2017 was a remarkable year for sound effects. Plenty of new field recordists and sound designers have released their libraries and we also got plenty from the ones that already made a name for themselves. Without further ado, here are some of the sound effects releases from late November and December.
Normaly I don’t share free libraries in indie sound effects roundup but today I am making an exeption. 344 audio released a 1.6 GB of free sound effects. You can download it here.
Highlights
Microtonal Metal by Hiss and a Roar
For MICROTONAL METAL we have recorded with four waterphones, in the centre is an authentic MEGABASS Waterphone designed by Richard Waters (RIP) and built and tuned for us by Brooks Hubbert. On the right is an Ocean Harp and on the left two models of the AquaSonics clones…. The MegaBass model is in a league of its own, but each model has its own unique character, so we’ve bowed, struck & friction malleted them (is that even a word?) – all captured using two Barcus Berry contact mics and an ORTF MKH8040 pair of mics….
Double Bass Sound Effects by Sonic Salute
This set of sounds does not only include, weird low double bass bow strokes, stabs, vibrating strings, drones, harsh harmonics, string scrapes, bow stroke voices, and bright violin tones and screams. It also include the opportunity to open up a whole new set of sonic adventures.
Robotic Creations: Heads Up Display by BoomBox Library
The Heads Up Display sound effects library is the first installment in the Robotic Creations Collection. Each library within the Robotic Creations Collection contains sound effects designed to match five different robotic personalities with their own unique sonic characteristics: Mimo, the robot buddy; Q5, the vintage robot; NGage, the exosuit; Gregory, the android; and Firewall, the mech suit.
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Textures and Materials
Ice Fury by Flysound
“Ice Fury by Flysound” is a sound library of ice breaking to pieces in as full a variety of ways as possible. This is a thesaurus of the various ways ice gets undone, with blasts and crashes as well as scrapes and swishes and cracks and splinters too.
Body Sounds by Textures Sound
Bone cracks, breathing, burps, chewing, coughs, eating, farts, gagging, gargling, grumbles, hiccups, kissing, nose blows, puking, rumble, scratching, sneezes, spitting, swishes, throat clears, yawns. This library of only the highest quality sounds of the body was recorded over several long and precarious nights. It was a labor of love, as we starved ourselves for the perfect stomach grumbles, and gagged ourselves for authentic puking sounds.
Rummage by SoundBits and Glitchedtones
Rummage is a collaborative sound library from SoundBits and Glitchedtones with a focus on unsystematic searches through everyday items.
Created especially for projects calling for careful, hasty or frantic rummaging, these 733 files offer up plenty of variation to cover a wide range of scenarios.
Liquids by G4F SFX
GAF SFX04 Liquids is a sound effects library dedicated to water sounds.
Open & Close 2 by Soundbits
Part 2 of the ‘Open & Close’ sound effects library. It brings you even more versatile sounds of various things that can be opened and/or closed. Obviously there are again several doors, hatches and drawers – but also lots of other opening and closing sound effects that will come in handy in your everyday sound design work, most with several variations.
Small Office Foley & FX by Max Christensen Audio
This library is all about the small insignificant sounds that occur everyday in any small office along with some very special sounds made from those items. All sounds are recorded cleanly with many variations to choose from and named meticulously. They´ve also been noise treated and edited carefully to make the use a seamless experience.
Rustle Tones by Articulated Sounds
Outdoor and in studio
Light breeze and heavy wind gusts were recorded on many locations: in forests, near shrubs, tall grass, corn fields, and in streets. Leaves were captured fluttering on branches but also whirling and dancing on the ground.
Variety of foliage and other textures
Great amount of variations: Leaves of all shapes (needles, compound, single, broadleaf, dry, twigs, branches,…), and various materials such as plastic, paper, fabric, dirt were recorded. All of which through various interactions such as shuffle, shake, rub, brush, hit, fiddle, whip, and whoosh.
Multichannel Buttons and Switches by Norsonant
This collection contains a wide variety of buttons and switches. We pushed, flicked, turned and twisted all the buttons, knobs and switches we could find to make sure you have everything for your sound design needs. To give you as many options as possible, we recorded everything at a high sample rate with several microphones.
