Review of Debris Sound Effects Pack
Written by Henri Rapp
The Debris Sound Effects Pack from Boom Library is an incredible collection of pure destruction sounds! With more than 2100+ unique impact, crunching, crushing, smashing, tearing, crumbling, & explosion sounds, as well as numerous material variations from glass to concrete, metal, wood, & plastic; variety is no issue in this collection. From subtle to big, it’s all there. With competitors products, variety is the number one issue I find; but with BOOM’s products there is enough versions of every sound to be repeatable. Having this variation allows you to find sounds that fit naturally when paired with a visual instead of being noticeably out of place. As a result of their collection being such high quality, they have become my go to source for every destruction & debris sound I use.
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Fortunately for those who have extensive sound libraries the rich metadata embedded in their libraries makes it a snap to search and find exactly what you are looking for. Two popular options for software used by sound designers for managing their asset libraries are Soundminer & Basehead, both of which are compatible with their metadata.
Designed Packs & Construction Kits
As with all of BOOM’s products, there are three purchasing options: Designed, Construction Kit, & a bundle that includes both. The designed is pretty self explanatory, they are predesigned sounds from this kit that are layered and processed giving you ready to use sounds that you can just drop in. The Construction kit contains raw unprocessed sounds ready to design exactly what you need, giving you ultimate flexibility.
Having ready to use sounds from the Designed pack can be a huge time saver when working under tight deadlines, if you don’t need to match picture (like for a radio drama), or as placeholder sounds for a video editor to use in the rough cut. For more extensive and complex sound design needs having access to the raw source material lets you customize it to sound exactly as you need, from hyper realistic to larger than life.
Sound Effects for Film & Video Games
When sound designing for Narrative Films, Radio Dramas, or Video Game projects, they all require a huge variety in sound effects. Custom recording high quality sound effects for any project is an incredibly lengthy and time consuming process, which is why sound designers rely on Sound Effects Libraries. If you start searching the internet for high quality sound effects, enevidably you will come across BOOM Library and their extensive collection of sound effects & audio plugins. From mechanical sounds, to pristine nature ambience, vehicle & transportation sounds, crowds, user interface components, and much more; their range is truly impressive.
When it comes to sound effects from Boom Library, their stuff is unparalleled in terms of quality. Everything is immaculately recorded, with the majority of their products being 96khz source files. To put it in perspective, their libraries have been used by the likes of Marvel Entertainment, Pixar Studios, LucasFilm, EA Games, and many more iconic entertainment companies.
What Goes into making their libraries?
If you are an audio nerd like me, you are fascinated by what it takes to make great libraries like these. In their blog they talk about the field recording equipment they use to record their SFX packs.
The primary recorder BOOM Library uses when creating their libraries is the Sound Devices 744T. If you aren’t familiar with Sound Devices products, they make high quality field recorders & mixers. Known throughout the world for their high sound quality, portability, and rugged reliability. This is essential for bringing recording gear into punishing conditions these guys record in. The 744T only has 2 mic preamps, so paired with two Sound Devices MP-1 preamps they are able to utilize the additional two line inputs to record a total of 4 microphones.
Choosing the best microphone for the source, they have an extensive collection of microphones no matter what situation they encounter. Ranging from Condenser Mics and a few Dynamics across multiple polar patterns from Shotguns to Omnidirectional, Bidirectional (Great for Mid Side Stereo Setups), Super Cardioids, & More. From the classics like Sennheiser MKH416s, MKH30s, & MKH8050s, to moderns high quality mics from the likes of DPA including two 4007 Omni Microphones.
Final Conclusions
There are a lot of sound effects out there, few offer the quality and versatility that the BOOM Library of Sound Effects offers. Whether you need debris sounds, mechanicals, modern science fiction sounds, or anything in between, they have a library to suit your needs. Quality work is something they clearly pride themselves in, and as someone who is always striving to do better work, I find confidence in using products made by people who have that in common with me. Doing Sound Design & Audio Mixing for Bad Racket Studios & Commercial Media, the BOOM Products make my job quicker and easier.
Simply put, BOOM Library's products sound incredible and are worth every cent.
