World Cup Special: What Makes Sports Sound Great:

Posted June 14, 2018 by Asbjoern Andersen in Game audio, Recording, Television sound

With the 2018 football/soccer World Cup beginning today - and with 3.2 billion people (!) tuning in for the last one - let's explore the talent, effort and creativity that goes into making sports sound great.

For starters, two classics from Vox and 99% Invisible give you the story on why sports sound better in the living room, and on how sports sound is designed.

You'll also get the inside-story behind the sound for legendary game franchises such as FIFA and Madden NFL, the science behind stadium sound, the sound of tennis, basketball, boxing, hockey, skiing, UFC and American Football + an interview with the Patrick Baltzell, responsible for the sound of the past 19 Super Bowls. And finally, discover the most popular sound effects libraries when it comes to sports.

Please share:

Why sports sound better in the living room:

“We don’t often think about audio when we watch sports on TV, but it’s a huge part of the experience. We spoke with several A1 audio engineers who mix the sounds of sports to learn more about what it takes to capture the crack of the bat and the swish of the net.

From the cadence of the quarterback to the sounds of skates on ice, audio mixers are tasked with getting microphones close enough to the action to gather the sounds but still out of the way of the players and the fans.

Once the microphones are set up, they handle the stressful task of live mixing all the audio for the broadcast, so that we can hear the announcers and the sounds of the game, despite thousands of screaming fans and the PA system blaring music.

In the end, if they do the job right, you’ll forget they exist.”

Watch the video:

Why sports sound better in your living room

99% invisible: The sound of sports:

“The experience of “live” events can be highly produced, very different from the experience of being there. Is this enhanced sound so very different from that of a film or a video game? We meet a Hollywood sound effects specialist and a video game sound designer to find out what they do to create a sense of authenticity and excitement. Are they raising our expectations of how “real” sport should sound?”

Hear the podcast:

Great reads on the sound of sports:

• Football / Soccer: Viviana Caro on the Sound Design for FIFA 18

• American Football: Creating the sound of sports for Madden NFL 18 Longshot

• Ultimate Fighting: Creating the sound design for EA Sports UFC 2

• Basketball: Why are basketball games so squeaky? Consider the spiny lobster

• Boxing: Recording the brutal reality of the boxing ring

• Tennis: From the quiet of Wimbledon, the loud groan of the crowd

• Hockey: Recording the sounds of hockey – by René Coronado

• Hockey: NHLers love the unique, vibrant sounds of the game of hockey

• Downhill Skiing: Capturing the sounds of skiing for SNOW

• The Sound Of Sports: Peregrine Andrews on the sound of sports: What is real?

• Super Bowl: How Patrick Baltzell designed the audio for the past 19 Super Bowls

• Football / Soccer: Jean-Edouard Miclot, on recording soccer crowd reactions at a stadium

• Recording: Mic’d up: How we hear sounds from the field

• Stadium Sound: Wired for sound: The science behind stadium audio systems

• Stadium Sound: How do you give stadiums atmosphere?

Bonus videos – NFL recording, football reactions, bare-knuckle boxing + the sounds of Wimbledon recreated:

Recording the sounds for Madden NFL 17:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUzixas2KG0
Go behind the scenes as the Solid Audioworks team shares the sound story behind Madden NFL 17 (from the Madden NFL 18 Longshot sound story)

What it sounds like when Brazil scores in the World Cup:

Sports aren’t just loud in the stadium. Here’s what it sounded like when Claus Wahlers captured the neighborhood reactions to a football/soccer game between Brazil and Croatia in Moema, São Paulo:

This is how my neighborhood sounds when Brazil scores in the World Cup

Designing the sounds of bare-knuckle boxing:

Need the sound of an UFC-style bare-knuckle boxing fight? This layer-by-layer feature on the punch sounds from Fight Club might give you some sonic inspiration:

Punch sound design from Fight Club explained by Ren Klyce

Recreating the sounds of Wimbledon – with Lou Brown and Rick Blything:

What does Wimbledon sound like? For this great initiative, Foley artist Louise Brown and sound designer Rick Blything worked with a group of young people from Wandsworth Vision Support Service to recreate the sounds of Wimbledon:
https://vimeo.com/132304781

Popular sports sound effects libraries:

Sports Sound Effects Soccer SFX Play Track 100 sounds included $20

Want the sound of soccer (or football, if you like)? This library delivers a wide range of soccer sounds, including various kicks and ball impact sounds.

