I’m never super thrilled when it comes to the audio mixing portion of the editing process. It’s not really my thing. So certainly, already finding the whole process to be a challenge, I’m never going put the time in to record my own sound effects for every thing you hear in every project we do. Most of that is already recorded by someone who knows what they’re doing. And most of the time, that costs a lot of money to obtain. Especially if you want a decent selection.

But there are several sites out there that offer royalty free sound effects for people to download for free.  Here are a couple I use regularly.

Flash Kit

Flashkit.com is actually a resource site for Flash coders, but that includes sound effects and movie files like animations, that all of us can benefit from.  The files come in various formats like mp3, wav, flashtrak, etc and are mostly high quality and without extraneous noises around the sound.

You do need to kind of know what you’re looking for in order to find it.  Like know that you’re looking for a “swoosh” instead of a “swish.”  There are categories, but some SFX I’ve found in unexpected categories, so it’s not necessarily the end of your search if it doesn’t pop up on your first try looking.

The navigation menu is kind of small and off in the corner of the top of the page.  Click on Sound FX to get searching.

Flashkit’s usage guidelines.

Free Sound Project

freesound.org is a sound effects only site.  Anyone can submit their sound effects for people to download.  Like flashkit, you have to know how to accurately describe what you’re looking for in order to find it.  Free Sound also has some cool extra, collaberative type features like a section for “remixing” other people’s sounds, and contests for recording whatever the contest’s theme is.  Everything is free and downloadable in various formats like wav, mp3, and flac.

They also sell really cool looking t-shirts that if I was more of a sound person, I’d probably buy.

Free Sound Project Men's T-shirt in Red.

The sounds are usually high quality and they have a really wide variety of sounds to choose from.

Free Sound Project Usage Guidelines

Just today I discovered a site that has free, royalty free music!  When you just need a song in a pinch, these all seem really great.

You can search by genre or by “feeling,” which, while sounding really dorky, is quite useful.  The songs are perfect for when you need to set a mood or have a little jingle here or there and you don’t have time/money/need to have someone compose something every time.  Television and Radio use royalty free music left and right, and you can even find songs that aren’t deathly cheesey!  The songs I’ve listened to so far have been pretty complicated and un-cheesey.  Plus some contributors are making digital recordings of classical music.  Normally,while the songs are often royalty free, the recordings of them are not.

I haven’t looked too deeply into the site, but I was excited about the find enough to almost immediately make a post about it.

Check out:

incompetech.... Royalty Free Music and a bunch of other stuff.

It’s a really bare minimum site, and all I can really tell about the root site as a whole is that it’s a personal website  of a guy name Kevin from Brooklyn, with several contributors/collaberators and just a lot of interesting stuff on it.  (For example, many and various shaped graph paper templates!) There’s even a movie reviews section by his wife or sister or just some woman who coincidentally has the same last name as him.  And this! which I’m amused by, having grown up in Wisconsin.

Incompetech’s Music Usage Guidelines

All of the sites have donate buttons… so if you’re feeling charitable……!

If you know of any other good free, royalty free resource sites out there, feel free to comment with them and I’ll add them to the list.

Al Franken predicting the future of gear.

I just came across a post in a forum (cinema5d.com – guess what I am shopping for?) and found a crazy, effective, and hilarious use for what could only be called a ‘novelty technology.’ That’s right, VR-goggles are being used for camera monitors! Now I can walk around with my Fig Rig, with the mic and video light mounted on it, and some Geordi LaForge apparatus giving me stereoscopic 720x480p displays simulating a 62″ screen! I think the only way to get funnier looks is if I go to shoots wearing a silver jumpsuit and green facepaint.

This model offers a fully adaptable VGA connection, but what I would like to see is an HDMI model that offers audio as well. The camera I am currently looking at (Canon EOS 5D Mark 2) lacks some style for audio out, and solving my monitor / audio monitor problems while re-enacting the Lawnmower Man absolutely makes any brick walls I blindly crash into totally worthwhile.

Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Camera-Men!

Below, take a look at this demonstration of the VR920 goggles in action on a steadicam and on a trusty steering wheel Fig Rig. With an MSRP of $399, they’re much cheaper than many low-end monitors. While they lack most of the same pro calibration features, this is a device that changes your entire perspective on shooting.

Current Firmware is having problems outputting enough of a signal to support the HDMI, but the AV Out allows for I believe either audio OR video. In order to look like proper, self-contained fools, we’ll need both! Anyway, I can’t wait to get back out in the field with all this craziness. I feel like I would add to the flavor of New York.