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31 May

Choosing a Sound Effects Library

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Choosing a Sound Effects Library

When choosing a sound effects library, what do you look for? For people new to the industry, there are a few key questions they need to answer in order to determine what kind of sound effects library that need for their productions. To start off with, while there are a variety of sound effects library publishers, there are a few that one would consider to be the premium sound effects publishers and that have been around for quite some time, two in specific: Sound Ideas and The Hollywood Edge. Both these companies have been in the industry publishing sound effects for a very long time, and focus on high quality sound effects.

Sound Ideas started by creating their first – the Series 1000 – on reel to reel tape in 1979. Since then they have created sound effects for the past thirty years, moving from CD formats to hard drive sound effects libraries as of late. Sound Ideas has established themselves as a premium provider of sound effects by constantly innovating and creating exclusive partnerships with providers such as 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros.

The Hollywood Edge is seen by many as the Hollywood sound effects library. The Hollywood Edge contains the Premiere Edition sound effects libraries which contain a great selection of general sound effects for film productions. Many of their sound effects are used in award winning Hollywood movies and productions. Other note worthy mentions for a sound effects library are the BBC Sound Effects Library, Digital Juice Sound FX Library, and the acclaimed Sound Storm Sound Effects Library. Here are a few items to look for when you choose a sound effects library created by a premium publisher.

An important item when choosing a professional is that it comes with metadata. Metadata is essentially a description of the sound effect. Today, much of the metadata would be created with software called the Sound miner toolset which allows the sound effects to be easily indexed. When it comes to indexing and searching for sound effects, the metadata is there to make sure you can find the sound effect you are looking for once you need it!

Further, if you want true feature film quality in your production, it’s important that your sound effects library come either in Red Book Audio format (for a CD sound effects library) or WAV files (if you are looking at a hard drive sound effects library). If you are purchasing a sound effects library in a hard drive format, premium sound effects providers will provide their sound effects in WAV format, either in 16 bit or 24 bit WAV files (24 bit preferred if your workstation can handle it). If purchasing a sound effects library in CD format, the Red Book Audio Format is the audio standard format the audio industry adheres to so that all CD players can read the CD (important if you want your sound effects!) Even with a CD in Red Book Audio format, you can still rip the files to WAV format to use in your productions. In summary, make sure your sound effects library publisher has a reputation for creating a high quality sound effects library.

The Sound Effects Shop is one of the largest Sound Effects Library which have a collection of professional sound effects and royalty free music for post production, broadcast and motion picture industries. Sound FX Library is the ultimate resource of podcasting and sound design for commercial use.

Source: ArticlesBase.com

Categories: The Sound Tags:
29 May

Sound Meditation is The Road to a Peaceful Existence

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Sound Meditation is The Road to a Peaceful Existence

Sound meditation is frequently underrated because it is so simple to execute. Nonetheless, it’s a very powerful and effective technique. It can work for everyone, but synesthetic people are more prone to experience greater results; synesthesia will be defined and discussed later on. There are plenty of benefits to this form of meditation, and they will be revealed in the body of the article. The last part of the article will explain the method to use for doing sound meditation the good way and get the most out of it.
  

Synesthesia is the ability to see sound. As weird as it may seem at first, it is an actual medical name used to characterize people who were born with the capacity to experience different senses simultaneously. That ability often lessens with age; in the greater part of the cases, the skill is stronger during youth. Although this may sound like a drug use effect, it’s essential to understand that the meditator should always be in full command of both the body and mind when meditating. The use of drugs is thus completely contrary to the proper practice of sound meditation.
    

The benefits of sound meditation are all about peace of mind, stress diminution, and physical health improvement. The selected sounds, called mantras, are simple, essential sounds of nature; they started off in ancient India. They are used to disconnect you from the regular, fast-paced, activities of life. Stress is listed as one of the main causes of illnesses. That being said, sound meditation helps reducing stress by the vibrations the body experiences from pronouncing the chosen mantra. This type of meditation is beneficial on a daily basis; it helps you manage your stress, decrease your anxiety, keep your composure better consequently helping you in your relationships, and helps you achieve peace of mind, and stimulate you intuition.
    

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Sound meditation is easy to do; any sounds can be used as you mantra. You can say a sound, listen to a sound, including music; all you want to do is to “see” the sounds. When you really experience it, you will see that they come in all contours, movements, colors, and waves. Repeating the mantra you chose will take your mind away from your every day worries and the vibrations it produces will help your body, mind, and soul to relax.
    

There is a very recurrent  mistaken belief about meditation being the ability to completely quiet your mind. In reality, it’s all about directing the stream of thoughts to the right idea. That is precisely what your mantra is for. Your thoughts being full of your mantra only, the every day difficulties can’t find a way into your mind to perturb you.
    

There are 3 different families of sound meditation: the Om mantra, the sounds around you, and the silence between the sounds. The Om mantra is the one used in the Buddhist meditation; it’s one of the most ancient mantra existing. Listening to the sounds surrounding you is the more versatile way of executing sound meditation. You can do it anywhere; just close your eyes and focus on the sounds going on around you and feel the sounds with various senses at once instead of limiting yourself to hear them. Listening to the silence between the sounds is one of the most relaxing types of this particular form of meditation. It’s easier to execute it with calm music. All you want to do is to concentrate on space between each sound. You can do so while mentally repeating your mantra as well.
    

Sound meditation is recommended for anyone who wants to benefit from peace of mind, deeply relaxed physical condition, and better intuition and decision making skills. It will obviously benefit synesthetic people in a greater manner, but anyone can gain from it. To find out more about sound meditation and how to perform it properly, I strongly recommend you to visit Steven Adams’s www.meditate-for-beginners.com to get a hold of his highly valuable and reliable Ebook where you will without doubt find all you need to start meditating or improve the quality of your meditation sessions. Now it’s time to bring quiet in your life by listening to the sounds! Start your sound meditation as soon as possible to discover all of its benefits.

Mark Thomas is teaching French and humanities at the college level in Missouri. He has always loved to write and has been meditating for more than 10 years now. After having reached an inner peace he never thought possible, he figured he had no other choice but to share it with as many people as possible, and internet was definitely the best way of doing so. His job allows him to write a lot about many things and his articles are all about helping others discovering new alleys.

Source: ArticlesBase.com

Categories: The Sound Tags: