TheLastDance_sound-13 Asbjoern Andersen


Few sports documentaries have been as well-received as ESPN's The Last Dance, which follows the life and career of Michael Jordan. Here, we talk to SIM New York sound designer/re-recording mixer Keith Hodne and finishing producer Stephanie Pacchiano about bringing the show together and getting it to air ahead of schedule all while dealing with COVID-19 workplace restrictions.
Interview by Jennifer Walden, photos courtesy of ESPN, Netflix and SIM
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For those in the US who missed EPSN’s top-rated docu-series The Last Dance when it aired, you’ll be able to watch it on Netflix on July 19th. The series follows the career of Michael Jordan, his time with the Chicago Bulls and the drama that ultimately surrounds success.

Director Jason Hehir stitched together a quilt of sports commentary and archival basketball games dating back to the 70s, sit-down interviews with retired sports stars, coaches and managers, personal footage shot by friends, press footage, news reports, and more. It’s an interesting story, even for those who aren’t basketball fans.

Bringing so many disparate sources together into one cohesive production required skill and artistry. On the sound side, Keith Hodne — senior recording mixer and supervising sound editor at SIM New York — delivered on both. His years of experience on documentaries and sports documentaries not only gave him the skills to clean up and balance the varied audio tracks; it helped him to shape the sonic tone of the show in an artistic way.

Here, Hodne and Finishing Producer Stephanie Pacchiano at SIM talk about the challenges of crafting the sound of The Last Dance and successfully delivering the show for air in the face of an escalated post-production schedule during a pandemic, which required a change to a remote-based workflow midway through the season.



'The Last Dance' exclusive trailer and footage: The untold story of Michael Jordan and the Bulls


‘The Last Dance’ exclusive trailer and footage: The untold story of Michael Jordan and the Bulls
 

Keith, you worked on OJ: Made In America, and the 30 for 30 shorts. How did that sports documentary experience prepare you for The Last Dance?

Keith Hodne (KH): I’ve worked on various different projects and have been lucky enough to work on content that is very authentically me. I was born in 1980, in Brooklyn, and I DJ’d for a number of years so I’m into all different types of music. I’m a huge Knicks fan but I love Jordan. I’m a huge sneaker-head; I have a huge collection of sneakers. So what prepared me for this show was not only all of the work that I’ve done in the past but also just living that life during that era.

 

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Looking at The Last Dance, there are clips, interviews, shots from the locker room, shots from their travels as a team, footage of Dennis Rodman on a bender — so many disparate sources you had to bring together! Different sources, from different eras… you must have had your work cut out for you. When you got involved on the show, what condition was the audio in?

KH: It’s obviously spanning all different types of medium from different years. That was one of the biggest challenges. There were over 100 different interviews. Right off the bat, the cleanest audio that would be coming to me — the interviews — were recorded in over 100 different environments. The biggest challenge was trying to make that all live within the same world. That meant dirtying clips up to match other clips around it, or cleaning other clips. Especially with the archival material in the montages, there had to be a fair amount of blending from sound design and that was from sound banks that I created with Jason [Hehir].

Right off the bat, the cleanest audio that would be coming to me — the interviews — were recorded in over 100 different environments.

Jason and I were lucky enough to work on a bunch of shorts that were teasers for the All-Star Break. So, we set the tone sonically for what the series was going to sound like before I had even received Episode 1 of The Last Dance.

For the audio for those recordings shot in 1998, those look beautiful and so that (as crazy as it sounds) helps the final audio product. I did have to do a fair amount of clean up on those clips and I did my normal restoration/clean-up processing. So the editing team chopped together that footage and then delivered the audio of that to me. Then it’s my responsibility to keep that true to the material as possible but pad it a bit to continue to set the tone that we want to set, which was dark, moody, and questioning as a whole.

When it comes to clean-up, there isn’t much I can’t fix.

