Sonniss Launch Academic Discount Program

Tim McHugh has let us know that students and teachers can now save up to 50% off many of the sound effects libraries available on Sonniss. He says...

As part of my ongoing commitment to helping and supporting the continued development of this industry, I am pleased to announce our new academic discount program. If you are a student or teacher at any grade level, you are now eligible to receive up to 50% off many of the sound libraries on Sonniss.

You can find out more about this on the dedicated academic program page on the Sonniss web site.

Chuck Russom FX Is Now Sound Effects Monkey

After 5 years, Chuck felt like it was time for a change. He has spend a year building a brand-new website, picking a new name, and a new logo courtesy of Nathan Moody. But that is the limit to the changes. All the old Chuck Russom FX libraries are still there, with promises of new sounds to come. You can read much more detail behind the name change on Chuck's new site.

To celebrate their relaunch, Sound Effects Monkey are offering 30% off all purchases. You won't even need a coupon, just add products to your cart, and your discount will be added automatically.

With the new site they have added some new features designed to make things easier...

• New Sound Effects Bundles - To help you save even more!
• T-Shirts - We've got an awesome new logo, it would be a shame not to let everyone show it off! Profits from all T-Shirt sales are donated to MusiCares. Buy a monkey shirt and know that you are helping music people in need.
• Multi-User Licenses - Now you can buy multi-user licenses straight from our website, the same way you would do a usual purchase. Your multi-user discount is automatically applied in your cart. It doesn't get much easier than that!
• Multi-User Quotes - Need a quote to show to your bean counters? You can now request a quote directly on our website.

On The A Sound Effect Blog - Behind The Sound For Netflix' Shocking 'Making A Murderer' 

‘Making A Murderer’ is a Netflix documentary that has sparked both controversy, shock and outrage – and for good reason. It’s a wild story about crime, punishment and justice. 

In this exclusive A Sound Effect interview, sound designer and re-recording mixer, Leslie Shatz who has worked on countless feature films such as 12 Years A Slave, The Road, & Milk, shares how he handled the challenging source material and subject matter, the subtle magic of Foley – and the ongoing quest to balance realism and drama in sound.

The directors (who were also the editors) had the RX suite of tools on their Final Cut Pro so they had already done work to clean up the tracks which they admitted was probably poorly done. But they were aware of what the possibilities were so as a result they were not willing to settle for a quick pass through denoise. I dealt with a multitude of problems that gave my RX suite a full workout.

There were complex hums in the pool audio feed due to bad wiring, distortion and clicks from poorly recorded prison phone calls, brittle sibilant recordings from cheap cassette recorders and hissy recordings due to poor mic placement.

I was also quite pleased to find in the RX-5 suite a tool called de-plosive that I used on some of the courtroom testimony where the witnesses were hitting the mic too hard. I found that the de-click, de-clip and de-crackle tools required experimentation to find which one would actually remove that general category of distortion. I also used the FabFilter de-esser, Q2 multiband eq and multi-band noise reduction plug ins. I’m a big fan of FabFilter, and their graphic interface is unbeatable.

Moving onto the Foley...

Foley was a wild card for me because I wasn’t sure if the filmmakers would respond to this kind of sound being put in their documentary. Some directors absolutely love foley and some absolutely hate it. I asked the foley artists to try to only create the realism inherent in the material, and not over do it. As a result they sometimes even redid mic pops that I had removed! Fortunately Netflix did not require a fully filled M & E so I was able to use the foley to augment the original sound and not replace it. The directors ended up really loving the extra layer the foley added and went out of their way to complement the foley team.

You can read the full exclusive interview here on the A Sound Effect blog. 

Whilst you are there, for a limited period the 'Berlin Balcony' city SFX pack is included for free with any purchase on A Sound Effect. Once you have completed your purchases, you will receive a link to download the Berlin Balcony library separately.