User laura sinnott - Social Sound Design

your thoughts about pricing a sound effects library for freelancers

2012-10-18T19:47:37Z

As New York audio post people know, Sound One, a staple audio post house, is in danger of closing. It got me thinking that with the number of freelance sound editors/designers growing, I should try to put together a sound effects library through Pro Sound Effects geared towards independent sound engineers who don't have access to massive libraries the big studios do.

Between downloading individual sounds to a large collection on a hard drive, or a yearly fee vs. buyout, I'd love to hear your thoughts and wishes about what would work for you. We have a huge resource that is underutilized by my fellow independent sound editors, and I'd love to remedy that.

Take a sec to fill out the form (and get a $25 voucher for our online library) and feel free to email or post your thoughts as well. The form is here. Danke!

Answer by laura sinnott for your thoughts about pricing a sound effects library for freelancers

2013-02-07T20:14:36Z

@George,

Though this reply will most likely come off as defensive, I still would like to offer my response and I welcome further discussion.

I can understand why one might feel annoyed at the marketing tactics we employed to spread the word about the Hybrid; I used to feel distaste for marketing and advertising industries myself, equating them to kings of manipulation. However, I now think that pretty packaging and marketing "tricks" serve a valid purpose, and in fact these days I see branding and marketing as an important representation of a company whether I'm a customer or the business owner. This is of course an individual's decision, and we as a company choose to place importance on it (and feel no shame for it).

The Hybrid Library is absolutely thought-out. We spent a good deal of the last quarter of 2012 coming up with and marketing the idea. The survey results were key to the pricing and number of sounds. Of course, we obviously hope to make money. But everyone working at PSE is a sound editor, recording engineer, university professor, etc. when not working at PSE, our publishers as well, and we believe in our products and ultimately want to 'share the wealth' in a way that is a win-win situation. Freelancers get a great deal on a robust library; we keep innovating while trying to build up our brand.

We are not selling the Hybrid to just anyone which is why we require an application, and we have turned down many inquiries. The pricing is strictly for freelancers. Freelancers, myself being an example (I work on indie films in NYC), simply cannot afford the retail price of large sound effects libraries. The smaller, independent sound effects recordists produce high quality and nicely priced libraries, but when you are sound designing for film, you need a variety of searchable sounds at your fingertips. It's not efficient to go out and record sounds all the time. Even though I live in NYC I've rarely gone out to record NYC street ambience because it will take quadruple the time (or more) than to pull it from a sound effects library. Now a freelance sound installation artist will not have the same needs as a sound editor for indie films, so if you can acquire all your sounds with boutique libraries and capturing them yourself, that is awesome and makes me jealous : )

Yes - it's a huge, library. Even a library this large will not cover all of a sound designer's needs. But it's a good start.

Ultimately, this is an experiment for us, and a risk. We don't know the long term impact of releasing the hybrid. One thing is certain, though, which is the positive feedback from happy customers is genuine, and we simply feel good about that.

Thanks for reading. Comments welcomed.

Answer by laura sinnott for your thoughts about pricing a sound effects library for freelancers

2013-01-18T19:24:17Z

Hey all, the Hybrid Library has taken off and there are only a handful left. Apply for freelancer pricing before the end of January.

After much discussion internally and with current and potential clients, we will continue the hybrid library post-Jan. but the price will not stay as low as it is now.

Happy New Year!

impact of democratization of technology on audio companies/freelancers

2012-12-17T19:53:51Z

Times are always "a-changing" but we are in the middle (or tail end) of big change with respect to digital/technology service-oriented companies.

I know from personal experience that this is a hot topic of debate. Companies, from sound effects library companies to audio post production have reluctantly been forced to slash prices in order to remain competitive. I myself have tried to respect my own time by standing by my rates and lost numerous projects because of it - someone will always do it cheaper.

Though I'm interested mainly in audio companies/freelancers, I think this question can be applied to any branch of the industry (animation/web design/games etc). The questions is, how do we deal with the low barrier to entry for people offering audio services - due mainly to the democratization of technology (i.e. you can run a robust Pro Tools system on your laptop for a few hundred dollars compared to ten years ago when you needed $10k to run PTHD with hardware).

Audio professionals are fighting an uphill battle against lower budgets and low barrier to entry for competition. There are few clients who still offer the budgets of the past.

Is it possible, however, that though rates have been decreasing, there is more work? Smaller companies who were not able to afford video marketing etc. now can; there is an entire new advertising platform (the web) that simply didn't exist a decade ago.

If you stand by your rates so as not to devalue your skills or product, are you helping the industry or hurting yourself? Are our standards lowered when it comes to art, music, media... is the "good enough revolution" inevitable? And if so, is that a problem?

In 1995, Steve Jobs said in an interview, "...the way we're going to ratchet up our species is to take the best and to spread it around to everybody so that everybody grows up with better things…" It feels unfortunate to the professionals who are impacted the most from this; I have friends who used to make a secure living who are out of work after their studios went out of business. However, I think there is as much if not more opportunity. The budgets may be lower, true. Perhaps if this work doesn't promise the salary one needs a change in career may be the best answer.

Thoughts?