When it comes to clean-up, there isn’t much I can’t fix. We aim to please and we do. Technology is so advanced that I feel like as long as you know how to use the tools that are out there, and you know how to use them creatively (for their intended use and beyond), then there isn’t much audio that you can’t clean-up or make into a usable final product by blending the sound with other sounds.

I spent 10 years working on The First 48, which was a crime docu-series. Cleaning up that footage where they were out at night in a field or whatever was not the most pleasant audio. But that, for sure, paved the way for me to work on content like OJ: Made in America which was super-heavy with archival material and interviews as well. Then, fast forward to The Last Dance. My past experience has definitely prepared me for this show.

 

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What are some of your favorite tools for clean up? iZotope RX? CEDAR DNS One? Any others you prefer to use?

KH: The reason those tools are so popular is because they work so well. I definitely love Sonnox Restore and iZotope, like everybody else. Also, I have been using Accusonus ERA-D for clean up and some of their other tools. Those are definitely interesting tools.

I would say that I use all of those tools in my daily workflow.

 

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What about compression? Do you find that’s helpful for this kind of work or do you encounter issues with the noise floor on archival material?

KH: From a storytelling standpoint, I don’t like to process any of my material until I’ve heard it all. Once I hear it, then I can start applying processing. Compression is definitely one of those tools. You can certainly over-compress and I try not to do that. There is a time and a place for compression but I pick and choose where I use it — especially with the material in The Last Dance.

I wanted to have different elements popping through and playing together in an orchestrated way in the mix and there is no faking that.

I try to use compression judiciously. I don’t think you’d be able to achieve the mix without some compression, but stylistically, I wanted to have different elements popping through and playing together in an orchestrated way in the mix and there is no faking that. You have to do that with automation, with volume rides. Compression is a great thing but I try to use it only as much as I needed to for this project.

 

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When stitching these pieces of audio together, there are ancillary sounds that support the scene — like basketball bounces and crowd reactions. What were your guidelines for adding in supporting effects?

KH: Jason and I set the tone for the hip-hop montages — music was going to be king/queen. But, in most storytelling, the dialogue is king/queen. So it was a fine balance to figure out when to drive with the music, drive with the effects, and when to let the announcing take over. If you’re not doing that very carefully then you wind up with mud.

I’m definitely all over my faders when mixing, EQing parts of crowds out to allow the music to shine through, or bringing in some highs from the crowd to let that take over as an element.

It’s like if you’re painting and you use too many colors at once then you wind up with a wreck. I’m definitely all over my faders when mixing, EQing parts of crowds out to allow the music to shine through, or bringing in some highs from the crowd to let that take over as an element.

One of the super interesting scenes that Jason and I created was in Ep. 10 where we go into the stark loneliness of a superstar and what that means, and sonically creating that texture. It’s an episode about being present and in the moment and we try to make it feel like you’re in Jordan’s head. We have a moment in which the music swells and comes to an end and the crowd starts swelling and overtaking the scene. That comes to an end very gradually and slowly. It’s not overly done, but it creates this very introspective moment where Jordan is present but he’s inside his head. We do that with a lack of sound and that’s the interesting part. I would say those elements of what we’re using and hearing at that moment in time are what are important for that scene. In terms of sound design, it’s not always about adding things; it’s about subtracting things and the mixing.


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With your time schedule, were you able to do Foley? Do you feel Foley was one element that helped you to get a natural sound to help stitch these audio clips together?

KH: I use Foley for any project on a per-needs basis. If it’s going to help me tell the story then yes, I do Foley. I don’t record Foley for everything, just to have a Foley track as you’d have for the M&E of a narrative feature. I picked and chose those scenes where Foley could help fill in the sound.

…we weren’t going to fake anything for any other reason than to add an artistic style to the story.

Jason decided to set a template with me that we weren’t going to fake anything for any other reason than to add an artistic style to the story. We didn’t fake anything to change the story in any way, shape, or form.

Most of the content you are hearing is coming from the actual tapes. That comes from cleaning those files up and mixing. That was the skill in that for sure. The content I had to work with was great as long as I stripped back some of the stuff that was aged.

