Sound Ideas is the repository of one of the largest commercially available

sound effect A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. Traditi ...

libraries A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

in the world. It has accumulated the sound effects, which it releases in collections by download or on CD and hard drive, through acquisition, exclusive arrangement with movie studios, and in-house production.

Sound effects libraries

The company's first sound effects collection, the ''Series 1000,'' was released in 1979. The sound effects library includes thousands of effects ranging from adding machines to simulated farts, and the quality of its effects are regarded as excellent for theatrical use. In 1987, Sound Ideas released ''Series 2000'' – a 22-CD set that was the world's first fully digital sound effect library. In 1990 the company released the ''Lucasfilm Adventure Series Sound Effects Library,'' the first collection of effects from a major motion picture studio to be released commercially. It has released sound effects libraries under exclusive arrangement with

Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is a business segment of The Walt Disney Company. The studio is best known for creating and producing the ''Star Wars'' and ' ...

, as well as

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

Warner Bros. Animation Warner Bros. Animation Inc. is an American animation studio which is part of the Warner Bros. Television Studios division of Warner Bros., a flagship of Warner Bros. Discovery. As the successor to Warner Bros. Cartoons, which was active from 1 ...

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

Turner Entertainment Turner Entertainment Company is an American multimedia company founded by Ted Turner in 1986. Purchased by Time Warner in 1996 as part of its acquisition of Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), the company was largely responsible for overseeing th ...

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

and

Jay Ward Productions Jay Ward Productions, Inc. (sometimes shortened to Ward Productions) is an American animation studio based in Costa Mesa, California. It was founded in 1948 by American animator Jay Ward. The Jay Ward Productions library and rights were previou ...

. Its most well-known general collection, the ''Series 6000'', provides more than 20,000 sound effects on 120 compact discs, and contains a variety of sound effects which can be added to film soundtracks during post-production. The company's sound effects are also used throughout the world in radio and television broadcasts and in many types of multimedia applications. Sound Ideas also purchased the Digiffects SFX Library in May 2010, released the Frank Serafine SFX Library as their own in September 2015 and purchased the Mike McDonough SFX Library in August 2016. Its flagship collection, the ''General HD'', provides 46,423 high definition sound effects delivered on hard drive. Its largest collection, the ''Ultimate Hard Drive,'' provides more than 286,000 sound effects available on hard drive. Both contain a wide variety of sound effects which can be added to film soundtracks, TV shows, or video games and other media applications during post-production and come with worldwide licensing. After long-time rival The Hollywood Edge (a former subsidiary of

Todd Soundelux Todd Soundelux is an American creative entertainment services company. The company's main activity is to provide creative and technical post production sound and music services for motion picture studios, independent producers, broadcast networks ...

) filed for bankruptcy protection in 2014, Sound Ideas acquired the rights to The Hollywood Edge's sound libraries and began distributing them on its website.

History

The company was started by Brian Nimens in 1978 as a 4-track

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...

which recorded dialog for

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

s and added music and effects. Nimens built the sound effects library out of a desire to gain customers for the recording business, but elected to sell copies of the library beginning in the early 1980s. Initially the library was produced on

reel to reel Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, also called open-reel recording, is magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the ''supply reel'' (or ''feed reel'') containing the tape is plac ...

tape, because the audio quality was superior to that which was available on vinyl

record album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records col ...

s. In 1983, the company's collection was the first sound effects library released in the

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...

format. The company has since published more than 200 different sound effects and Royalty Free Music collections as well as hundreds of Royalty Free Music CDs under its own copyright. In the 21st century, everything from Sound Ideas is available digitally as a download or on hard drive.

References

External links

{{Authority control Sound production Production music Companies based in Richmond Hill, Ontario Mass media companies established in 1978 1978 establishments in Ontario