Want to practice your field recording craft in the wild? Interested in learning from pro recordists?

This isn’t always easy to do. There isn’t a conventional path for learning field recording, especially in nature. I explored two options for growing your craft beyond the studio: Chris Watson’s Wildeye and Martyn Stewart’s naturesound.org workshops.

Recordists interested in learning how to record in the wilderness have another option. The Nature Sound Society has announced their latest field recording workshop.

What is the Nature Sound Field Recording Workshop?

On June 21–23, The Nature Sound Society will host a weekend of recording sound in the wild. It’s their 29th annual workshop, and features speakers Lang Elliott and Marie Read.

It will be held at San Francisco State University’s Yuba Pass Field Station in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Early registration gets you in the door for $249 (members) or $299 (non-members). After May 25th the price rises to $299 and $349.

Check out the their announcement page. for more info.

Don’t forget to check out the Nature Sound Society Yahoo! discussion group.

One thing that’s fascinating about field recordings is that they demand imagination. What do I mean?

Hearing sound effects is almost always done at a different location than the original recording. This means that hearing these clips requires a contribution only the listener provides. We match what we hear to our past experiences, or create new ones.

Some recordings are paired with other video or audio in projects. But, for the overwhelming majority of sound recordings, they are disconnected from the original act of gathering them.

Because of this, I’ve always been fascinated with soundmaps. Soundmaps anchor a recording to a specific reality: an exact place and time on the planet. This is usually done by pairing audio previews with push pins on a Google map.

I record the sounds of cultures and cities worldwide, so soundmaps are a perfect fit for my recordings. I wrote about some cool soundmaps earlier.

Recently I learned of a new soundmap project. It is a joint effort by field recordist Chris Watson and Museum Sheffield.

About the Project

I wrote earlier about Chris Watson and his Wildeye field recording workshops. Now he’s using field recordings in a soundmap project with the museum.

The project is called Inside the Circle of Fire, and will be exhibited as a soundscape at the Millennium Gallery.

Chris Watson and the museum are developing the project with a very cool idea: anyone can submit field recordings of Sheffield and the surrounding areas.

And, in a move that I particularly like, they are asking for recordings that describe what’s special about Sheffield itself. In other words, signature sound effects.

Are you near Sheffield? This could be good practice capturing signature recordings.

You can contribute your recordings via the museum’s website, email, or the project’s SoundCloud page.

First, I want to say thank you everyone who has purchased, Tweeted, and inquired about my latest e-Book, Selling Creative Sound. I appreciate your support, and hope you’re enjoying the new book.

A few quick updates about that book.

More Stores

Downloads from the bookstore here are available in .mobi, .epub, and .pdf formats. That means they’ll work with iOS, your Kindle, or any PC.

The book is now available directly from the Amazon Kindle and Apple iBookstore, too. You can choose this if you’d prefer to download directly to your Kindle instantly via Whispernet, or to your iPhone or iPad via the iTunes store. Use these image links below, or the ones at the bottom of the book page.

Is a Print Version Available?

I decided not to make a print version for Selling Creative Sound. Why?

The reason is because of hyperlinks. Both the main book and The 30-Day Quick-Start Guide have many links to websites and resources that of course wouldn’t work in print (and would be a pain to transcribe from paper).

I also have links within the book. Clicking on chapters titles will jump you directly to that text. It’s a really cool feature of working with e-Books that helps navigate between ideas.

Also, I envisioned the book to work hand in hand with researching and choosing stores on the Web, so a digital-only format is the best fit.

I have at least three field recording books planned over the next few years. They will all be in print. I’ve already sketched out their design – they will match nicely when sitting beside each other on a shelf.

However my “Sharing Series,” the books about exchanging sound effects and music on the Web, will be all be digital.

What’s Next?

Stay tuned for an article about a cool new way for Web shops to accept funds online: stripe.com. That will be available in the next few weeks.

I’m very happy to announce that my e-Book, Selling Creative Sound, is now available for instant download.

It’s my second book about sound effects. It has a new twist: selling sound clips on the Web with fans eager to support you.

I began this book almost exactly one year ago, and I’m thrilled to finally share it with you today. Discover more in the bookstore.

What is it? How can it help you?

I’ll explain the idea behind the book in this post, and why you may want to read more.

Why an e-Book About Selling Sound Libraries?

When I began this blog in 2011, I had no idea I’d be introduced to so many cool and talented people in the field recording community. They own impressive sound effects and music libraries. I’ve also discovered there are hordes of creators and producers thirsty to hear these recordings. The problem?

These collections remain tucked away on hard drives, on isolated blogs, on buried on SoundCloud pages. No one hears them. Fans can’t find them. Why is this?

Sharing sound should be easy. It isn’t. How do you build a sound library that’s not just sufficient, but superior? What’s the right way to share it? Who should you work with? How can you earn a living from selling sound? What dangers should you avoid?

Selling sound is complex, and yet information about this is veiled. The result? Creators have no idea how to share the work, and fans don’t know how to find it.

So, I wrote Selling Creative Sound to help you share your collection to the people eager to hear it and support the work you do.

The Idea Behind The Book

There’s a broader idea behind the book, and it’s one I’ve believed since starting this blog.

I believe that as more powerful, moving sound collections enter the world, all art around us improves. Exceptional sound collections amplify the projects they join. And, what’s more, our experience witnessing these creations is magnified. It’s vital: we need more exceptional sound around us.

I wrote Selling Creative Sound to help others spread these impressive sound libraries into projects and ears of people worldwide. I suggest downloadable Web shops because this method shares sound simply, inexpensively, and with little risk. And, as a pleasant bonus, creators can support themselves in the process.

I hope you’ll find the ideas thought-provoking, and helpful.

I’ll include a bit of boilerplate below to give you an idea of what’s inside the book.

What is Selling Creative Sound?

Selling Creative Sound explains how to assemble an untouchable sound library and share it in the best shops on the Web. It shows you how to do this without risk, and make a living from it.

It describes the intricate world of selling sound: how clips are sold, how Web shops work, and the state of sound effects and music on the Internet today. It presents the options for selling sound and helps you choose.

