

Show HN: Professional sound effects for UI projects - iambrakes
https://soundkit.io/

======
GuiA
I just bought this. I was very excited about it - it seemed like the sounds
would be varied and of good quality; and for $18 it would be a complete steal.

Sadly for UI work the selection and quality are just not there.

First of all, a lot of sounds (especially those in the MUSICAL TONES /
RHYTHMIC / SPACEY folders) are more than a second long and use more than one
note/sound. This is extremely distracting and out of place for UI - the sounds
have too much "story" to them already. In UIs, the sound should subtly
accompany the action, give it some weight, and that's it. It should definitely
not become the user's center of attention or even be noticeable at all. That's
a really hard thing to do, that even the big players fuck up - a lot of alert
sounds on major operating systems are terrible, if not down right terrifying
(one of my favorites ~good~ examples, as a contrast is Tweetbot 2).

There is also the problem that a lot of sounds have audible static/background
noise. A very noticeable one is Air Pop.wav in INPUTS. On my K240s it's
borderline painful.

The names of the folders are quite disappointing. SPACEY? LOOPS? RHYTHMIC? A
solid set of UI sounds would have folders like APERTURE SOUNDS (with sounds
from dozens of existing cameras + synthesized ones), CLICKS (with sounds from
a variety buttons, some clicky, some soft, some very short, some a bit longer
, some plastic-y, some metal-ly, etc.), SLIDERS (same as buttons but with
sliders), and so on. Those are the sounds that UI designers need.

The best ones are in INPUTS - some amount are usable, some could be usable
with some editing (e.g. the slider sounds that'd need to be split into 3-4
distinct sounds for each file and then mapped to a slider), but some remain
completely useless for UI work (e.g. Twangy.wav, which would make any
interface feel like Microsoft Bob, or Reverse Woodpecker.wav which would make
the user feel like their computer is glitching).

I'm disappointed because I feel like what I've bought has nothing to do with
what I, as a UI designer, was led to believe I'd get :(

~~~
iambrakes
Please send a message to the support link with your email and I'll issue you a
refund. Thanks.

~~~
nnnnni
Wow, that's great customer support/PR!

Hopefully you'll take his(?) feedback into consideration for the sound packs
-- it's a great idea, it just needs to be refined some more.

------
salimmadjd
I've been using freesounds. They have a large selection of free sound effects:
[https://www.freesound.org](https://www.freesound.org)

~~~
JoeAltmaier
But Creative Commons doesn't permit the use of the art past marketing. Not
allowed to include it in the actual project for instance. Do I have that
right?

~~~
janzer
None of the CC licenses that I know of distinguish between marketing and other
forms of use. The CC licenses have a range of restrictions depending on the
specific one used. Freesound has a faq at
[https://www.freesound.org/help/faq/#licenses-0](https://www.freesound.org/help/faq/#licenses-0)
The actual name of the license pretty much tells you what the restriction is
though.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
by-nc

------
jrochkind1
Neat. The license terms make it difficult/impossible to use for something
created by a business, or other kind of team, rather than a single individual:

> The maximum number of users of this sound effects library is limited to ONE.
> It is unlawful to distribute any of the audio files to ANY ADDITIONAL USERS.
> This license allows ONE individual...

So... if a company (or university department, or non-profit entity, or small
volunteer team) wants to use it, they need a license for... every employee
that has access to the source code repo? And another one for every new hire?
Or...?

~~~
iambrakes
The license is designed to work like a font or stock photo license. It's
allows for a specific user individual or within a company to use the sounds
for as many projects as they'd like.

From my experience this is typical for most licenses on most royalty free
items. The same type of license can be found at sites like Shutterstock at the
Boom Library that another user mentioned in the comments.

It's just the nature of the business. I believe the prices are fair for the
quantity and unlimited project use. But it wouldn't be fair to just then share
all of them with as many people as you had in an organization.

~~~
jrochkind1
I guess i haven't worked with this kind of stuff before, but i'm having
trouble figuring out how it would work with these sounds.

