Meet Soundly – a revolutionary new cloud-based approach to sound effects:

Hi Peder, just what is Soundly?

Soundly is an app for Mac and Windows that gives you access to a big 96kHz, 24-bit sound effects library in the cloud, and let’s you drag and drop sound effects from the cloud library straight into your project. It works with every sound and video editor that we have tested it with, and we’ve tested it with a lot. You can also add effects like pitching, reversing, summing, hear it in real time and have it instantly printed to the sound when you drag it out.
 

When did you get the idea for Soundly, and how long has it been in the works?

I started doing more and more sound design on my laptop, and it was a drag to always have to have a hard drive of sound effects with me, so I started researching if it was possible to solve this all in the cloud. I’m a decent coder and tested different ideas, and when I got the first test version running, I really felt I was onto something big. I was amazed at how fluent and fast everything was feeling and I just went from there.

I was amazed at how fluent and fast everything was feeling and I just went from there

I’ve been working on this on and off for the last 5 years, and we have been running beta tests for the last two years so it feels like it’s ready to meet the rest of the world.
 

Soundly offers a unique cloud based approach to sound effects. How does it work, and how about performance?

Files come down blistering fast from the cloud in very high quality and people often won’t believe it’s possible to do it that fast, but we have done some very smart things to make this work as fast as it does. The servers are running on Google’s own infrastructure so this is very fast wherever you are, and scales perfectly when we are doing stress loads – so I’m very confident the servers will hold up even under heavy load.
 

Soundly comes with librarian features too, so you can manage your existing catalog too – how does the librarian aspect work?

Yes, you can also use Soundly to index your local sound effects or music and use it as a regular librarian tool.

You can also use Soundly to index your local sound effects or music and use it as a regular librarian tool

It supports meta data in many different formats and you can also import your entire library from other sound library tools.

A cool feature is that you can monitor a local folder, so if you add new sound effects to your sound effects folder they will be indexed by Soundly and instantly available.
 

There’s also a premium SFX library included. What’s the story behind that one?

The idea behind the app was to join a librarian app and sound effects in one tool. So from the very beginning I’ve been trying to get a good sound library on board. It’s been a lot of work as most people with a good library won’t sell it as a subscription. They want to sell the whole thing for a high sum instead of what we are doing, selling a subscription at $14.99 a month. I knew Christian Schaanning from the sound design community and he has done some great films here in Norway and has also been doing some work in LA on films like Transformers 3. You can check out his imdb here.
I had just lost another Library and met him randomly and drunkenly late at a bar in Oslo… Mid week. I had been to an award show – I do sound for tv and radio adds – and he had had a seminar with some junior sound designers. We made one of those drunken deals where we where going to meet tomorrow and discuss this further, and we actually did.

As it turned out, he has made one of the best sounding sound libraries I’ve ever heard

As it turned out, he has made one of the best sounding sound libraries I’ve ever heard. It wasn’t organized yet, but he promised to get it named and tagged, and he did. We uploaded the library to the beta testers in March, and they instantly loved it. As the library is in the cloud we are constantly adding new sound effects and it’s growing every day. Christian has now joined the company and we are trying our best to save the world, together.
 

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

 

1

SFX & Atmospheres Bundle

$155.40 $36 incl. vat

2

Metallitronic

$114 incl. vat

3

Foundation Series: SCI-FI

$29.99 $23.99 incl. vat

4

Edward Foleyart Instrument + WAV Bundle

$200.40 $118.80 incl. vat

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Latest releases:  

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  Environments Historical Houses & Barns Play Track 5000 sounds included, 604 mins total $204 $180 incl. vat

  This is a collection of location foley sounds (anything we could find that makes sound) recorded over 3-year period in authentic historical houses and barns.

  This includes 1700s peasant village houses, 1700s manor, 1850s farm, 1900s manor and 1930s cottage. These are recorded for film projects so they have the right cinematic feel, dynamic and variation.

  The houses were full of period props, so the recordings are rich and have lots of details that take you to the right time and feel.

  The library weighs in at more than 20 GB total, and features 5000+ sounds & 10 hours of recordings in 347 files.

  Highlights:
  • Many are long takes (8+ minutes) with lots of performance variations
  • The stereo recordings have often one channel as close-up mic and other as distant / room mic.
  • All recordings are 96khz 24bit with metadata.
  • We used the best sounding equipment – sound devices recorders (744, 702, mixpre), Sennheiser mkh 8040,  mkh416 and DPA 4006a microphones.
  