It also packs keep-up, knee, chest and header sounds + ball impacts on various surfaces / items. And finally, soccer boot footsteps, keeper sounds and ref whistles are also included.

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Human Sound Effects G4F SFX03 – Small Crowds Outdoor Play Track 1947 sounds included $74

G4F SFX03 – Small Crowds Outdoor is a sound effects library dedicated to outdoor voice samples, recorded with small audiences (from solos to 15 actors).

If you are looking for outdoor crowds with a sizable audience, then this library will definitely help.

Nb Files: 621 wavs (207 files with 3 different mic placements and setups : MS near, MS far, ORTF rear) which bring a total flexibility to the sound editor for a final mixdown in stereo, quad, 5.1 etc…

Nb SFX: 1947 (649 SFX in 3 placements each)

Size: 4,38Go (zip archive of 2,90Go)

UCS Naming and Classification

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Sports Sound Effects Large Crowd Reactions Play Track 81+ sounds included, 53 mins total $75

Sometimes emotion comes when you feel together as one. This is happening in stadiums, arenas, demonstrations when people are as one voice. This collection gets you the power of the crowd. People will go through various feelings, sometimes silent or very noisy, you will be able to cover a lot of situations with it. Moreover ambisonic format-B 3D recordings are great to enhance those kind of situations.

About Ambisonics:
This is an Ambisonics sound effects library - and by using the free SoundField SurroundZone 2 plugin you can convert the B-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.

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Environments & Ambiences Sports Crowd Cheer! Play Track 41 sounds included, 15 mins total $14.95

Welcome sports fans to Sports Crowd Cheer sound library.

Be in the crowd up close with this mini-pack of over 40 crowd reactions including cheers, boos, your ups, your downs, down to the buzzer, score and more! Short crowd bursts to longer reactions with sirens and horns. With sounds from the arena, ballpark, stadium, and court, it’s a score from Carma Studio!

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Environments & Ambiences The Football Match Play Track 14+ sounds included, 13 mins total $30

Get the real sounds of a UK football / soccer match – including crowd reactions covering everything from applause, cheering, booing, chanting, groans, oohs!, misses, goals and more. If you're after real stadium crowd reactions, this one delivers.

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City Life Sound Effects Crowd Reactions. Concert And Show. Play Track 90 sounds included $45

This collection presents a wide range of crowd sounds. There is applause, shouting, cheers, rhythmic clapping, disappointment, whistling and more. Audiences also differ in the number of people and, accordingly, the saturation of the atmosphere.

This library will help you a lot in working with films, TV shows and concerts. Add the genuine emotions of the crowd to your project, they will undoubtedly complement the composition.

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Environments & Ambiences Soccer Stadium Ambience Play Track 123 sounds included, 170 mins total $20

Recorded throughout 3 seasons, during the course of more than 10 matches on Sport Lisboa & Benfica’s beautiful Estádio da Luz, Soccer Stadium Ambience gathers a wide range of crowd reactions and emotions; useful for background ambiences that can be applied not only on audiovisual football content but also on other large stadium sports-based projects.

All prominent dialogue between supporters was either removed or toned down with the aid of mastering and EQing software, in order to preserve the neutral nature of this library, allowing certain crowd reactions to flow naturally. There are also no long fade-ins our fade-outs, permitting whoever acquires this library to create their own edits and collages however deemed necessary. Some very light wind and noise removal techniques were applied on certain audio files, without impairing the original mood presented by the crowd.