 

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This went to Netflix for international release, and so there was likely a localization process. Did you have to have a Foley track for the M&Es for the international releases?

KH: Most networks request different M&Es for scripted and non-scripted content.

This show was delivered to ESPN first and then Netflix, so there were two different sets of deliverables. They weren’t wildly different, but they were different.

Don’t forget, we did step on the gas and fast-forward the editing schedule; we escalated our schedule by two months to get it out and we weren’t done with the series before they decided to escalate the schedule.

Stephanie Pacchiano (SP): One thing that’s excellent about Keith is his organization. We had to go through two different QC passes. We had different Netflix deliveries, and ESPN deliveries. We had an internal structure to keep that very clear. As Keith finished an episode, it went through round one of QC, and round two of QC, and a final delivery with possible changes after that final delivery. Or, more changes after it aired for alternative airs. There was a layer of complexity after completing that we executed.

…we certainly needed great coordination with all of those parties to make sure every destination for the deliverables had what they needed for their airs and distribution.

KH: I wouldn’t have been able to do that without Stephanie. I’m a large part of this project but just a small part of what we create at SIM. Stephanie was totally in charge of running it.

SP: Typically we have a set workflow of once it passes QC then we export all of our final assets but because Episodes 9 and 10 were so tight with the schedule push-up Netflix said they didn’t have time to wait for that proper workflow. They asked us to deliver our audio once it was done so they could start the localization process. Then, after it goes through QC, we can provide any fixes. Fortunately, there weren’t any audio QC notes.

But, we certainly needed great coordination with all of those parties to make sure every destination for the deliverables had what they needed for their airs and distribution.

KH: I can do the best sound design and editing. I can have the best client relationships. But, at the end of the day, if you’re not passing those network deliverables quickly and successfully then everything else you’ve done doesn’t matter.

Did you have a few episodes to work on initially? Or did you get the episodes one at a time? How did that affect your approach creatively and logistically?

KH: We were lucky enough to do them in order, which was nice. Then, when we knew the schedule would escalate, Jason and the team did a good job of giving us the episodes a bit ahead of time and kept funneling them to us. That was nice because, from a sound design and mix perspective, I was able to know what was happening in the timeline from point A to point C and to escalate that sonically.

[tweet_box]Designing and Mixing ‘The Last Dance’ – with Keith Hodne and Stephanie Pacchiano:[/tweet_box]

Once you got your feet wet with Ep. 1, how did that process help you to prepare for the following episodes, especially with the escalated schedule?

KH: Jason and I were together in the studio at SIM for Eps. 1 – 3. That allowed us to lay groundwork for when the shelter-in-place orders came down and all the editors had to work at home.

We set the tone sonically in terms of what Jason liked and what he wanted to hear.

Working on those first three episodes together at SIM definitely helped to set the tone for what it would sound like later.

Ep. 1 and 2 were a bit different from the other episodes because they were more like a highlight reel. They were more action-packed sports footage as opposed to the format we get into a bit further in, like in Eps. 5 – 10. Those are more of a typical documentary style.

Working on those first three episodes together at SIM definitely helped to set the tone for what it would sound like later. We set the tone for how it would sound in the arenas, for example. I was in charge of finessing the dialogue, and fixing any music edits to make it hit what it needed to hit for this very in-your-face style. There was a certain time and place for every element, for it to pop up in your face.

 

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Sound Designer/Re-recording Mixer Keith Hodne and son in Hodne’s home studio

Tell me about your transition to a remote-based workflow. How did it affect productivity? For the first episode you worked on at home, did you have to find your pace all over again?

KH: It was definitely challenging. I’m lucky enough to have a decent home studio in my basement that I’ve been crafting and improving for the past couple of years. I have most of the same equipment here at home that I do in the studio.

