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Foley and general sound FX libraries?

Studio E

Eric Watkins
So I have been asked to do Foley and sound FX for a feature Film. It’s a low/medium-low budget but there is a budget. I don’t have many fanciful thoughts of creating all of my own sounds. Not one bit really. I know of some of the free sources of sounds, but I really want some of the better ones. Are there any subscription models for good Foley and general sound FX? I’m talking about footsteps, wagons, horses, creaks, outdoor ambience, etc etc..... Any help is much appreciated!
 
After trying a number of footstep libraries (including UVI and a few others) Edward's Ultimate is my best friend, but it's expensive if you don't catch a sale ($399, but can be half that on sale).

The second best is Ultimate's cousin FoleyArt. I used FoleyArt primarily for a few years before I stumbled upon an Ultimate sale. I even have the extensions, which are all good. FoleyArt sells for $79, which can cover most footsteps. I recommend just the Kontakt version, since the wav files would need to be edited, which is a nightmare:
This doesn't give you the cloth of ultimate, but it's not needed most of the time. The Kontakt layout in both is nice, but I really liked the FoleyArt setup from the first time I played it. Nice Kontakt interface, close and far mics, Good recordings with different surfaces, different shoes, decent variety and round robins, all at 96k so pitching each up or down is no problem. Good for anyone who wants to jump in but has an issue paying for Ultimate. I got by on films with some pitching and help from EQ (to thin it out or beef it up), but was always able to match production (Altiverb helps a lot with this too, many location spaces to match picture).

Do to the nice interface and layout in Kontakt it really beats the pants off UVI Foley or Impact Soundworks latest offering (I'm not sure how you could switch sounds quickly in IS foley). Plus with my testing, FoleyArt sets back in the mix the best of the three.

I also had to pick up the creature instrument once I bought Ultimate. So glad someone is starting to go further than just human footsteps:

They do sales from time to time. It's really the interface and keyboard layout that makes these kontakt instruments special, I can pull up a human or creature (horse for example) footsteps, tweak, and in just a few moments I'll performing the footsteps to pic, doing a few midi tweaks, and I print to track. Easiest footstep foley I've ever done outside of a performer.

Also, like with the cloth in Ultimate, they even have horse reigns and extras that can be performed with the hooves, and it all works pretty well. The cloth and extras is in an extra Kontakt instrument, put it on the same midi channel (they use the same keys), and it can be recorded off to separate tracks in one pass. Pretty useful.
 
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As far as SFX I still hand pick small sets of sounds from asoundeffect.com . Most bigger collections have a small amount of good stuff (for the demos) and a decent amount of "filler". For me these smaller collections are more curated, and often have the best stuff in larger quantity, and at a lower pricetag. They have good sales too. What libraries are on sale keep switching, so it's good to search for sales first. Sometimes you find things 60 or 70% off.
Again, stay away from large collections, even here they can be a waste of hard drive space. Smaller collections of specific stuff you need, from the recordist/sound designer, is usually best and cheapest.

But please, listen to the demos and check the specs, because there are all kinds of vendors, and sample rates vary from 192k, 24bit, to 44.1, 16 bit. I've been pretty successful at finding all I need for most films at 96k, 24bit minimum. And for when I need to pitch stuff, I'm thankful to have the extra quality.
 
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an opposing view...

I have the Sound Ideas Series 1000, 2000, and 6000, and the BBC collection, as well as smaller, more specialized libraries. I find that I turn to the big libraries every bit as often as the smaller ones.

You do spend a little time sifting, and that's where a sound effects manager comes in. There are several, at the top of the heap you'll find Soundminer and Basehead, or if you are on a Mac AudioFinder. These are powerful tools, with premium price tags!

Fear not, there are inexpensive tools like Meta-Digger (which is what I use) and Soundly. The later is free if your library is small (less than 2500 sounds)

My point, if I have one, is don't dismiss the large libraries - if you are just getting started they are a great way to get you bearings, and they will never go out of style.
 
Just from a little research and some of everyone's help, I am looking at a couple Boom libraries, The Edward Foleyart, An Audioblocks subscription, maybe some individual sounds from ProSoundEffects, and maybe a few small libraries from Sonniss.

The Boom library natural settings are freaking amazing sounding. Now that I've heard a few of those, like the forest library I'm planning on getting, I don't think I could live with less. Really other-level from what other stuff I've found so far.

I definitely realize that I'm peaking my head into an entire other universe and just getting a glympse of what's there, but all I really need for now is to get me through a 7-minute intro that is also going to be used as a promotional tool, and the rest can wait. The director is buying the stuff so I'm just finding what I think are the right tools for the job.

Thanks again everyone!
 
Not sure if the recent Impact Soundworks library is the sort of thing that might be of interest? I don't have it, but it seems like a fair price? Can anyone comment - as I've seen very little in terms of reviews - but I generally quite like their music libraries:
https://impactsoundworks.com/product/cinemasound-foley-library/
I was really excited about this when it came out. But listening though it, the foley sounds a little lifeless. Also where are the turns? Stops? Lands? I like performing footsteps with 2 keys per sound (like drums), yet this is one round robin key. Try performing someone running with one key. Yikes. I need different speeds on different sets of keys, and some performance keys with the stops, lands, turns in the same surface, shoe.

And IS should have a list of presets for this. To put together similar sounds in different layers, but no. Everything has to be setup from scratch.

I really hope they figure out a better keyboard layout and create some performance presets, otherwise it's too much switching and setting up to work quickly. Just searching through to pick each sound set and figure out what is and isn't in the library would be time consuming.

I know I can setup all my own presets and save them, it just would be nice to have a starting point. And having all of the same shoe/surface setup would seem to be a basic starting point.

To the OP, glad you found what you need. It's better to build as you need things then to purchase too much to start (plus you may come across sales down the road). I think FoleyArt will work well for your 7 minutes and beyond. Cheers.
 
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Only one effect per footsteps? Wow - that's really not ideal...

I'm by no means an expert, but I've dabbled with sound and sound mixing as a filmmaker... I mostly recorded my own foley - it was cheaper, more unique/natural and I generally preferred the results. Otherwise I was spending far too much time finding the right kind of sound or too much money on sound libraries which weren't quite what I was looking for (but they were probably useful in an entirely different context) or the quality wasn't good enough. That said I don't think you can go wrong with Boom libraries if it has the type of effect or atmos you are looking for. I've always hated sound editing footsteps to picture - thankfully I'm now at the point where I can collaborate with a dedicated sound editor/mixer which makes a large number of these headaches go away! :) Good luck with the feature project @Studio E
 
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