How does your sound library fit into this complex world? The e-Book explains how to shape your collection wisely to evade competition. It shows how to craft your work not as just a a collection of random tools, but as a powerful library that reflects your personality and creativity. It describes not just how to simply sell sound, but how to sell creative sound.

The e-Book shows you the best way to untangle you from code and liberate you from admin so you can do what you do best: be free and create. Selling Creative Sound does this by sharing the quickest, risk-free way to get your work into the ears of fans: via downloadable shops on the Web. It describes how they think, how to analyze them, partner wisely, negotiate agreements, and construct and maintain relationships. And it explains how to find not just any Web shop, but the best ones on the Internet.

Sharing sound effects is an immense topic. What should you sell? How should you sell it? Who will download your clips? What is most appealing? How can you protect your creations?

Sharing sound online is complex and obscure. Selling Creative Sound shows you how to get started sharing your creativity with low risk and little or no cash.

Is it For You?

It may be. The book is meant for people who want to share their creativity with others, and support themselves while doing so. Anyone can place sound on the Web, of course. Selling Creative Sound is a focused approach to sharing your most evocative creations with not just any Web shop, but the best ones that match your goals.

Are you interested in sharing sound and earning a living from it? Have you asked yourself these questions?

About Sharing Sound

• Why share sounds worldwide?
• How can I make cash from the recordings I’ve collected?
• What are the risks and benefits to sharing sound?

About Selling Sound on the Web

• How do Web shops sell sound?
• How do they differ, and which should I choose?
• How do licensing and royalties work?

About Your Sound Library

• How can I build an irresistible sound library?
• Which sounds should I include? Which should I avoid?
• What key ideas are essential to a bulletproof collection?
• How do I share music?
• How do I dodge competition?

About Library Preparation

• How should I organize my library for Web sharing?
• How should I name my sounds? What metadata should I include?
• How should I prepare music tracks?

About Web Shops

• How do I find Web shops?
• How do I research? How can I tell the good ones from the bad ones?
• What’s a good strategy for my sound library?

About Partnering

• How do distributors think?
• How do I choose a good partner?
• How do I decipher a contract?
• Should I negotiate? About what?
• How do I get my sound library into their shop?

About Common Problems

• What can I do if my sounds don’t sell?
• How do I avoid, or resolve problems with partners?
• How do I start, and keep plugging away?

Learn More

Interested? Learn more about Selling Creative Sound in the bookstore.

Are you interested in building your own Web shop? I’ll write about that in an upcoming e-Book. Join the free e-Book newsletter to learn more.

Design

You’ll notice I’ve applied a new look to the site:

• Crisper design. Larger sans-serif font. Generally cleaner.
• It’s responsive. Try resizing the browser window and watch the site automatically reshape. A responsive design is helpful with the growing mobile traffic.
• Better social icons in the top bar, including a link (finally) to my SoundCloud account (browse for free sound effect downloads there).
• Redesigned sitemap. Lost? The sitemap is at the base of every page.
• Redesigned site archives. Browse through older articles.

Bookstore

A few changes on the store in time for the upcoming e-Book launch.

• Full military-grade 2048-bit SSL encryption on checkout pages.
• Credit cards now processed directly on the site. No pesky diversions to PayPal, unless you want to pay from your PayPal.com funds.

That’s it for now. More news later.

You’d think that sharing sound libraries would be simple. I once thought so. After all, I thought, how hard is it to send an MP3 to a fan?

That was in 2000. Since then, I’ve peeled back layers of library ingestion, SSL, licensing, and other arcane Web shop terms. There’s no manual for sharing sound. It was exciting exploring this world and discovering how it worked. But good information remained clouded. One reason I started this blog was to part these clouds. Why would I do this?

Well, one benefit to creating this site is that I’ve had the privilege of hearing cool tracks from people who visit. Others need to hear these recordings. They will love them. It still amazes me that we can hear recordings from thousands of kilometres away seconds after they happen. It’s easier than ever to trap and ship audio anywhere.

But this has introduced a problem. While transferring sound is simple, sharing it well is not. Why?

The transmission of a creative idea is never easy. It can be misunderstood, or corrupted midway. Crafting an irresistible collection is trickier. Serving it to others is harder still. Web shop ingestion is a maze of confusing requirements littered with land mines of bugs. And every shop is different. You’re busy recording cool tracks. Who has the 13 years I did to learn the ropes?

This is why I wrote my upcoming book, Selling Creative Sound. I’ve read email from many people who want to know how to share sound smartly, and support themselves from their work. The book is designed to help send your audio to fans quickly, wisely, and support you while you do it.

So, today I’ll share how to prepare a sound library for Web shops. It’s an abridged checklist taken from the book. It’s meant to prepare a bulletproof package that will be prized in Web shops, and, later, perhaps a site of your own.

Sign up for the free newsletter to learn more about the e-Book, receive free exclusive chapters, and more.

Why a Checklist?

Is a checklist necessary? Surely putting sound online is just a matter of uploading to a server, then collecting cash when clips are sold?

In a technical sense, that is correct. It’s more complicated when sharing sound on a commercial Web shop, however. I’ve ingested a lot of libraries. I’ve seen which slide smoothly into stores and are shared quickly, and which falter.

Sound libraries become choked by a bottleneck when placing them online. Part of this has to do with organization. Messy collections are harder to work with. Also, Web shops receive hundreds of submissions. Evaluating them takes time. Ingesting sloppy libraries requires effort and labour costs. Frankly, these libraries are often forgotten.

I’ve used the tips below myself to ensure my library is shared in Web shops quickly. They’ll help your collection move to the front of the line.

Even if you’re not interested in sharing on the Web, I hope these tips will help strengthen your library for the friends, co-workers, and clients who will use your sounds.

Sound Library Checklist

Captured some cool clips? Spent hours in Pro Tools mastering them to perfection? Ready to share your sound library online, or with friends in the studio? Review your collection with this checklist to ensure your library is bulletproof.

Content

• 60% signature tracks, 40% foundation tracks. Foundation tracks are handy, but are quickly drowned by competition. Signature tracks allow your creativity to shine. They’re your best work. They radiate your passion capturing compelling sounds, props, or locations. Widen this percentage over your career.