But, I’m home and I have my adorable four-year-old son and a five-month old too, who require attention. So, that was a challenge. Fortunately, my wife is here and she has her own business so we’ve been trading off, finding time to focus on the work and focus on the family.

Doing work here as opposed to doing work at SIM, and also facing a pushed-up deadline, was a bit of an adjustment but you have to make things happen. We’re all under stress. It’s a totally new challenge for all of us. But we have to rise up and do what we have to do.

…maybe my son will be an audio engineer when he gets older. He had a very strong opinion on the mix and he took control.

One funny thing (well, now it’s funny) was my son — who is very curious about what I do and I try to show him what the buttons and knobs are and what the board does — decided to move some faders as I was in the process of creating Ep. 4’s masters. I stood up for a second and I didn’t realize that he grabbed all the faders and hit play a couple of times essentially changing the mix altogether from what it was. Three hours later, I looked at my automation and it looked like mountains instead of a proper mix. I lost about four hours of work trying to figure out what had happened. So, maybe my son will be an audio engineer when he gets older. He had a very strong opinion on the mix and he took control.

I was ready for the remote-workflow. I feel like this project was a culmination of everything I had been doing in my career, and my whole life really. Jason and I are very similar. We see eye to eye, more so than any other client I work with. If I had to choose a client to work with during this situation, it would have been Jason anyway. We had to trust each other, to work with each other over the phone and through Zoom and just know what each other thinks. I was very lucky to have Jason as the director of this project. He had faith in us and luckily we knocked it out of the park for him. At least, that’s what he said.

 

 

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    • Program-independent high quality with the highly-acclaimed élastiquePro v3 engine (speech, single-voiced, classical/popular music, etc.)
    • phase coherence: absolute phase stability between all channels
    • MIDI input: for pitch control
    • formant shifting: shift formants independent from pitch
    • factory presets: for typical film pull-ups/pull-downs
    • AU, VST, AAX and RTAS support for Mac & PC

    technical specifications

    • audio format: 1-8 channels (I/O), 44.1-192kHz sample rate
    • plugin format: AAX, RTAS, AU, VST
    • pitch range: ± 12 semitones = 50-200%
    • timbre range: ± 12 semitones = 50-200%
    • plugin latency: 150ms @48kHz
    • min. system CPU: 2GHz
    • OS: MacOsX >10.6.8, Windows 2000/XP, Vista, Win7/8
    • Host: Pro Tools > V8

    DOWNLOAD THE DEMO HERE
    WIN | MAC

  • A crush on music

    Distortion and saturation play a very important role in music production. From subtle, clean and warm tube or tape saturation to the wildest multiband guitar amp effects: FabFilter Saturn 2 delivers.

    Saturn 2 introduces a host of new features such as a redesigned interface with modulation visualization, new subtle saturation and linear phase processing for mastering, many new distortion styles, and more.


    Warmth, harmonics, color and dynamics

    FabFilter Saturn 2 offers a range of different high quality distortion models, inspired by the vintage sound of tubes, tape, transformers and guitar amps. In addition, you get five creative FX distortion styles to mangle your sounds in weird and unexpected ways.

    With its multiband design and per-band feedback, dynamics, drive, tone and modulation options, Saturn 2 will bring a unique flavor to your music.

    Bring your sounds to life

    Add life and depth to your music using the extensive modulation section. By applying subtle modulation to crossover frequencies, dynamics, band levels or tone controls, great warmth and definition can be achieved.

    With all the XLFOs, EGs, XY controllers/sliders, envelope followers and MIDI sources you will ever need, you get practically unlimited modulation possibilities. Creating new modulation connections could not be easier: just drag and drop. And Saturn 2 visualizes all modulation in real-time to show exactly what’s going on.

    FabFilter goodies

    Finally, FabFilter Saturn 2 contains all the usual FabFilter goodies: perfectly tuned knobs, MIDI Learn, Smart Parameter Interpolation for smooth parameter transitions, interface resizing and full screen mode, support for Avid control surfaces, GPU-powered graphics acceleration, extensive help with interactive help hints, SSE optimization, and much more.


