WRITTEN BY KATE FINAN, CO-OWNER OF BOOM BOX POST
I was recently asked about some of the information in my Top 10 Internet Resources for Sound Designers post, and looking back, I realized that this was a really great post that deserved updating! The original was written in 2015, and although some of the suggestions are still valid, many of them have disappeared (silent tear shed here for Designing Sound) or been surpassed by new online resources. Who knew so much could change in five and half years on the internet??? (That’s a joke. Five and a half years is like 100 years in terms of the internet.)
Below are my current favorite online resources for sound designers. Enjoy, and please share your own fave resources in the comments below!
#1 Sound Gym
Soundgym is a website (both free and paid subscriptions available) that offers ear training games to help you hone your skills, such as training your ear to notice small dB changes, panning, several EQ effects, filters, distortion, reverb, and compression. These games are actually incredibly fun, very educational, and more than just a little addictive. A very experienced mixer friend of mine once told me that she uses Soundgym before every single mix to quickly re-calibrate her ears and get her ear tuned to recognizing her main EQ frequencies. For a more indepth review, check out our editor Katie’s very informative Lunch and Learn post about Sound Gym.
#2 Soundly
To quote our Lunch and Learn blog post by Johnathan, “Soundly is a freemium audio library management software that lets you organize, tag, and audition your sound effect and add them into your projects in a concise and incredibly simple way.” Beyond that, it is also a cloud-based sound effects library that offers a bevy of free sound effects as well as the option to purchase premium ones. This is a great alternative to Soundminer if you’re just starting out, or if you simply prefer a cloud-based software system.
#3 Soundsnap
If you don’t yet have a massive sound effects library of your own, this one’s for you. Soundsnap is an online a la carte sound effects library. They currently have pricing plans for five downloads, 20 downloads, or a yearly membership. At $199 per year, this is way less expensive than shelling out for a huge workhorse cover-it-all base library, and includes access to nearly 400,000 sound effects. Our assistant editor, Sam, went more in depth in her review in this Lunch and Learn blog post. In addition to their library subscription, they also have their own sound design blog!
#4 Gearsz
This resource was on my 2015 list, and I had to add it to the new one because it continues to be the most important pro audio forum out there. If you have a technical conundrum, chances are very good that someone else has faced the same problem, and there’s a post with a LOT of very engaged folks helping to solve it.
Plus, I have to give big kudos to the owner of this site for his openness to the recent petition that they change their name. There was a big segment of our sound design community who were uncomfortable with the name Gearslutz for an array of reasons (educators uncomfortable with sharing the name in a classroom setting, church audio pros who felt it was outside their comfort zone, corporate employees who were afraid of HR seeing their search history and having LOTS of questions…). The owner heard those concerns, acknowledged their validity, and made the announcement that you can now use the Gearsz.com link to display the shortened logo (although it does redirect you to the old URL with the full name), and the plan to change the name, logo, and URL this summer. So stay tuned and make sure to stop by and support them even after they have changed their name!
#5 Sonniss
Sonniss is my go-to library resource because they offer libraries from all of the biggest companies such as Soundmorph, to niche companies like our very own Boom Box Library, to independent sound effects creators who don’t have their own websites. Search for anything, and you’re likely to find numerous choices spanning all price ranges. They’ve also recently revamped their website to make everything easier to find and cut down on loading times. I’m an especially big fan of shopping their sales and scooping up several highly discounted libraries from different creators all in one fell swoop.
#6 A Sound Effect
We’ve been fans of this site for ten years at least, which is a very long time on the internet. It’s a combo sound effect library store and sound design blog. Again, the range of purveyors is vast, and Asbjoern Andersen has increasingly upped his blog game by bringing bigger and bigger names to write about their recent work.
#7 WAM Everywhere YouTube Channel
I am a huge fan of Women’s Audio Mission, which is a non-profit devoted to advancing women in the recording arts. In the last few years, they have begun to give conferences in cities throughout the US which focus on that city’s audio specialty (like podcasting in NYC, or post-production in Los Angeles, etc.). In the wake of COVID and everyone’s inability to travel, they have pivoted their educational outreach and now hold WAM Everywhere Zoom presentations and then publishing them to their YouTube channel. A few months ago, I did an Intro to Sound Design for Television and Film presentation for them, which was a ton of fun!
#8 Tonebenders Podcast
We love the Tonebenders podcast and have been privileged to speak with Rene, Tim, and Teresa several times over the last few years. If you’re interested, I was on episode 046 talking about fostering creative work environments, sound design for animation, and a number of other topics. Jeff told his story of audio glory in episode 050, and together, we were part of the COVID and The Sound Community Roundtable in episode 129. But, honestly we are little fish in a big pond. Tonebenders has a ton of episodes which feature interviews with VERY important people in our industry. They do a great job of peppering in topical episodes (like our COVID one or their statistics on women in sound) among the incredibly thorough interviews with sound designers from top movies and TV series. Their site tagline is “deep sound design,” and I would say that’s a great description. It’s like deep space, but, you know, sound design.
#9 In Depth Sound Design
Our team loves In Depth Sound Design’s YouTube channel. They have great videos exploring the design involved in some of the biggest movie moments of all time, from Jurassic Park, to Lord of the Rings, to Star Wars. They also have a great Instagram account if you want to add these short videos to your social feed.
#10 @reidstefan on Instagram
This is a profile dedicated to plugin use for music production and mixing, but you can use so many of these tips while creating sound design and mixing sound for film and television. Plus, major bonus points for being HOSTED BY A PUPPET! Instant follow. No more information necessary for me.
