USC Optical Sound Effects Library | Hacker News Reader

USC Optical Sound Effects Library

archive.org

65 pointsmindcrime19 comments

I worked for an older film post facility, and their audio library was a very interesting place to kill time on breaks. There was a room that was 20'+ long with floor to ceiling shelving with 12" vinyl records. There were a couple of 1200s for sampling the needle drops. There was a pad with an order form where you manually recorded the vinyl's ID and the cut number used. This was then faxed to licensing department, and they would fax back an approved license terms. This was for SFX as well as music cuts. There was a much smaller shelving section of CDs with some of the same content but mainly newer content. Now, it's all online. We also had a library of film/video stock footage. This library was mainly 1" tapes and consisted primarily of footage shot on 35mm film. This took up soooo much space. By the time the world switched to HD, the internet was able to provide video content as well, so that library really never improved other than the odd BCSP or the rare DigiBeta masters of the newest content.

So, it brings back lots of memories seeing something like this. I couldn't imagine having to deal with finding audio cuts on a reel-to-reel Nagra type system. At least with vinyl, you can see the cuts, and CDs just let you skip directly to cut 87 (if you still could find the remote). Maybe there are cue tones that allow a system to scan directly to the cut???

One of the most notable sound effects in TV and movies ("the Wilhelm scream") here can be found from SSE Library Voices:

https://archive.org/details/SSE_Library_VOICES

Listed as VOXScrm_Man eaten by alligator; screams [Wilhelm_CS_USC.

Does anyone know of the the "other" male scream that started showing up around the mid 1990s? It's a more drawn out almost growl-like yeeeeeeeaaarrrrghhhh. Usually in action movies where someone is falling or blown off a tall building or bridge.

It pops up in trailers a lot it seems around that era.

This is referred to as "Gut-wrenching scream". Apologies in advance for the fandom.com link, I know the site is cluttered. There is valuable research here though:

https://soundeffects.fandom.com/wiki/Hollywoodedge,_Screams_...

The original recording date here is 1978, though it was not used until 1980. The rights to this sound started with Soundelux, then passed onto Hollywood Edge, and finally Sound Ideas (who bought Hollywood Edge in 2014).

Excellent! Thank you!

I believe that is "gut wrenching scream and fall into distance"

I associate it with the original doom but the second link shows prior use.

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/doom-characters-infamo...

https://remingtonsteelers.fandom.com/wiki/Gut-wrenching_Scre...

This appears to be the original un-distorted effect: https://youtu.be/9rTa6HMi3R4

Awesome! Thanks for the links! Sorry I didn't see this earlier, my HN app didn't notify of a reply.

Indeed. For a compilation of examples of its use, see (among others):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YDpuA90KEY

Listen at your peril. Once you hear it, you can't unhear it.

Some of the sound effects from GOLD TAPE: 32 Electricity sound familiar to me. The notes accompanying the effects say the effects come "From Flash Gordon's Spaceship". But compare G32-01-Giant Electrical Discharge [1] with the opening to Pan Sonic's Rähinä I [2] and you might hear a similarity too.

[1] https://archive.org/details/GOLD_TAPE_32_Electricity/G32-01-...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVMR1HWODT4

Oh the Internet Archive is a treasure. Thank you for posting this.

This archive is especially a treasure. The sound effects library here is very comprehensive for its time. Foley artists and musicians can save themselves a ton of money by using this library instead of yet another rent-seeking cloud service that parcels out samples instead of allowing one to acquire them permanently and in bulk.

The thing that led me to this was the "Wilhelm Scream"[1]. Something recently made me think of that, and I wound up on Wikipedia or somewhere reading about it, and eventually found that the original "Wilhelm Scream" is part of this USC archive.

https://archive.org/details/SSE_Library_VOICES/SCREAM/VOXScr...

An interesting little piece of history, there.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_scream

I think it showed up in an ad somewhere recently and thats how it’s gotten on my radar recently.

This is fantastic, and a great back story about how lucky we are to have had these saved from the trash at the last second.

At least on mobile the license isn’t obvious. Are these royalty free or do they have to be licensed?

If Wikipedia can be believed, this archive (or well, at least some of it) is CC0 licensed.

In 2023, Craig Smith released a copy of the complete recording from the original session on Freesound on behalf of the USC under the CC0 license, along with the rest of Sunset Editorial sound effects.[12] On May 20, 2023, the entire collection of Sunset Editorial SFX was mirrored in the Internet Archive (also under the CC0 license) for the purpose of enabling a wider distribution, especially thanks to its BitTorrent support.

I guess they are essentially what is known as "copyright orphans" - that is, no-one knows who the fuck owns the copyright anymore. Caveat emptor.

wow, cc0. that would be very useful

Reply on news.ycombinator.com