What’s in your remote setup? You’re going from an acoustically calibrated studio environment to a home studio. How do the two mix environments compare?

KH: Luckily enough, and to my wife’s disdain, I took up a whole room in the basement for my studio. I’ve been DJing and making music since Pro Tools had the Digi-001 interface. So, over the years I’ve collected and purposefully tried to have the same equipment at home as I do at SIM.

I have a 24-fader D-Command control surface, which I feel is very important for me when I’m wearing my mixer hat. I love to grab faders and feel the mix.

I also have acoustic treatments and sound padding around the studio here. So, I’m not a fish out of water in my home studio and I’m lucky that when the shelter-in-place orders happened that I had a nice place to work.

You just have to trust in yourself and trust what you do, and trust the 20 years of experience to give you good instincts.

I’m using a 2009 Mac Pro, so the computing isn’t as powerful as what is at SIM. But I do have all of my plug-ins. When we knew we were going into shelter-in-place mode, I took all of my plug-ins home so I have my whole toolkit of go-to plug-ins.

Instead of 8-inch JBLs, I’m using 6-inch JBL’s at home. With that said, the space is much smaller here. I trusted my ears, and that’s what I had to do. I took a few days to sit in my studio and get atuned to mixes I’ve made at SIM and how they sound here. I had Eps. 1 – 3 of The Last Dance finalized at SIM and I listened to those over and over and over again. I wanted to get comfortable with the way they sounded so that I didn’t second-guess myself when mixing the new episodes. Because I didn’t have time to second-guess myself. You just have to trust in yourself and trust what you do, and trust the 20 years of experience to give you good instincts.

 

TheLastDance_sound-4

In terms of collaboration, how are you sharing your mixes with Jason? Were you bouncing them out or sending a live feed from your board?

KH: I create a mix and then pass it off to Stephanie. We did sound and color at SIM so my mix was just one part of the whole.

SP: We presented several different options to Jason for the review process and the best option for Jason was to send him one file with color and mix together so he could see it like a viewer would see it. He was able to analyze both the color and the mix and how everything worked together.

Jason would view the postings immediately and intensely, given the tight schedule. He would send us notes and then Jason would get on a call with Keith and talk about the sound changes. Once we executed those changes then we’d send another posting to Jason for review, to sign-off on the changes and make sure he’s good with everything and that we’re ready to go to air.

 
TheLastDance_sound-12

What would you want other sound pros to know about your work on The Last Dance ?

KH: We all try to do the best possible work we can. I had to react and respond when we fast-forwarded the schedule. I trusted my gut instincts and tried to make the most impactful, powerful piece. I hope that sonically I matched the level of this man, Michael Jordan, and his team. You just got to keep cranking every day, and do what you do and a dream project — like this one was for me — will hit you one day. This was the best thing I’ve ever done.

There are six speakers and people pay good money for them so let’s try to utilize them as much as possible…

In terms of the mix, I try to take my documentary work to the next level. Documentaries as a medium have been escalating for the past five to seven years, but in the past few years the production value of documentaries has skyrocketed. So what can you do to make your documentary stand out from the others? I try to create as stylistic a documentary as possible, to make the montages as artistic and beautiful as we could to match the music, and fill out the surround field as much as possible. There are six speakers and people pay good money for them so let’s try to utilize them as much as possible — without taking away from the story of course. That artistic approach is not typically done on documentaries. So, that’s one thing I’m proud of.

A big thanks to Keith Hodne and Stephanie Pacchiano for giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the sound of The Last Dance and to Jennifer Walden for the interview!

 

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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:

  • Cinematic & Trailer Sound Effects Four Elements – Elemental Magic Play Track 3050 sounds included, 251 mins total $112.49
    FOUR ELEMENTS - Rock The Speakerbox Professional SFX

    Master the Art of Bending the Elemental Forces

     

    Unleash the raw power of fire, water, earth, and air with this comprehensive 9 GB sound library featuring 3050 high-quality sound effects across 630 files. Whether you’re designing cinematic soundscapes or enhancing video games Four Elements delivers the tools you need to harness the energy of the natural world.