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Vehicles
Sounds of the London Underground by Infrastructure Recordings
Anybody familiar with travelling on the London Underground will be aware of the distinct soundscapes beneath the streets of London; from the clatter of the ticket hall barriers to the eerie rumbles from the tunnels, waiting in anticipation for the next train to come rushing past before stopping with the squeal of the brakes.
BMW X5 M by Flysound
The suite of 328 recordings is a systematic compilation authored by a dedicated full service post-production team, deploying Neumann U87s, Neumann USM69, Sonosax, Sound Devices 788Ts, Aaton Cantar-X2s, and further top quality recording equipment.
Smart Fortwo, 2005 by Big Room Sound Inc.
The Smart Fortwo is a unique everyday car. Under the hood, or rather under the trunk (it’s a rear mounted engine) this hatchback sports a tiny 41hp diesel engine. Normally covered for obvious reasons, we opened it up to expose the engine and get some super clean onboard recordings from inside the car.
Parked Cars by Kaibrary
The first mobile roomtone library! Parked Cars is a collection of roomtones of car interiors at different times of day, often in the same locations with both windows up and windows down. This library covers inner city, suburb, and a little country around the Los Angeles area. This is all mastered for Ambisonic B and Stereo, but can be further decoded into various surround formats.
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Soundscapes, Drones and Ambience
Northern Rockies: Quiet Nature by Thomas Rex Beverly
In Northern Rockies: Quiet Nature, get a collection of the most serene ambiences from the mountains of Montana. Hear the massive sparseness of glacial valleys and still water. Hear majestic swaying of old growth forest and naked trunks left by wildfire. Hear Lodgepole pines creaking and Douglas fir slamming to the forest floor. This library is packed full of “quiet nature” tracks from the continental divide of North America, the crown of the continent where glacial meltwaters flow all the way to the Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico, and to the Hudson Bay.
Ambiance – City Life by Sen6
City Life Ambiance is a small collection of ambisonic recordings performed at various locations of different cities. The recordings took place at both internal and external locations.
City Distant by Lukáš Tvrdoň
The City Distant library gets you a series of high quality, diffused city ambiences. Choose ‘flat’, unobtrusive background tracks, or versions with emerging elements: trains, cars, trams, bells, sirens, fireworks and other noises. Captured in Prague, Czech Republic.
Aberrant Drones by SKYES Audio
Discover nearly 7 hours of individually flavoured, ghostly and ever-evolving drones, packaged neatly into 79 of the kind of audio files that you can never have enough of.
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Cinematic, imaging and other sound effects
TORSION by SampleTraxx
Torsion is a new dark hi-tech sound library packed with cinematic sound effects, tempo locked synths, stutter-stingers, tonal feedback, signature braams, hits, downers, low end whooshes, vocals, rise-crescendo, reverse and comes with 300+ wav samples and 86 kontakt instruments powered by The Forge engine by Audiority.
Affix by MatiasMacSD
Affix is a simple but powerful library. In this pack you will find 100 sounds in 29 files aimed to enhance and enrich Cinematic Impacts in your project thanks to a nice selection of movements, braams and tense and big Impact Elements.
Radio Imaging SFX by SoundFxWizard
RADIO IMAGING SELECTION is a collection of 50 stereo 24-bit 44.1Khz radio ready imaging elements for CHR and HOT AC radio Jingles, StationID, Liners and Dj Drops.
Electrify by Pure Audio Ninja
Recordings taken from an enormous variety of devices and equipment, including: harddrives, motors, sockets, powertools, interfaces, amplifiers, printers, scanners, and many more. Sounds consist of beeps, glitches, hums, fuzz, noises, processing, crackling and more.
The Espresso Machine by Sounds Of Norway
This release includes every step, from pulling that perfect espresso shot, to steaming milk or just playing around with the awesome steam wand! (If hissing pressure wooshes is what you like)
Outward Inversion by Eiravaein Works
From creating the breath of a behemoth, to the palpable aura of an ambiance, this is a plethora of contact mic goodness providing you with frequency-deep content for layering, embellishing, bolstering, and new sound creation.