• No filler. Do not include a single fluff track. No duplicates. Your collection must be tight.

• Delete weak sounds. No library is improved by boring sounds. Your customers are invested in their projects. They want your sounds to amplify their creations. Mundane recordings won’t help. Be ruthless. Deliver only your best work.

  Not sure? When in doubt, delete the sound.

• Use real instruments. One Web shop I worked with had a vicious selection process. It would only accept music that used real instruments. Rock tracks that used drum machines were rejected. So were obvious string or horn patches. Patches are appropriate, even desired in certain genres. Mostly they were avoided. Why? The belief was that real instruments broadcast emotion better. They also sound superior. Don’t skimp. Strive to record real performances whenever possible.

Editing

• Separate perspectives. Split tracks for close, medium-distant, and distant recordings. Do the same between distinctive microphones. Each track should be sonically self-contained, and not introduce surprising changes in tone, distance, or perspective.
• Proper fading technique. Avoid risking jarring pops at the beginnings and ends of your sounds. Bounce your tracks with tactful fades. Ensure cross-fades within a track are smooth. Avoid harsh edits with abrupt level changes. They are distracting.
• Use pristine sounds. Remove all slates, click tracks, and tones. Eliminate recordist movement. Customers want only a pure file.
• Sounds per file. Each sound editor has a preference. Some prefer one sample per sound file. Many like similar sounds combined together in one long track (i.e., one file containing many door opening and closing clips in a series). What does your audience need? Combine or split as needed. Be consistent.

Mastering

• Naming. Write compelling names. We looked at this last month (article one and two).
• Metadata. Include these metadata fields at a minimum: title, description, category, subcategory, keywords/tags. Music libraries add version, instrumentation, composer, publisher. (Sampling rate, bit depth and so on should automatically populate.)
• Processing. Some equalization may be necessary to remove rumble and whines. Be careful how far you push your sound library. Some fans look for punchy, compressed tracks with slick production. Others may prefer transparent sounds they can tweak themselves. This is different for music libraries, however, which use compression, reverb, and other plug-ins to properly prepare a track.
• Restoration. De-noising can fix hissy recordings. De-crackling saves hours removing pops and clicks. Be careful, though. Excessive use of restoration software sucks vibrancy from recordings. It scatters subtle digital artefacts throughout tracks. Inexperienced editors may miss this. Using this software well requires a gentle hand and years of experience. I commonly hear over-processed clips. Avoid pushing your plug-ins too far. Too much hiss, distortion, or clicks in your recording? Skip the plug-ins and record the sound again. Learn more about noise and sound.

Stats

• High resolution. 96 kHz, 24-bit or greater. Stereo. There are decent sounds at lower resolutions, of course. However, they are beginning to sound comparatively old, especially where bit-depth is concerned. Aim for higher resolutions.
• Interleaved files. Meshing multiple discrete audio channels into one single file makes delivery, searching, and storage easier. Some Web shops like the flexibility of split-stereo files, although this is rare.
• Consistent file type (WAV, MP3, etc.). Do not give multiple file formats unless a Web shop requests it. Some may, especially for their preview files.

Bonus Material

These aren’t sound files. They are supplementary data. They’re meant to ease your way into a shop. Stores often don’t have much time for you, sadly. They’re often understaffed, and busy. The more information you can provide them makes their decision to work with you easier.

• Demo montage. What Web shop has time to listen to each of your tracks? Help them choose you by preparing a preview of your library. This showcases your collection quickly. Edit together a brisk montage of your sounds. Use only your best work.

  Highlight diversity: mix genres, categories, lengths, and styles. Pepper atmospheres with overlapping succinct, specific sounds. Duration is one minute or less. Upload to SoundCloud. (Airborne Sound example montage one and two.)

• Support documents. I make it easy for people to find information about Airborne Sound. I create documents that provide info about every aspect of the library. Web shops often require this info on their publisher page. Upload these documents to free file-hosting services like Dropbox or Google Docs:
  • Images: logo, personal photo, promotional shots.
  • Company or personal biography.
  • PDF document listing your websites: your blog, Twitter account, Facebook, LinkedIn, SoundCloud, home page, IMDb page. Embed text with hyperlinks to the sites.
  • vCard or digital business card.
  • A spreadsheet listing every sound in your library in CSV, tab-delimited, text, or PDF format.
  • Payment info: wire info or PayPal.com account.

Creating bonus material helps answer anyone’s questions about your work, whether a partner, a client, or a customer. Having these files ready helps add your library to Web shops quickly.

Bonus Steps

• Upload your library off site. Store your library on Amazon S3, Dropbox (bonus 500 MB signup link), Gobbler (bonus 512 MB signup link), or Rackspace. This has two benefits: it creates a backup of your library, and it makes it incredibly easy for Web shops to transfer your collection to their servers.
• Protect your library. Attach a copyright licence with your sounds. Use the Creative Commons website to develop a basic licence. Work with a lawyer to create a detailed version tailored to your nation’s laws. Include this document wherever your sound library appears. Read more info about protecting your library.
• Check your work. Review your entire library before you offer it elsewhere.

Assembling Your Library for a New Purpose

It’s important to remember that building an elite sound library is not done solely to help yourself. You’re shaping it for the purpose of sharing. You are offering it for others to use in their projects. That’s dramatically different from simply collecting clips. You’re moulding a library for a purpose now.

When you follow this checklist, you ensure that your collection is usable and attractive for others, not yourself.

And then, when your library is prepared and packaged well, it will slip easily into Web shops and ears of fans worldwide.

When you decide to share your library, your sound effects begin to exist outside of your control.

They float around on networks and hard drives for other people to experience, and interpret.

I enjoy working as a sound librarian. I think about sound effects names, searches, and accuracy deeply. It is an important part of field recordings: it is the method by which our creations are accessed, and shared.

This is the last in my two-part series about naming sound effect libraries. The first post explored the philosophy behind sound names, and necessity for good ones.

Because you’ll develop your own style for naming, today I’ll share 15 tips I keep in mind when creating names and assigning metadata. They’re tips I’ve picked up over the years I’ve spent optimizing collections for Web shops. You can use them as guidelines for your own methods. They’re general enough that they’ll strengthen your names and improve the chances that your sound will be found, and used.

