The recent FilmCow's video on 'Beware of Stolen Sound Effects Packs' has probably shocked and angered many game developers, leaving many feeling helpless about what to do next. Here are 5 steps to spot if a publisher may be selling stolen sound effects.
Unlike music, sound effects are a lot easier to steal. Sound effects can be edited, pitch-shifted, stretched, compressed, mixed, and matched to form new 'sound effects'. Unfortunately, it can be challenging to spot even to the trained ear. Even a small company like ours had our sound effects stolen twice.
Hence, we came up with 5 steps to better spot if a publisher may be stealing sound effects from other libraries from a sound designer and a fellow sound effects pack creator's point of view. We hope these steps can help you make a better choice in buying sound effects that won't land you in copyright issues.
Step 1: Ask yourself this question—If the deal is too good to be true, it likely is.
Even on any e-commerce platform selling various products, if a deal or offer seems too good to be true, it likely is. For example, Sidearm studio sold 9,800+ SFX for $19.99, which is impossible if you record and create your sounds from scratch. Furthermore, the time and equipment to record the 9,800+ sounds alone must be costly!
On the other hand, this popular independent sound effect creator has a bundle of 9,700+ sound files, which cost $992. That's nearly 50 times the price of Sidearm studio's sound bundle.
It takes us many hours or even days and months to plan and schedule a recording and to clean up the recordings before we start designing the sounds, not including adding metadata, naming the files, and categorizing them in folders, then creating the marketing materials.
For example, our recent Magic Sound Effect Pack 3 [Elemental] took us (a team of two) 3 to 4 months to complete designing 777 sound effects. We worked 3 - 4 full days weekly on the sound pack as we sometimes had other custom project commitments. It is difficult to create so many sound effects from scratch unless they are a huge team.
So, publishers who say, "Re-recordings of sounds in higher quality with new microphone placement" probably don't know what they are saying. I have seen SideArm Studio and Cafofo making that statement as they updated their sound packs. Firstly, recording and cleaning the files already takes so much time. Secondly, getting back the same performance of each recording is not easy as a recording is a form of improvised performance with objects, be it an actual musical instrument, a ruler, a fidget spinner, a badminton racket, etc.
I, for myself, would never do a re-recording to get a 'higher quality' sound. Instead, I plan to make the most of the recording session and record them in the highest quality possible, usually 192 kHz, 24-bit. Once I do that, I can always bring down the quality as I please. Depending on the asset stores, we design and export our sounds between 44.1 kHz, 48kHz or 96kHz, and 16-bit or 24-bit.
Step 2: Do they have a website with an address or profile behind the team or creator?
Suppose there is no company address, registration name, or information on the company's official website. Likewise, for an independent creator, there is no name, face, or information (gears or software they use) on their website. In that case, be extra careful, as it may be a huge sign that the company or creator is shady! Not having any of those information means the company or creator can easily take off and shut down their site without us ever knowing who we bought the sound packs from!
Examples of sound library companies' information:
Boom Library, Sound Morph, and Epic Stock Media. You can even check if the company or publisher/creator is on LinkedIn—Boom library's example.
Examples of independent sound effect creators' information:
Bonson and Mattia Cellotto.
While there may be cases where some small companies are shy to be on their website, like us, having information about ourselves on our website is a big deal to gain trust. So that's what we did.
Step 3: Do they make public their demo tracks?
Both Sidearm Studios and Cafofo had most of their YouTube demo videos 'unlisted'. Making our videos public is vital for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), so we can't wrap our heads around publishers unlisting their demo tracks if they are trying to sell them. Therefore, we pay extra attention to SEO on our YouTube videos so that potential buyers can discover our sounds on YouTube.
Step 4: Do they have behind-the-scenes images (BTS) or footage for at least some of their sound packs?
This is one of the most crucial steps to check. Taking pictures and footage of recordings and showcasing them takes time and extra effort. However, in this day and age, where stolen sound effects seem so surprisingly common, it is essential to showcase some BTS.
Not only that, it is also a joy for most sound designers to share interesting BTS, the design process, or the equipment used, as they are so necessary for marketing purposes—especially for real recordings of guns, weapons, vehicles, water, fire, animals, etc.
Although some sound designs may be hard to showcase the BTS, like our Pixel Magic Sound Effects, as we created most of them using a synthesizer. The only kinds of photos or videos you'll see are of us doodling with the nods or settings on a synthesizer which isn't very interesting.
BTS examples of Sound Effects Pack
SoundMorph (Water)
Boom Library (Melee Weapons)
Mattia Cellotto (Animal Hyperrealism)
Aftertouch Audio (Gun recording by our friend)
Step 5: Do they sell their sound effects on ASoundEffect? Or only on game asset stores like Unity Asset Store, Unreal Engine Marketplace, GameDev Market, and Itch.io?
Here's the final check. If the publisher is only selling on game asset stores, I will be wary of them. Most sound designers like myself usually buy sound effects on ASE or Sonniss. As sound designers, we do not always have the luxury of time to create sound effects from scratch, as audio work in video games and media tends to be last on the pipeline, and the timeline is very tight.
In my ten years of working in the audio industry, only a handful of projects required me to record my own sounds. Hence, I often purchase specific sound effects from ASoundEffect, Boom Library, SoundMorph, and others when needed.
So selling my sound effects on ASoundEffect would be the first thing I think of instead of the game asset stores.
That's all from us, and I hope this gives you some insight into sound design and creating sound effects and helps you make a better choice when purchasing a sound pack!
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