As you may have noticed that for the past 4 months I haven’t released any sound effects roundups and I appologize for that. Recently, a lot was going on in my personal and professional life that I simply didn’t have time to post more news or articles but I did a close watch on what was released. Also, to those that offered their libraries for a review, I have to say that I really wish I had more time to do them but at the moment I simply don’t have time. As soon as things calm down, I’ll get back to reviewing.
That out of the way, I gathered a bunch of libraries that caught my eyes in these past months.
Ambience and background noises
This category, next to drones is perhaps the one that gets a lot of releases each month. Granted, not all are good but most are usable if they are well recorded and the duration of each file exceeds at least 3 – 5 minutes (more is always better). For this reason, I was very entrigued with the latest release from George Vlad called Eerie Forests.
About the library
Eerie Forest is a collection of subtle ambiences recorded at night in dense forests in the regions of Transylvania and Moldova, Romania over two trips in Spring and Autumn 2017. The library features soft wind, distant hum, vegetation rustles, dogs barking at various distances, church bells tolling, a variety of owl species and other birds like ravens and woodcocks. All these elements are not foreground, but rather washed-out, echoey and atmospheric.
The library consists of 30 recordings available as stereo and surround. These recordings make excellent backgrounds for realistic scenarios, but can also be employed to raise tension or create unease. The general tone ranges from mysterious, strange and unsettling to downright desolate, oppressive and gloomy. The birds featured are ubiquitous enough so that they don’t anchor the recordings in a specific location or time. There are no chirps and tweets, just croaks, barks, wails and howls.
Next library that I find itneresting is Rain City by Sound EX Machina. It seems to cover enough surfaces and have various perspectives. And also, you might want to check Urban Rain from GainWalkers which also offers Ambeo recordings next to D100 recordings.
About the Rain City
Rain City is a HQ sound effects library featuring 84 recordings captured at various indoor and outdoor locations, in a quiet urban environment. Inside, you will find various types and intensities of rainfall, from soft, detailed dripping on roof tiles and heavy machinery in an idle construction site, to heavy rain in the city at night, to torrential downpour against car windows, Plexiglas rooftop panels, umbrellas and more.
About the Urban Rain
Urban Rain is a sound library that delivers 50 city rain sounds recorded in 96 kHz/24 bit, with Soundminer and BWAV embedded metadata. The library contains various types of rain at different intensities, from very light to downpour. Several thunder claps and rumbles are present as well. Locations are as follows: a terrace, a balcony, a backyard, several streets, a rooftop, a garage, inside a car, a loft (from inside), Chelsea FC Stadium and two patios (interior). All files have been recorded at night so human activity is minimum, although you will hear a tiny bit of traffic rumble in the background.
There were also some interesting libraries from Pro Sound Effects, namely European Capitals and a new library from Boom called Urban and Suburban. Next to ambience libraries, there were also a plethora of drone sound effects releases. You can check the new releases here.
In April, Boom Library released a new library Towns & Country, a library all about the nature sounds connected with man-made noises. Most of the files are loopable. It is the perfect sound library for scenes far outside the city that take place in rural areas.
Materials, textures and other goodies
One simply cannot have enough door. Check out Abandoned Doors by SKYES Audio if you are in need of a good collection of doors.
About the Abandoned Doors
All the 1400+ sounds were recorded in abandoned mansions and houses with unique sonic characteristics, in stereo, usually from two perspectives (inside the room and in the hallway), allowing you a great deal of choice and offering sonic diversity.
A bit different but nonetheless very usable library Designed Fire by Gregor Quendel are a cool layering sounds one can use.
About the Designed Fire
Designed Fire explores the further sonic realms of a powerful element. It features special effects, ambiences, swooshes, whooshes, fly-bys, drones, textures, glitches and more, that range from heavily designed to basic elements.
A cool sound library was also produced by Lukáš Tvrdoň. Check out Space Divers and be sure to try it for free here.
If you are in need of some slime sound effects, you might be interested in Slime by Kaibrary. It features around 900+ slime sound effects recorded with a Sanken CO100.
Snow & Ice by Pasi Pitkanen will give you around 1700+ sound effects recorded in Northern Finland.
The daily dose of vehicle sound effects
If you are in need of good vehicles sound effects, one name comes to my mind. Pole Position Production. The have a huge catalogue of vehicles and other sound effects.
Another interesting sound effects library was just released by Hiss and a Roar called Doppler Truck Horns. It features around 3.3 GB of doppler horns, passbys and police siren sounds.
Animals
One interesting animal library also recently appeared on social media and it is from Sound Mind aka Michal Fojcik. Predatory Birds were recorded over 5 sessions – in a private zoo and in the field, all in cooperation with professional birds trainers. All of them were recorded outdoor (and just a few in an outdoor aviary). Trainers helped us to get variety of bird calls and vocalisations, like: shriek, cry, squawk, screech, whistle, scream.