Where To Get Good Sound Effects?

I'm always on the lookout for sound effects for SL projects and gesture fun.

Here's two sites I use:

http://sounddogs.com

The site offers free samples of all the sounds which can be downloaded.

The other cool thing is that you can buy part of a sound file. You can specify
the beginning and end of what you want and the price is adjusted.

And the other, The Freesound Project, is excellent and totally free. Just
create a free account to download.

http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/

It's only sounds, not songs.

Cheers,
-i

I also reccommend adding "wav" to google searches. A lot of "Star Trek" sounds (for example) can be found on various fan sites.

and Audacity is a really good, free program, for editing sounds.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

I find it endlessly frustrating that I can't download the full permissions sounds my friends give me.. because sometimes I'd like to edit them. Though I'm told there's a way to extract the files from the SL Cache.

http://www.findsounds.com

This one is pretty useful. You just type in a particular sound like 'sneeze' and it will pull up sound files labelled sneeze from all over the web. Audacity is great to get thos files into something uploadable.

a friend of mine records from RL and sells in SL his own unique sounds, he has some really great full perms stuff to add to builds i highly recomend him especially for nature and sci-fi type things. his name is Lorin Tone and his shop is on (from memory the NW corner) of 'the unknown country' sim. Looking him up inworld i'm sure you'll find his store in his profile.

-Crunch

Hellos, some one had a site, where whatever you typed in a chosen accent, it would play it back in a fem or male accent, made great gestures, I had the bookmark but can't seem to find it, does anyone know of it?

Thanks

I recommend Lorin Tone too, a very helpful guy.

AT&T Voice Labs:
http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php

Cepstral Text to Speech:
http://www.cepstral.com/demos/

The AT&T site allows you certain "fair use" with the files it generates. I would assume Cepstral does as well, but you'll need QuickTime Pro to be able to effect a download of the resulatnt files.

You can also buy sound FX DVDs that have thousands of high quality sounds.

You can ALSO check them out of your local library!

Yes, but you can't use them in SL unless you pay for them.

Plus, you can only use them for personal use as long as you have the media in your possession. When you return it to the library, you have to cease using them. Just like a book or music CD. Anything else is copyright infringement.

If you use it in a derivitive work whiile the source is in your possession.... you still have fair use over the derivitive work once the source leaves your possession.

So long as said Derivitive use is covered under said fair use.

You should read up on a little something called "Fair Use"

Not the ones I'm talking about. Your library won't have some of the more professional (or new) ones.

But yes...that is one resource. Keep in mind, not *all* libraries will have them.

Not to mention, if you own them, you can take all the time you need, and will always have them at your disposal...unless you love to burn and copy other media...then you're set.

SoundFX CDs and such are free use...you can use them at your own disposal, for profit or not. You don't need permissions from anywhere.

I have. I suggest you do the same.

Section 107: Fair Use http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107

Section 108: Library Use http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#108

Nothing in those clauses says you can make copies that you can distribute in any way, shape, or form. You also cannot make a complete copy of a work under any circumstances.

If you would like to prove it, go into a library and ask them for permission to copy an entire book on the photocopier. I have no doubts what the answer will be.

Well, I think the proper term used by most of them is "Royalty-Free". However, they still reserve the right to distribution of the sound effects themselves. The "Royalty-Free" part is for using them inclusive of a greater work. Usually, their "Royalty-Free" license specifically forbids selling/publishing/distributing the sounds by themselves, or in a collection.

Winter, you say that as if you think Talarus is wrong. He's not. When you borrow something from a library, you are not entitled to make copies of it. When you return the item, you are returning it both physically and intellectually. There's nothing fair about keeping copies, in whole or in part.

What fair use does allow you to do (to a very limited extent, as determined on a case by case basis) is to use copyrighted material you don't own for the purpose of criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. For more information, read http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html and http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

Renting a CD from a library, and copying sounds from it for your own purposes in SL, is in no way fair use. It's quite obviously an underhanded attempt to get around paying for the material, and there's absolutely nothing fair about that.

I contend that it is fair use.

You're entitled to sue me if you own a copyright on a work that I thus sample and use in a fractional aspect of a transformative, derivitive work that does not represent a direct market substitute of your work, and using only a small fragment of said work.. however, if you do so, expect me to invoke a fair use defense.

Your work: A Compact Disk containing 109 Sound Effects.

My work: A Scripted 3 dimensional model of a locomotive, enabling 3-D virtual reality "avatars" to steer and travel, which uses 1/109'th of your work, sampled electronically, run through some filters, cropped, equalized, adjusted for speed and tempo, then changed to a different file format, that only triggers the derivitive result of 1/109th of your work when the door closes.

Assuming, in the first place, that the Copyright holder even FINDS the fragment of their work in use, and ASSUMING that they DECIDE to be complete asses because they released it on a sound effects album and sold it to the public, and ASSUMING that they challenge me stating that I do not own the CD.. and ASSUMING they did in fact opti to take me to court over the matter...

The judge would have a very hard time indeed not throwing the case out of court as "utterly trivial" at best. In such event that such a charge went to trial, I feel certain that my 3D locomotive would not in any way represent a direct market substitute for a Sound Effects CD (sales of locomotives would HARDLY affect CD sales, and are more likely in fact to increase same)...

Regarding your comment above, I would refer you to the parts of "Fair Use" that entitle one to make copies of Library books.

Feel free to argue back on the topic, but don't be surprised if I ignore you.

Eh? What are you on about.

If a sound effect has been placed on a legitimate sound effects CD/DVD...the original creator of the sound effect has handed all rights over to the purchaser of the said product.

I may be on about nothing at all...perhaps your post just confused me.

Exactly.