Between long takes of supporters singing, booing, celebrating goals, reacting to good team moves and bad referee decisions, this nearly 3 hour long library recorded in an always packed location will provide the necessary emotional crowd feedback to your sports-based projects.

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Sports Sound Effects Basketball Game Ultra Play Track 334 sounds included $59
Basketball Game Ultra is a huge sound effects library for, well, basketball. It includes both an international match field recording (with over 5,000 people attending the game) and isolated sounds of backboard hoops, basket swish nets, metal bars, shoe squeaks and dribbles on various hard surfaces, as well as other related sounds – all performed by a professional basketball player in indoor and outdoor courts as well as inside the studio.

Οur aim with this collection is to give you choices to:
- Create realistic soundscapes of world class basketball games or other sports events
- Design from scratch your own unique sound frames
- Foley the character in your audiovisual production
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Car Sound Effects Extreme Drift Play Track 360 sounds included, 220 mins total $49

The Extreme Drift SFX library includes 360 HQ (24bit/96kHz) close and distant range perspective, auto racing recordings. Audio material of vehicles, drifting and maneuvering around race tracks at various speeds and densities taking corners and speeding on long straightaways.

You will find idle engine sounds, powerful engine revs, slow and fast starts, crazy accelerations and wild breaking, roaring overtakings, tandem battles, tire screeches and skids echoing beautifully in the air. The audio found in our library is not limited to startups, shutdowns and gear shifts, but also offers ambiences of pit lane and working team crews.

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Sports Sound Effects GOLF – Swings, Hits, Hazards, Golf Carts & More Play Track 218 sounds included $25

Every sound you will need for a nice day at the links! This hole-in-one sound library contains 218 unique golf specific sounds!

You will find golf club swings, hits, misses, from all different clubs and ranging from the fairway to the deep rough, golf cart engine driving, hazards like water, sand pit trap, trees, throwing clubs, selecting clubs, washing ball, raking sand, ambience, sinking the putt, flag pin and more!

Music is only heard in the demo. Downloads are high resolution and without background music.

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Latest sports releases:

Game Audio Packs - Game Sound Effects Libraries Sports Slot Game Music and Sound Effects Play Track 170 sounds included $269.99
ATTENTION: The audio preview only simulates gameplay to demo just a portion of the library’s content.

Reward your players with the jackpot of 340 high-quality (170 original sounds), easy to use audio files that provide you with all the sports-themed audio your games will ever need!

Create a casino masterpiece and a true immersion in your slots with this one-of-a-kind collection of royalty free sounds and music, expertly handcrafted to be a perfect fit for your games.

ALL SLOT GAME ELEMENTS YOU WILL EVER NEED

With numerous INTERFACE SOUNDS, such as REEL SPIN START BUTTONs, REEL SPINNING noises, REEL STOPs, BET INCREASE and DECREASE sounds, and all other interface buttons and TRANSITIONS, as well as WIN PAYOUT SOUNDs, such as short WIN TUNES, MUSICAL PAYOUT ROLLUP COUNTERs, SELECT and REVEAL jingles, various SYMBOL sounds, and FREE GAMES / FEATURE MUSIC LOOPs to fit any scene or situation (from strip-back relaxing background to upbeat catchy themes), this library is a perfect choice for your Online Video Slot, Mobile or even Land-based Casino Games!

SPORTS-THEMED SOUNDS FOR YOUR FEATURE GAMES

Need BASKETBALL game sounds, SOCCER / FOOTBALL, HOCKEY, BASEBALL, GOLF, TENNIS, TABLE TENNIS / PING PONG, SKIING / BOBSLED, SWIMMING or WATERPOLO, BOXING and even more? We got you covered!

