Sound Effects Library - Software?
 

I'm curious as to how everyone manages their sound effects libraries.

I know some people just use folders within folders within folders, jam packed with all kinds of weird and wonderful sounds, but this is a little bit too unfriendly for me.

Digital Juice have their "Juicer", which I'm downloading now to have a look at.

All the big companies (i.e. Skywalker Studios) use Soundminer - but it's too expensive for the little people...

I guess you could use iTunes. But I've had heaps of problems with iTunes on PC with damaged libraries, etc. so I'd hate to have my sound effects library crash after carefully setting it up!

Is there any other 3rd Party applications out there that do the job?

Chris!

Sound Ideas
 

Chris,

The Sound Ideas sound effects webpage lists some reference tools, including their free "SuperSearch Electronic Catalog" (which I suspect is only for their own sound effects libraries).
http://www.sound-ideas.com/sfxmenu.html

I was going to suggest a couple free database management tools ("MySQL" and "SQL Server 2005 Express"), but filling up the database would be very labor-intensive. It seems like each publisher of sound effects should provide software for searching their own effects. Or were you referring to effects you create yourself?

Ken

Thanks for your reply Ken!

The Sound Ideas software looks as if it only works with their libraries, so that counts that out...

I'm looking for a solution to manage everything we have - sounds that come with Final Cut Studio, 3rd Party Sound Libraries, and our own internally collected media. I would prefer to have a Mac solution - as I use Final Cut to do all my editing.

A custom built database is an option, although I'd prefer to use something that's already out there. I've never done any programming on the Mac platform before, so I have no idea where to start. Soundminer would be ideal - but as I said, I just don't have the spare cash...

Any other suggestions?

Dear Chris,

If you are on a PC, and use Vegas, their "Media Manager" works extremely well, in my opinion.

I use the Sony Sound Effects Library, Volumes 1 - 10, and they are indexed for "Media Manager".

The "Media Manager" allows you to tag each clip with various keywords, instrument, genre, type of sound, variation, etc., in other words, anything that you can think of.

The search by keyword is very effective.

If you already have an on-line, or off-line library of sound effects, "Media Manager" can index them for you based on the clip filename. The "Media Manager" will search through any on-line drives to build its database of clips.

If some drives are off-line, just bring them on-line for a while, then index them.

I hope this is clear. The "Media Manger" is a database of all of your clips, video or audio, with an on-line searchable index of your clips, whether your clips are on-line or off-line at the time you perform your search.

The "Media Manager" works equally well for video clips.

Once you have narrowed down the search, you can then click on a clip and either view or hear it.

(I have not tested whether or not you can hear a sample of the clip, if the clip itself is currently off-line. However, this should be a moot point as it is very easy to keep an entire collection of audio clips on-line these days.)

Thanks Dan!

Unfortunately in my case I'm not on a PC and don't use Vegas! However, that's great advice for any other PC users out there that require a similar solution...

Judging from the lack of response, I'm presuming that apart from Soundminer, or building my own database, there really isn't much else out there...

Chris, you do realize that you can index additional sound effects with Sound Track Pro don't you? You don't have to be limited to the library that STP includes. So it seems to me, you already have the solution available.

-gb-

Greg,

I'm personally learning STP and had an issue with this - I couldn't find a way to tag my loops. It would index them, sure, but I couldn't figure out how to specify the tags that it uses for instrument, tempo, 'feel', etc...

Any clues for a FCS newbie looking at a very similar problem to Chris here? :)

C

I keep only the PDF track listings on the hard drive so I can search for the appropriate disc. In addition, Sound Ideas and Hollywood Edge offer databases of their complete line of products.

Use the Apple Loops utility application to do this. It should be in applications/utilities folder.

Awesome, truly awesome.

You've just shaved one of my main goals for the day off the itinerary. :D Beautiful!

C

iTunes (backups) to the rescue...
 

Hi Chris,

I've had good luck with iTunes, but still backup its database and imported MP3 files. On a PC, it's probably located at:

C:\My Documents\My Music\iTunes

The database file is: iTunes Library.itl

The imported music is in the subdirectory: iTunes Music

Knowing I have a backup plan should iTunes get "confused" with the constant release upgrades, I've relied on backups so I can sleep better at night knowing all my hard work doesn't go down the tubes.

For my Royalty Free songs, I retag the genre as "Royalty Free" and of course you can create Playlists, etc to help you manage and index content that's easy to find. While I suppose I could have created an Excel spreadsheet with hyperlinks to actual MP3 files (organized by vendor/directory), I prefer to have the luxury of scanning music while untethered (riding, walking, waiting in lines) when I'm getting ready to score music, etc.

Hope this helps. Happy Trails,

Michael