Since these posts are taken from my upcoming book, Selling Creative Sound, you’ll see there’s a slant on selling sound. You can also apply the ideas to sharing sound at work, or on your own. Join the free e-Book newsletter to learn more about the book’s release.

Sound Effect Naming Mistakes to Avoid

Spelling mistakes

Almost all of the sound libraries I review have spelling errors. From the perspective of a Web shop, this is a surprisingly major problem. Often, spelling mistakes occur in the sound file name itself. This means a Web shop owner must scan a folder, import the text into a spreadsheet, correct it, then export it back to the files. Or they batch-rename each spelling error. It’s agony. But it must be done. Why?

If your sound is spelled incorrectly, it won’t be found with keyword searches. There’s no point adding it to the Web shop.

Use a spell-checker. Visit dictionary.com.

Numbered names

I see many sound libraries with hordes of sounds differentiated only by a number suffix.

Cat meow 01

Cat meow 02

…

Cat meow 33

Don’t use numbers. I know. It’s easier to do this than to elaborate. However, numbers themselves aren’t helpful for identifying differences between sounds. It suggests that the sound is exactly the same as the one preceding it. Do they sound alike? If so, why are multiple copies of identical sounds in your library when one would do?

Instead of a number, use a word. Surely there is some difference, no matter how minimal, between the two sounds? Add detail:

Cat meowing softly

Cat meowing sadly

Can’t articulate differences between sound files? Delete similar sounds.

Industry terms

What’s walla? What is Foley? How about CU, POV, LFE or F/S?

If you’re reading this post, you likely know these terms. I guarantee most of your customers will not.

A portion of your audience may be just like you. They’ll understand industry jargon. Why exclude everyone else?

Simplify language. Any of these terms can be described plainly, or simply omitted. Expand abbreviations and acronyms.

Don’t use codes

Some sound librarians use codes in their names.

• Booster
• Sub
• PISH
• SYFI

What do these codes mean? Some you may know.

• Booster = a short sound effect that is used primarily to support others.
• Sub = short for subsonic, or a sound effect with dominant low frequencies.
• PISH = a pitch-shifted effect.
• SYFI = sci-fi, or a science-fiction or space sound effect.

Soundminer has encouraged use of four-character codes in their ShortID field, and that’s unfortunate. Why?

Who could possibly know these codes? If they’re unknown, they won’t be used in searches. And, even if a user can see the codes in metadata columns, they must guess the meaning. A sound librarian’s job is to invite accuracy, not guesswork. Who has time to decode names?

Some librarians include a sheet explaining codes. If a collection requires a roadmap to even begin using it, that’s a sign it’s inconvenient.

Instead, always think about the least professional and knowledgeable of your fans. Write your names so everyone can understand. Expand ShortID codes into category and subcategory metadata fields using proper English.

What about words like booster or sub? To us sub is obvious. Describe the effect instead. Low, deep, rumbling, and heavy can be used to explain sub in a way even greenest of noobs will relate to immediately. It’s keyword-rich as well.

Codes limit the reach of your files, and they’re not user-friendly. Avoid writing names that need to be deciphered.

Copyright

Avoid brand names. Will Apple or Microsoft hunt you down for using their name in your sound files?

It’s unlikely. However, the names are copyrighted for a reason. They can sue you. The argument is that you are enhancing your sound by associating their brand with it.

Music libraries get around this by using the term “sound alike.” Is it safe to name your music track “sounds like Metallica?” The band could make the same argument as Microsoft: your song is making money using their name as advertising.

Replace weak words

Remove redundant and vague words. They aren’t helpful and you won’t miss them:

• place
• thing
• some
• noise
• many
• very
• moves, or movement
• object
• loud
• various
• duration (e.g., short, long. This info can be learned from the file length.)

Be specific with your names. Which place or what kind of thing? How many people exactly? There is always a better word that can be substituted for these names, and provide fans superior information.

Thesaurus.com will help you with this.

Avoid suggestions

Some names propose how a sound should be used:

Dirt onto rocks. Perfect to supplement a cave-in track, or for debris.

A soaring pop-rock track in the spirit of Coldplay, U2, or Kings of Leon.

On one hand, these details can help fans who are searching specifically for a “cave-in” or “Coldplay.”

However, I find that if I’m suggesting how a track should be used, I’ve missed describing its nuances properly. Neither of those tracks tell us much about the sound iteslf. What could be better?

Dirt falling onto rocks and pebbles. Debris begins strongly then diminishes, trickling into a fine stream, and dies.

An empowering pop anthem. Piece begins with longing male vocals, charged electric guitar leads, then builds and crests with galloping drums to a triumphant chorus. Bridge features a soaring guitar solo. Uplifting.

There’s more detail there. Notice that they contain keywords that fans are likely to type into search engines.

Don’t tell listeners what a sound would be good for. That’s subjective. It restricts their imagination, and how sounds could be used. Instead, describe what it is as lushly as possible. People can make up their own minds.

Avoid default names

All recorders assign a name to each sound file they record. Sometimes this is just a timestamp. At other times it may be a simple text string (AUDIO_01.WAV). Avoid sharing files with only the default name. Any detail is better than the default name.

Credit to Tamas Dragon who mentioned this in a blog post.

Don’t use prefixes

Some libraries prefix their tracks with categories or perspectives, or numbers.

AMB crowd in a convention centre.

INT car with mic on dashboard.

001 glass breaking

The problem with this method? It confuses sorting. I can see the point of using AMB to group all ambience together. Why clutter the name? There’s the “category” metadata field for that.

How about Int? This will group all interior takes together. Why is this a problem? Well, in a Pro Tools bin it will group the interior trucks with the interior car takes. This means that it divides interior and exterior takes of the same vehicle.

How about using numbering as a prefix? Well, that will group all first takes of every sound effect together.

001 glass breaking

001 metal smash

002 glass breaking

It’s better to group the type of sound together.

Glass breaking fast

Glass breaking hard

In short, instead of using prefixes, begin a sound’s name with the subject or noun.

