|
More than ten years ago we heard the word "multimedia" used to describe the
future of the PC. Surprisingly, columnists found it very hard to effectively
explain multimedia even when Microsoft and IBM provided a concise definition.
After all, there was a tiny speaker in every PC that produced wonderful beeps
and boops. What more could we ask for?
Today, we explain how multimedia sound effects (SFX) have changed the PC,
including how we use SFX in the production of audio CDs. Stay tuned for an
education in the SFX resources that we have uncovered, including the libraries
available from Hollywood Edge, a major supplier to movie engineers.
Diverse Sources of Sound Effects
The addition of sound effects to games, PC events, and CD-ROM applications
truly shook-up the world of IBM compatibles. Microsoft's Windows 3.0 was
visually stunning for its time, but it was SFX that showed what multimedia
meant. Then Microsoft put out Bookshelf and Encarta with tons of sound effects,
including speech. From that period on, SFX seemed to have become indispensable
to PC users.
If you will let us talk about audio from a different point of view, we have a
personal anecdote that explains how SFX can suddenly became indispensable. For
years, I resisted hearing aids (call them SFX amplifiers) because I am a
musician with an old-fashioned pride. Then in 1997, digital hi-fi hearing aids
became available, and these contained enough beloved buzzwords that I was ready
to buy. I loved them instantly. This love bond is so strong, I groan in pain
when the audiologist wants to send even one aid to the factory for a SFX
tune-up. Similarly today, a PC user wants to hear SFX on every CD-ROM, DVD,
Window event, application tool, and PC-based training.
Our recent release of "Concert at the Castle" made us aware of the need to have
access to SFX. We were convinced that Renaissance music needed SFX to set the
stage, i.e., to put the music of the 16th century into a moving context. The CD
needed rain, footsteps, castle door noises, crowd noises, a trumpet fanfare,
and more. Now we have a Christmas CD in production and we want to add SFX that
exude love and holiday cheer. Where does one go for exactly the right SFX?
Let's begin with a listing of places to get cheap sound effects, but remember
that cheap is not guaranteed to be top-notch, and most free sources do not
include permission for free reproduction and distribution. So if your needs are
professional, keep track of what is legally yours to use.
Figure 1
(click to enlarge).
The Internet has several sites that contain modest collections of
free or inexpensive sound effects.
Semi-professional collections of SFX are on the shelves at your favorite PC
store. For example, the high quality Clickart 300,000 Premiere Image Pack also
includes 7,000 sounds, but these sounds are synthesized sounds as opposed to
real-life sampled sounds. Other multimedia collections are on the shelves,
including screensaver utilities that are full of sounds.
Everyone has a home collection of recorded sounds that are part of
environmental tapes, mood tapes, self-improvement tapes, movies, music CDs,
CD-ROM encyclopedias, games, etc. The encyclopedias are especially rich
sources, but you may need to get written permission to use the SFX.
Check your TV guide for any programming that is likely to contain the required
SFX. Remember that radio programs with storytelling (e.g., "The Prairie Home
Companion") have SFX. Record the sound on a cassette and input it through your
sound card. Most cards include digitizing (A/D conversion) capabilities.
Search the Web and look at sites of the type seen in Figure 1 where modest
collections can be downloaded. This can be an agonizingly slow search, but
there is a lot out there, even if the quality level and legalities are going to
be in question. Include BBS databases in your search.
Of course, you can do it the old fashioned way. Back away from the PC keyboard.
Stretch your tired muscles. Put some vision drops into your reddened eyeballs
and go in search of the SFX. Grab your tape recorder plus microphone and find
or stage the needed SFX. The pros often have to do this if they don't turn to
companies such as the Hollywood Edge (below).
Hollywood Edge has SFX
If you want sound effects that have been recorded professionally from staged or
live sampled events, then you turn to companies that have the equipment and
dedication to do the job right. Top-notch, hi-fi SFX are needed in huge
quantities by movie and audio companies so there is a market for SFX in
collections that go beyond just getting a generic sound such as "door."
|
If you are serious, then you access libraries of SFX that have every sort of
door. For example, doors come in all sizes, weights and hinge choices. Doors
creak and moan. Doors open and close; slowly and quickly; quietly and noisily.
Some close onto small rooms while others reverberate into large spaces. Maybe
you need a castle door complete with a creaking portcullis. We hope you get the
idea about what it means to have access to every sort of sound, and there has
to be a catalog so you can find what you need. Thus, we see a company like
Hollywood Edge, a Division of Soundelux Entertainment Group.
In Figure 2, we are looking at a Hollywood Edge Web page that contains the same
SFX catalog that the company makes available in paperback version. It may take
a few guesses to locate a specific SFX, but the variety and beauty of the SFX
are amazing.
Figure 2
(click to enlarge).
Hollywood Edge has an SFX home page that contains a searchable
catalog of their libraries.
We don't want to get carried away listing the
available SFX, but just imagine how many household or military sounds there
are. Think of how many possible groups of people, including crowds speaking in
different languages there can be. Look at the Web site!
The sounds are on standards audio CDs. For example, there are CDs labeled
"Household Sounds" and another just for "Fights, Body Falls, Cracks and Whips."
If you use Explorer to see the bands on the CD, you will see upwards of a
hundred bands with the extension CDA. Click on any band and Windows 98 brings
up the new Deluxe CD Player seen in Figure 3. By default, it immediately starts
playing the sounds in order on the CD. Actually, just closing the CD door
starts the playing of the CD from the beginning just as if it were a music
collection. Be prepared if you have loaded one of the hi-fi military CDs and it
starts playing on its own. We say "be prepared" because Hollywood Edge is not
fooling around. These people have won Academy Awards. Turn on "The Terminator"
movie and you will know what we mean by this company's hi-fi SFX.
Even though the new Deluxe CD Player (Figure 3) can look on the Web for a CD's
directory, we didn't spend any time aiming it at Hollywood Edge's home page. We
guess that one simply locates sounds in the computerized catalog, looks in the
printed catalog, or just looks at the lists of all the sounds on the back of
each CD. Similar sounds are grouped together. Once you find what you need, use
the Windows Sound Recorder to create a digital WAV file that is in the 16
bits/44.1 MHz format that all CDs use. Next, you can set up looping, combining,
fading and other editing of sounds using a professional program such as
Cakewalk, or use the Windows 98 utilities.
Figure 3
(click to enlarge).
We were surprised to discover the Windows 98 Deluxe CD Player with
lots of new functionality, especially Web integration.
The Hollywood Edge SFX collections seem to be a combination of efforts to have
libraries of obviously useful SFX available and more disparate SFX collections
that were created for specific movies. For example, there is a five CD set made
in collaboration with American Zoetrope that contains the warlike sounds
created for the movie Apocalypse Now. However, we were especially excited to
note that there is a "Historic Series" that is full of renaissance and medieval
sounds.
The Hollywood Edge is just a small piece of the Soundeluxe Entertainment Group
that even makes microphones in addition to providing mastering services for
major motion pictures. Thus, when you get SFX from them, you are light years
beyond the 'SFX' of beeps and boops from the old PC's internal speaker, and you
will be very spoiled beyond hope of accepting lesser quality. All this comes
with a price tag that may cause you to gulp. However, this is serious SFX that
comes with a license to use. These collections come from fastidious on-site
recording, and that costs money. Check out the web site and see for yourself
what serious SFX is all about.
|
