In this episode of Sunday Sound Effects Round Up we say goodbye to David Yewdall, look at new libraries from HISSandaROAR, Fox Audio Post Production and Pro Sound Effects. There are special offers from Avid for Pro Sound Effects download passes, Summer Sales from A Sound Effect and Articulated Sound, a preview of an article from Avosound's Guido Helbling, and a case study on using Soundly at Storyline Studios.

RIP David Yewdall

Hollywood sound design veteran and author of the hugely influential ‘Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound’ sadly passed away this week. On Twitter Bob Bronow wrote: "RIP David. You were an inspiration". Guido from Avosound wrote: "Thank you for sharing your knowledge. You were a great influencer for me". Pole Position Prod said: "The audio community lost a very inspiring and helpful person this week. RIP David Yewdall, your knowledge will live through your book"!

Charles Maynes has written a comprehensive piece on the A Sound Effect blog... 

Wow – to write about Dave Yewdall is like trying to make a short essay about the creation of the world… He was a remarkable figure who casts an enormous shadow, and yet so many in the general sound community probably aren’t that aware of who he was, or what he did…

In my experience with him, which was pretty late in his career, I was always amazed at how incredibly well prepared he tended to be in approaching his work. He and Warren Hamilton, another absolute titan of Hollywood Sound, were longtime friends and shared so much in common with their intellects, and their commitment to giving every last bit of themselves to the projects they involved themselves in. 

You can read Charles piece in full on the A Sound Effect blog.

HISSandaROAR Release Rain Ambience Collection

Rain is the latest addition to the HISSandaROAR ambience collections and is so new that there is very little information on their web site. But the good news is that there is a 33% early bird discount if you use coupon code “FOG” in the cart before checkout until 22nd July 2017.

Update: This library has been created from over 23 hours of field recordings, in 3 countries over a 5 year period: 198GB has been reduced down to a collection with a wide range of variations, in intensity, surfaces and environments.

Exterior rain tracks -  on roof, plants, concrete, gravel, puddles, guttering
Interior rain tracks - on sun room, lounge, porch, car & garage roof & windows

• 15.8GB download 
• 21.6GB as 102 x stereo files
• 24bit 96kHz .WAV files
• Price: Normally $99 but until 22nd July $66

Fox Audio Post Production Release Planes Passbys – Interior/Exterior

Planes Passbys is a quick pack of 20 pass-bys from interior and exterior perspectives. These recordings are clean of distractions like birds, traffic, wind, and crowds, and they gracefully pan for a realistic sounds image.

• 20 files
• 24 Bit / 96 kHz
• File size: 408 MB
• Price: $12

Pro Sound Effects Release Industrial Sounds With Soul Library

Recorded and designed by film sound pioneers Ann Kroeber and Alan Splet, Industrial Sounds with Soul is a sound effects library featuring unique recordings of roaring factory ambience, hypnotic oscillating rhythmic machinery, metallic clanks, clicks, ticks and more.

Following the Cinematic Winds Library, Industrial Sounds with Soul is the second release by Pro Sound Effects curated from Sound Mountain: Kroeber and Splet’s private recording collection created over decades of film sound work

This collection is designed to enable you to immerse your audience in the industrial setting creating subconscious tension and steer narrative with subtle, emotive recordings of ominous mechanical humming, gurgling percolators, and hissing steam pipes.

The sound effects are grouped into five main categories:

• Machines: Rhythmic, roaring, whirling, banging
• Mechanical: Gears, rotors, clicking, squeaking, rattling
• Ambiences: Rumbling, droning, dense, ominous
• Power Tools: Revving, idling, pumping, pounding
• Voices - Beasts: Intense, warped, reverberant, giant

• 42 sound effects
• 638MB
• 24-bit/48kHz broadcast WAV files
• Price: $89
• Free Sampler with 2 sounds available

Avid Offer Special Download Passes To Pro Sound Effects Library Until July 31st 2017

Pro Sound Effects have 250,000 sound effects and Avid have negotiated special download passes saving 80% so you can download any 20 or any 100 sound effects from the Pro Sound Effects collection.

