In this video review, Mike Thornton takes a whistle stop tour around some of the sound effects libraries from SoundBits. He takes a look at a number of libraries that have filled some gaps in this 50,000+ sound effects collection. 

About SoundBits

SoundBits is run by Benjamin-Saro Sahihi and he is based in Germany.  In the main SoundBits is a one person business which takes up around 80% of his time, recording & editing sound effects, creating libraries, marketing, networking, website updates, procrastinating on Facebook and Twitter... The other 30% (yes we know it doesn't add up) go into different sound design gigs, teaching at SAE Institute (Postproduction, Sound Design, Synthesizers, Effects and others), and Workshops.

Collected Ambiences

Starting with the Collected Ambiences bundle. There are 7 volumes so far which you can get individually or as a bundle. there are 33 files in each bundle and as with all good ambience tracks they are nice and long. Each volume has a different selection of ambiences, so lets take a quick listen to some.

Cinematic Hits And Transitions

Moving onto two collections that I am so pleased to have in my library - Cinematic Hits & Transitions volumes 1 & 2.

These are designed to dramatically spice up your trailers, cutscenes and movies. From heavy jump scare impacts to slow and haunting transition sounds, from very deep earthshaking hits to brutally distorted and mangled impacts. Some dry, some with extra huge reverbs. Some with instant attack some with a build up for that extra tension.

Handwriting

Next is a library that has filled a real hole in my sound effects collection and that is Handwriting. All I had was a couple of recordings I had made myself for specific bits of foley for some radio dramas.

This library from SoundBits is very comprehensive and you get 841 files containing 2000+ of different handwriting sounds from different pens, pencils, crayons, chalk on blackboard, felt pens, markers, yes even brushes and writing in sand or carving in stone. All this in many variations from writing words and sentences, strokes, periods and doodling. Lets take a listen…

Electro-Mechanics ToolKit

Finally in this personal and quick tour of just a few of the libraries from SoundBits is the Electro-Mechanics ToolKit. This Collection features a wide range of electric and some mechanic motors, engines, tools and toys, including different grinders, drills, screwdrivers, buzz saws, sanders, kitchen tools, electric and mechanic toys, CD-drives, doors, and much more. But don’t just take these literally, they can be cut up, layered, edited and mangled with FX to become spaceship engines, robot movements, sci-fi doors, weapon mechanics, in fact anything that moves by electricity.

Final Thoughts

Saro has worked very hard at planning, recording and packaging these sound effects collections, for me the collections that I have selected in this review will be so useful in what I do, and fill a number of gaps I had in my sound effects collection, but do go and check out all the libraries Saro has on the SoundBits site and see what you have been missing.