Answer by laura sinnott for impact of democratization of technology on audio companies/freelancers

2013-01-02T20:14:53Z

Hi all, if you'd like to read further, please visit the linkedin post. Many comments:

http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&discussionID=197035913&gid=69594&commentID=111359145&goback=%2Egmp_69594%2Egde_69594_member_197035913&trk=NUS_DISC_Q-subject#commentID_111359145

Answer by laura sinnott for your thoughts about pricing a sound effects library for freelancers

2012-12-03T19:12:45Z

Hi all. Not sure any of you responded to the survey, but we did get tons of responses, and we came up with the Pro Sound Effects™Hybrid Library!

It's a combination of 56,000 sound effects on a Hard Drive plus Online Access to over 120,000+ sounds. To support freelancers on tighter budgets, we've set aside 100 units of the Hybrid Library at a super low price. You can see more info and demos on our site: http://www.prosoundeffects.com/hybrid-library-for-freelance-sound-designers.html#hybrid_library_details

cheers!

Answer by laura sinnott for Low Budget Sound Design (Animal Sounds)

2012-10-18T21:58:40Z

we have a lot of sounds on our online library, including our 'rare animals' library.

Giraffes do snort a bit.

Pandas make sounds too, but they're not as cute as one would assume. here's a blog post about panda sounds... http://www.prosoundeffects.com/blog/2012/09/giant-panda-cub-call-sound-of-the-day

Answer by laura sinnott for Dialogue Editing for Movie of the Week

2012-10-16T18:36:46Z

Exactly what Gary said - you don't need to ADR, what international M&Es are looking for are the effects and music, which includes foley. They do not need or use the dialogue track (someone please correct me if I'm mistaken).

So yes, you will have to record fand/orcut in foley effects for PFX that are embedded into the dialogue tracks. The international versions only dub in the dialogue.

I typically 'save' as much production sound as possible, and paste room tone where ever the dialogue was to smooth out the sound, then cut in new foley effects over the room tone. So if your film is dialogue heavy, a significant amount of foley work will most likely need to be done.

Sometimes a 'fully filled' M&E is required, which means they're wanting all sounds including subtle foley sounds. If it's not, you can often get away with just saving PFX and cutting in the most obvious fx. On micro budget projects, this is often what needs to be done (which is also why sometimes international versions sound empty - because they often are).

Answer by laura sinnott for comparison between MKH 60 , MKH 70 and KMR 82

2012-08-07T19:54:13Z

What are you recording - dialogue? Like Arnoud mentioned above, the mkh-70 is a super long shotgun. I usually only use it only in super noisy exteriors, with a well seasoned boom operator who knows how and where to point the mic. Otherwise if you're even slightly off-axis your sound will be heavily colored, not in the way you want.

You're not needing to so a stereo recording, are you?

The MKH 60 is a fantastic mic, and ditto, will match the 70 well if those are your only options. Not familiar kmr82 either.

Answer by laura sinnott for external harddrive for sample library storage -and- audio editing

2010-11-18T22:17:31Z

We're using a 2TB LaCie 2big quadra (well, it's 4TB but a RAID). The first that drive arrived busted, but customer service was impressive and they sent me a replacement immediately. The only beef is that the fan is pretty loud, but most of our drives are. Anyone have a cost-effective solution for noisy drives?

Answer by laura sinnott for Best entry-level portable recorder

2010-03-05T18:05:53Z

It really depends what you want it for. Figure that out, then find the recorder that fits your needs. They all have different benefits.

I highly recommend the Sony PCM-D50, particularly for stereo sound fx recording and music.

I was hesitant to purchase it because there weren't XLR inputs, but I was mainly looking for high quality mics and preamps, and for the money this one became a no brainer.

If you're more interested in finding a handheld recorder to act as a storage device (meaning you want to plug other mics into them), then the cheaper Zoom models may be the way to go. (Though I can't vouch for their pre-amps). But for an all in one recorder AND stereo microhpones AND preamps, you can't beat this. I've recorded ambiences from China to Sweden to the icy streams in New Hampshire, and the sounds are crisp, clean and beautiful.

Also, I have used it for dialogue recording going from the tape out from my mixer to the Line Input on the PCM-D50. So there's that option as well...

Answer by laura sinnott for Closed headphones, closed, the best for like $ 175 max, which ones?

2010-04-03T15:55:46Z

Just bought the Beyerdynamic DT 770 last week. Was going to replace a lost pair of Sony's 7506 ($99), which are a staple for location sound mixers, but I was convinced to try these since they were more for studio monitoring (specifically listening to voice over recordings) and not only location sound recording. The 7506 have a slightly boosted mid range (most location sound mixers are focusing on recording dialogue out in the field, and battling other exterior sounds, so this makes sense).

The DT 770 ($179) are supposedly flatter, more even. I see that my info is the opposite of what other posts have said, so I guess I need to look at a frequency response chart.

I have to say, the feel so good on your head and ears. They're like sinking down into a bed full of fluffy down pillows. I could listen to Ravel all day with these headphones.

Interestingly, I didn't find the Sound on Sound article that helpful. It felt quite subjective and the details almost too application-specific, which I know is unavoidable, but rendered it un-useful for me personally. Still probably worth a read if you're shopping around.

Comment by laura sinnott

2013-02-07T20:11:14Z

Hi George, Thank you for your comments. This is a tiny industry and We take feedback seriously. There isn't enough room in the comment box for me to fully reply, so I will comment via the "Answer" route (I hope this is allowed). See below.