Sound Effects Monkey Having Holiday Sound Effects Sale

 It's time for Sound Effects Monkey's annual sale. Apparently this year, the monkey is really getting into the holiday spirit. He wants us to call him Santa Claus Monkey. no one is sure where he got that stupid hat from, but he is refusing to take it off until the New Year. Anyway he is going bananas with the sound effects deals with only 54 shopping days until Christmas and Hanukkah.

You can save 40% until November 30th and 30% from December 1st 2016 to January 1st 2017 and don't panic because these discounts will be automatically applied in cart at checkout, but if you would like to save more, then the first 25 customers to use coupon code EARLYBIRD will save an additional 15% off any order over $100.

How Thomas Beverly Captured The Sounds Of Hummingbirds

Field recordist Thomas Beverly has just released a unique SFX library – one that captures the sound of hummingbirds. In a very interesting interview on the A Sound Effect blog you can learn how he got the idea for the project, and how he managed to record the sounds of these tiny, aerial acrobats. 

This library was recorded as part of an extended recording trip in the high desert of west Texas. I used my parents’ house near Marfa, TX as home base and then traveled throughout the region recording hummingbirds, winds, trains, and summer thunderstorms. I have been fascinated by the sounds of these birds for years, and finally had chance to record them in the field. Many species of hummingbirds were captured in close proximity and stunning detail while they visited the feeders at our remote adobe house.

From my experience, you need the patience to spend a ton of time sitting near the feeder while avoiding sudden movements. Gradually, the birds will stop fearing or avoiding you. They even started flying within two feet of my face and gawking at me. Remote locations where birds don’t have a learned fear of humans can be extremely helpful as well.

You can read this interview in full on the A Sound Effect blog.

AntiSample Release 2 More Libraries In The Abstract Series - Twelve Tones & SPHERE

Twelve Tones is designed to bring a spaceship interior to your studio. 

• Twelve 96 kHz 24-bit tones.
• Two minutes each with 9 second bleed.
• 851 MB (uncompressed).
• Embedded metadata.
• Description for each file inside the excel spread sheet.
• Recommended use: Spaceship interiors, tonal beds, background drones
• Pay as much as you want above $2.12

SPHERE features sounds created by bowing a metal bin/ashtray. It was recorded and designed at 48kHz and 24 bit. The library consists of two parts. In the first part there are the effected sounds with small reverb applied so they can be used straight out of the box. The Twisted Dry sounds include original mangled sounds that can be edited further (without effects).

• 230 sound effects.
• 126 designed sound effects. With reverb, fast delay and tremolo/stutter.
• 24 twisted* source files. 
• Embedded metadata.
• Pay as much as you want above $4.99

*Twisted - original recordings mixed and played forwards and backwards.

Abstract SPHERE was originally recorded for a game they were working on to create some dark atmospheres. They really wanted to record a cymbal being bowed but at the time didn't have one, so used a metal bin/ashtray instead. Since the metal bin/ashtray is hollow and the metal casing is fairly thin, it produced the desired sound. 

They recorded a whole lot of samples which were then processed and mangled using Twisted Tools Slayer to create additional variations of sounds. This meant playing sounds forwards and backwards at the same time without any effects being applied. 

For Abstract SPHERE they did some additional work and added stutter/tremolo effect and a fast delay (sort of like Transformers effect). The fast delay gives an additional metal like layer to the sounds.

Interview With Masato Ushijima, Recordist Of Tokyo Ambisonics From Pro Sound Effects

The team at Pro Sound Effects interviewed game audio sound designer and recordist of Tokyo Ambisonics, Masato Ushijima, about the recording process, how he became one of the first Japanese Wwise-101 certified users, mixing for 360 video & more!

I studied music and sound technology at Berklee College of Music with a major in Music Synthesis. In 2008, I came back to Japan and started working at a small game sound production company as a sound designer for 7 years. Fortunately, I had the chance to be in charge of audio management of the games WWE13, WWE2K14, and WWE2K15. Using my sense of sound design, my role was to help interpret and implement Wwise which was created and delivered from an audio team in the US.

I used a SoundField SPS200 mic and tried to capture real-life ambiences unique to Japan. For example, I chose to recorded the Yamanote Line which offers many diverse sounds only found in Japan such as announcements, train sounds, Japanese walla, etc. That was the main point for choosing locations.

Additionally, Tokyo is big city. People are everywhere, even after midnight, so it was difficult to find ideal locations to record. I drove around and spent time to find locations where less people were walking. You need to be patient and move around if you have the chance to come to Japan for recording.

Ambisonics is the only choice when mixing for 360 video. It’s almost impossible to create 3D ambiences that are both convincing and CPU-efficient with traditional DAW use, but the Ambisonics format lets you pan mono files in certain directions within the 360-degree field. Whether you’re working on a video or VR game, Ambisonic ambiences are going to be the foundation of your soundscape. Additionally, Ambisonics is the only format that lets you decode to any output format – you get many choices in the post production stage.

You can read this interview in full on the Pro Sound Effects website.

New Independent Sound Effects Producer Smackheads Start With 3 Libraries

Mark Brandis is an Aussie sound designer who runs a production studio in Sydney and has chosen to release some of their recordings and designed sounds as libraries until the name Smackheads and there are currently 3 libraries up with 3 new ones to follow shortly. Mark tells me that these libraries are designed to be user friendly, with the foley library being kept nice and unprocessed, and the whoosh library mainly intended for cut through on television and radio.

Turning Japanese - This library contains an eclectic collection of sounds sourced on a recent trip to Japan. It's an auditory sampler of the beauty and stillness as well as the chaos and busyness of Japan, from elevator rides to fish markets, temples, busy streets and mountain streams.

The library is 826MB and includes 37 stereo 24bit 48kHz .wav files with all the tracks recorded with a stereo pair of Sennheiser MKH 8040's and a Sound Devices 633. Turning Japanese is normally priced at $49 but currently is available for $30  until the end of 2016.

Are You Picking Up What I'm Putting Down - This library is all about picking stuff up and putting it down, whilst you rub your beard, pop pills and type with your toes. It's a collection of foley sounds that we always seem to need, but often can't find. Each track includes multiple movements of the object in question. The recordings are mono and unprocessed, so they sound natural and can be easily placed in your stereo field.

The library is 362MB and contains 72 mono x 24bit/48 kHz .wav files. All files are Sound Miner metadata embedded with all tracks recorded with a Sennheiser 416 microphone, through a Buzz Audio - Elixer preamp. Are You Picking Up What I'm Putting Down is normally priced at $49 but currently is available for $30 until the end of 2016.

99 Problems But A Whoosh Ain't One - Everyone needs some good whooshing, but sometimes you just want a whoosh that will cut right through the crap. This pack does not contain earth moving cinematic slams, but rather crispy, bright, swishes, swooshes and whooshes designed for television, radio and internet use.

We figured 99 whooshes was a good start to get you out of trouble, and we've provided a wide range of sounds, from nice clean wipes and slides to more complex textural sounds. Each file contains a single whoosh so you can grab the one you like and throw it on your timeline.

All files are 24 bit / 48kHz .wav files and are Sound Miner metadata embedded. The library is 60 MB. 99 Problems But A Whoosh Ain't One is normally priced at $29 but currently is available for $9.99 until the end of 2016.