Free Sound Samples?

TwistedSquare asks: "I like to write small games from time to time, and have often wondered about adding sounds. Searching around on the internet, I can find loads of GPL sound libraries but no sound effects/samples that are both royalty-free and free (as in beer). Can anyone suggest how I could find such effects and does anyone else find it odd the contrast between the amount of GPL software and non-GPL-type items in areas such as sound effects?"

Comments

SFX Libraries

[girth]

There are a variety of stock sound effect cds that can be used. Some are royalty free, others require license for certain usage (need to read the agreement).

Sound designers, like any other artist, enjoy making unique sounds that fit the usage exactly. It represents their craft.

Instead of looking for stock SFX cds. Try hooking up with a young Sound Designer looking to get into games. (try colleges/schools with music engineering programs - Berklee, Full Sail, etc). When I was in school, I would be more than happy to work for just a screen credit so I could put it on my resume.

Complicated task, no community

[abulafia]

Contrary to what many people may think, a good sound effect is a real art to produce. It takes a lot of knowledge about what sort of baseline noises can be manipulated into what effects, how to do it, a lot of screwing around (in a very directed fashion), and the ability to know when it is done. Each of those steps is a learned skill. Doing them all together in a way that gets results is hard.

This sort of thing is not similar to OS development - it is more of an art form. Clip art might be something that could be open source, but good art will never be. Sound design is much closer to art than coding.

Before you disagree, think about good code being usable in as many places as possible, and then think about whether sound effects for your favorite movie or game can be leveraged into every other movie or game and give you the same feeling.

Many people could produce random noises, but there's no point. "Here's a game over sound. I think it works for most every game I've played, so I'm releasing it."

Re:Be Creative

[ibennetch]

I have sat through hours of DVD extras and have come to the conclusion that sound effects are done from scratch by sound gurus for every single movie. It's almost like professionals ALSO don't have a huge library to draw upon

Part of the reason professionals recreate sound effects from scratch almost every time is because they want them to match their situation exactly, ie one movie may have 12 cars piling up on top of each other in a scene that takes 15 seconds, a different movie may have 15 cars taking 12 seconds -- the sound effects won't match perfectly. Or a better example may be footsteps. From my understanding, it's pretty hard to create authentic footsteps..each person has a slightly different footstep because of their weight and the way they walk, not to mention their pace varies.

Why do we still use samples?

[Zemrec]

Why do we still use sound samples? It seems to me that a sound engine or chip that could generate sounds by using physical laws to simulate real materials producing sound in a computer would be able to create a far wider range and more unique sounds.

For instance, instead of recording the sound of a door slamming, the device could simulate a large wooden slab turning on hinges and hitting the door jamb. In most games that have doors slamming, its a prerecorded sound that doesn't vary. A simulation could produce the sound of the door a various velocities and types of material, ie. if you slam a door really hard versus just nudging it, it'll produce a very different sound, and the same goes for a metal door versus a big heavy oak one.

I have no idea if this is possible, but it just seems odd that we're still using recorded samples, and PC gaming audio technology doesn't seem to have advanced very much, especially with respect to the pace of graphics development.