Just a quick post to (hopefully) save replying to emails. I’ll be releasing the first crowd sourced library THE DOORS sometime in the next month or two. But that will be the one and only crowd source library released by HISSandaROAR. The fundamental realisation I came to, after working on THE DOORS for so long, is that it is one giant time suck. The only way to maintain any form of quality control is to basically spend all my spare time listening to other peoples recordings, and then spending even more time wrangling that data, problem solving etc…. And to be honest I have better things to do with my time. The primary goal of THE DOORS has been met i.e. every contributor has a copy of the entire library and I’ll get around to releasing it when/as I have time..
So is the concept fundamentally flawed? Yes and no… It is simply not sustainable for me as it currently stands, but the real conclusion is that the concept needs to evolve and find a new form. As an eclectic variant I think what Michael Maroussas has achieved with The Sound Collectors Club using something as immediate & easy as a Soundcloud dropbox is excellent. But I am working on something different, as large scale as THE DOORS became, but set up to be incremental (so physical media is not required) & peer reviewed (so it is not dependent on my free time). Almost like Freesound.org but solely for professional sound editors & sound designers… More news on this at some random future date.. but for anyone waiting to join the ROOM TONE crowd source library, it won’t be happening until this new platform is out of private beta…
Tim,
this new idea sounds like something I’ve been thinking about for a while. There are many dedicated recordists out there who’d like to sell high-quality sounds, and together we would form a library with enormous potential… it’s just that there needs to be a system where all those pieces are connected!
I agree
I think quality control is one of the most important things ie to differentiate between an experienced recordist with pro gear vs someone just starting out with their first hand held low cost recorder.
Even if I am far far away from being professional, I’ve been thinking about something between freesound and something professional. Since the last one or two years a lot of people start to sell independent libraries (at least that’s my impression)which is a good thing, but two things bother me:
-sooner or later, there will be too many libraries from too many people available, which makes it hard to find the “right” one
-People will start to think that everybody can sell sound effects, which will cause a lack of quality (which will make people buy “cheap” libraries instead of high quality ones)
This is why I think that it’s a good idea to create a platform for professionals, that way high quality sounds will be stored at one place. Ok, may sound a bit too economical I know
(hard day of work today, so please excuse me, if I failed to explain what I wanted to say:
)
new platform= good idea
i really like the fact that all kinds of people started sellling their own little packages of high-end libraries! although that will probably lead to also lower quality libraries being offered, there is the possibility for a lot of very specialized packages from all over the world, like “italian railroad transport”, “russian pub ambiances”, “vietnamese temples” or whatever is in your area to record that can be recorded nowhere else. as long as there is a way to find the right package (content and also quality-wise) when you need it the future of buying recorded sfx packages from small indipendent recordists is bright I think!
max
Hi Tim, thank you so much for all your work on The Doors library. You created a great experience for all of us and gave first-time recordists like me a look at the realities of what it takes to do something as seemingly simple as recording a door slam! And it was so cool to receive the drive with door sounds from all over the world. I hope the release does well for you and I look forward to seeing what you come up with next.
I can imagine the amount of time it must have taken you to go through the entire DOORS library content and control the quality and tag metadata and so on! I must say it was an enjoyable experience to record and after receiving the library recently I am using it on evertything I do! I just spent the last day and half editing doors on a feature so this library has been put heavily to work on that!
Anyways, I look forward to seeing what your new platform idea might be and will definitely get involved! I have been participating in the Sound Collector’s Club and must say it is quite a nice setup! Quality control was a bit of an issue as you had some people with great gear and quality recordings and others with not as good ones..but its working nice! Michael has restructured it a bit now so it seems to be working better on those aspects too!
Only just came across this post by accident – many thanks for the kind words, Tim, and I look forward to seeing how your project you’ve described takes shape.
Regarding SFX libraries, my 2 cents: personally I don’t think people should worry too much about quality control of new emerging library releases – for the fundamental reason that you can’t control it. SFX libraries are a business / industry and so will exhibit the same market forces that all other successful businesses do. So far, I would say the evolution has been fairly textbook: One person (Tim) makes an initial impact so other people enter the market (including variants on a theme such as The Sound Collectors’ Club) – if these people also appear to be successful then new (perhaps less experienced) entrants will begin to flood in and inevitably consistency / quality becomes more hit and miss. This doesn’t ruin the market though – consumers simply have to become more savvy just like they do with every other product out there in the world. Also, competition is good! It means better pricing (I don’t agree that people will simply buy the cheapest libraries) and drives the best library creators to stay ahead of the pack. Already reviewers of libraries are starting to spring up to provide feedback on various libraries, but more importantly, most library creators prove their authenticity and experience through their blogs or any other online content. People who follow these find it quite straightforward to separate the wheat from the chaff. That’s the beauty of the internet.
Lastly, I just wanted to mention I was a bit confused by Enos’ comment that ‘quality control was a bit of an issue’ with the The Sound Collectors’ Club’s Collection. Other than setting a 48k minimum early on when the club started, little or no quality control has been needed (in any case, members create their own quality control by only downloading the tracks they want). This is largely because the majority of members are working sound professionals, most of whom are the usual faces we all know of from their respected blogs and twitter, rather than novices. Samples of all tracks can be auditioned at http://thesoundcollectorsclub.wordpress.com/browse-the-collection/ so people can make up their own minds before they join. Apologies if I sound over-defensive but I felt a little uncomfortable that people might read some of the comments and think the Club was just a bunch of kids recording noise with their H2′s.
Best regards,
Michael
All good points Michael
re flooding the market, the one thing I know from experience is that sound is infinite. No one will ever release the penultimate library of any one sound simply because there are always more variations, interpretations etc possible…
I also see the music sample library market as similar – there are literally hundreds of little and big companies creating instrument libraries and having more diversity and choice is very, very good