How To Record Sounds & Build A Sound Library
Overview
From here onwards, we’ll be diving into the more practical aspects of sound design.
We’ll be covering the best ways to start building your own sound library, from sourcing and recording your own sounds to purchasing third-party libraries.
Why do we need a sound library in the first place?
To answer this question I’ll be using my handy cooking analogy once again (and it won’t be the last time).
Simply put, before we start cooking we need to collect and prepare our ingredients. There are some ingredients that you might use on a very regular basis, so you’ll want to make sure that you have enough of them in stock at all times.
In sound terms, this means that you’ll want to build a core library with a lot of general-purpose sounds that get used on a regular basis. A couple of examples are doors, mechanics (an umbrella term for mechanical sounds), rain and weather, footsteps, and so on.
You may need to find more specialised ingredients depending on the recipe, but the more stocked your storeroom is, the easier it will be to create a large range of different dishes. And just like an ingredient cupboard, you’ll find yourself collecting more of some types of ingredients as you go, depending on the types of food you generally prefer cooking.
For example, if you’re working on a modern first-person shooter like Battlefield, you’ll find yourself recording and/or purchasing lots of sounds that are useful for FPS sound effects. Over time, you’ll build up a large library of gun sounds, explosions, foley and armoured vehicle samples.
On the other hand, someone working on smaller indie titles with retro or pixel art aesthetics will over time build a very different-sounding library.
Your sample library will naturally grow over time as you work on more diverse projects, and the process of adding new sounds and samples is truly neverending.
However, if you’re starting at square one then don’t worry, you’d be surprised how quickly a library can grow simply by recording sounds on a regular basis and downloading some of the better free sound libraries that are out there.
Recording Your Own Sounds
How Microphones Work
Before we start recording, we need to understand some basics of how our equipment works in order to get the best out of it.
Check out this fantastic video by Mixed Signals for a comprehensive rundown of the different types of microphones out there: https://youtu.be/ecPUTGDX5cw
And if you want to dive even deeper into the technical side, I highly recommend this article: https://mynewmicrophone.com/how-do-microphones-work-a-helpful-illustrated-guide/
What Microphone Should I Buy?
Having a nice set of microphones and an expensive recording device is great, but you don’t need a whole array of mics especially when you’re starting out. A single inexpensive handheld device can get you very far.
Additionally, recording outdoors in uncontrolled environments and trying to capture sounds that sometimes are gone as fast as they arrive means that a small mic with which you can quickly record is a lot more practical.
Handheld recorders are excellent devices to have at any level from a complete beginner to an industry veteran. They are small, self-contained recording setups with high-quality microphones built in and can often even turn into a portable audio interface.
They also usually come with additional XLR ports, allowing you to connect external microphones and expand your recording setup easily.
Another reason the handheld recorder is my personal go-to is that it’s the most uncomplicated way to record high-quality sounds. There is no setup time; all I have to do is turn it on, set the volume, point it towards the source and press the red button.
Here is a great guide to the benefits of handheld recorders by Sweetwater: https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/handheld-recorders-buying-guide/
Also, check out the “Essential Gear” section of the roadmap for more info and buying advice.
How To Record Sounds
The process of capturing sounds can be divided into two broad categories:
Studio Recording
This refers to recording sounds in a controlled environment - often a studio, as the name implies, but this could also include any spaces where external factors play a very minimal role. This allows us to capture the sounds in an isolated manner, making them easier to edit and use later. A good example of this is recording foley, which is a term referring to sounds such as footsteps, cloth movements and objects being handled.
This is often done in a dedicated foley studio, with space for foley artists to ‘perform’ movements in specific ways, such as recording footsteps to match a reference video.
Field Recording
Leaving the controlled environment behind field recording is when you go out and capture sounds in a ‘natural’ environment.
This of course can make recording a lot harder, as we have to take into account outside factors like the weather, and environmental sounds like planes, traffic or birds.
The benefit is that we can capture sounds that would be impossible to record in a studio, like huge explosions or birds singing at dawn.
What Level Should I Record At?
Whether you are recording in the field or the studio, the most important things are where you place your microphone in relation to the sound, and what level you record at (also known as gain staging).
This great video from Free To Use Sounds explains how to set up your recorder’s levels for field recording: https://youtu.be/Ubup5yCV4rA
Keep in mind, however, that these are just guidelines. Don’t worry too much about specific dB numbers, but listen to what sounds good and - most importantly - experiment, test and learn.
Sample Rate & Bit depth
A question I get a lot is “what sample rate and bit depth should I record my sounds at?”
For sample rate the minimum recommended requirement is 44.1kHz however, it’s generally a good idea to record at 48kHz or higher if your SD card has enough memory as higher sample rate files take up more storage. It’s easy to reduce the sample rate later when you’re editing the sounds to preserve memory (called downsampling) but you can’t export a 44.1kHz sound to 96kHz and increase the quality.
Additionally, as we have already previously mentioned the higher your sample rate, the better the quality of a sound will be when you lower the pitch.
For bit depth, 24-bit or 32-bit float is ideal, as this will give you lots of headroom and prevent the signal from clipping.
Where Do I Start?