Using categories in names

Some libraries add the category into their names.

AMB crowd in a convention centre.

Whoosh, Production Element, Sound Design, Airy, Swipe, Fast

This is commonly done to increase search engine hits. Some Web stores adds these words just in case a customer enters category words in their keyword search. A customer may type in “production element whoosh,” after all. Most modern databases compensate for this, though. A Web shop can easily specify that any keyword a customer enters searches a number of database fields at the same time: description, name, and category. So, there’s no need to add a category to the name. It is being retrieved behind the scenes anyway.

This also overloads the name. It’s too much to read. Most people don’t search by category, anyway. Searching by keywords is more popular. Why not move the category data to the proper “category” and “subcategory” metadata fields?

Avoid using all-caps

On the Internet, writing in all-caps means you’re SCREAMING. Who wants to be yelled at when shopping for sounds?

All-caps is ugly. It also takes up roughly 50% more visual space.

Writing in all-caps ignores one of the main reasons we’ve structured the Roman script as we have. Capitals are used to demarcate breaks in expression (beginning of sentences) or highlight importance (acronyms, honorific names). By displaying everything in caps, no single word can be differentiated. What does this mean for sound libraries?

Our names are detailed and complex. Varying capitalization allows the eye to jump from one important word to the next. It increases speed and accessibility.

Sound Effects Naming Tricks

We’ve learned which mistakes to avoid, but how can you make the names you have stronger?

Here are ideas:

Use active verbs

Use one tense consistently. Scattered verb tense makes it difficult to find groups of sounds:

Bell ring

Ringing a bell

A bell being rung

They all mean the same thing. The first is present tense, the second is present continuous, and the third is passive. I prefer the first. Why?

It’s concise. The “-ing” form can confuse keyword searches. The passive is limp and includes a word that doesn’t help describe the sound (“being”).

Do you use rung, ringing or ring? Pick one, and stick with it.

Inject Emotion

Potent names use emotion. Draw on your style to add unique names to your sound files.

Did you perform the guitar lead frantically? Confidently, or darkly? Work those names into your song.

Sound effects benefit from this as well.

Thunder snap and crackle followed by a huge ripple. Storm rolls into the distance with ominous grumbling.

“Ominous grumbling” adds a mood unlike other thunder tracks. It creates an image and a feeling.

Use emotional and imaginative words to distinguish your sounds.

Use punctuation

Punctuation serves to vary how sentences are consumed:

• Comma – brief pause.
• Period – full stop.
• Hypens, m-dash, n-dash – a break in thought.
• Colon – indicates the beginning of a list.
• Parentheses – supplemental information.

They are also useful because they add visual flair to names.

Beware, however. These characters may confuse search engines, source code, or may be restricted in file names by operating systems.

“It’s better to be consistent than correct.”

I heard this from an acquaintance who learned it during her Masters in Library Studies.

The idea is that when searching for data predictability and unity of results is more important than form.

In other words, make sure you pick your terms and be faithful to them. Don’t name half of your clips rubbish bin and the rest trash bin. That means people who search for trash bin only receive a portion of results. Instead, pick one term only.

This is true for spelling, too. Maybe you accidentally spelled room tone as roomtone. It’s far better to have them all labelled one name, even if it is incorrect. Why?

Search results also function to teach users the “language” of your collection. Once they receive the result for the incorrectly-spelled roomtone, they’ll know how to search thereafter.

It also helps you, as a sound librarian, to find and modify data afterwards.

The Goal of Sound Names

What’s the goal of a sound file name?

A superior sound name should be so evocative that you shouldn’t need to hear it to crave it. It should create a mental image of the audio. As far as searching is concerned, text should provide 75% of the meaning and interpretation of the sound. Judging the sound based on what you hear should be an afterthought.

Of course, writing a sound name can be a casual thing. Do you always need to put this much consideration into your sound names?

No, of course not. You don’t have to invest effort into it if you don’t want to, however I hope I’ve convinced you otherwise with the posts in this series.

Sound names allow access to collections. When you need to use or share sound effects, it becomes critical to a collection’s success. It can mean the difference between a fan enjoying your field recordings, or it being lost within the depths of nested folders, buried in the darkest corners of your hard drives.

A name is the natural selection of sound files.

You’ve given life to amazing sounds. They’ve evolved as you’ve mastered them. They’ll grow further as you share them.

Help by giving them names they deserve.

A sound effect has a long lifespan.

Its childhood begins with scouting. Its teen-aged years are when it is recorded. The college years are when its direction is shaped with mastering. The longest part of its life, its adulthood, is when it is shared.

In my book Field Recording: From Research to Wrap, I said that sharing sound is inherent to field recording. We capture sound so it can be released elsewhere: in the projects we work on, or for the fans who are listening.

Sharing sound clips happens in two ways. The first is by transmission: you can share audio by playing it (alone or within projects), sending it to someone, or so on. Another part of sharing a sound is being able to access it. Or, in other words, being able to find it. After all, we all have thousands of sound files in our libraries. We need to locate them to use them.

I’d like to write about just one part of how a sound effect can be found: by its name.

Today we’ll take a deep look at the ideas behind naming sound. I’ll explain five reasons why a name is a vital part of a sound effect. It’s about the philosophy behind naming a sound. I’ve written it to get us thinking.

Next week we’ll look at a more practical aspect of naming sounds. I’ll share helpful guidelines for naming any sound library, and hazards you should avoid.

A sound’s name can be created quickly. It takes only seconds of tapping a keyboard to compose a name. This is usually done during mastering. However, a name has such a large impact on sharing your sound library that I’ve dedicated an entire chapter to the idea in my upcoming book, Selling Creative Sound. My hope is that the ideas will help you share your creations more successfully.

The posts in this series are extracts taken from the upcoming book. Join the newsletter to read more free chapters, and have a heads-up on the release.

The Importance of Sound Names

I’ve thought a lot about naming sound effects. It began during my seven years working at Sounddogs.com. One of my roles was to find and approve new libraries for the site. I would evaluate submissions and decide if they would be valuable enough for our customers to add to the website. I rejected a lot of libraries. Why?