These sounds are meant for web apps, right? I would imagine they will wind up
in a source control repository for a web app.

So there's only one individual that's allowed to add them to the source
control repo?

The license says "It is unlawful to distribute any of the audio files to ANY
ADDITIONAL USERS", does that mean it's unlawful if other individuals have
access to that repo and check it out? Or they can check out the repo, but they
can't... write code that uses the sounds added to the repo, only that one guy
can write code? Can another individual fix bugs in his code? Can another
individual deploy the code? Or to the other extreme, as long as you have one
individual committing all the sound files to the source repo, the entire rest
of the company can then write code using them?

None of those make much sense, I can't think of anything else that does.

But if Boom Library has the same sort of license and has been succesful, then
either it makes sense in a way I don't understand... or nobody uses Boom
Library for projects from companies or team entities, just one-man
operations... or everyone's just ignoring the license and doing what they
think probably makes sense.

Looking up the Boom license, it does say "If you want to purchase a multiuser
license, please contact us directly." So I'd guess some are doing that, and
others are probably ignoring and violating the license.

~~~
iambrakes
I appreciate your concerns. Let me see if I can ease them. The intention is to
make this product as useful as possible at a good price. The license is in
place to try and keep a few basic things from happening.

1.) Purchaser buys SoundKit then adds the sounds to a commercial product like
a toolkit that they want to sell. Or they add the sounds to a website template
that they sell to others. Anything where another user would come along and use
those sounds commercially for their own projects.

2.) Purchaser buys SoundKit then gives it to their friends for free.

3.) Purchaser buys SoundKit then places it on a server at an office for
everyone to use.

4.) Someone accesses a repo who doesn't have a license for SoundKit, they pull
the sounds and use them on another project.

On the other hand, if you buy the license and then you work on a project like
a web or mobile app and you want to add the sounds, go for it. If someone else
adds to the project or makes changes, that's not a problem. As long as a
license owner is involved with the project and added them.

I really don't want to limit the use of the product, I just have to try and
keep from everyone giving it to everyone for every use. And regarding the
company issue, I should add a multiuser license. It is common in these
situations.

At the end of the day, most people are probably not using their licenses
correctly for all sorts of design elements, but this gives us some sort of
protection in a worst case scenario.

I'll try and update the wording of the license to be as clear as possible for
future buyers. If you have already purchased, feat not, the usage will become
more flexible, not less.

~~~
BHSPitMonkey
> On the other hand, if you buy the license and then you work on a project
> like a web or mobile app and you want to add the sounds, go for it.

Those scenarios involve redistributing the audio files to a public audience,
which the license loudly forbids in its current form.

~~~
iambrakes
The license works the same as any other license you probably have for fonts,
images, sounds, etc. For example, if you load a web font in an app, you most
likely have a single use license, but thousands of users may use the font when
they use the app. They don't however have a right to use that font in other
applications.

This is similar. However, I'm going to work on wording that makes the
concerned users more comfortable. I understand that this is a tricky
situation. And I'm much more interested design then legal matters. I hope I
can ease the concerns.

------
jordansthings
These are some nice UI sounds! If you're interested in learning more about the
use of sounds in UI, I have a blog just about that called Beyond The Beep
[http://beyondthebeep.tumblr.com](http://beyondthebeep.tumblr.com)

~~~
wingerlang
Interesting, although without videos or animations along with the sounds it's
not very effective. I don't get the feel for the UI with text/sounds/static
images.

------
JonnieCache
If you need something a bit bigger and fancier, I can recommended The
Interface from Boom Library:
[http://www.boomlibrary.com/boomlibrary/products/the-
interfac...](http://www.boomlibrary.com/boomlibrary/products/the-interface)

It's considerably more expensive but also considerably larger.

I'm a huge fan of everything Boom do. Their nature stuff is amazing. SFX
design is in my list of fantasy jobs:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2prl_DTrukc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2prl_DTrukc)

------
jamespitts
Awesome work, definitely keep going at it. This is an overlooked aspect of UX
and you could write a lot about how to use sound effectively in an app.

