Resources

Here are some useful links for sound:

Here is an impressive online texbook created by Jeffery Hass.

This article provides a simple and concise description of how we hear.

This site provides an amazing interactive tour of the ear.

Izotope.com explains frequency for beginners in this short video.

What are bits and bytes? HowStuffWorks will explain at this site. How do bits and bytes apply to digital audio recording? This site will explain. This is another explanation. Izotope.com explains with less jargon on their page.

Learn what compressors and equalizers do at Izotope.com on this page. Here is another viewpoint on compressors from Roland.com.

Shure has four short videos describing how microphones work: Operating Principle, Frequency Response, Polar Pattern, and Electrical Output.

Check out this video of drums in slow motion.

NPR presents a short video showing actual sound waves traveling through the air.

This short film produced in 1933 does a great job of visualizing how sound travels.

This page includes educational visualizations of concepts in math, physics, and engineering.

Here is an impressive online textbook created by Jason Romney and Eric Schwartz from North Carolina School of the Arts. Author Jennifer Berg also contributed.

Here are some useful links pertaining to sound: design:

Here is a very interesting blog post with an abstract description of what sound designers consider. I describe my process for sound design here.

"Sound Design: Lying To Your Ears" is a great video describing the nature of sound design.

Adam Savage explores mixing sound and customizing microphones for Hamilton on Broadway.

"The Iconic Sounds of the Marvel Universe" covers a visit to Skywalker Sound and some of the artists working there.

"Thor: Love and Thunder" provides an interview with the sound designer for the movie.

This video is an analysis of the sound design for the opening scene of "Drive" and how to build suspense with sound design and editing.

"Sound Design: Lying To Your Ears" is an interesting video discussing the vast majority of sounds created after filming.

"Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound" reveals the use of sound in cinema through film clips and interviews with sound artists.

Free Sound Effects, Recordings, and Music:

EarthRecordings is my personal library of field recordings from around the world. Each recording is available for download in WAVE format.

Cambridge Music Technolgy has a "Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio - Additional Resources" page with hundreds of multi-track recording in various genres to download and mix in your favorite DAW.

Freesound is a website devoted to recordists around the world. After enrolling for a free account, users can browse sound recordings posted from all over the world and download these sounds in a variety of formats to use in other projects.

The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) has an Online database of 16,000 sound effects available for use under the terms of the RemArc License. These sounds may be used for personal, educational or research purposes.

Zapsplat is a collection of 25,000+ free, royalty free sound effects and music files. After signing up for a free account, users may download and use any of these sounds in mp3 format. For a small donation, WAVE files are available.

Visit the Internet Archive's 78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings to find thousands of digitized old records and cylinders.

YouTube has a free sound effect library in mp3 format.

Sound Bible is a sound effects library with both mp3 and wave download formats. No user account is required.

Listen to a selection from the British Library’s extensive collections of unique sound recordings at British Library Sounds.

WFMU's Beware the Blog is a treasure trove of old reel to reel tape and vinyl records transfered to mp3.