If you are releasing a new SFX library and you would like it to be included in our recap, please send us the details through our SFX Independence Submission Form.
As we move onto February, let’s take a walk through the days of internet yore and listen to the libraries released last month. We have a range of sound effects to include unique impulse responses, crunchy, grainy synths layers, candid urban and rural life, elements traveling through pipes, and plenty of precipitation to drench your watery scenes.
Fringe Elements by The Coil
This is crunchiness at its finest. Fringe Elements by The Coil has distorted, pulsating textures that make you feel as if your old IBM PC evolved in its landfill and is now stalking you. This library contains 225 heavily processed sounds such as noise, FX, distortions, rhythmic textures, and ghostly atmospheres that when layered on a mix will surely transform it. This library is also hearty enough to create the foundation for you to express that granulated punch you feel in your stomach.
(225 WAV files, 800 MB, 24bit/48kHz)
Storm Lake HD Pro by The Recordist
Have you ever had a day on the beach where the waves were perfect but your wind muff just wasn’t having it? Lament no longer, because ‘The Recordist‘ Frank Bry has your back. During a northerly storm last October, winds whooshed across the lake at 25 to 45 mph and Frank captured the clear waves that ensued. With his Schoeps MK4 and MK8, he caught them crashing against the docks, beaches and rocky shorelines. What better way to spend a day at the beach? Also, to celebrate the winter’s halfway point in Idaho, The Recordist is having a sale with a 25% storewide discount.
(16 WAV files, 1.42 GB, 24bit/96kHz)
Elements – Field Recordings and Density by ModeAudio
I don’t usually include sound libraries that were submitted but not released the month prior, but in the case of these two, I wrote about them before I noticed they’d been around a few months. I did, however, very much enjoy them. You win this time, ModeAudio!
Elements – Field Recordings by ModeAudio is a collection of windy, watery ambiences from England and Wales. Rather than the customary sounds of rain and thunder, this library focuses on the drenched countrysides with bubbling streams and moors, breezes that sweep through tall trees, raindrops pitter-pattering on tarp, and waterways that can scarcely contain their monstrous amounts of flowing water. This library’s 15 detailed recordings range from 26 to 60 seconds and are currently 15% off.
(15 WAV files, 182 MB, 24bit/44.1kHz)
Listen to the demo above for Density – Ambient Samples & Drones. It’s spectacular. I even forgot I was listening to a demo and went to Spotify to listen to it again. For grain and evolution in your sounds, this library supplies you with 150 detailed textures and drones that will brush across your soundscape like oil on poplar. The sounds were created with a myriad of techniques – granulation, FM Synthesis, spectral filtering and more – to give you tonal and granular textures, FM drones, sub basses and ambient textures. ModeAudio also included 50 synth stab SFX to add – as they put – a “percussive dimension” to your work.
(200 samples with Reason ReFills or Ableton Live Packs, 956 MB)
Animal Farm by Sound Ex Machina
Since a similarly-themed library came out last month, which isn’t uncommon, I wondered ‘what makes Animal Farm different?’ It didn’t take long to realize this library has a whole other approach. It includes not only farm animals but also farm equipment and tasks such as milking, feeding, mowing, tiling, sowing, chopping, etc… the work that makes farm life notorious for its long hours. This library contains 165 files with metadata and features 14 animal species as well as 25 rural backgrounds. Completionists will resonate with the fact it took Sound Ex Machina over a year to record it, as they captured all the activities, weather conditions and animal habits induced by each season. Also, if you are looking to record cows yourself in the future, check out their blog post for a hilarious word of caution.
(165 WAV files, 7 GB, 24bit/96kHz)
Berlin Ambiances and Urban Winds by Hzandbits
Ahh, Berlin. Some lucky people get to enjoy its eclectic blend of historical architecture every day. Others pop in for a visit and capture all the sounds they can, like Hzandbits‘ Christian Hagelskjær. Last month he visited the city and stealth-recorded ambiences in the sneakiest way possible with head-worn near- and quasi-binaural microphones. During his stay, recorded buildings such as the historically-preserved Bodemuseum, “Haus der Kulturen der Welt” center for the Arts, and the Hauptbahnhof, the city’s main railway station. Berlin Ambiances also includes his non-binaural recordings from 2013 for an interesting blend of Berliners in their natural habitat.
(31 WAV files, 3.69 GB, 24bit/96kHz)
Last month, Christian also released Urban Winds and took a different approach to urban ambiences. While it contains plenty of whistling and howling wind, the library also features objects being blown around, such as metal fences clanging in an unoccupied construction site and trash flying down an empty street. The wind types vary from strong breezes resonating through metal and small cavities to the aftermath of a violent storm that was, as Christian says, “the kind that rips the tiles off the roofs.” It also contains both X/Y stereo and mono versions to feature the recordings’ most interesting aspects.
(38 WAV files, 1.33 GB, 24bit/96kHz)
Rhythmic Convolutions 2 by Diego Stocco
Here is a type of sound library we haven’t see in a while, and it’s one with a special twist. Rhythmic Convolutions 2 is an IR library that focuses on creating rhythmic accents and textures. The impulse responses come from many unique sources, from antique sewing machines and hummingbirds to toys that look like they fell out of the TARDIS. Take a look for yourself in the video above. Diego Stocco explains his process and shows his creations, which enticed the DIY/foley artist within me. For those wondering how they can play with these impulse responses in their plug-ins, this IR library comes in the WAV format and works with software such as Izotope Trash 2 or Convolution Reverb Pro. For more info, please watch the video. It is seriously educational.
(200 WAV files, 56.5 GB, 24bit/48kHz)
The Drip by Sonic Salute
You’ve been in this situation. You hear that perfect sound – a low hanging branch trickling into a puddle below or drips falling from underneath a second story deck, but you weren’t living the “Always Be Recording” life and either had no device to record it or nothing to protect your recorder from the rain! Okay, maybe that was just me, but The Drip has atoned for my audio recording sins. This library was collected over the last two years by Sonic Salute’s Mikkel Nielsen, and it focuses on the intricacies of dripping sounds. It contains complex, twisting notes heard from little trickles and raindrops, pounding rhythms and short pulses from constant dripping, and the white noise of shattering rainfall.
(57 WAV files, 5 GB, 24bit/96kHz)
Piping Systems by SHAPINGWAVES
David Kamp and his SHAPINGWAVES team have taken pipe ambience to a new level with Piping Systems. This very specific library could flesh out the duct work of an entire interactive spaceship with pipes to pump air, gas and sewage through the lungs, veins and intestines of the ship. Each sound came from one of three municipal processing sites – a gas control station, sewage plant and waterworks – and the library includes both indoor and outdoor recordings as well as different pipe sizes, temperatures, industrial processes, and proximities. Don’t worry, though these sounds contrast intricately, the detailed metadata lets you know exactly what’s in store.
(46 WAV files, 3.6 GB, 24bit/96kHz)