At rapt.fm I would spend time hunting for the right sound, it was often really
hard and rewarding. Sometimes I ended up using effects seemingly unrelated the
intended action, but in a humorous way (for example, a smack sound for
challenging people to rap battles).

A lot of thought has to go into sound design. Games have done it for years but
with phone, pad, and real-time web apps it is becoming crucial.

------
j-hernandez
Awesome effort and always great to see Atlanta on HN! Thanks so much for
sharing this, can't wait to pick it up and give it a try. The demo was one of
the best presentations I've seen in a while.

Minor nit - I went to check who was behind it and the https link in the footer
hangs, [http://dunktank.co](http://dunktank.co) works fine though

~~~
iambrakes
We just fixed the link. Thanks for catching this!

------
zellyn
The swoosh sounds are pretty funny: sounds like someone recording themselves
making swooshing sounds :-)

~~~
iambrakes
We will not share our secrets. :)

------
iambrakes
Thanks everyone for the support today. The biggest concern has been the
license and uses. In trying to make it easier to understand, we have rewritten
the license in simpler terms.

For anyone who purchased previously, no rights have been removed. In fact, the
new license is more flexible. If anyone has questions, please reach out.

The new license can be found here.
[https://soundkit.io/license.html](https://soundkit.io/license.html)

------
incision
Very slick.

I would definitely use this if I had a need for it beyond changing the default
notifications on my phone/desktop.

One suggestion, I think the those little 'devices' are the perfect way to
demonstrate why I would want this, but it wasn't immediately obvious to me
that they were interactive at all.

A unique color or subtle animation for the play buttons to make them eye-
catching might be worthwhile since clicking was definitely a revelation.

~~~
iambrakes
Great feedback. We'll look into making it more clear for future visitors.

------
Spearchucker
Cool. Problem is though that on the rare occasions where I need sounds I need
very specific sounds, and if I can't listen to/preview the sound I'm not going
to buy the library. Case in point, a stopwatch app I build a few weeks ago
that needed beeps like a hand-held stopwatch makes.

[http://bit.ly/12dOjeH](http://bit.ly/12dOjeH)

------
alexissantos
Great stuff! I don't need them for any projects at the moment, but I'll
probably wind up buying 'em for future use.

------
TheSisb2
I simply love those video demos. Great presentation! Gives me high hopes for
the quality of sound files. Purchased immediately.

~~~
iambrakes
I'm happy you like them. We worked hard on the product.

Credit for the animations goes to [http://chika-yeah.com](http://chika-
yeah.com)

------
kekub
Thank you so much. I was recently looking for a UI sound library, but was not
able to find one to fit my small hobby projects. This is just awesome. I love
your license! Best luck with it.

~~~
iambrakes
Hope it serves you well. We welcome feedback and will hopefully be able to
offer more sound packs in the future.

------
weewooweewoo
I was about to buy, but the sound of Bongo Beat Down cuts off too quickly. How
can I be sure that I'm getting quality sound effects out of the set 300?

~~~
iambrakes
I'm not sure if there was a playback issue, but I've replaced the sample
anyway to be safe.

The point of the product is to be a good value for the price. I encourage you
to listen to all of the sounds available in the videos and listening samples
to decide if it's a good value.

------
gearoidoc
Purchased! This is just what I was looking for Hipster CEO

~~~
iambrakes
As a Hipster CEO owner, I think this is perfect!

~~~
gearoidoc
Glad we could help each other out :)

------
adamnemecek
What SW/HW did you use to make these?

~~~
iambrakes
On the software side it's a combination of Reason for synth sounds and
Audition for recording and editing. Sounds were recorded with the Reason
Balance box and with a Zoom H6 portable recorder using various mics.

Everything was mastered in Pro Tools at another studio for consistency.

------
swandive
Good job on these!

------
jbverschoor
Nice... will buy.

