Sources of sound and sound effects for video editing?

Well the best source is your own, because you can do it exactly the way you want it.

That said, Soundtrack Pro comes with a library of foley/soundbed stuff, as does the Adobe Creative Suite via Resource Central. You can also find many (generally lower quality) websites if you google for something like "royalty free sound effects."

Be careful with the licensing though.

ppc_michael said:

That said, Soundtrack Pro comes with a library of foley/soundbed stuff, as does the Adobe Creative Suite via Resource Central.

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Is this really the Adobe Design Suite? I never checked it out, but I have the Design Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat) and this might actually be interesting for me. Or do you mean the Production Suite with Premiere and After Effects? That would make more sense to me...

For the OP: Yes, there are a ton of sites out there with free stuff, and most of it is not that great. There are also a lot where you can buy sounds, and you can often times listen to them up front if they really are what you are looking for. There was a thread here not long ago that listed some of the better free sites.

Just recently, a new one for free SFX has been launched and posted in this forum, and I have to say that although it is still growing and does not yet contain everything you might need, the quality of the sounds is pretty good and the licensing is unproblematic as well (don't sell or distribute, but you can use it for any project):
http://sweetsoundeffects.com/

When it comes to buying sounds, I don't know many sites, since I usually record myself (which I can only recommend).

Nostromo said:

I just wonder what "royalty free" really means - you mentioned licensing.

So you have to see if your usage is covered with the license.

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You're gonna have to read the license of each of those sites (maybe even each sound file that you download). Many allow non-commercial private use but no commercial stuff. Others insist on mentioning the source. Some want the end product to be (or not to be) creative commons material. Almost all don't allow giving the downloaded sound effects to someone else.

The license studying is the work you just have to do if you want to use other people's sounds. It's also pretty understandable that they don't just give the stuff away if they want to either make a living or a reputation from it.

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Nostromo said:

I have a nice Sennheiser ME-66, a great directional microphone which should work great for clean sound samples.

Just wondering if I should get a second one and do stereo recordings.

And then there's the recorder. Not sure if you get anything portable with XLR inputs.

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The Sennheiser is an awesome mic! If you have such equipment, then definitely try to record yourself. You can also get good and interesting sound effects by mixing things together (most foley is not actually one clean recording, but several sounds mixed together).

As for the recorder: Yes, there are many portable recorders with XLR inputs. One of the cheapest and probably the best value and most recommended is the "Zoom H4n". It not only has pretty good internal mics for ambient sound recording (yes, ambience is important!), but it also has 2 XLR plugs with phantom power and pretty usable mic preamps.
I personally upgraded to a "Fostex FR-2 LE", which has better preamps and is a little tougher and more suited for field recording. But that was mostly because I got it used and very cheap on eBay (at 150 euros I think...).

I wouldn't go for a second mic. While stereo sound is nice for atmosphere recordings (which you can do with the stereo, even surround, mics of your field recorder, e.g. the Zoom H4n), it is not really needed for sound effects. A certain sound is usually recorded mono and you can adjust the pan (or 2D surround position) later in mixing. That is very helpful, because if you use the sound more than once, you might want to have the shutting door on the right in one movie and on the left in another.

floh said:

Is this really the Adobe Design Suite? I never checked it out, but I have the Design Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat) and this might actually be interesting for me. Or do you mean the Production Suite with Premiere and After Effects? That would make more sense to me...

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The sounds are available in the applications that could actually use the sound, like previously Adobe Soundbooth, and now Adobe Audition. Probably also Premiere and Encore. What I usually do is get them from Audition, render them out lossless, and make use of them in Reaper or ProTools when I'm mixing the film.

Nostromo said:

I have a nice Sennheiser ME-66, a great directional microphone which should work great for clean sound samples.

Just wondering if I should get a second one and do stereo recordings.

And then there's the recorder. Not sure if you get anything portable with XLR inputs.

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Oh you have a proper mic! Cool, man! In that case, a recorder like a Zoom H4 will do you well. I use a Marantz PMD-671 which has XLR inputs and records to a compact flash. There is a whole category out there called "field recorders," most of which have balanced (XLR) inputs. Some good brands are Marantz (which has become Denon Marantz, or D&M), or TASCAM.

As for stereo vs mono recording, you can pull off a lot with mono. Things like a diver breathing could definitely be recorded in mono. For location sound like birds or city noise, I can usually fake stereo by recording it mono, then playing two different takes together, one in each channel with some panning or something.

Nostromo said:

http://www.sound-ideas.com/

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I used those once and they are very good quality with lots of variety but I think they only sell packs, not individual tracks.

Nostromo said:

I just wonder what "royalty free" really means - you mentioned licensing.

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Basically royalty free means you pay once up front to use the sound/music/photo/video file. If you had to pay royalty it would mean that you would be charged for every time it is broadcast, with varying prices for national broadcast, internet, internal company use, etc etc.

Nostromo said:

What would be the best source to buy royalty free sound effects by the track?

I mean for tracks you can't record yourself like submarine noise, whale songs, diver's breathing, etc.

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Honestly: Google! If you want such specific sounds, you will have a very distinct idea of what you want them to be like, and it is very likely that you won't find all of them from one distributor. I am pretty sure that if you google for "whale song sfx" or something similar, you will find a royalty free sound that suits you. I honestly don't think there is a "best source" but the one that has your sound in stock.

Nostromo said:

What would be the best source to buy royalty free sound effects by the track?

I mean for tracks you can't record yourself like submarine noise, whale songs, diver's breathing, etc.

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One place I've used is sound-effects-library.com... I found 144 matches there for the search term "whale". Quality, and licenses, etc. will vary, so listen carefully to the samples and read the fine print.

There are others... As someone else suggested, search via Google, etc.

One online source I didn't see listed that has a surprising collection of free sounds is Freesound.org.

Sign up and log in for free. Search keywords and be amazed at all the stuff you'll find. Some of it is better than others, but I've found some gems in there.

+1 for the Zoom H4n, certainly the cheapest recorder with XLRs. I personally have a Marantz PMD 661 which I also really like.

Also agreed with the stereo/mono comment, most sounds you really only need a mono recording. Saves memory on your recorder too for longer captures. If you want to get stereo recordings, you should look at getting a mid-side rig instead of a traditional stereo configuration. It also requires two mics, but in this case a directional "mid" mic and a figure-8 "side mic". You can convert mid-side recordings to stereo later on with greater control over the width of the stereo field, or use just the mid signal for a good mono recording. The H4n even has a built in mid-side decoder I believe. Also it is less bulky and more robust then an X-Y or ORTF stereo setup, since in mid-side the mics are parallel to each other as opposed spread out at a precise angle.

Also +1 for FreeSound.org, but agreed it does take some searching, though there are definitely some good posts.

Another site I'd like to mention not listed so far is AudioJungle.net, they have a good selection of royalty free sound effects and also music. It's not free, but very economical and their licenses are pretty clear cut and easy to understand so you know what you're getting. The sounds and music are also moderated, so the quality level is pretty good across the board, as opposed to other audio sites that allow users to post anything and everything. I have bought items there and I also sell a few of my own, it's a nice community and marketplace. AudioJungle also has sibling stock media sites for video, graphics, etc., so it would be useful to find stock video, after effects, projects, etc., for your other video making needs.

Royalty Free Sounds Effects and Atmosphere

Hello, If you want sounds or atmosphere, I suggest you visit a good site: http://www.lasonotheque.org/en/