    Construction Kit – 2443 Sounds

    A treasure trove of raw, organic, and processed sounds including seamless loops divided into Fire, Water, Air, Earth and Explosion categories. Customize every detail with an extensive selection of sound components.

    • Organic Fire: Campfire sizzles, torch whooshes, and flame bursts.
    • Processed Fire: Distorted impacts and unique crackles.
    • Organic Earth: Rock crashes, gravel scrapes, and heavy stone hits.
    • Processed Earth: Stylized rumbles and granular textures.
    • Organic Water: Ocean waves, hydrophone bubbles, and fluid splashes.
    • Processed Water: Underwater whooshes and stylized liquid smashes.
    • Organic Air: Bamboo swishes, cloth movements, and pressure bursts.
    • Processed Air: Filtered gusts and dynamic noise sweeps.
    • Explosion: Firework detonations, Butane bursts, and cinematic impacts.

    Building Blocks – 416 Sounds

    Game-ready sound layers featuring Impacts, Whooshes, and Textures as seamless loops. Elevate transitions and enhance atmospheres with loops and pre-designed sound layers.

    • Fire: Explosive bursts, blazing infernos, and warm embers.
    • Earth: Ground-shaking impacts, crumbling terrain, and heavy collisions.
    • Water: Cascading waves, serene rivers, and underwater ambiences.
    • Air: Whispering breezes, stormy turbulence, and slicing gusts.

    Design Kit – 192 Sounds

    A collection of ready-to-use sound effects divided into Attack, Bend, and Explosion categories for quick integration into your projects. Perfect for high-energy scenes and immersive storytelling.

    • Fire: Crackling flames, fiery bursts, and roaring infernos.
    • Earth: Crushing impacts, shifting ground, and massive land eruptions.
    • Water: Splashes, fluid manipulations, and crashing tidal waves.
    • Air: Slicing winds, swirling currents, and thunderous gusts.

     

    Four Elements gives you complete creative control, blending organic recordings with processed sound layers to meet the demands of any project. Master the forces of nature with Four Elements. Let your creativity ignite.

     

    Keywords:

    Elements, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Wave, Water, Liquid, Rock, Cast, Stone, Pebble, Torch, Gas, Flame, Campfire, Sizzle, Burst, Scrape, Whoosh, Impact, Texture, Attack, Bend, Bending, Explosion, Processed, Surge, Quake, Hit, Flow, Burn, Ignite, Drop, Smack, Destruction, Rumble, Hiss, Blow, Wind, Cloth, Movement, Underwater, Bubble, Ocean, River, Lake, Firework, Firecracker, Bang, Blast, Detonation, Magic, Fantasy, Forces, Fire Magic, Water Magic, Earth Magic, Fire Air, Fire Effect, Fire Whoosh, Water Whoosh, Seamless Loop, Loop, Fire Cast, Water Cast, Earth Cast, Air Cast

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  • Bicycle Sound Effects Skid and Drift Play Track 755 sounds included, 78 mins total $56

    Are you looking for skid sounds for your next action movie? Well, this sound library is made for you.

    “Skid and Drift” is the result of 4 years of recording work. It is a complete collection of skids from various vehicles, recorded from multiple perspectives, on all types of surfaces, and in high quality (dirt, dry and wet concrete, gravel, etc.).
    You will find skids from race cars recorded during the French National Drift Championship, skids from go-karts, motocross bikes, bicycles, skateboards, ice skates, rollerblades, as well as foot skids.
    These sounds were recorded in both stereo (XY and ORTF position) and mono, depending on the case, using the following microphones: Schoeps CCM4, Neumann U87, DPA4061, Lom MikroUsi. All sounds are recorded in 24-bit. The sampling frequency is 48kHz for scuffing footsteps sounds, and 96kHz and 192kHz for other recordings.

