SI General HD vs Sonopedia vs Soundstorm

D'Animation · 25th March 2011

Anyone have any preference between the new Sound Ideas General HD (I know its not released yet but some people here might have contributed to it or had previews), Blastwaves Sonopedia or the Soundstorm library. Looking for a nice general/all-purpose library - 96K is always welcome and I believe Soundstorm is only 16bit/48K which is a bit disappointing but if it has the variety...

(Well aware and occasionally buyer of the great 'boutique' libraries by Chuck, Frank, Michael etc)
Thanks

crussom · 25th March 2011

Like you mentioned, the General HD isn't out yet. I've talked to some of the people who worked on it and they are good recordists, so I'm hopeful it will be a good library. I pre-ordered it already.

I've worked with both the Soundstorm and Blastwave libraries in the past. Despite the fact that Soundstorm isn't an HD library, I felt that the quality and variety was really good. I think it is one of the best commercial libraries. The price is a bit high, but if someone else was paying, I'd be happy to base my library around Soundstorm. Like with any large library, you will find a varied level of quality on some sounds and also find sounds that are not as useful as others. But overall, it is great.

I didn't find the Blastwave stuff as useful. Blastwave almost feels to me like it is aimed at non-sound designers, people who need to grab an effect, drop it into a video, and call it a day. For the most part, the quality is good, there are just a lot of heavily designed sounds that didn't seem that useful to the way I work. I seem to remember there were a lot of very specific foley-type sounds that I would never need either. If I needed such specific sounds, they would probably be covered in a foley pass anyway.

I guess it depends on your needs, I'd say:

Soundstorm = Source material (lot of variations) + Designed Effects (the Soundstorm library was build by a working post-house and not originally as a commercial library)
Blastwaves = Production elements, Designed Effects, Some Source Material (low on variations)

JSt0rm · 25th March 2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by crussom

Like you mentioned, the General HD isn't out yet. I've talked to some of the people who worked on it and they are good recordists, so I'm hopeful it will be a good library. I pre-ordered it already.

I've worked with both the Soundstorm and Blastwave libraries in the past. Despite the fact that Soundstorm isn't an HD library, I felt that the quality and variety was really good. I think it is one of the best commercial libraries. The price is a bit high, but if someone else was paying, I'd be happy to base my library around Soundstorm. Like with any large library, you will find a varied level of quality on some sounds and also find sounds that are not as useful as others. But overall, it is great.

I didn't find the Blastwave stuff as useful. Blastwave almost feels to me like it is aimed at non-sound designers, people who need to grab an effect, drop it into a video, and call it a day. For the most part, the quality is good, there are just a lot of heavily designed sounds that didn't seem that useful to the way I work. I seem to remember there were a lot of very specific foley-type sounds that I would never need either. If I needed such specific sounds, they would probably be covered in a foley pass anyway.

I guess it depends on your needs, I'd say:

Soundstorm = Source material (lot of variations) + Designed Effects (the Soundstorm library was build by a working post-house and not originally as a commercial library)
Blastwaves = Production elements, Designed Effects, Some Source Material (low on variations)

I think you just saved me a lot of money.

JSt0rm · 25th March 2011

looking over the list of vehicles in the new general there are a honda civic and a infinity 35 for auto's. Thats it.

airbornesound · 25th March 2011

I've worked a lot with both Soundstorm and Blastwave libraries.

I was working as the head of content at Sounddogs.com when they acquired the Soundstorm library and I was in charge of touching it up a bit, correcting metadata, database work, etc so I came to know it quite well.

I am a pretty big fan of it. It's well recorded. It has a lot of rare effects, and quite a bit of variety.

You can tell a variety of pro recordists worked on it by the number and types of takes - it has a film library feel.

However, there are some files I felt weren't fully mastered. For example a handful needed to be normalized. But that was a while ago and Sounddogs may have fixed that since. The fact that it's 48/16 I feel didn't significantly diminish its usefulness.

In the end I feel the effects would fit better with projects compared to THE, SI, Blastwave, etc. A portion of the effects may not be as pristine... but they have more feeling and 'play' better. It also has extensive descriptions.

I worked with Blastwave importing the library onto various websites so I heard pretty much every sound in there.

Blastwave is heavily designed and processed. I personally didn't find the design all that compelling. Lots of plugins doing the heavy lifting.

There are a lot of duplicates and very short files. Ex. hundreds of single footstep takes. A huge portion of the library was vocal effects duplicated multiple times with different processing (i.e. normal, PA, cop radio). Performance by the voice actors didn't feel too inspired to me.

There's also comparatively just a small amount "real-world" effects such as ambiences, crowd, etc

There are a lot of guns in Blastwave but they sound pretty sterile and flat to my ear. No recording variation on the takes and not much air on the shots so the tail on each feels like it drops off a cliff.

In the edit suite I found it tough to navigate the library because the descriptions and database was fairly sparse.

I don't want to be too harsh - Ric has obviously put a lot of work into his libraries. It just depends on what types of projects you work on and what your needs are. I think a library like this has its place, maybe moreso with mutlimedia companies, etc. So I guess I agree with Chuck in that regard.

I don't know anything about the new SI library - but be aware of their style - close-mic'd recordings that are very clean. I find them highly produced and mastered farther than they should be... and tougher to use as a result. I find these tough to fit in film and TV projects.

But SI has a lot of material and will likely have effects that no one else has.

D'Animation · 26th March 2011

Thanks Chuck/Paul, this was exactly what I was after. Good to know about the Blastwave stuff style so I think thats out, not after that kind of processing. I've used the old SI General 6000 and get what your saying about the mastering. Soundstorm a bit more than I was looking to spend but it sounds like it might be worth spending that bit more for.
Thanks

Jiegel · 14th October 2011

FYI Blastwave FX launched SONOPEDIA 2.0 this past April, which has 10,000 brand new sounds, making the library total over 30,000 sounds (40,000+ for BLASTDRIVE 2.0). With free updates every three months for life, it's a hell of a value.