Now you might be thinking: “This is great, but with so many options, where should I start?”
Well, why not in the comfort of your own home! Check out this video for some inspiration:
https://youtu.be/F34RyWUmEWU
If field recording is something that interests you then check out this fantastic in-depth course by Ian Smith: https://www.asoundeffect.com/field-recording-course/
Here is an amazing “Recording and Editing Checklist” by Valentin Göllner for when you’re capturing recordings outdoors: https://valentingoellner.com/basic-outdoor-sound-effect-library-recording-and-editing-checklist/
Some advice from Game Audio Analysis (that’s me!) on how to improve your field recording:
https://youtu.be/rS-E9tt780I
And finally, I want to show you a very cool and unique way to look at building your sound library from Aftertouch Audio - one that may be especially fun for the Pokemon nerds out there:
https://youtu.be/PmH8oYwsxn8
Creating Small Libraries
Now that we know how to get recording, let’s actually find out how to efficiently and effectively start building your sound library.
An approach that I found helpful, especially in the beginning, is to have a specific goal in mind when setting out to record. For example, try to create a small sound pack (or sound library) featuring recordings that match a specific topic or source material. This could be a single object like a matchbox, a pocketknife, a typewriter, or analog camera. Alternatively, you could do a collection of sounds from various sources that all from within a broader category, like mechanics, water, garden tools, or sci-fi UI sounds.
Having a smaller and more specific goal usually helps you focus on getting the most interesting sounds out of each source, so I recommend creating a few small libraries like this while you’re learning and seeing how you find it.
Editing and Mastering Sounds
So you’ve set yourself a goal and recorded the sounds to create your library - our next step is preparing those sounds to be used in a project. When you’re picking apples from a tree you put them all in a basket and go through them again later, throwing out the bad ones, and washing and storing the good ones.
Editing is the process of taking our recordings, removing unwanted sounds like clicks or background noises such as birds or voices, finding the good takes, and removing the bad ones. The reason we do this is that it’s incredibly time-consuming to listen through a 10-minute recording of celery breaking just to find the perfect bone-cracking sound, and time is a scarce commodity, especially when working on a project with tight deadlines.
The goal of editing is to prepare sounds so they can be found and put to use quickly when you’re designing. How do we do this?
Cut and Edit
Step one is to find the good takes and cut them out of the original recording (but make sure you leave a tail), then line them up on a new track with some space between them and leave any takes you don’t like behind. This will drastically reduce the size and length of the file, and make it much easier to cycle through the audio file to find a take that you like.
During that process, you can also cut out any nasty pops and clicks in your recordings.
Denoise, De-Click and De-Bird
The next step is to use an EQ to remove any unwanted low rumbling, hissing or humming noises and then apply a program like iZotope RX to remove sounds like birds which only occupy a small spectrum of the frequencies.
iZotope RX Elements goes on sale regularly for around 20$, so it pays to be patient:
https://www.izotope.com/en/shop/rx-8-elements.htmlTyler from Aftertouch Audio has two excellent videos showing RX in action, removing background noise and restoring clipped audio that was recorded too loudly. How to remove birds with RX:
https://youtu.be/xkhjP2ALDF8How to restore clipped audio with RX:
https://youtu.be/ZHRFFnDz72MAdjust Levels
Most DAWs will have a “Clip Gain” feature, allowing you to adjust the level of individual clips on the same track.
Using this, you can balance the level of the various takes you’ve recorded, to give a consistent overall level when auditioning and using your sounds. You don’t need to work to a specific level, just make sure that your sounds are well audible at your normal working volume, and not too loud or quiet.
Exporting Your Sounds
With the best takes cleaned up, arranged together and level-matched, it’s time to export your finished sounds!
As part of this process, we’ll be adding metadata to our sounds (see below for more information on why we do that).
A useful tip is to export multiple takes of the same sound in a single file - this is why we arranged them on a single track during the Cut and Edit stage.
This helps keep your library organised, with a smaller total number of files, and makes it easy to audition sounds by playing one file and listening to each take.
Make sure to export the sounds in the same sample rate and bit depth that you recorded them in unless you want to purposefully downsample them to make the files smaller and save space.
What’s Metadata For?
Metadata is additional information we add to a file during the export process, which can help us sort and organise our sounds based on relevant keywords.
Imagine you’re looking for the sound of a wooden door opening, and you also want it to be old and creaky.
You have 1000 wood door sounds in your library, but by searching for the words “wood, door, open, creaky” you can narrow it down to 10 door sounds that will actually be useful.
Metadata and consistent naming conventions allow us to give more specific details to sounds so we can effortlessly find them without having to rely on long, confusing filenames.
This video from Free To Use Sounds is a great introduction to the basics of metadata:
https://youtu.be/5WRlLx-yDOI
If you want to dive even deeper then this guide from Kai Paquin will quench your thirst for knowledge: https://www.asoundeffect.com/metadata-style-guide/
Additionally, I highly recommend checking out the “Universal Category System”, which is the categorization and naming framework that a lot of professional field recordists use. It’s also the system that I use and would recommend personally. You can learn all about it here:
https://universalcategorysystem.com/
Good Habits
Here are a couple of best practices to follow, summarised from the info above, that will help make you a better sound designer with a bigger library in the long run.
