The Story Behind the 'Beep' Project from A Sound Effect

Asbjoern at A Sound Effect has featured the story behind the ambitious Beep project to document the history of game audio, which Karen Collins started 2 years ago.

Over the course of those two years, the project has gone from nothing, to over 100 interviews with the most influential people in the game audio world, 226 hours of raw footage - and, as of today it is an in-depth, 2-hour documentary with a two-volume book to accompany it.

In this special A Sound Effect feature, Karen looks back at the ups and downs of this monumental project; a project that grew larger than anyone ever expected, and one that took a heavy toll on her and the team. Karen takes up the story...

Beep began as a humble project a little over two years ago now. Initially, I thought I would be interviewing about twenty people. I would simultaneously write a book around the interviews, interweaving interview content into the book, a history of game audio.

We launched a Kickstarter campaign in August 2014, and during the six weeks of the campaign it was easy to get caught up in the excitement surrounding the project. We were a Kickstarter staff pick and Project of the Day. Major tech press like Engadget and C|net covered us. I was doing three or four press interviews a day. People from all over the game audio community got in touch and wanted to be a part of it.

The project’s scope exploded as other people signed on, volunteers lined up, and by the end of the campaign, I was looking at a dizzying list of about a hundred people who had made themselves available to interview. My camera guy, Matt, and I set about with gusto to Los Angeles to begin our interviews in October, 2014.

You can follow Karen's record of the story of this Beep project, how it mushroomed, the world travel, running out of money, the mountain of material they had to wade through, the challenges of the edit, the writing and editing of the book, the emotion of the first screening to cast and crew, to her personal review of the whole process. Check out this powerful story on the A Sound Effect blog.

Chain Ferry Library from Detunized

Detunized have released Chain Ferry which features the remarkable sounds of a 100 year old ferry with a specific drive system. The ferry pulls along a strong chain lying at the ground of the river to cross. This is achieved by a clever combination of 3 drive wheels that guide the chain and prevent it from dropping to the ground.

The Chain Ferries Library contains several complete audio takes of the ferry in action – from departure to arrival. This encompasses engine start, engine idle, loading ramp noises and bangs plus a lot of chain rattling from various perspectives. The sounds are recorded aboard and from both sides of the river so that the entire scenery can be covered acoustically.

Chain Ferry Library is available in 3 formats...

• Live Pack
  • requires Live 8.4 or higher
  • 11 Instrument Racks / 1 Set
  • 8 takes, 76 to 270 seconds, 430 MB
  • Price - 10 Euros
• Broadcast WAV light
  • 8 Takes w/ embedded metadata
  • 76 to 270 seconds, 24/48, 430 MB
  • 24 min total playing time
  • Extensive meta-data documents for SM import
  • Price - 12 Euros
• Broadcast WAV HD
  • 17 Takes w/ embedded metadata
  • 76 to 280 seconds, 24/96, 2 GB
  • 56 min total playing time
  • Extensive meta-data documents for SM import
  • Price - 25 Euros

9 New Indie Sound Effects Libraries From A Sound Effect You Might Have Missed

I spotted a tweet from Asbjoern from A Sound Effect that I thought would be worth sharing here. He tweeted about an article showcasing 9 new indie sound effects libraries that have been recently released on A Sound Effect that you might have missed.

'Designed Rocks' by Solar Audio is a set of glitchy rock elements that crumble, crack and shatter in oddly organic yet synthetic ways. This library has 70 impacting textures that are at times rhythmic and melodic as they crumble, roll, and burst. The library also includes unique atmospherics as if the rocks are under water, or in a small reverberating space, a malfunctioning holodeck and an alien world. 

The just-updated version of 'Summer Ambients' by Soundholder captures the peaceful landscapes of the lively and pristine forests, lakes, meadows and swamps of Masuria, Poland. This library features several birds such as cuckoos, crows, collared doves, seagulls, warblers, and woodpeckers, as well as crickets, frogs, and flies. You'll even find various intensities of wind and rain, plus quiet and peaceful soundscapes on which to build your own fauna. 

'High Deserts Winds' by Thomas Rex Beverly is an eclectic collection of winds from the high altitude areas of Texas. This library includes sounds of the mountain ridge tops of the David Mountains and Big Bend National Park with 15-50 mph gale gusts, low whistling drones, and breezes through the pines, mesquite and more. There are also seasonal recordings with leafy gusts, pouring rain, broad spectrum wind through winter grass, and crickets at night braving the weather. 

'HVAC Elements' by Hzandbits has all the sounds of ventilation you need for your industrial scenes. This library has nearly fifty recordings that make up over an hour of fans, heaters, coolers and more. You can find a small fan with bad bearings that grates and squeals, a tabletop fan that flutters, a howling bathroom fan, a refrigerator cooler that drones and rattles, and much more.

'Rusty Old Freight Trains' by Kevin Durr has sounds of these giants as they travel around the San Francisco Bay. Covered in rust and graffiti, the trains clunk, screech, scrape and thud as their complex bodies - roiled by heat, constant rain and salty air - roll along the tracks to San Jose, Richmond, Emeryville and other destinations. Each recording was captured within 15-20 feet of the trains and have a sample rate of 96kHz for creative design.

'Victor Adding Machine' by Kevin Durr is a library based on this machine and all its early 20th century technology. With its printer, paper, buttons, and cranking mechanism, this device used to give human minds a break from counting cash. This library features six recordings of the machine's actions from five mic positions and with two different mic techniques from a Schoeps CMC 5U pair with MK4 capsules.

'Infantry Soldiers' by Glad Sound Libraries gives you sounds of military drills by Swedish soldiers. These grunts recreated combat scenarios using squad techniques and all the gear they could muster. The soldiers use their AK5 rifles and shout commands, plus they had access to their big guns with AT rocket launchers and tanks. The sounds are also separated into arrays as well as single shots.

'Rock Processing Factory' by Glad Sound Libraries was recorded at Cementa, a rock processing and cement factory in Skövde, Sweden. This library features rocks being processed and crushed by machines that rattle, hum, squeal and spin as they crush massive amounts of earth. These recordings are perfect for creepy industrial ambiences, torture devices, or even massive storms ready to tear the roof off.

'Robot Factory' by Glad Sound Libraries features the interesting and weird sounds of the Volvo factory in Skövde, Sweden. It has weird robotic sounds, strange atmospheres and all the humming, whirring, creaking, moaning and hissing you could hope for. Each recording from this 22-minute library was cut into 40 seconds, so it has quite the diverse collection of sounds for building ambiences or robotic movements in your project. 

What Sound Effects Are You Missing?

Have ever reached to your sound effects library only to draw a blank, and then gone out to search the sound effects sites that have sprung up to give a shop window for independent sound effects libraries and still not found what you are looking for. Well the team at A Sound Effect have created a survey form where you can post your suggestions.

There is a simple form where you can enter up to 3 suggestions for sound effects libraries that you would like to see available. A great idea and so if you have struggled to find a particular sound effect library then pop over to the A Sound Effect site and fill out the survey form and maybe your wish will turn into a new sound effect library in the future.