• Pro Sound Effects Download Pass 20: $29 (reg $100) - Select and download any 20 from 250,000 royalty-free sound effects.
• Pro Sound Effects Download Pass 100: $99 (reg $500) - Select and download any 100 from 250,000 royalty-free sound effects.

To take advantage of either of these offers you will need to log into your Avid Master Account and select one of these offers and follow the instructions.

Summer Sale At A Sound Effect

Summer is here although here in the UK the weather hasn't always been summery, but over on A Sound Effect the indie SFX creators are celebrating Summer savings up to 70% on sound effect libraries. Please note that the list of collections on sale is continuously changing, so if you see a great deal you like, get it below while you can. 

Summer Sale At Articulated Sound

For a limited period over at Articulated Sound they are offering 20% storewide summer sale.

You can check out my review Quiet Streets, 100 Fountains and Dice Party from the Articulated Sound collections in a previous Sunday Sound Effects Round Up.

The Anti-Antisocial Field Recording Method

Guido from Avosound has written a very interesting article on recording sound effects asking is Sound Effects Recording a walk in the park or a trip thru hell? Guido explains...

In this article I would like to show you how to handle all sorts of sound recording problems early on without becoming frustrated and anti-social in the process. We will look at a number of specific examples and develop a strategy that will keep you from turning into a misanthrope (or an animal hater) 

Topics covered include..

• Field Recording: the hard facts
• Identifying and avoiding noise issues
• Sound Recordings - Minimising Noise Issues
• Use off-peak hours
• Picking the right season
• Annual Calendar: Defining the recording seasons
• Living Area
• Don't judge a recording location by its looks
• Noise issues during recording
• Avoiding Interference: Microphones belong on stands
• Using wind shields
• Use headphones to monitor for interference

You can read Guido's article in full on the Avosound site.

Case Study - Gisle Tvieto From Storyline Studios

For Gisle, a 26-year veteran, supervising sound editor, dubbing mixer, and one of the owners of Storyline, getting the sound design process to run closer to parallel with the video editing process has always been a goal. While many sound departments wait for ‘picture-lock” before starting to work on the sound, the team at Storyline is breaking the mould of the traditional serial workflow by closely aligning audio with video editors from the first cut. Gisle takes up the story...

I’m a keen user of Soundly, but my workflow is a bit different from those who use it strictly as a sound library and edit tool.  I use it to share audio with picture editors and directors from the very beginning. I make sound libraries specifically designed for the editors and directors using Soundly as a central hub for effects and music.

Before Soundly, audio at Storyline Studios was organised by each contributor, based on what made sense to them. Using file names, folder names, dates etc., each contributor, whether it was the composer, editor or assistant, had their own organisational system, which could quickly get confusing.

Gisle explains that using Soundly solved a lot of housekeeping issues with all the audio that gets passed around in a large production. Being cloud-based, there are far fewer copies of any given audio clip, and everyone has access to the latest version in a single, central location. The Storyline team had tried Dropbox, ftp, and other methods for sharing files, but they have settled on Soundly as their solution.

Directors that I frequently work with consider me part of the initial editing process. With Soundly, it’s a more collaborative way of working for all of us. To have music and SFX in one database where everyone can access the same things makes communication so much easier.

Gisle has a multi-user Soundly account with 10 licenses that he can administer to suit the productions coming through Storyline Studios. For example, for the Norwegian TV series Valkyrien, consisting of eight 45 minute episodes, the whole production took 2 years from the start of the shoot until the last mix was done. In this case, the sound department and the composer were on board during the last 13-14 months.

For that series, there were three producers with their own Soundly accounts, four editors with accounts, and the composers and me, as leader of the sound department, with accounts.  Everyone was part of the creative team and the producers just loved it because it was a huge time saver. I remember doing some music editing for the trailers, and I would just drop that into Soundly and send an email saying new versions were available. Everyone could instantly play back the versions and compare to the original music. Instead of worrying about how to download it, where they should put it on their computer, or how to keep the versions organised, the latest version was always available in the cloud. I would get some feedback in five to ten minutes.

Our own Mike uses Soundly for his sound effects management too and finds it works very well for his needs with 50,000 plus sound effects all catalogued in Soundly.