    The metadata is precise and complete. All sounds are in UCS format.

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  • Mechanical Sound Effects MicroMech Play Track 1800+ sounds included, 72 mins total $40

     MicroMech is an expressive collection of tiny, non-motorized mechanisms.

    Recorded by Nathan Moody in great ultrasonic detail, this collection of quiet and delicate sounds can become robotic limbs or fingers, weapon mechanisms, gun reloads, crafting or equipping sounds in a game, high-tech gadgets, superhero armor, clockwork steampunk artifacts, door latches, or any other metallic articulations you can think of.

    It pairs perfectly with Studio Obsidian’s Analogue Ordnance library for high-tech weaponry mechanism sounds.

    An hour of clicks, rattles, ratchets, trills, clacks, and slides will fill your sonic projects with mechanical filigree and mechanized finesse. Props include antique and vintage cameras, can openers, dictaphones, high-end fidget toys, and much more. Each recording in MicroMech has many performance variations, making them perfect for game audio projects.

    All sounds were recorded dry with a hypercardioid microphone and an ultrasonic-capable omni microphone into Millennia preamps, blended together for a punchy, full-range tone while preserving ultrasonic content.

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Explore the full, unique collection here

Latest sound effects libraries:
 
  • Car Sound Effects Golden State Mustang Play Track 130 sounds included, 28 mins total $44.71

    This sound library is a collection of various actions with game audio in mind from a Ford Mustang 2021 Ecoboost convertible, recorded in parts of rural California in November 2024.

    The Mustang features a 2.3L Inline-4 (I4) turbocharged engine, which was quite the character captured with a lot of emphasis in the multichannel recording session.

    For help to record this beauty I enlisted the aid of my friend Diego Hodge who helped with both his arsenal of microphone options, rigging up the ‘Stang, and planning for the session. You can learn more about Diego’s work here: https://diegohodgeaudio.com/

    The library contains captures of idling, all the way up to 5000 RPM and beyond. Both single rev cycles as well as laying on the pedal for a consistent, sustained loop was a key part of our capture log. We even tried some sporadic flares of the engine in the style of Fast and the Furious, so your scene/game can be complete with that classic aggressive turbo-charged muscle sound to signal to the competition that you mean business.

    For the rest of the session, we captured some burnouts, some close-miked details of the tire on dirt roads, the classic passbys at various speeds, as well as the typical foley and actions associated with vehicles: doors, windshield wipers, buttons, etc. The microphones used: Clippy EM272M and Primo EM258 capsules from Micbooster for the car interior, a pair of Tascam TM-78 condenser mics in the engine bay, a pair of ND468 dynamic mics on the exhaust, and the Rode NTG5 shotgun mic.

    The content is offered in 96 kHz 24 bit for the engine recordings and 192 kHz 24 bit for the actions performed inside the vehicle. Polywavs are naturally provided for the multichannel mic arrays. This library is fully UCS compatible and Soundminer-friendly with richly embedded metadata. It contains 25 WAV files in total with a runtime of close to 28 mins of audio.

    Thank you for listening. I sincerely hope you enjoy my work and have lots of fun making new creations for the world to hear! Also be sure to post or send me what you’re working on with the assets. Attribution is appreciated, but not required.

  • Drones & Mood Sound Effects Electromagnetic Drones Play Track 171+ sounds included, 108 mins total $49

    Electromagnetic Drones is a collection of 171 recordings that capture the invisible electromagnetic landscape produced by electronic devices. Using the Soma Ether, a specialized wide-band receiver, we captured hums, pulses, and static produced by phones, microwaves, fridges, TVs, computers, Wi-Fi routers, and more. Unlike traditional radios that filter out interference, Ether acts as an “anti-radio,” capturing a broad spectrum of electromagnetic activity from hertz to gigahertz, revealing the sonic textures generated by electronic equipment.

