Michael Raphael recently released Small motors on Rabbit Ears Audio. This package is terrific sfx collection full all kind of little motorized devices, including appliances, broken devices, and also a really cool robot: the Maker Bot 3D Printer.
This library maintains the same great sounding stuff from the first Rockets library. It’s recorded at 96kHz/24-Bit and comes tagged with full metadata description. The sound quality is really great and all the files worked perfectly in my project, where I tweaked and stretched them in a lot of different ways. Let’s talk about my favorite features.
The library includes a lot of sounds recorded from a Maker Bot 3D printer, an amazing printer used for rapid prototyping and able to build things from CAD software. The sounds of this monster are so unique, and Michael really include a lot of them.
All the performances of the robot were captured using three different microphones, and recorded a lot of sounds from the 3 stepper motors doing several tasks and performances, including buzzing elements, normal movements, crazy sounds, and lots of options and variations, both in the sound and the performances. It’s an awesome machine and was perfectly captured.
Appliances and Tools, the servo fun
Michael also included several amazing sounds from different kitchen appliances and tools, including a food processor, a commercial blender, mixers, drills, dremel tool, saws, an amazing screwdriver and more. Each machine has its unique approach and performances, which are long, detailed and full of variations.
All these elements were also captured using three different microphones, which gives really different options when working with the library. That’s amazing for this type of sources, because when you’re dealing with motors and this mechanical stuff, perspective, scale and the different “colors” of sound of the motors is so important, and having several performances, captured with different microphones, makes this very flexible and opens the palette options a lot.
Using the library
I used Small motors to design a lot of the sounds included in this video:
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/16305027[/vimeo]
Here are some specific examples of the use of the library. I worked with a lot of different sounds from the library. My favorites were the Maker Bot, the motorized screwdriver and the mixers. Check some examples below. These sounds are just some layers from specific spots of my recent cinematic work.
— Small arms sounds, created with small dremel and motorized screwdriver.
[soundcloud width=”100%” height=”81″ params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false” url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/6524157″]
— Small arms and drill action. Created using small dremel, motorized screwdriver and drill material
[soundcloud width=”100%” height=”81″ params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false” url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/6524190″]
— Engine up movement created with large commercial mixer.
[soundcloud width=”100%” height=”81″ params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false” url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/6524111″]
— Some layers for the door opening sequence. Created using the Maker Bot and electrical can opener.
[soundcloud width=”100%” height=”81″ params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false0″ url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/6524092″]
— The same door. This time combined with sounds from the Industrial SFX library from Hart FX.
[soundcloud width=”100%” height=”81″ params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false” url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/6524071″]
Conclusion
This is the perfect library for anyone who needs a variety of unique motors and really great performances. No matter if you can go to your kitchen and record several appliances. This library offers you a very unique palette of motors with lots of fantastic options focused on a sound designer’s work.
Visit: Rabbit Ears Audio – Smal Motors SFX Library | Making of Small Motors SFX Library at Sonic Terrain