Take a small sound recorder or your phone with a recording app with you at all times - that way, you’ll never miss a good opportunity to record.
Say exactly what it is you are recording at the beginning or alternatively at the end of every recording. This will help you later on when you edit and add metadata to your files.
Import, edit, name and categorize your sounds into your library at least once every month. This will allow you to actually use the sounds you’ve captured, and avoid building up a huge backlog.
Pay attention to your environment - take out your earbuds and listen critically to the world around you. Over time, you’ll build an understanding of the sounds around you, and how best to capture them.
Try to record one at least sound per day, and think of creative ways in which it could be used - ‘little and often’ is an effective way of developing your skills.
These are useful habits to get into if you can, but don’t feel bad for not sticking to all of them. I am definitely not the best at being disciplined with these things, but every habit you do follow will improve your trajectory.
Third-Party Sound Libraries
Some sounds are not easy to record due to their location, the need for specialised record equipment to capture them, or because the sound only occurs very rarely, like a rocket ship launch.
Professional field recordists dedicate their careers to recording anything and everything they can get their microphones near, and often amass libraries full of hard-to-find sounds that they make available to others as free or commercial sound libraries.
These libraries give us the opportunity to expand our own sound library beyond what we are able to record ourselves.
When Should I Buy A Sound Library?
It might be tempting to download every single free library you can find and buy tons of sound packs, but simply accumulating terabytes worth of sound isn’t inherently useful. Instead, think about what sounds you need for your current projects and what ones might benefit you in the future.
I personally tend to buy libraries when I need sounds for a specific project that I can’t record myself or when a sound library that will be very useful in the future goes on sale.
After downloading, listen to the entire library and familiarise yourself with the sounds. That way you will create a ‘sonic archive’ in your head, and know what sounds to look for when you need them.
Where Can I Get Sound Libraries?
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There are an overwhelming number of free and paid sound effect libraries out there, so I’ve made a little list of brands and retailers that I personally recommend:
A Sound Effect is hands down the best place to find amazing independent SFX libraries:
https://www.asoundeffect.com/Boom Library provides absolutely insane quality recordings with some of the best-designed libraries out there: https://www.boomlibrary.com/
Soundmorph is one of my go-to brands for extensive and creative libraries:
https://www.soundmorph.com/Pro Sound Effects of course can’t be absent from this list:
https://www.prosoundeffects.com/
Of course, these are only a very small handful of the many great sound library providers out there, but they’re a great starting point for when you find yourself in need of specific sounds.
Subscription Services
In addition to vendors selling one-time-purchase libraries, there are a multitude of subscription services that let you pay a monthly fee in return for either a set number or unlimited downloads of single sounds.
The benefit of these services is that for a reasonably low price you can gain access to a huge core library that covers a wide variety of sounds.
My personal favorite subscription service is Soundly, as it includes access to their library manager app (more info below) and offers an ever-increasing catalog of great high-quality sound effects:
https://getsoundly.com/
Crowdsource Libraries
Crowdsource sound libraries are where one person proposes a theme for a sound library to which anyone can contribute recordings.
There are usually some specific guidelines like the sample rate, bit depth, naming convention, file formats, and the number of files that can be submitted. Once they’re completed, these are often sold with most or all of the proceeds going to charity.
Those who contributed to the library also usually receive the library for free as a thank you for their work.
These projects often get organised on the Field Recording Slack Group so I highly recommend joining that if you’re interested: https://app.slack.com/client/T4WT4D2E9
In addition, there is SFX swap which was set up by Ben Gallagher that runs every month and if you contribute at least one sound you will get the entire library. It contains all the sounds from other participants as well as contributions from special guests.
You can check it out and participate at: https://www.sfxswap.com/
Selling Your Own Libraries
If you are especially passionate about field recording then selling your libraries is a great way to earn some passive income on the side.
However, if you’re just starting out I recommend researching and following some of the best practices of professional sound recordists, to improve your skills and build good habits. Once you’ve successfully created some of your own libraries that slowly start to meet the quality of the professional libraries out there you can then think about selling them.
This is a great detailed read by 344 Audio on how to create a commercial sound library:
https://www.asoundeffect.com/how-to-create-a-sound-effects-library-344-audio/
Additionally, here is another incredible in-depth video from Free To Use Sounds on how to successfully create a sound library from start to finish: https://youtu.be/77PXbYhqAeE
Managing Your Library
As your library grows, it will likely get harder to manage, find and store sounds. That’s where a sound library manager comes into play.
They are purpose-built applications, a bit like an advanced file explorer, that make it easy to search your library for sounds and demo them.
They are also great for editing metadata and renaming files. With some of them, you can even store your library in the cloud and then access it from anywhere.
As already mentioned above, my personal favorite is Soundly:
https://getsoundly.com/
Summary
To round this whole chapter off, here is a great recap guide from Javier Zúmer on help you sustainably grow your sound library: https://www.asoundeffect.com/sound-effects-collection/
Want to learn more about game audio?
Check out our Learning Roadmap!