Well, sometimes the recordings were uninteresting, poor, or sloppily-mastered. However, it was just as common to reject a library based on poor names or descriptions. After all, cleaning up these names required a lot of detailed labour, much of which couldn’t ever be recouped by the sales that library would generate.

I would say around 5% of non-corporate libraries had decent names and descriptions. The rest were written at a grade-five level: scattered with spelling mistakes, poor grammar, punctuation and capitalization errors, and inconsistencies.

Surely I’m being too critical, right?

Well, it’s no secret that I like English and writing. Perhaps I’m biased. But it wasn’t about what I preferred. At Sounddogs I was also in charge of paying partners their royalties. I saw that there was a direct relationship between the name of the sound and how well it sold.

I’ve consulted for many other top Web shops since then, and this pattern has been consistent. It is true whether a shop sells sound effects, or music.

Think about that for a second. It’s unlikely that the popular tracks were field recordings captured with the most skill. Instead, they were merely ones with compelling names. What does this mean?

It means that as the amount of similar sounds in library grows, the stronger a sound’s description impacts its success. In fact, after a certain point, the name becomes more important than the audio itself.

To field recordists this can be a shocking revelation. Isn’t your craft in the field paramount? Yes. However, all your work setting levels and embedding your passion into recordings doesn’t matter if no one can find your sounds.

Perhaps you’re not interested in selling sound on the Web. Maybe you just want to share your library with co-workers on a network drive, or a sound-sharing collective. Perhaps you simply need to find clips for yourself. The effect is the same: a sound’s name has tremendous importance. It allows access to your creations.

Naming Experiments

Over the years I’ve had time to test this idea with my own Airborne Sound library. I’ve repeatedly overhauled my sound library names. I’ve performed experiments with descriptions to find the impact a name has.

One example I tried was with a batch of ocean recordings I captured from a wintery Nova Scotian coast. Sometimes I became lost in the sound of the waves and recorded up to twenty minutes of a single track.

Back in the studio, I decided not to let the entire twenty minutes go to waste. I split it into six 3.5-minute tracks, and gave each a radically different name.

Some tracks I left simply:

Ocean 01

Big waves

Ocean,Atlantic,Nova Scotia,Waves

I added more specific words to others:

Ocean,Atlantic,Nova Scotia,Waves,Majestic

Ocean,Atlantic,Nova Scotia,Waves,Thundering

Ocean,Atlantic,Nova Scotia,Waves,Pebble Beach,Surge,Crest,Sigh

The result? Those names with the specific, colourful words outsold the others ten to one, even though the recordings were essentially identical.

This is important if you want to sell sound effects. A good name can mean the difference between someone auditioning your sound or choosing another, between a sale and a pass. Repeat that decision for the thousands of people who surf a Web shop daily, and you’ll understand the impact.

The Best Way to Describe Sound

What, then, is a better approach? What’s the best way for someone to understand a sound effect?

By listening, of course. This isn’t practical for creative workers, though. We can’t possibly audition every second of each clip we’re curious about. There’s not enough time to do that. So, we need a quicker way to understand a sound, compare it with others, select it, and get back to work.

In a perfect world we’d compare and find sounds in terms of the audio itself. The most accurate way to find and sort clips would be based on qualities of sound. Some ideas:

• frequency and spectrum
• wavelength
• amplitude (volume)
• sound pressure
• sound intensity
• distance or perspective
• pitch and tone
• envelope (attack, decay, sustain, release)
• location of transients
• content matching (vocal, musical, traffic, etc.)
• duration

Future sound searches may include these features. Right now, however, the technology doesn’t really exist. (I believe Soundminer’s retired Sounddigger was an exception).

What’s common in the list above? It’s almost completely objective. It’s defined by the physical nature of sound. It would be the ultimate “advanced search” for sound effects. It could provide incredibly precise results. But, while something like that would be accurate, it’s cumbersome. Why?

Well, sound designers and editors are creative people. They don’t respond as well to stats as they may to experiencing and appraising the audio itself.

The Meaning of a Sound Name

So then what’s the next best method?

Text, of course. It’s easy to imagine, and to apply. However, it has difficulties.

Duration is the most helpful text-based, objective way of comparing sounds, but beyond that, using text to describe a sound invites a problem.

As you move away from the physical descriptions above, the more inaccurate a sound file’s description becomes. Why?

The tricky thing is that text has no direct relationship to audio. Part of this has to do with linguistics, or the study of language. Words are symbols for meaning. The lines and curves that we draw to make letters have little connection to what that word represents. The shape we make when drawing the word “dog” has no direct relationship to a small, fluffy, yipping creature. But what does linguistics have to do with sound?

The concept is the same with sound file names. The text that we use to describe sounds doesn’t immediately relate to what we’re hearing. One listener may say that a thunderstorm ripples. Another may say it booms, grumbles, or murmurs. Neither person is completely right, or utterly wrong.

While the list above was objective, applying text names becomes subjective.

This is why naming a sound effect is so important: using text at all when describing a sound file risks misinterpretation. As I saw in the libraries I ingested, this is common, and can have a dramatically negative influence on a sound library’s success.

Why A Sound Effect’s Name is Vital

Why is this true? Why is a name important to a sound effect?

On first impression it’s common sense, of course. A better name is more useful. It’s helpful, though, to look at the exact effect a name has on audio in particular.

And, while it appears to be common sense, it is consistently overlooked by most collections. That tells me that sound librarians aren’t seeing the relationship between naming and a collection’s success. Another possibility is that people who produce or sell sound libraries don’t actually use them afterwards.

Here are five reasons why naming audio well is important:

1. It is informative. This one’s easy. A name must describe a what a sound is. You don’t want search for “cat” and receive a fighter jet clip.

2. Sounds with better names are reliable. On Web shops listeners usually audition low-res previews. At best this preview file gives you an impression of the track that you can’t fully trust. A superior name makes up for the disparity in what you hear and the file that is delivered.

3. Good names are efficient. They accelerate results. Consider a search for “thunderstorm.” This will return dozens of long results. Which busy editor has time to listen to the full duration of every track? Perhaps we listen to a few seconds of each. More commonly we skim the names, find a few that provide the best information, and spend our time listening to those.