  12 %

  OFF

  Ends 1556748000
  Add to cart
• 

  
  Drones & Moods Metallitronic Play Track 230+ sounds included $114 incl. vat

  Metallitronic is sound designer Nathan Moody’s latest collection of intense textures, a library of nearly three hours’ worth of metallic membranes and objects excited by electronic signals.

  Metallitronic was created using advanced synthesis techniques played back through various transducers into cymbals, gongs, bowls, steel plates, prefab metal buildings, and other resonant metallic objects, close-miked in stereo with extended-frequency-range microphones. This collection radically expands a sound designer’s palette of stressed-metal sounds, horror and tension elements, crystalline creaks and groans, unsettling background atmospheres, rattling vehicular interiors, creature sound sweeteners, the sound of massive machinery, earth-shaking rumbles, and stochastic, complex rhythms.

  Some textures let the complex synthesizer textures shine through – intense on their own, even if they weren’t amplified through metal – but the primary focus is on metallic drones, hits, pings, stresses, groans, wails, resonances, rattles, and unique timbres that can be layered into almost any project. The scale of the sounds ranges from detailed to overwhelmingly massive. The sounds invite aggressive filtering and extreme pitch shifting.

  Every sound is recorded in stereo at 24 bits, 192 kHz, and many sounds have ultrasonic frequencies. This library includes nearly three hours of recordings, all fully tagged with metadata. Multiple articulations are ganged into single files for convenience and organization.

  Add to cart
• 

  
  Environments Baltic Forest Play Track 53 sounds included, 233 mins total $46.80 $28.08 incl. vat

  Baltic Forest is a collection of ambient recordings captured over one year in a private forest in Northern Lithuania. 53 carefully recorded exterior ambiences made during summer, autumn, winter and spring. From the bright sound of native birds in spring and summer, to the freezing cold (-20 Celsius) snow storms and tree movements of autumn and winter – sometimes recording in knee-deep snow.

  All sounds were recorded and edited at 24-bit / 96kHz, with embedded meta data.

  40 %

  OFF

  Ends 1556575200
  Add to cart
• 

  
  Destruction & Impact The Vault Play Track 12743 sounds included, 1249 mins total $719.99 incl. vat

  The whole 9 yards.

  Comprised of five heavy hitting libraries, this bundle includes GEARBOX, SORCERY, HERO, BROKEN, and MELEE. Save by bundling all FIVE in a single library.

  GEARBOX:
  Boutique analog mechanical contraptions, steampunk gadgetry, gizmos and machines big and small.

  

  
  

  SORCERY
  Spells, deflects, casts, blocks, beams, and more. Unrivaled wizardry at your fingertips.

  

  
  

  BROKEN:
  Car crashes, explosions, crumbling buildings, earthquakes, ripping earth and metal, to debris, and more.

  

  
  

  HERO:
  HERO – Sword fights, stabbing, guillotines, impaling, battle cries, shields, drawbridges, armor, foley and more.

  

  
  

  MELEE:
  Punches, kicks, blocks, bodyfalls, grabs, slaps, bone breaks, blood splatters, and more.

  

  
  
  Add to cart
• 

  
  Mechanical Gearbox Play Track 3551 sounds included, 279 mins total $179.99 incl. vat

  We've ventured to obscure boutiques, prop houses and vintage shops to capture mechanical contraptions from around the world. Ranging from bizarre creations, to steampunk gadgetry, gizmos and machines, GEARBOX clocks in at over 10 GB of high definition, precision mastered sounds spanning across 2987 construction kit sounds and 584 designed sounds.

  GEARBOX equips Sound Designers with a literal toolbox of mechanical gadgetry. Ranging from tiny to huge, GEARBOX's machines and gizmos provide coverage for interacts, mechanism, machine or device in your scene or game.

  INTRODUCING BUILDING BLOCKS

  In addition to CONSTRUCTION KIT and DESIGNED SOUND content, GEARBOX features BUILDING BLOCKS. This category of sound consists of designed phrases and oneshots utilized for our designed machinery, empowering Sound Designers with maximum flexibility when trying to get that particular phrase from an existing DESIGNED SOUND. GEARBOX features over 468 BUILDING BLOCKS ranging from levers, hits, grinds, snaps, and more.

  
  Add to cart

What’s ahead for Soundly?

We have a lot of stuff coming out the door, and upgrading will always be free as this is subscription based. We like to keep things secret before we release new features, but I can say that we are working on a revolutionary way for sound designers and video editors to work together in the cloud. Get on board now and join the revolution :)
 

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