing side, many start as Foley editors, dialogue editors, radio technicians, sound librarians, music studio assistants, projectionists, radio engineers, or editorial assistants and work their way to becoming sound effects editors or mixers.
• How to find work:
There are a variety of post production houses in Los Angeles/NYC as well as in some other US cities.
• Essential advice for working and making it in audio for advertising:
I’d recommend anyone wanting to succeed in audio for advertising to have some projects under their belt. Films, TV episodic/reality and animation skills all apply. Try to find a post production house that you like and try to find a way to go to work for them :)
• Further reading and resources:
I’d say all of the articles on this website would be a great resource for the aspiring audio editor/mixer. There are a number of sound design books that are great supplements to going to film school.
About Chris Pinkston:
Chris is an award-winning mixer/ lead sound designer at 740 Sound in Los Angeles, CA. He’s earned Telly, Aegis and Silver Microphone awards for his sound work on commercials for top brands such as Levis, Hewlett Packard, America West Airlines, and the Oakland Raiders.
Website: www.740sound.com/staff/2017/5/25/chris-pinkston
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chris-pinkston-30b8ba6/
A big thanks to Chris Pinkston, Lucy J Mitchell, and Irin Strauss for sharing their valuable insights with us!
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Succeed in sound:
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• How to succeed in sound design for Games, Animation, and Television
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• Courses: How to network and get paid for your work in the game industry – by Akash Thakkar
• How to Craft a Perfect Cover Letter for Audio Industry Jobs
• Get the weekly Audio Jobs newsletter
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• Find other audio pros around the world
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The Junkyard Metal sound library includes 3183 clips in 98.49 GB. It collects the sound of metal hits, drops, pick ups, rattles and clatters, rumbles and rummaging, rocking, rolling, and scraping.
Featuring diverse props ranging from large metal storage containers, diesel tanks, shopping carts, and tractor buckets to to smaller propane tanks, crates, shopping carts, and bolts, nails, and ammunition, the collection provides multiple performances in each clip.
The sounds were performed from light to heavy intensities and captured at 192 kHz, 24-bit resolution with Sanken, Sennheiser, Neumann, and Schoeps microphones.
The bundle is delivered with Pro Tools and Reaper mixing sessions, full professional embedded metadata, and metadata keyword import files in 7 languages.
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The Gut-Wrenching Gore Library gathers 712 clips in 26.96 gigabytes. Recorded from 6 synchronized perspectives in 192 kHz, it shares horror sound design elements in two themes: male and female vocalizations and fruit destruction.
The vocalization showcase screams, choking, gurgling, gobbling, teeth and biting, and breathing, each with a variety of takes and performances. Body blows, stabs, hits, and gore were provided by tearing, breaking, and squeezing fruit, vegetables, and other food such as watermelons, leeks, porridge, yogurt, tomatoes and others.
The package includes Pro Tools and Reaper mixing sessions, and embedded metadata in every clip.
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The Car Destruction sound effects collection contains chassis scrapes, dragging, flipping, road rail scratching, multiple car chassis dropping takes include rolling down a slope, falling onto the ground, and impacting other cars.damaged engine idling and slow to fast driving with gearshifts, ramps, and steady RPMs from both onboard and exterior perspectives both on two cylinders and without oil and more.
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Ambisonic – Transportation is a great collection of ambisonic ambiences recordings performed at various transportation scenarios.
It is aimed to provide you with great spherical content to wrap your dialogue or main focus content, allowing you to create a conniving and immersing soundtrack.
You will find recordings such as a Train car interior, Jumbo jet interior, multiple cars interior under different driving conditions,
Bus interior, public transportation stations and much more.This collection is great for post-production, VR/AR interactive sound-design, game developers and any real-time 3D audio engine.
All files are tagged and categorized for your convenience – supporting multiple tag filtering browsing applications.A Sennheiser Ambeo microphone paired with Zoom H8 was used to create this product.
