Article Advise

submitted: Jun 20th 2008 | by: SFXsource | Total views: 1 | Word Count: 510 | |

Once you have recorded a large amount of material intended to be used as sound effects, the next step in creating a sound effect library is to edit this raw audio. You will need an audio editing software that will allow you to cut, fade in/out, normalize, and eq your tracks. There are many professional digital audio workstations (DAWs) out there for purchase and also several useful freewares easily found on the internet.

Open your audio software and import all of your new raw .wav recordings. Take a large batch of 40 or so .wav files to import and solo each track, thus muting the others, as you work on each file one by one, though you may of course choose the less efficient method of importing one at a time. At this point you can begin editing your recordings and then mix them into finished sound effect products. The advice that follows provides useful information on creating the most valuable sound effects possible from you .wav recordings.

1. Use normalization on each recorded sample first. Normalization increases the amplitude of each .wav file, in other works amps the volume as loud as can be.

2. Second, use eq to cut out any unnecessary frequencies that may interfere with the quality of your sound. For example, you may have a recording of a bird chirp which also has an outside air conditioning unit humming mixed into the sound. To fix this problem, you can cut out all frequencies below 2,000 Hz which will take out the AC but keep the bird's higher tones.

3. Once you've gotten a strong and clean as possible .wav file find a good starting point that beings clean and create a nice ending either through a fade out or even better letting the sound fade out itself giving 1-2 seconds of air after the sound effect for the natural reverb to ring out.

4. Bounce your sound down to a 48k 24bit .wav file for video editing. 48k 24bit are high quality files that are valued by sound effect libraries and licensees who pay good money to use sound effects in their productions.

5. By creating multiple versions of each recording you will increase the number of your products and thus the value of your library. For example, if you have a sequence of 20 firework explosions, create sound effects for one explosion, two explosions, five explosions etc while cutting and switching the order of explosions each time. Using this method, you can readily get 50 or more products from this one recording of fireworks.

6. Increase your content holdings even further by using pitch shift. For example, a person's laugh can be pitch shifted down to create a deep giant's laugh or pitch shifted up to create a little child's laugh.

With some prior knowledge of audio editing, one can follow the above tips to take raw audio recordings and create professional quality sound effects that can be licensed for profit to media creators.

About the Author

Visit SFXsource's sound effect categories and listen to professional quality sound effects at Sound Effects Library and get free sound effects and loops at Free Sound Effects and Loops

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