    The library features both raw recordings directly from the Soma Ether device, as well as designed sounds, giving you a versatile range of textures to work with. These recordings were transformed into deep, evolving drones, ranging from gritty industrial hums and eerie, synth-like tones to rhythmic machine pulses and dissonant, unsettling tones.

    Captured at 192kHz, these sounds maintain exceptional clarity, allowing for extreme pitch manipulation and creative sound processing. With its dark, atmospheric qualities, Electromagnetic Drones is well-suited for horror, suspense, drama, sci-fi, and experimental sound design in film, television, and video games. Whether you need haunting ambiences, dystopian textures, or immersive low-frequency drones, this collection provides a rich sonic palette drawn from sounds of the electromagnetic world.

  • Explosion Sound Effects Massive Fireworks Play Track 815 sounds included, 350 mins total $29.99

    Massive Fireworks – 815 files of Commercial Fireworks sound effects, at varying distances and intensities. From small pops and sparkles in the distance to screeches and bombastic mortar fire front and center. Massive Fireworks comes in at over 5 hours and 50 minutes of short and long displays of fireworks for every occasion. Recorded during several New Years and Holiday Celebrations. Massive Fireworks’ filenames are in the Universal Category System format with additional Metadata baked-in.

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  • Forged in Fury Vol. 1: Modular Sounds for Epic Combat

    Break down, customize, and master every detail of your combat effects with Forged in Fury Vol. 1, a collection of 394 brutal sounds in 192kHz/24. Includes katana, heavy axe, metal claws, and layer-by-layer edited vocals for total control.

    🔪 Katana (193 sounds):
    Double whooshes, precise slashes, impacts, blood splatters.
    Mix layers of edge and secondary effects (e.g. combine a quick whoosh with a feminine scream).

    🪓 Heavy Axe (96 sounds):
    Powerful whooshes, crushing blows, equip sounds, blood effects.
    Combine the roar of metal with the sounds of breaking bones.

    🔗 Metal Claws (37 sounds):
    Mechanical opening/closing, scratching, cutting whoosh.
    Ideal for fast movements and surprise attacks.

    🗣️ Male & Female Voices (68 Sounds):
    War cries, moans of pain, grunts of effort.
    Use them alone or synced with weapon effects.

    ✨ Key Feature:
    Each sound includes its own editable layers (e.g. whoosh + impact + blood). Do you want a bloodless ax swing? only the whoosh of a katana?, only blood? Modify it instantly.

    🎚️ Studio Quality:
    Recorded in 192kHz/24-32 bits, delivered in 192kHz/24 bits. Perfect for toning down, adding distortion or manipulating without losing clarity.

    More about the pack
    – Intuitive file naming
    – All you’ll ever need regarding katana, heavy ax and claw [Use them again & again]
    – Use the sound effects over and over, in any of your projects or productions, forever without any additional fees or royalties. Use the SFX in your game, in your trailer, in a Kickstarter campaign, wherever you need to, as much as you want to.
    – Totally mono compatibility
    – All sounds have several variations.
    – Use your imagination and feel free to use any sound for a other than the one described, remember that the world of sound is totally subjective.

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  • Explosion Sound Effects Mini Fireworks Play Track 40 sounds included, 24 mins total $6.99

    Mini Fireworks – 40 files of Commercial Fireworks sound effects, at varying distances and intensities. From small pops and sparkles in the distance to screeches and bombastic mortar fire front and center. Mini Fireworks comes in at over 24 minutes of short and long displays of fireworks for every occasion. Recorded during several New Years and Holiday Celebrations. Mini Fireworks’ filenames are in the Universal Category System format with additional Metadata baked-in.

    Looking for a Massive amount of Fireworks sound effects? We offer ‘Massive’ sound effect libraries as companions for all of our ‘Mini’ sound effect libraries. All recordings are unique to each library with no overlap. Go Mini today, and upgrade to the corresponding Massive library later, when you need more of that particular sound effect.

    Visit Us At: www.MassiveSoundFX.com

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