4. It is an indication of a sound library’s quality. You know the saying: “actions speak louder than words.” Chatter is easy. Actually doing something takes effort.

   I feel it’s the same with library descriptions. Naming a sound takes thought, but as far as effort is concerned, it takes little more energy than simply typing. Actually recording a sound takes far more work.

   Because of this, there’s a temptation to hastily compose a sound name. Resist this impulse. Why?

   A name composed with little reflection risks suggesting that its sound was captured with the same effort. Of course, you’ve recorded excellent sound effects. A weak sound name may undermine your work before it is even auditioned. Avoid this by crafting a name that reflects your skill as a recordist.

   Don’t let your names be the weak link in your sound library.

5. Good names make sound effects attractive. A great name should invite you to audition it. Maybe it’s funny. Perhaps it’s gripping. Maybe it’s so strange that it evokes your curiosity. A good name will compel you to play it.

   This is more important in Web shops where attractiveness has a direct affect on your income. However, in a broader sense, it relates to the success of any of your clips being used.

What You Can Do

You record sound effects to share them, and use them. If a sound effect name isn’t compelling, it won’t be auditioned, and won’t be used. This means that all that time you spent scouting a location, choosing your microphone, setting levels, and performing your prop will have gone to waste.

Do your sounds have terrible names? Short, vague descriptions? Lacking a “system” to your library?

It happens to everyone. As I’ve mentioned, I’ve reworked every one of my 20,000 sound effects multiple times, and the library’s still not perfect. Even top sound effect libraries I’ve ingested have needed substantial work on their names. And these collections are selling for thousands of dollars.

Start thinking about improving your sound library’s names now. If you’re sharing sound, it will give you an edge on the competition. If you are simply using large libraries daily, it will help you find, sort, and use better clips more quickly.

More on sound effect names next week.

What’s it about? Well, two things, really:

1. How to assemble a powerful sound effects or music collection using the pinnacle of your craft.
2. How to share it in the best Web shops on the Internet.

It contains advice, ideas, and tricks I’ve discovered from the fifteen years I’ve spent sharing sound.

Since I last wrote, I’ve added new chapters I’m quite excited about. They are:

• What a Badass Sound Library Looks (and Sounds) Like
• How to Name Sounds, including:
  • What Makes a Sound Name Powerful?
  • Two Ways to Name Sound Effects
• Expanded sections: links to software and helpful websites.
• Blending Creativity and Commerce
• Preparing Your Music Tracks, including:
  • Registering Your Tracks
  • Signing With a Publishing Rights Organization
  • Working with Composers and Publishers
• Common Problems… And How to Avoid Them, including:
  • Fixing Limp Sounds
  • Strengthening Weak Collections
  • Avoiding the Wrong Partners
  • Getting Out Of a Bad Deal
  • Avoiding Over-Saturation
  • Increasing Low Sales
  • Resolving Distributor Disputes

These sections are in addition to the 102 chapters and 44,000 words already completed and polished.

To give you a taste of what I’ve been writing, I’ll be posting chapters pulled directly from the new e-Book, starting this Wednesday. Stay tuned!

Want to learn more about the book? Sign up for the free e-Book newsletter. You’ll receive news and free sample chapters, exclusive to those just on the list.

How can you record great sound effects?

Field recording well requires using gear properly, having a solid recording sensibility, and knowledge of acoustics and signal flow.

However, as a listener, these things rarely come to mind when we hear an impressive sound. It’s similar to watching a movie: we never wonder how the gaffer lit a scene. That may come to mind after, of course.

It’s the same with sound effects. Whether hearing them on their own or skillfully blended with other audio or video, our first reaction is to simply experience them. We react to booming thunder, a crisp gunshot, or forlorn, howling wind. But, after we’ve assembled our gear, flicked the switches and turned the dials, how can we as field recordists create an experience for our listeners?

One field recordist who knows is Frank Bry.

Bry is a pioneer in the world of sharing sound. He posts frequently on designingsound.org, sonic-terrain.com, as well as his Twitter stream and field recording blog.

Bry is well known for his voluminous collections of tricky sound effects. His recordings are known to be pure and powerful. But his recordings also contain something more: instinct, inspriation, and “vibe.”

Frank kindly spent some time answering questions about his origins in sound design, how he shares sound, and his method for evoking the best possible experience for his listeners.

From Sampling to Sound Design

Frank Bry was introduced to sound recording the same way as many other field recordists: through music.

Bry began playing bass to Led Zeppelin songs with a high school friend. They eventually committed their own songs to tape. The recording process intrigued Bry: after high school he worked as a recording engineer, and later operated his own commercial recording studio.

It was during this time that Bry began experimenting with audio. He used an E-mu Emax sampling keyboard to record his own drum sounds. Sampling fascinated him. The gear he used in music recording began to function less as an instrument itself, and instead became a means to interpret and express sound in new ways. He began smashing and breaking things, and adding these effects to his mixes.

Bry continued to explore sound effects sampling, and bonded with local Seattle fans of another sampler, the Emulator III. Word of his sampling skills spread. “After a short while my name got around Seattle attached to the words ‘sound designer,’” Bry said.

This reputation secured an invitation to create sound effects for a radio and television campaign for the Goodwill Games sporting event. Bry had never done sound effects work before.

“I was excited and terrified at the same time,” Bry explained. “I had no idea what I was doing.”

A Different Way of Sharing Sound

It signalled a shift in Bry’s career, and he soon began creating audio for video games. He also continued recording and creating sound effects throughout the 1990’s, and contributed work to commercial CD libraries by publisher Sound Ideas. He had broader ideas about sharing sound, though.

He created his own website, and gave away free MP3s of his recordings. They were a success. “People like free stuff so they came in droves.”

Impressed by the calibre of his tracks, pro sound designers began asking for high-quality recordings to use in their own projects. He began selling sound effects for $5 per clip.

“It was a tedious, hands-on process,” Bry admitted. “I started looking into ways to automate with digital downloads.”

Sounds were already being sold on the Web from massive, database-driven à la carte websites offering thousands of clips. Bry had a different vision for sharing his work.

