If you want to make a sound effects library or sample pack but don't really know how to go about doing it,
this tutorial will show you my process from start to finish.
I'll be going over how to make and record sounds at the industry standard
and adding metadata to make it easier to search for your sounds in a DAW.
After that, packaging, where I'll talk about making cover art, a demo track,
and other files you may need to include in your library.
Finally, I'll point out some great websites where you can sell your stuff, so stick around.
[how to make a sample pack in FL Studio 20]
Hey everyone, Jake from Transverse Audio here.
To dive right into it, there are some main things you should set up first to make a high-quality sound library.
First, you may want a large dB (or decibel) meter to see the precise levels of each sound
or sample you make.
This will help things be uniform across the entire library and if you set it to around -80dB,
you'll have a much clearer understanding of where to make your edits at the end of a sound.
Then you'll need something to record with and add fade points to prevent pops and clicks.
Personally, I love to use Edison for this as it makes the whole process a lot easier.
When it comes to a recording plugin, I like to have multiple instances of it
so I can hold variations that I'm not sure about.
So, if I recorded 12 versions of a sound but can only keep 6,
I want to be able to move on if I can't decide.
The last few things you might want are an EQ to roll off anything below 20Hz to give
your sounds clarity (as anything below that isn't really heard),
a Limiter to prevent clipping even though you should typically aim for a level around -1 dB
but I'll go anywhere between -2 and -4 while just keeping it turned off until I need it.
Lastly, you might want a notebook or another text editor inside your project
so you can keep track of ideas and remind yourself of the standards you have for the library.
Then, you'll need to set up your DAW to work in the right quality depending on what you're making.
To do this, go into the options or preferences menu and then to the audio settings.
For sound effects libraries used in media like games or film,
it's kind of the standard to use a sample rate of 96kHz and a resampling quality (or bit rate) of 24-point sinc
(or 24-bit).
Anything higher than that is just not worth it for the amount of space it takes
and the quality past that is marginal at best.
I don't even think it's something that can be heard.
Now for the fun part, let's make some sounds.
Keep in mind that a lot of plugins legally prohibit you from using their presets in sound libraries.
That means you're not allowed to record them as is and put them in your pack,
even if you don't charge money for them.
If you really don't know much about making your own sounds, you can learn a lot about synthesis
by deconstructing sounds and essentially "reverse designing" a patch.
But don't reverse engineer the plugin, cause that's illegal too.
Just take away effects or drop parameters off one at a time, observing how it changes the sound.
This isn't the video for a full breakdown of making a sound effect,
so I'll just skim over one sound so you can get an idea of how it's done.
So the effect I made here largely has to do with the chorus effect and automating its parameters.
And with it turned on.
SFX Demo
Down to its basics, this sound is made up of white noise,
a sine wave (which is affected by the pitch controlled by the LFO),
and lastly a square or pulse wave.
All together and with the pitch back to it's setting, it sounds like this.
Without using the LFO and pitch, it sounds a lot different.
I'm using a randomized LFO that has a maxed out gain and offset so it can give it a gradual change.
With it controlling the pitch, I'm able to keep the high pitched metallic sound
from the white noise while dropping the sine and square wave down to a really low level.
This combination acts kind of like a phaser but controls the frequencies in a different way.
The pitch is automated so it can give the sound effect a thump at the end,
making it sound more like a flux in space-time.
Now, what's really going on in the chorus is I have the depth set to about half way,
this is what's giving it that shreaking metal sound.
The feedback is pretty much controlling how much of the signal is fed back through the effect again,
kind of amplifying the sound.
The rate being automated isn't doing a whole lot but it does make the ending more dynamic
as it transitions the sound a bit.
But, at it's lowest setting, it does have a huge impact on the sound.
Now, the chorus delay being automated the way it is, lets the sound have a progressive
change in pitch at the beginning while settling it down near the end
to give the sound more of an impact.
[example of the sound effect]
With the setup and sounds ready, you can start to record what you've made.
First, enable loop markers so it's easier to deal with multiple variations.
Disabling selection snapping will let you edit the exact sections you want.
Then right-click on the info bar here and make sure it's recording at 96kHz
and since it can't record in 24-bit for some reason, select 32-bit.
This is because you can convert something from a higher to lower quality
while keeping it at the best it can be.
But going from a lower bit or sample rate up won't change the quality at all
and will probably just make the file bigger.
The more you and the customer have to work with the better so set up loop points in the sequencer
or piano roll to record the tail of the sound too.
Once you've recorded the sound, it's good to keep the file short and without much silence.
What I mean by that is you should remove the silence before and after the sound effect
to keep the file size low but don't make it abruptly end.
You should have it naturally fade out.
Once recorded, I like to make it fade in and out very quickly to make sure it doesn't click
or pop when the sound starts or finishes.
I try to keep this at 0.1 seconds or less, depending on how it affects the sound.
If you're going to be making drones or ambiances, the standard length is set at around 30-60 seconds.
Although you can get away with a shorter sound at around 15-30 seconds
if you make them seamlessly loop.
If you want to learn about seamless looping, check out the card to the top right.
I made a video about how to do it.