Interview with Ric Viers about SONOPEDIA 2.0 in Designing Sound: Ric Viers Special: Creating Sonopedia 2.0!

25th March 2011	#1
D'Animation Gear addict Joined: Nov 2009 Posts: 313 Thread Starter	SI General HD vs Sonopedia vs Soundstorm Anyone have any preference between the new Sound Ideas General HD (I know its not released yet but some people here might have contributed to it or had previews), Blastwaves Sonopedia or the Soundstorm library. Looking for a nice general/all-purpose library - 96K is always welcome and I believe Soundstorm is only 16bit/48K which is a bit disappointing but if it has the variety... (Well aware and occasionally buyer of the great 'boutique' libraries by Chuck, Frank, Michael etc) Thanks

25th March 2011	#2
crussom Gear Head Joined: Mar 2007 Location: Pasadena, CA Posts: 72	Like you mentioned, the General HD isn't out yet. I've talked to some of the people who worked on it and they are good recordists, so I'm hopeful it will be a good library. I pre-ordered it already. I've worked with both the Soundstorm and Blastwave libraries in the past. Despite the fact that Soundstorm isn't an HD library, I felt that the quality and variety was really good. I think it is one of the best commercial libraries. The price is a bit high, but if someone else was paying, I'd be happy to base my library around Soundstorm. Like with any large library, you will find a varied level of quality on some sounds and also find sounds that are not as useful as others. But overall, it is great. I didn't find the Blastwave stuff as useful. Blastwave almost feels to me like it is aimed at non-sound designers, people who need to grab an effect, drop it into a video, and call it a day. For the most part, the quality is good, there are just a lot of heavily designed sounds that didn't seem that useful to the way I work. I seem to remember there were a lot of very specific foley-type sounds that I would never need either. If I needed such specific sounds, they would probably be covered in a foley pass anyway. I guess it depends on your needs, I'd say: Soundstorm = Source material (lot of variations) + Designed Effects (the Soundstorm library was build by a working post-house and not originally as a commercial library) Blastwaves = Production elements, Designed Effects, Some Source Material (low on variations) __________________ Chuck Russom: Sound Desginer and Recordist http://chuckrussom.com

25th March 2011	#5
airbornesound Gear Head Joined: Jul 2010 Location: Toronto Posts: 38	I've worked a lot with both Soundstorm and Blastwave libraries. I was working as the head of content at Sounddogs.com when they acquired the Soundstorm library and I was in charge of touching it up a bit, correcting metadata, database work, etc so I came to know it quite well. I am a pretty big fan of it. It's well recorded. It has a lot of rare effects, and quite a bit of variety. You can tell a variety of pro recordists worked on it by the number and types of takes - it has a film library feel. However, there are some files I felt weren't fully mastered. For example a handful needed to be normalized. But that was a while ago and Sounddogs may have fixed that since. The fact that it's 48/16 I feel didn't significantly diminish its usefulness. In the end I feel the effects would fit better with projects compared to THE, SI, Blastwave, etc. A portion of the effects may not be as pristine... but they have more feeling and 'play' better. It also has extensive descriptions. I worked with Blastwave importing the library onto various websites so I heard pretty much every sound in there. Blastwave is heavily designed and processed. I personally didn't find the design all that compelling. Lots of plugins doing the heavy lifting. There are a lot of duplicates and very short files. Ex. hundreds of single footstep takes. A huge portion of the library was vocal effects duplicated multiple times with different processing (i.e. normal, PA, cop radio). Performance by the voice actors didn't feel too inspired to me. There's also comparatively just a small amount "real-world" effects such as ambiences, crowd, etc There are a lot of guns in Blastwave but they sound pretty sterile and flat to my ear. No recording variation on the takes and not much air on the shots so the tail on each feels like it drops off a cliff. In the edit suite I found it tough to navigate the library because the descriptions and database was fairly sparse. I don't want to be too harsh - Ric has obviously put a lot of work into his libraries. It just depends on what types of projects you work on and what your needs are. I think a library like this has its place, maybe moreso with mutlimedia companies, etc. So I guess I agree with Chuck in that regard. I don't know anything about the new SI library - but be aware of their style - close-mic'd recordings that are very clean. I find them highly produced and mastered farther than they should be... and tougher to use as a result. I find these tough to fit in film and TV projects. But SI has a lot of material and will likely have effects that no one else has. __________________ www.airbornesound.com World-wide field recording blog Credits

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25th March 2011	#4
JSt0rm Lives for gear Joined: Apr 2005 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 1,749	looking over the list of vehicles in the new general there are a honda civic and a infinity 35 for auto's. Thats it.

26th March 2011	#6
D'Animation Gear addict Joined: Nov 2009 Posts: 313 Thread Starter	Thanks Chuck/Paul, this was exactly what I was after. Good to know about the Blastwave stuff style so I think thats out, not after that kind of processing. I've used the old SI General 6000 and get what your saying about the mastering. Soundstorm a bit more than I was looking to spend but it sounds like it might be worth spending that bit more for. Thanks

14th October 2011	#7
Jiegel Gear Head Joined: Dec 2009 Posts: 33	FYI Blastwave FX launched SONOPEDIA 2.0 this past April, which has 10,000 brand new sounds, making the library total over 30,000 sounds (40,000+ for BLASTDRIVE 2.0). With free updates every three months for life, it's a hell of a value. Interview with Ric Viers about SONOPEDIA 2.0 in Designing Sound: Ric Viers Special: Creating Sonopedia 2.0!