“I had thousands of sound effects in my archive and I wanted to share them, but I did not want to do the single-sound model like Sounddogs.com,” Bry said. “So, I started putting like sounds into what I call a SoundBox.”

Bry made his move as Web tools became sophisticated. WordPress and third-party digital delivery solutions allowed Bry to share packages directly with fans. “I wanted to do it earlier, but it took a while for the tools to arrive and be relatively simple and stable.”

And, in 2008, the first version of his website shop arrived: therecordist.com.

Instinct and Inspiration

Dozens of sound effect shops were already strewn across the Web. However, word spread quickly about Bry’s SoundBoxes and The Recordist store. Why?

Bry approached sound effects recording differently from existing industrialized publishers. While most of these libraries and websites offered a scattering of sound effects, or a broad category of clips, Bry considered sound effects more carefully. He created his collections with a specific theme in mind.

Other sound libraries released atmosphere libraries. Bry took this idea a step further: he created collections of only wind. Other SoundBoxes were similarly focused: rockslides, water, thunder, and even leaves. The collections were instantly popular with fans.

While other field recordists had begun collecting and sharing sound effects based upon a single theme, Bry’s collections were different. The collections were large, and gathered across months, or even years of effort. They were clearly the product of hundreds of hours of time in the wild, and in the studio.

But how does such an extensive project begin? I asked Bry how he chooses a theme for his recordings. The answer?

Instead of consulting balance sheets of sales projections, Bry trusts instinct, and inspiration.

“I have no idea where the idea for a subject comes from most of the time,” he told me. “If I hear something when out and about I get curious and start thinking about whether or not it’s viable to record.”

He stressed that recording a collection isn’t a clinical, calculated process. It’s more intuitive to him. "I don’t think I am actually conscious of recording a theme deeply; I just follow where the universe sends me.

“Some collections come very easily and some take much more thought. I am always thinking about how to best acquire and express each theme. Most of the time I’m inspired by what I hear around me when recording.”

And then?

“Once I latch onto a particular topic, I become obsessed and record as much of it as I can.”

Crafting Collections

This begins Bry’s journey to explore as much about a sound’s voice as possible.

“Some ‘one topic’ sounds take years to record,” he said. “Thunder, for example, is very tough to record. I record as much as I can when it happens, which at times can be very frustrating.”

However, Bry acknowledges that sound, especially when collected as a theme, has an unusual limitation: the depth of focus on a single topic can lead to endless recordings. “I do not think my libraries have ‘complete,’ coverage” he said. “That would be almost impossible.”

Instead, Bry embeds flexibility into his recordings. “My fire library, for example, has many different types of fire. I was not able to record everything that fire can do but the sounds in there can be used in fantasy video games, action movies, television dramas, and many other types of audio projects. The fire can be blended and moulded to fit just about anything flame-based.”

Is it possible a theme can capture every expression of wind, explosions, or freight trains? Is there a moment when every voice has been captured?

To be certain, Bry runs the collection through his own personal QA before finishing: “I ask myself: ‘Is this stuff I would use? Is there enough coverage and variety?’ After the initial evaluation, I move on from there and fill in the holes as best I can.”

I asked Bry if focusing on one topic makes it easier to create his collections. When does he know a library is complete and he can hang up his Rycote?

“I’m not sure they are ever done,” he reflected. “I do release many sequels, and it seems to make sense to me. I constantly play through all the session files one by one to get a sense of what else is needed to make a theme feel good. When I think it stands on it’s own as a decent, creative collection, I wrap it up.”

Capturing a Vibe

Coverage is only one facet of sound library, of course. A successful collection needs clean, accurate recordings as well. However, to resonate with listeners, sound clips must include something more. How does Bry include this in his field recordings?

His approach began with his work in game audio.

“I spent years working on games and sometimes had trouble finding the right source for the style of games I was working on. I would record a great deal of my own material when I had the time. I learned to perform the sound I needed and was not very concerned with the recording gear. My main goal was getting the right sound to feel good.”

In a way, sharing sound effects on his website has complicated this vision. What may be good for one sound designer may not fit the needs of another. I asked Bry how he copes with the variety of demands from his fans.

“I do consider how people will use the sounds and that’s the tricky part,” he told me. “It’s difficult to cover all the bases because everyone has unique needs for a project. I tend to record sounds that can be used over and over again and in many different situations.”

Part of this, he mentioned, has to do with evoking the best interpretations from the sounds. “When I record something I do my best to get as many diverse performances as possible.”

And how is this done? Bry’s musical roots contribute directly to his field recording style.

“I treat a sound effect recording as a performance in a way much like a music performance,” Bry said. “Everything makes a sound when motivated to do so, and I pay close attention to the vibe and energy it makes and go from there.”

He shared one example of this while recording his North Country Trains collection.

“I wanted to capture the ”vibe“ of the trains here,” he said. “I live in a wide-open, sparsely-populated area and when the trains rumble through you can usually hear and feel them. I chose exteriors and tried to get the huge railcar and engine movement sounds as they made their way across the county.”

Bry doesn’t leave the “vibe” to chance, as seen in his Ultimate Foliage collection: “When the wind blows through the trees and this beautiful leaf movement sound occurs, I try and record it the most expressive way I can, and sometimes I set up rigging to make the trees move the way I want them to.”

Cultivating Style

But where does this vibe grow from? How does Bry detect it, and embed it into his recordings? How can new recordists cultivate their own creativity?

“One of the things I try and do is record with passion and emotion,” Bry told me. “I have a crazy imagination and while I’m recording I have images and ideas flashing through my mind.”

However, Bry acknowledges that the structured nature of field recording is often at odds with this. Just the same, he suggests new recordists should push their boundaries: “Some of the best recordings I have are when I took a new approach or just winged it. Do your best to do things a little differently. Take risks, not physical risks but creative ones and most of the time you get surprising results.”

Bry’s secret? “Follow your creative instincts. We all have them. It just takes practice to learn when to listen and when to take a nap.”

Many thanks to Frank Bry for sharing his time and his thoughts!

Read More

Frank Bry’s website.
Follow Frank on Twitter.
Read about his recording experiences on his blog.
The recordist sound effects Web shop.