Now, for sounds other than that, it's good to get a few variations of each sound
so things don't get too repetitive, like footsteps for example.
There's no real standard for this, but anything between 3 and 6 should be great.
This could be with slightly different parameters on your effects or synths.
It really comes down to the sound and its typical use case in a game or film.
You can either keep them all separate or merge the variations into the same file
with a small space between each
Finally, name your sound effect by right-clicking on the info bar.
Then make sure you don't have anything selected by double-clicking on the waveform
and then click and hold the drag button and drag your sound effect over to your sound library's folder
(which you'll have to make first by the way).
Now, if you didn't get a chance to set up the proper levels on sounds you've already exported, there is a fix.
Load up all your sounds into a project on their own track in the playlist
and in the mixer.
From there you can adjust the decibel level to the same amount to keep things consistent.
Again, you don't want to slam everything to 0dB.
Instead, keep it around -2 and -4db.
You can also throw in some other effects like EQ and compression on individual tracks
to fix up some sounds that are a bit off.
Just keep in mind that it's a lot more efficient for you to fix something than it would be
to leave it for every customer to fix it on their own.
Not to mention, it's better for your brand's reputation.
If you end up doing it this way, you'll need to export each track individually.
If you're using FL Studio, you can simply right click on the playlist track,
then down to "consolidate this track", and then "from track start".
This will automatically select the exact length of the individual track,
regardless of how long or short others are.
You will have to rename each file if you do it this way
and verify that the resampling is still at 24-bit.
As the final step to making the actual content in a sound library,
it's great to add metadata to each sound
to make it much easier for whoever uses the pack.
There's expensive software like Soundminer
or FREE software like Soundly that you can use to add this in.
The most important field you should be using is the description
to describe what the sound is -
usually done with keywords separated by commas so it can be easily searched.
This could be the genre, the kind of sound such as "pulse" or "sweep",
and even things like "music" or "loop".
"Originator" is a helpful one to market your brand so people can find the rest of your content
and I like to use "note" to highlight my website and social media handle
but can be used for anything.
And then there's "category" to explain what the sound is with an umbrella term
such as ambiance, game audio, or even the name of the sound library or sample pack.
Now we can move on to the packaging of the library and this part is just as important.
First I'll go over making the cover art, then a demo track, and finally some extra files
to add into the pack.
Alright, if you're not that artistic,
you might want to pay someone to make your library artwork on a site like Fiverr if you want it cheap.
If you're feeling artistic and want to do it yourself (which is probably easier),
you can start by getting some artwork for free by going to a royalty-free stock photo site
such as Unsplash
or Pixabay.
Once you find a CCO - preferably non-attribution photo -
you can load it into a free editor such as Gimp.
Cover art is typically 600x600 pixels so set it up for that and then move in some rulers
to help keep things on point.
If you want a quick and easy way instead, there's a website called Canva that comes with templates.
Just pick the CD cover and either use what they have or drag in a photo that you found.
From there it's just a matter of putting in the text if you want it.
Time for the demo track to highlight what your pack has.
The length of this track is going to be relative to the amount of sounds that are in your library
- And, how long each sound is.
And should be order along the lines of best to worst,
all while showing your best work in it.
Basically, you're not trying to showcase every single sound included,
just enough to get your point across and show its capabilities.
If you're not a composer you can go and pick up an ambient track from a stock music site
like Audio Jungle or Audio Network.
Just remember to read the terms and conditions, making sure you can use it in this way.
If you're also a composer, making your own soundtrack is more than ideal.
Keep things simple as to not take away attention from the sounds you're trying to sell
(or give away for free, depending on how you price it).
Make sure it's consistent with the theme of the pack too.
To wrap it all up, put everything in the same folder - and you don't have to put the demo track in there too,
you probably shouldn't anyway.
It is good to include any legal information into the library as a simple text document
explaining the EULA (or End User License Agreement).
You are, after all, selling the license to legally use your sounds.
You can name this file README and even put your business information above the agreement
to let people know where they can find more of your stuff.
Finally, it's time to put your sound library or sample pack up for sale.
You can either sell it on your own website or submit it to a retailer that sells libraries
from many brands.
Some good website to look into are A Sound Effect (which sells full libraries),
The Envato Market or AudioJungle, typically for individual files,
and game engine asset stores like Unity and Unreal
(where you can stock music too).
You can submit your library to be sold on as many websites as you want
and this can be anytime before or after you've launched your product.
These sites will, however, take a portion of revenue made from each sale they make.
It's kind of like a commission or royalty that only applies to the copies sold on their website.
So, you could sell it on your own website too and keep 100% of the revenue
but you'll probably have to pay some percentage to a payment service like Stripe or PayPal.
Both ways to sell your sound effects have their pros and cons.
If you sell it through a retailer, you don't keep as much from each sale
but you can get more sales since they may have a lot more traffic and a larger audience
that can be completely different from the one you have.
Even though it may seem that all of the work is done, marketing your product is a very important step to take.
This could be as simple as talking about it and bringing it up in conservation,
or as far as running ad's and promoting it on social media.
Either way, it's good to go into this with a strategy.
Remember, this is just my way of doing it.
Ask yourself if there's a better way depending on the software you use.
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