With all essential action and foley sounds for most common Oympic Sports that have been included in this pack, along with ambiences and miscellaneous sounds – such as AIR HORNS, ARENA AMBIENCES, CROWD CHEERING and CHANTING, JUDGE WHISTLE, and more – this sound effects library will leave nothing to be desired!

ENGAGING SPORTS MUSIC IN ALL GENRES

Immerse your players in gaming experience like no other with almost every music genre commonly found in sport events, games and tv program. We have also included multiple variations and edits to make your workflow as fast and easy as posible.

From INDIE ROCK, HARD ROCK and METAL, to multiple sub-genres of ELECTRONIC Music, FUNK, ROCK BLUES and other genres, from SHORT STINGS, JINGLES and DROPS, to LOOPS, music mixes in VARIOUS INTENSITIES, included content here is a must have in your audio collection.

With each audio file being drag-and-drop ready, presented in high quality MP3 and WAV formats with meticulously labelled keywords for your convienience, you will create the perfect gaming experience for your players in a matter of moments!

So STEP UP YOUR SLOTS, GRAB ATTENTION and BUILD CONNECTION with YOUR PLAYERS!

DOWNLOAD NOW!

SPORTS SLOTS at a Glance:
- Symbol Sounds, Buttons and other Interface Sounds, Reel Spin and Stops, Trigger Sounds, Selection and Reveal sound effects, Music Loops for every scene and situation, Win Tunes and Rollups, Payouts and other short Celebration Tunes + much more!
- Sports-Themed Feature Sounds: Basketball, Soccer / Football, Hockey, Baseball, Golf, Tennis, Table Tennis / Ping Pong, Skiing / Bobsled, Swimming, Waterpolo, Boxing and more
- Numerous Variations and Edits of the assets, such as multiple lengths, intensities, looping and non-looping variants, and more;
- Ready to use – requires no editing, labelling or splicing. Categorized, organized and individually labeled files for maximum use efficiency;
- FREE Updates to higher versions, FOREVER!
Enrich your slot IP in seconds with beautifully mixed, AAA quality sounds brought to you by our team of industry veterans, whose 1000+ slot games worth of experience have culminated in this extraordinary sound pack!

DON’T DELAY any longer, you are only a step away from bringing your game to life. Take action and DOWNLOAD NOW!
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Hand Combat Sound Effects Massive Punches Play Track 505 sounds included, 1 mins total $49.99

MASSIVE PUNCHES – 505 files of punch sound effects, from several sparring sessions. From quiet taps and hits to thudding and cracking impacts. Massive Punches comes in at over 1 minute, of real skin on skin body and head shots. Bring the power of bare knuckle to your next project. Recorded at 192kHz and 32bit, using microphones capable of recording ultrasonic frequencies. Massive Punches filenames are in the Universal Category System format with additional Metadata baked-in.

Don’t need a Massive amount of Punch sound effects? We offer ‘Mini’ sound effect libraries as companions for all of our ‘Massive’ 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.

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Hand Combat Sound Effects Mini Punches Play Track 60 sounds included $9.99

MINI PUNCHES – 60 files of punch sound effects, from several sparring sessions. From quiet taps and hits to thudding and cracking impacts. Mini Punches comes in at over 15 seconds, of real skin on skin body and head shots. Bring the power of bare knuckle to your next project. Recorded at 192kHz and 32bit, using microphones capable of recording ultrasonic frequencies. Mini Punches filenames are in the Universal Category System format with additional Metadata baked-in.
Looking for a Massive amount of Punch 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.

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Bundles UK Football Play Track 270 sounds included $149

UK Football brings the energy, passion, and excitement of the beautiful game to your projects, with over 270 professionally recorded sounds that are synonymous with the football/soccer world.

Our expert team has perfected the art of capturing authentic sounds discreetly, ensuring a natural and immersive experience without disrupting the sporting environment. This approach allows us to deliver the most genuine and realistic audio representation of the players, seamlessly blending into your project.

