A Sound Idea: Part 2

In the previous post I touched on the benefits of using music you're in control of in your productions. Now I'll make mention of a few of the sites and services I've encountered thus far. In no particular order. Though I will start with the absolute cheapest option of the things you pay for!

1. SoundSnap - SoundSnap began life as a VERY noble idea. That being that it was absolutely free. All of the music and various sounds provided were largely contributed by talented individuals of the industry. Sort of a side project throwing us little guys a bone. There was a vast assortment of quality music and effects, it was in fact too good to be true. It's not hard to immagine that quality all at the very affordable price of FREE did wonders for their PR. It did. Of course that means higher opperating costs and means of the minds behind it making more money. Now SoundSnap isn't as free as it used to be.

At the most basic level you still have free and complete access to SoundSnap's library. HOWEVER! You can only download 5 files per month. Depending on your particular needs that may be good enough. If you need more than that, you can upgrade your membership to one of their several subscription plans. The lowest being $29 per month for 100 downloads per.

$29 might be a number larger than you wanted to see, but that's still a great deal if you're working to amass a library for your projects. Especially considering that most royalty free places charge that per track!

So go checkout SoundSnap Their library is quite vast and you'll likely find the style tunes you're looking for, or get pretty darn close.

2. StockMusic.net - One of the more "affordably priced" options out there. They have a good and largely original library. I say that because I have actually found some sites selling the same music found on their competitors. You can also download their track demos. Buuuuut, they're "watermarked". So if you plan on using it for anything, you'll have your work cut out for you.

3. Music Bakery - They offer a quality, varied, and original selecion of music. Tracks going from $14 and up depending on their production work/quality. They do offer Lo-Fi selections of their music. The samples are VERY LO-FI. But you can down load them. What I downloaded didn't seem to be watermarked, or it could very well be I didn't hear it. Yeah, that Lo-Fi. All in all they're still an "affordable" choice, depending on what catches your ear.

Music Services and Networking

Apart from royalty free tunes there are a couple of options I've found so far where free is still the name of the game. Including social networking. Basically the sites are geared toward musically talented folks to mingle and share their audio creations as well as mix-and-match the submissions of other site members with provided audio mixing as part of the site.

So you not only have the ability to find new and free music for your production, you might just find a talented person to make tunes for your project and getting a bit of exposure for themselves too.

1. Jamglue - Jamglue is a good place to start rooting around for music or a contributing artist. The site however, is a wee bit buggy. I always had an issue with the mixer freezing up or crashing. Also when combing tracks and loops the mixer doesn't really allow you to seamlessly combine and edit samples. Maybe the place just doesn't like me.

2. Splice Music - I think Splice Music may have been merging with someone else. At least that was the word the last time I tried checking them out. I heard of the place, like Jamglue, while watching Attack of the Show on G4 a long time ago. I have yet to actually see how the site works. Not because I haven't tried, but because no matter where I was or who's PC i was using the site just didn't work. Either the site would crash, or the blasted thing just wouldn't load. So if the link works for you, good luck, the site likely won't. I never said all the options would be good ones.

All in all there's a lot of cyberspace to be covered when looking for sound and music for your toons. I know it's incredibly easy just to use tunes from your favorite CD's or downloads. And the vast majority of independant toons out there on the net do just that. Which I guess is all well and good if you never plan on profiting from it.

Even when you're still learning the ropes, going that extra mile to find music you control for your projects and practice lends a little bit more of a professional touch to the whole thing.

A Sound Idea!

Sound effects and music are a vital part of any toon. For now I don't believe I'll get into the effects, as stock effects are a bit easier to come by than music.

"Music isn't hard to come by," you say? It is if you don't want to be slapped with a cease and desist order, or worse, sued if your project starts becoming profitable.

So what's a plucky creator to do? Well, there's always the option of seeking out music that is more or less public domain. In that regaurd the older the music or deader(yes, deader) the original creator the better. It's basically music old enough there's not many around to legally claim it. Aside from the unique vibe it lent the series, that was some of the reasons "Ren & Stimpy" featured such old music. They didn't have to pay for it.

From the realm of Public Domain we move on to "Royalty Free Music". Sorry to say, but "Royalty Free" doesn't mean free. You do have to pay for it. Although once you do the music is yours to do with as you please. All that trademarked licensed music in your favorite movies and such, unless they paid big bucks for the use, the companies likely have to pay out royalties to the artists featured in the sound track.

For the obvious great advantage of Royalty Free saving you from legal issues that may arise from selling a project with someone else's music, there is one big downside. Depending on the company or service providing the royalty free tunes, you may be paying the price of a full CD or more per track, which are sometimes only a few seconds long!!!

Royalty free is a great idea, but why so much? Fact is, it's a VERY niche market. The people behind it all are assorted artists and talented people and companies providing a product to a rather small market in the grand scheme of things. And their clientel are generally various companies, corporations, and studios with the money to afford the big price tags on royalty free tracks and libraries. Also when they sell that music they sell all the rights that go along with it. Some places actually sell tracks exclusively. Meaning that once a client purchases the music they aquire ALL RIGHTS to it. But that's something we little guys need not worry about.

If one is lucky, they can track down companies that offer a selection of free samples. A Google search can generally provide one a good place to start.

In the follow up to this I'll cover a few of the sites and services I've run across in a search for cartooning resources

Ye Olde First Blog

Here be the first post. I suppose it would be good to start at with everything that's brought me to this point. Pretty much lots of rooting around the net and typing setting up everything I want to be associated with Hoot'Nanny Productions.

It's tricky trying to form your own "brand" especially when it serves as both a personal project as well as something semi-professional. I'm proud that I can really say "professional" in a sentence as I have finally managed to land a few commissions.

The website is mostly functional http://hootnannyonline.com I've begun work on the galleries. Although I've got a free host and I'm likely going to have to rework my flash "practice" files and things to include play buttons. Then I have to get links and things up.

Speaking of links, I may also have a "sponsor's" page just incase there's anyone that may like to throw a little money my way for ad space.

I'll bring this here first post to a close.

Until next time.