This package includes 68 Samples – 136 Files.
A total 2h 37m of content.
First Order AmbiX B-Format and Stereo @ 96Khz / 24bit.Download a Demo here:
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Editing footsteps in audio post-production can be time-consuming. Footstep Loops II is a sound library that delivers a comprehensive kit of footstep sound effects made to ease your daily work.
The collection contains footstep sounds of various shoes and surfaces, recorded in different paces and edited to continuous but lively 30-second sound loops.
VARIETY
The Footstep Loops II Sound Library covers a wide range of different footsteps:
Barefoot, Socks, Slippers, Flip-Flops, Sneakers on Wood, Sneakers on Concrete, Boots on Wood, Boots on Concrete, Heels on Wood, Heels on Stone;
Grass, Gravel, Forest, Foliage, Dry Foliage, Stones, Puddle, Mud, Snow;
Stairs up + down: Wooden Stairs, Metal Stairs, Stone Stairs
PACEEach type of footsteps is available as a set of 13 sound files that represent a range from walking very slowly up to very speedy. Paces are sorted by Footsteps per Minute (FPM):
Ground Footsteps: from 40 FPM to 160 FPM
Stairs Footsteps: from 60 FPM to 180 FPM (up) / from 80 FPM to 200 FPM (down)
LAYERSSince all (ground) footstep loops have the same FPM paces, they can be layered easily. E.g. you can add a puddle sound element to sneakers walking on concrete etc.
CLOTHINGYou can add clothing as a layer to make the movements sound more natural. The sounds of jeans & jacket fit to all ground footsteps. Furthermore, versions with well-balanced clothing sounds of all main footstep loops are already included as ready-to-use files!
ADDITIONAL ELEMENTSSome experimental elements are also included in the library:
2 layers of floor creaks and one layer that adds the sound of keys in the pocket while walking.
TIME-COMPRESSPaces of the sound loops included in the Footstep Loops II sound library increase in steps of 10 FPM each. If you need a value in between, time-compress the file just a tiny bit – the quality loss is almost inaudible in modern digital audio workstations.
ONLINE FOOTSTEPS GENERATORTo get an impression of what you get with the Footstep Loops II sound library, go HERE and play around with footsteps online.
- 663 audio files
- 331 minutes total runtime
- all files contain meta-data / keywords for easy search
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All sounds from this library are included in:
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43 locations from various perspectives.
STREAM / RIVER & WATERFALL features WATER MOVEMENT from JAPAN and NEW ZEALAND.
Each STREAM and RIVER have their unique flows, and varieties of topographies gives each its characteristic sound – and WATERFALLS from small to medium adds nature feeling to it.
In addition, the library also features places where SPRING WATER GUSHES in Japan, and huge ELECTRIC WATER PUMP from New Zealand and more.Recorded @ 24 Bit / 96 kHz with ortf, spaced omni, XY and carefully edited.
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The Renault Master IV 2.3 DCI 165 sound library features 76 high-quality files recorded with a multi-mic setup. The engine was recorded in sync with cabin interior ambients, and you can expect different styles of driving, from casual city driving, through accelerations on a highway up to rpm ramps and constant rpm loops for game audio.
In addition to engine recordings, this sound effects library features exterior passes, whooshes and other road-related sounds recorded in mono and stereo. Last but not least, different foley recordings covering exterior and interior sound effects.
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Rock, Brick and Dirt 3 is the third of the series! This bundle includes all remastered sounds from RBD 1 and 2. With more than 100 new files recorded and designed. It’s a package of impact, Smash, Crumbling, Scratching, Landfall and more rock debris sounds. The library contains 333 files of various recording texture and perspective.
A good package to add a dirty texture to your production.
Each sound has been meticulously edited individually, All files were recorded and are delivered in 24bit 96kHz Broadcast Wave files, all embedded with metadata information for easy import and ensure fast and easy workflow.
+ free sounds with every issue: