411 Bliss

Once you have recorded a large amount of material intended to be used as sound effects, the next step in creating a sound effect library is to edit this raw audio. You will need an audio editing software that will allow you to cut, fade in/out, normalize, and eq your tracks. There are many professional digital audio workstations (DAWs) out there for purchase and also several useful freewares easily found on the internet.

Open your audio software and import all of your new raw .wav recordings. Take a large batch of 40 or so .wav files to import and solo each track, thus muting the others, as you work on each file one by one, though you may of course choose the less efficient method of importing one at a time. At this point you can begin editing your recordings and then mix them into finished sound effect products. The advice that follows provides useful information on creating the most valuable sound effects possible from you .wav recordings.

1. First, normalize each track before editing it. This function increases the highest existing amplitude of the .wav file to the highest possible amplitude, meaning simply that it makes the .wav files as loud as possible.

2. Second, use eq to cut out any unnecessary frequencies that may interfere with the quality of your sound. For example, you may have a recording of a bird chirp which also has an outside air conditioning unit humming mixed into the sound. To fix this problem, you can cut out all frequencies below 2,000 Hz which will take out the AC but keep the bird’s higher tones.

3. When your sound is normalized and cleaned up with eq find a clean beginning point to the sound and either create a fade-out or more desirably let the natural reverb ring out for 1-2 seconds.

4. Create a stereo 48k 24bit .wav file of your recording for video editing purposes. This quality of file is highly valued by individuals and libraries that license sound effects and will earn good money.

5. In order to increase your amount of products make as many versions of each recording as possible. For example, if a recording has a cat meowing 25 times, make sound effects with one meow, two meows, 5 meows, 8 meows etc. while changing up the combination of meows. This process will easily give you 50 or more sound effects from one sequence of cat meows.

6. You can further increase your number of effects by using pitch shift or other filters on each sound sample. For instance, the sound of a stream can be pitch shifted up to make it sound lighter and less tumultuous and pitch shifted down to make it sound larger and deeper.

A little knowledge of the ins and outs of audio editing combined with the above tips will allow you to easily create professional sounding effects that can be licensed time and time again by multi-media editors and producers.

Once you have recorded a large amount of raw material and then edited this material into a batch of finished sound effects it is time to associate data with these products so that you can submit your library to distributors. This data is generally called metadata and gives potential licensees information on pertinent characteristics of each sound in your library. Main categories of data that have proven to be useful in my own catalog are discussed below.

Finding the right format is the first step in creating your metadata document. The most frequently requested format for metadata is an .xls file with categories in columns and individual sounds in rows. Searching through your sounds according to File Name, or Time Length will be very easy if you use this type of format.

1. The Main Category column should contain broad categories such as Ambiences, Animal, Human, Transportation. Try to be as efficient in their use as possible in order to maintain a logical order to your library from the start.

3. The next main type of metadata, the Sub-Category, is intended to splice up each main category more specifically such as Tools: Hammers, Tools:Saws, Tools:Screwdrivers.

3. If you associate a SKU number of three letters unique to you, such as your initials, and five digits such as SFX00001_DogBark with each sound effect upon their creation your sounds will be perfectly organized. The sound to follow the above example would begin with SFX00002 and so on which assigns a totally unique identity to each sound. This numbering system alleviates confusion in the future should you have multiple Dog Barks and only organize them alphabetically.

4. The Title is a friendly title to be displayed for the potential licensee such as Dog Bark 1.

5. Since shorter sound effects are generally worth less than longer sound effects it is important to include the Time Length in your metadata so that interested clients know the length of each sample they might license.

6. The quality of each sample is given by stating the Track Info which includes stereo/mono information, the sample rate, the bit rate, and file type such as Mono 44.1k 16 bit Stereo .wav.

7. One of the main ways that clients find your sounds will be by searching for keywords and thus your Keyword category is very important. Plurals of the sound, related sounds, phrases that include the sound, and misspellings can all help your sounds be found such as car, cars, vehicle, vehicles, car driving, driving a car, kar, kars.

The next step after cataloging your sounds according to the above seven steps is submission to online distributors for sale of licensing rights.

One first needs a professional quality recorder in order to record sound effects that can be good enough to be used personally or professionally. Though there are many expensive options, a handheld $150 to $400 digital recorder no larger than a small digital camera will provide professional quality .wav files. Furthermore, many of these units accommodate up to 4 gigs of recorded audio with the use of a flash card and utilize a simple drag and drop method for saving the .wav files via a USB connection.

Since video has a 48k sample rate then sound effects supplied for video need to be 48k, not the standard 44.1k used for CDS, so any recorder you purchase must be able to record up to 48k quality. If you have a library of 44.1k these samples always have to be up-converted by a video editor and their quality can be compromise. Therefore, do yourself the favor of recording at 48k and you will have a more valuable and usable sound effect collection.

There are two basic types of sound effects that you will be recording: “hits” and “ambiences.” Hits are single short sonic events such as a slap, gun shot, or dog bark. Ambiences are longer background elements such as ocean waves, restaurant environments, or playground noises.

In creating a library it is most valuable to have many of both types as they are both used in sound design. You will find that ambiences are the easiest to obtain, as you merely have to go to a new location such as a supermarket or post office and just stand there and record. Hits need a little more forethought and preparation such as collecting the items you’d like to record or stalking the neighbor’s dog for that perfect dog bark.

Recording sounds is simply a matter of pressing record on your digital recorder. Although, it is advised to keep the following points in mind as you record since they will make your work more productive and fruitful.

1. When you record you want to have the loudest signal possible without clipping the microphone, called recording as “hot” as possible. If you notice a small red LED light lighting up during your recording then you need to pull back from the sound because your incoming signal is too loud. The goal is to avoid distortion but capture the strongest sound possible.

2. Very loud sounds such as explosions or loud cheering requires that you purchase a 10dB pad which will allow you to record high volumes. This sort of pad lowers strong signals by 10dB and can be bought on the web for $20.

3. Try to keep background noises at a minimum but don’t be too obsessive over a “pure” recording because these background sounds can often afford surprising results such as an unexpected car honk, bird call or human noise. Remember that much of the background noise can be filtered out when editing your recordings and will slow yourself down being overly strict about the “perfect” recording environment.

4. Wind hitting the head of your microphone will ruin your recordings so keep your recorder out of the wind by using trees, walls, or your body as a physical barrier. If you cut frequencies below 200-500 khz during editing you can get rid of some wind sound but usually your recordings will be ruined by wind.

5. Music from live performances and loudspeakers must remain out of your recordings. If you accidentally include such music in the background of your ambiences it will make your recordings useless. Selling and using sound effects with such music is a violation of copyright law since that music itself is copyrighted.

These tips are simple and meant to point an aspiring sound effect artist in the right direction toward the creation of a sound effect library for use or for sale online. Future articles will discuss the process of editing, categorizing, and marketing these raw recordings.