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Posted by on Feb 24, 2014 | 3 comments

LA Underground – An Interview with Charles Maynes

LA-1-940I recently had a chance to sit down with sound designer and sound FX recordist Charles Maynes and chat about his new “LA Underground” sound library, available from Rabbit Ears Audio. Inspired by the gritty and seedy Los Angeles shown in countless films, “LA Underground” is a 10 GB collection of ambiences from all over the city, from the industrial centers near the LA River to the heart of Downtown.

Designing Sound: How did this library come about?

Charles Maynes: I had been talking to Zach Seivers and Justin Davey over at Snap Sound, who I had met through Dave Yewdall. Basically, a conversation I had with them last summer was kind of the seed for the conversation I eventually had with Michael [Raphael]. They had been hired to do a film in New York, and they were going to go out on location and record a bunch of stuff in the city and at the practical locations, and they were like, “Hey, this is a really big projects for us, so we’re going to actually invest in some Schoeps mics and stuff.” They were debating whether to go M/S or X/Y.

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Posted by on Dec 20, 2013 | 1 comment

Review: Twisted Tools METAMORPH

Metamorph Logo

METAMORPH is the latest sample library from Twisted Tools, makers of the designed sample libraries as well as some fun and unique Reaktor ensembles. With sounds designed by BJM Mario Bajardi and Komplex (Iter-Research), METAMORPH “takes heavily processed violins, pianos and acoustic instruments and morphs them into impacts, sci-fi atmospheres, user interface elements and beyond.”

METAMORPH comes as stereo 24-bit, 96kHz BWAV files with full SoundMiner metadata for easy searching. It includes sampler kits for Ableton Live 9′s Sampler and Simpler, Logic 9’s EXS24, and Native Instruments’ Kontakt, Battery, and Maschine; Also induced is the MP16d, Twisted Tools’ sample player. METAMORPH contains just over 2 GB of samples broken down into 10 categories: Drums, Imaging Elements, Micro, Noises, Pass By, Sci-Fi Atmos, SFX, Textures, Tonal, and Composite. The “Micro” category includes User Interface and “Microbot” elements. There’s a good selection of sounds to be had, and the added metadata makes finding things fairly easy.

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Posted by on Dec 5, 2013 | 3 comments

A Second Look at the Hybrid Library

Hybrid_and_Expansion_1Earlier this year, I reviewed the Hybrid Library from Pro Sound Effects. Overall, it was a fairly positive review. While I was impressed with the library, I also pointed out some of its rough edges. The primary focus of the review was on the library’s metadata and how it would affect work-flow. I won’t go into heavy detail on the process here, as you can simply lick on the link above if you haven’t already read the review. Pro Sound Effects took notice of the few complaints I had with the library, solicited feedback from existing owners, and has taken steps to address the library’s weaknesses. Now that the library is available again, it’s worth seeing if the improvements have made the library any more enticing.

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Posted by on Sep 1, 2013 | 2 comments

SFX Roundup August 2013

August has come and gone, and we didn’t want to get to September without mentioning another handful of great sound libraries released this past month. Travel figures prominently in this month’s roundup.

 

New Sound Labs

New Sound Lab – L.A. Freeways

A comprehensive collection of freeway traffic sounds, recorded in Los Angeles along the US-101, I-405, I-5, I-10, I-110, SR-134, and SR-2 Freeways. The sound pack includes everything from vehicle close ups to general traffic ambience.

For more information, or to purchase, go to New Sound Lab.

 

 

Airborne Sound

Airborne Sound – Jet Fighter, Race Car, and Steam Train

Three high quality vehicle sound collections from the team at Airborne Sound. The Jet Fighter and Steam Train packs feature about 40 sounds each, while the Race Car pack contains over 200. They also continue to offer their Crowd and Ambience collections for free.

For more information, or to purchase, go to Airborne Sound.

 

 

SoundMorph

SoundMorph – Solar Sky Presale

If you’re in need of interstellar travel sounds, SoundMorph is offering a presale on their Solar Sky collection. Their Robotic Lifeforms and Users of Tomorrow packs will also help round out your science fiction library.

For more information, or to purchase, go to SoundMorph.

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Posted by on Aug 11, 2013 | 1 comment

Airborne Sound Offering Free Sound Libraries

Airborne Sound

Last month, we told you that Airborne Sound was offering their Victory Vegas Motorcycle Sound Effect Bundle for free as part of their redesigned website’s beta test. Well, it seems they weren’t finished with the freebies, as they’ve recently added their Crowd Bundle, Train Bundle, Ambience Bundle, and Variety 2 Bundle to the list.

These high-quality sound effect libraries will definitely come in handy. So be sure to head over to Airborne Sound today to take advantage of this limited time offer before it expires.

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