The library provides a wide array of assets and passionate atmospheres captured from real football matches, from both the men’s and women’s game, with varying professional levels, fan commentary with roaring cheers, crowd chants, and celebrations. It even offers a selection of footballing foley, from kicks, dribbles, handling, saves, and more—providing everything you need to achieve your project ‘goals’.

Elevate your project with the UK Football collection—the ultimate resource for authentic, high-impact football sound. Capture the intensity of the game with premium 24-bit, 96kHz recordings with UCS metadata embedded.

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Bundles Surround Sound LAB Complete Collection (perpetual subscription) Play Track 6000+ sounds included $799
Surround Sound LAB Complete Collection

Unlock the full potential of your audio projects with the Surround Sound LAB Complete Collection. This bundle offers our entire Surround Sound Lab catalog in one comprehensive, perpetual one-time subscription.

Over 800 GB and +7,500 premium sounds. +5.100$ in value. And always growing.

The Ultimate Audio Resource

Our Complete Collection is the ultimate audio resource, meticulously curated and updated with our newest releases. Deliver your best work with the most extensive collection of world-class sound effects we’ve ever offered. This flagship collection is perfect for creators, post-production professionals, video editors, game developers, and more.

Our equipment is proudly part of Blacktone Studio team in Madrid, a studio with over 10 years of experience in sound post-production for cinema and TV.

Exclusive Benefits
- 🚀 Future Releases Included: Purchase once and receive all future libraries for free, directly to your inbox.
- 🔊 Ambisonic and Surround Recordings: Experience the richness of third-order ambisonic and surround recordings, capturing the most immersive audio environments.
- 🎧 Pristine and Consistent Quality: Enjoy pristine, high-quality sounds with consistent audio fidelity across all files.
- 🎤 State-of-the-Art Recording and Mastering Equipment: We utilize the best recording gear available, including cutting-edge third-order microphones and the latest technologies. Your sound experiences are crafted with meticulous attention to detail, edited, and mastered in our 9.1.6 Dolby Atmos immersive mixing stage.
- 📦 Massive Library: Over 6000 files, totaling more than 600 GB of premium audio.
- 🏷️ UCS Compliant: Fully compliant with the Universal Category System.
- 📋 Detailed Metadata: Each file comes with descriptive, embedded UCS metadata. View the sound list in XLS format.
- 💻 Flexible Delivery: Choose between download and hard drive delivery options.
- 💰 Royalty-Free: Use all sounds without any additional fees.
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THE WORLD’S EASIEST WAY TO GET INDEPENDENT SOUND EFFECTS:

A Sound Effect gives you easy access to an absolutely huge sound effects catalog from a myriad of independent sound creators, all covered by one license agreement - a few highlights:

Environments & Ambiences Suburban Russia Play Track 56 sounds included, 173 mins total $19

What could be better than summertime in the country?

Of course summertime in Russian village!

Those sweet sounds of hammers, lawnmowers, dogs, neighbors activity, forests, fields, rain and, of course, lots of cicadas!

This library contains authentic atmospheres of villages and small towns of suburban Moscow, as well as sounds of nature, roomtones and doors of the old Dacha from Soviet era.

KEY POINTS:

• Authentic atmospheres of dacha, forests, fields, streams, rains, streets of small towns, night and day suburban activity and roomtones!

• An excellent addition to your library for film, TV and multimedia – Suburban Russia during summer and autumn time

• Recorded with Mid-Side Sennheiser MKH8040/MKH30 combo

• Sorted by location-type categories

• All files have metadata included

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User Interface (UI) Sound Effects Motion Graphics Play Track 650+ sounds included $9

Introducing MOTION GRAPHICS, a complete Motion Graphics sound effects library from SoundMorph!

Motion Graphics focuses on all the elements you might need for sound design on a trailer, a cinematic scene or a visual that is heavy with motion graphics, whether it be abstract or straight forward, Motion Graphics has all the elements and textures you could think of. Motion Graphics are something all of us sound designers run into at one point or another, so this library is an excellent addition to your sound effects tool box.

Motion Graphics was created by and in collaboration with sound designer Rostislav Trifonov (SoundMorph Elemental library contributor).

Motion Graphics features 650 24bit/96 kHz .wav files, all meticulously embedded with Soundminer & Basehead metadata.

The library features:
• 450 + designed sound effects
• 190 + source audio files
• Whooshes
• Impacts
• Risers
• Stingers
• Low end and Sub Bass
• Impulse Responses
• Passbys
• Textures – noise, grit, glitch
• Ambiences
• Buttons and Clicks
• Mechanical Elements
• Granular effects

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Featured Sound Creators Modular UI Play Track $9

Modular UI is an advanced user interface library designed by world-renowned sound designer and musician Richard Devine.

Designed and sourced entirely from Richard Devine’s personal and exclusive Eurorack modular synths and processors collection, the Modular UI soundpack combines the retro, clean sound of analog with the futuristic tech of the new wave of advanced analog and digital synthesis from modular synths, evoking flashbacks of iconic sound design heard in both classic and modern sci-fi films.

The Modular UI soundpack gives you access to sounds created by one of the masters of modular synths and sound design, and is sourced from equipment that would take a lifetime to purchase and assemble, giving an incredible value to this soundpack both artistically and financially.

Utilizing many Eurorack modules that have not yet been released to the public and containing samples equally suited to sound designers and electronic musicians alike, Modular UI is in a class by itself!

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Explore the full, unique collection here

Latest sound effects libraries:

Game Audio Packs - Game Sound Effects Libraries Kawaii UI Bundle Play Track 1339+ sounds included $70

Kawaii UI Bundle is the ultimate bundle for cute user interface sounds.
In this Bundle you get both volumes of our Kawaii UI libraries.
Kawaii UI + Kawaii UI 2

These libraries provide an adorable blend of cute, satisfying interface sounds, crafted to enhance user experience and feedback.
Bring your games and apps to life with the Kawaii UI Bundle.

It’s ideal for creating joyful menus, delightful HUDs, playful navigation and notifications, engaging pop-ups, and expressive text.

What’s Inside?

Designed

The designed portion of Kawaii UI Bundle gives you a selection of ready to use OS sounds, various melodic and synth based sounds, button presses, cursors, notifications, swipes, errors, bootups, app opens, loading loops, etc. We’ve even included an adorable vocal alphabet for character text.

Source

The source recordings inside are a treasure trove of physical button presses, clicks, pops, taps, mouth sounds, toks, shakers, general synthesised UI sounds, FM bells and telemetry style sounds.. Kawaii UI Bundle provides you with the essential building blocks to craft your own distinctive designs. Combining these elements gives sound designers a robust sonic palette to create new UI sounds.

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Footsteps Sound Effects Footsteps Vegetation Play Track 582+ sounds included $59

Vegetation Footsteps is a detailed collection of footwear and movement variations recorded on dry leaves and forest floor textures. Featuring walk, run, sprint, scuff, pivot, and single step actions, this library captures the nuanced crunch and rustle of layered vegetation underfoot. With performances in sport shoes, sandals, leather shoes, high heels, and barefoot, each sound is designed for realistic character movement across natural environments. Ideal for games, film, and animation, Vegetation Footsteps offers clean, focused assets for building immersive terrain interaction.

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Foley Sound Effects Potion Sound Effects Play Track 135 sounds included $19.99

A collection of 135 potion sound effects.

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Game Audio Packs - Game Sound Effects Libraries Power Up Sound Effects Play Track 140 sounds included $29.99

A collection of 140 individual power up ability sound effects.

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Foley Sound Effects Bowling Sound Effects Play Track 103 sounds included $19.99

A collection of 103 bowling sound effects.

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