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. The first step is to normalize each sample. This makes the audio as loud as possible by increasing the amplitude of the highest point on your recording to the highest point possible.
2. Secondly, some frequencies may affect the quality of your sound effect and you should use eq to eradicate these sonic culprits. A great sounding bird chirp, for example, may be compromised by an offending air conditioner. But, by cutting all frequencies below 2,000 Hz you can get rid of the AC and keep the lovely bird sound.
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.
5. Mix down a 48k 24bit stereo .wav file to be used for video productions. Such 48k 24bit stereo files earn the most money as they are valued by video editors and producers for their higher quality.
5. Make as many versions of each sound recording as possible to increase your number of products. For example, if you have a dog barking 20 times then create sound effects with one bark, three barks, six barks, 10 barks etc. switching up the combinations of barks. This could easily give you 50 or more sound effects from just that one sequence of dog barks.
6. You can further increase your number of effects by using pitch shift or other filters on each sound sample. For instance, the sound of a stream can be pitch shifted up to make it sound lighter and less tumultuous and pitch shifted down to make it sound larger and deeper.
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.
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. The first step is to normalize each sample. This makes the audio as loud as possible by increasing the amplitude of the highest point on your recording to the highest point possible.
2. Secondly, some frequencies may affect the quality of your sound effect and you should use eq to eradicate these sonic culprits. A great sounding bird chirp, for example, may be compromised by an offending air conditioner. But, by cutting all frequencies below 2,000 Hz you can get rid of the AC and keep the lovely bird sound.
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.
5. Mix down a 48k 24bit stereo .wav file to be used for video productions. Such 48k 24bit stereo files earn the most money as they are valued by video editors and producers for their higher quality.
5. Make as many versions of each sound recording as possible to increase your number of products. For example, if you have a dog barking 20 times then create sound effects with one bark, three barks, six barks, 10 barks etc. switching up the combinations of barks. This could easily give you 50 or more sound effects from just that one sequence of dog barks.
6. You can further increase your number of effects by using pitch shift or other filters on each sound sample. For instance, the sound of a stream can be pitch shifted up to make it sound lighter and less tumultuous and pitch shifted down to make it sound larger and deeper.
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.
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Check out SFXsource's sound effect library and listen to professional quality sound effects at Sound Effects Library and download free sound effects and loops at Free Sound Effects and Loops