Just to illustrate, I'll pick two quick examples, one SL related, one not.

SL Example: Let's say you just built a spiffy new car in SL, and you want to put a really cool motor sound into it, maybe some door slam sounds, some tire screeches, and a horn beep. So you buy a royalty free sound effects CD, you extract the sounds you want from it, you upload them to SL, and you integrate them into your car. All's good so far. Now, you decide to sell and/or give away copies the car. Still good. Finally, you decide that the sounds you are using are so useful for car-making that you want to make them available to the public so other car builders can use them. Now you're infringing. You can't distribute the sounds as sounds, only as part of something else. If people want the sounds, they should buy the CD, just like you did.

Non-SL Example: Let's say you're making a movie, and you want to put sound effects in it. So you buy a royalty free sound effects CD, and you go to town with the thing. You go so nuts with it that your movie now contains every single sound the CD had to offer. Can you distribute your movie? Absolutely. But you can't put the sounds themselves in a bonus section at the end of the DVD, with a little note saying, "Here are all the sound files I used in this movie. Copy them at your leisure". That would be infringement. Again, if people want the sounds, they should buy the CD, just like you did.

In other words it's only OK to redistribute a sound if it's an integrated part of something else that is not just a collection of sounds. It's NOT OK to distribute it if it's just a sound.

Make sense?

Yes, so let's just say...if you want to be safe, purchase a sound effects disc. Solved.

However, I will state for the recored--and to be a difficult bastard--that getting busted for the use of aforementioned library sound effects is highly unlikely. Said sound effects are probably so similar (if not the same) as purchasable sound effects, that no one would ever know...or even care to examine the differences.

"That's MY airplane taking off sound! Sue them! Sue them all!"

That situation is highly highly highly unlikely.

Now, of course we know that everyone on Second Life forums are 'principle' Nazis...so beware the use of any IP ever...it makes you a very bad person, highly suspect to future content theft.

To me...sound effects are a time a dozen. There are so many free sound effects out there, and so many CDs available...there is no business for it.

The only real business for it are the professional sound effects discs, which get the attention and sales they deserve. They don't care to examine the sound of a car door closing, and wondering if it's their's.

Hell, people foley sounds all the time which are identical to one another...how are you to tell if that's your footstep sound, a library copy, or someone else's?

It's all silly to me. I don't advocate content theft...ever. But there are certain areas (as a designer and artist myself) where I think it's just plain silly to waste energy on giving a shit.

*shrugs*

It takes no effort to care, Michael.

Whether or not one might get in trouble is not the point. While you're right that it might be impossible to tell my recording of a footstep from yours, that doesn't mean you should just take mine because "you don't give a shit". Either record your own, license mine, or live without it.

Do the right thing. Consequences are irrelevant.

Right there with you. I'm actually getting quite tired of the "Principle Nazi's"




Here's some links from promising looking sites, so that the Princes of Minutiae don't succeed in COMPLETELY derailing this thread on page 2.

http://www.a1freesoundeffects.com/
http://www.stonewashed.net/sfx.html
http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/pir/PIRsfx.shtml
http://www.soundsnap.com/
http://www.grsites.com/archive/sounds/
http://www.videomaker.com/downloads/free-sound-effects/
http://pacdv.com/sounds/index.html
http://www.acoustica.com/sounds.htm
http://www.therecordist.com/pages/downloads.html

That makes total sense. The 're-sell' of any IP you've not made is wrong on all accounts. I think we all agree with that.

Again though, I think it's silly. Most content creators don't give a shit. I mean, if someone ripped all the sound effects from a movie, and reused them for theirs (instead of doing foley of their own) then fine...they are slackers, and are infringing...but when it comes down to it, who gives a shit?

The sound of a door closing? An airplane in the background? A dog bark? Who cares where they originated. Who even thinks about that? The only people that take notice, are the people that work in sound effects, and even they can't decipher what sound they folied, and what sound someone else folied.

I think these instances are silly.

But I will close with saying that if you try to package and sell the actual sounds themselves...well that's just plain sad and slimy of you.

I make movies. And I do foley myself. I couldn't care less if someone used my foley. I couldn't care any less. Really.

Keep in mind, we are talking about little things...foley...not scores or clever jingles, or highly distinguishable sounds...basic sounds...

So, you're saying the fact that you can get away with it is what makes it "fair"? Shame on you. That's pure evil.

My mother used to be close friends with a police detective, whom I once heard talk extensively about the various ways in which one could successfully get away with murder. If knew where you lived, I'm confident I could kill you and not get caught. Would it be right for me to do that, just because I can?

Right and wrong have nothing to do with consequences. If you can't see that, I weep for your soul.


WHAT?!!

Winter, what exactly have you been smoking today? In most cases, it is absolutely NOT OK to make copies of library books. There are only a couple of exceptions. First, if the book is no longer in print, the author is dead, and the copyright has expired, then you can copy it. You want to photocopy Frankenstein, for example, go right ahead. Second, if you're copying excerpts, and excerpts only, for one or more of the aforementioned fair use purposes (education, criticism, etc.), then the copying might, and I repeat MIGHT, be fair. Beyond that, you're not allowed to photocopy library books at all. Any library that allows that is breaking the law.


Oh, that's mature.



If you don't care about your own stuff, fine. That's your right. But don't extend that to somehow mean no one else should care either.

I can promise you that if you copied my stuff, and I found about it, you and I would have a date in court. That is MY right.



(NOTE: When I say "you", I don't necessarily mean you personally, Michael. I mean "you" in general, as in everyone. I do believe that you personally know what is and isn't the right thing to do, and that you wouldn't take someone else's work without permission, even though you keep saying you don't consider the topic itself to be particularly important.)